OK, so i changed my game from first person to third person and it looks cool, it handles great however its as if it lost some of the feeling, i think the reason why first person shooters are so common is for the fact that everything is closer to the player... everything has a more intimate feel, a bad guy runs at you and you kill him close range gives a different feeling on a fps compared to a 3ps...


of course this isn't about a matter of preference of whichever genre, am just looking at it from a psychological point of view and wanted to here what you guys have to say on it...


another point is pacing, in a fps, your not really limited by say, character blocking the screen and such as in 3ps's this is a huge issue especially in 'over the shoulder' views.. the player can see perfectly over the characters right shoulder but when it comes to looking left, the character becomes an obstacle...



player as full visibility, can aim and shoot freely...


player as limited visibility which results in


this is why so many shooters employ the cover system... what other methods, other than a cover system could be used to address this problem in as fast as possible without giving the game extra button and limiting player movement... please take time to address and answer especially this one, if you've had an idea regarding this, now is the time

please give a logical explanation to the choices you post other than "it looks cooler"... i just want to see who the winner is and how deep into it we can go....

in addition, if it does turn out that the majority thinks that fps's give more intimate and memorable feel because the player is as close to the battlefield as they can get, what can be done to make a third person shooter feel similar...

thank you for reading, now try and reply in a more logical rather than personal way....

dark out...

A method I have often thought over is to engage 1st person view when peeking around obstacles, select weapons like sniper and by player choice, f1 or similar.
This would be further supported by cutscenes and be an integral mechanism for playing the game.
Too much and you will end up with a curiosisty maybe, neither one or the other.

I think Camz over shoulders should sway over to the side chosen for 'look' so if your on left of screen and you want to look left, swing around and let the camera shift over to the right too but maintain over the head and back for most of the time, a 3 stage camera orientation mechanism for what you have discribed.

this is an interesting idea but cycling between first and third person can break the game in most scenarios.. especially if switching to first person in a third person game, don't know if this is what you meant.... what does anyone else think of this?



this is an interesting idea and obviously, maybe the simplest... another method i saw that was pretty unique was in 'army of two' where they had a realtime cover system, you didn't have to press a button to go into cover, you could just crouch and you would automatically shoot over the cover or around a wall, this is pretty interesting as it doesn't break the flow of gameplay... but does anyone else have nay interesting and maybe un-explored idea

engage the camera more, have it shake from chain guns, rumble near vehicles and decrease the field of view while running. the loss you get is in the amount of discernable movement and if you add that back it should help a lot.

i agree with this alot... wouldn't decreasing the field of view while running come along with other side-effects? though i tried it out and it creates an interesting effect but am just wondering whats the downfall, if any... and also, another point that removes the feel of an fps is just the simple fact that the camera has more distance from the action thats going on, so some of that upclose and personal feel is reduced... people tend to go for fps's over 3ps's...

Personally, I like the classic 3rd Person camera that is used in various 3D Mario Games.

If you've played Mario 64, that's what I'm talking about - the camera is 'static' when the player moves, but when the player is idle, it rotates around to give a view of what's around you. Mario Galaxy was good when it did that, as it allowed you to see what dangers are ahead (black hole, etc).

If you're making a Halo-shooter, try a GameCube Metroid 1st-Person view. Make it like the player is actually "inside" the suit/character and the HUD is on the screen, etc.

keep 3rd person and simply, if player clicks mid mouse button move camera to otherside?

i understand this camera setup, but trying to use it in a shooter and the player wont feel as close to the combat as they should.. the farther the cam is from the action, the less exciting it all is.. not saying its not plausible, am just saying that the game loses some feel by pulling the cam back unless its an rpg or adventure game where its understandable... what do you guys think of this?


using this cam is the most common and accepted thing by most developers and players, all games try to accomplish this now, its easier and it has that upclose feel, the point of the thread however is, how to get back that feel that games lose by switching to third person? why do they lose that feel? what are the other advantages? what are some alternative methods for a cover system other than gluing yourself to a wall via a button?

thanks

this idea is simple and effective, i've even tested it, it works wonders and alot of games do it.. but is there a way to do it without the button press? or is there an alternative method that could replace this? how plausible is a realtime cover system, could it work? how?

i'm just throwing questions in the wind so when anyone reads they can see how in depth solving this can be and this is what i think game design should be about.. instead of jumping on the train and follow ideas that exist... brainstorm, get opinions and build something new, i personally think that alot of AAA titles fail because the developers weren't thinking of the customers when designing but maybe of how cool and unique their idea is... feel free to disagree

Well some games like shooter will be fun if it's 1st person.
And some games like adventues/platform will be fun if it's 3rd person.