Why First Person POW?

I know there's slim chance, but I am still hoping they'll fix it so at least we can shift between first and third person ourselves. Even if the camera is always positioned slightly behind the PC like in DA:O I would prefer that. First Person makes me nauseous. It's not so bad in Anthem because the character moves quite slowly, and I can turn off the head movements, although I don't feel that made much an improvement.

Camera view aside, I do enjoy exploring Fort Tarsis and talking to the NPCs. I have a love for textures and details, and I think Tarsis is really beautiful. As is all of Anthem. I still wish I could actually bump into people and have them react like in the Assassin's Creed games, but compared to everything else it is such a minor detail it would probably not add as much to the atmosphere of the game as I imagine it would.

GRAAAAH!

IGNORES FACT THAT IN PREVIOUS BIOWARE GAMES THAT USED PRIMARY 3RD PERSON POV (KOTOR, MASS EFFECT FOR EXAMPLE) IN ANY REAL CONVERSATION, CAMERA CHANGED AND 1ST PERSON POV WAS USED, CAMERA FOCUS ON SPEAKER THEN ON TARGET, SOMETIMES ZOOM BACK SEE BOTH, ETC.

REASONS ARE NOT PLAN TO SEE, OR PLAIN. REASONS ARE PLAIN THEY DID NOT PLAN!

VORCHA SPEAK IN ONE TONE. MONOTONE LOUD!! GAAAH!

I DO NOT MEAN OFFENSE, JUST HOW WE TALK!

EXPENSIVE? VORCHA CONFUSED. PREVIOUS GAMES HAD LOTS OF EXPENSIVE, NEW GAMES CANNOT AFFORD?

That's fair, I didn't notice your Vorcha accent. You need an avatar maybe.


The cost issue is addesed in these interesting tweets from 2017 from Mike Laidlaw.

TL;DR: It ain't easy. Animation in older games was much 'simpler', that all needs mocap and a ton of effort, so the more that can naturally be captured from an acceptable in-game POV, the batter for cost.

Inquisition was criticized because you couldn't see many of the faces properly.
Andromeda was criticized becauase, er, you could.

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Mike Laidlaw @mike_Laidlaw
·
5 Oct 2017

So the ask is totally valid. "I picked this class, can you make that special and rewarding." So, yes, of course, right? Why wouldn't we?

And the answer, as you might expect is, "we could, but what would we give up in doing so? And is that worth it?"

It comes down to math. Say we want to have a boss kill in a cutscene, and we want to make is super special.

So, first we have to make the scene. Music, visual effects, scripting it into a likely-custom environment. Let's say it's expensive.

So compared to a "normal" scene, this one costs, let's call it "3 zots." It's 3 times as complicated and fancy as a normal. Worth it? Yeah.

But now we have to make some tweaks to it, because of races. Let's say elves and humans are even, but dwarf and qunari variants +1 zot each.

Okay, now we're up to 5. So that's not too terrible, but getting pricey, but still worth it, right?

But now we have to get fancy with the killing blow. We have three classes...but we have 5 core weapon types...uh oh.

More if you want blunt to be treated different from "stabbing" (mace vs. sword, let's say). Okay, so now it's getting pricey.

Assuming height tweaks can be reused but are needed per variation, we have 5 times five "zots" in play.

But say we have some savings that bring that down to the deleriously good half-price. 12.5 zots!

So now, the question is: is supporting custom class-kills worth 12 other "normal" cutscenes? Sometimes yes...but then you have to ask...

..by doing it once, am I committing to doing it for all bosses? If 5, am I willing to spend 60 scenes of effort on 5 scenes the player sees?

Again, sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the cost is lower or higher. Doesn't matter.

What matters is this: every single feature you see in a came has to be run through this kind of filter. Because rarely is it free or easy.

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AC Odyssey's dialogue scene cameras show you what could have been as Ubisoft moves more into Olde BioWare RPG Lite territory.

Intriguing. It's that character focused and story heavy? Do you need to have played the other AC's ?