Standing In Red: A First Person Awareness Concept

Gidorick · February 2016

So this is a pretty simple idea that would help the "Situational Awareness" of people who play in first person. When an enemy is about to attack and you are "standing in red" why not indicate that on our screen visually somehow? Kind of like...

And, even though it sould go without saying: it should be toggleable. First person's gotta be able to preserve that immersion!

daemonios · February 2016

Don't play in first person. Just don't. The amount of situational awareness that you lose is just enormous, and by all means not limited to enemy AoE.

To be honest I've recently found myself playing in 1st person solely on PTS to do the heists, since most traps are all but impossible to make out any other way. I still hate it, though.

Gidorick · February 2016

I don't really want to turn this into a 1st vs 3rd thread @daemonios... but... If you have additional ideas on how to improve the shortcomings of one perspective or the other... by all means bring them here.

What other limitations are there? Let's see if we can address those too!

I assume the fact that you don't know who or what is surrounding you is a shortcoming of first person, right?

I have an initial thought on that, but would like to mull over it before posting.

Abeille · February 2016

@Gidorick

Every time I think of something I want for this game, I find one of your threads that are exactly about that.

This is one of these things. I love exploring and doing solo content (except for vMA) in first person, but when I am doing anything that demands a little more (group content, vMA, PvP), third person is the only way. Your solution probably wouldn't change that, but it is still interesting.

There is still the problem of where to dodge/run to, though, since depending on the fight you might dodge/run straight into another red area. What do you think about making the corners not glow red if it is safe to go left/right? Sure you can just look around, but you will waste precious time doing that. I don't know how hard something like this is to implement, though.

RAGUNAnoOne · February 2016

I like it, simple yet practical seriously ZOS hire Gidorick don't make me start a poll.

NewBlacksmurf · February 2016

Wouldn't it be easier tho and more logical to just hit the button to change the view for a second and then swap back?

Gidorick · February 2016

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Wouldn't it be easier tho and more logical to just hit the button to change the view for a second and then swap back?

Some people want to stay in first person, despite all logic and reason.

And yes. I am one of those people.

Alucardo · February 2016

I don't play first person, at all, but there are those who do and I'm surprised to hear it doesn't already work like this. Good idea!

Makkir · February 2016

I really don't want the game to hold my hand through everything. Situational awareness is a skill.

Oliumzen · February 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Wouldn't it be easier tho and more logical to just hit the button to change the view for a second and then swap back?

Some people want to stay in first person, despite all logic and reason.

And yes. I am one of those people.

I'm a 1st person nay sayer. but i will add that in order to switch from first to 3rd person in mid fight could be disorientating as well as cause you to accidentally hit a potion when you dont need it, and take up the time to use one of your skills giving the enemy enough time to heal or execute you. I think what the OP is suggestion is quite reasonable and why its not already there is beyond me. (we get red rings around our screen in the menus while in combat. why wouldnt this be there already?)

Gidorick · February 2016

Makkir wrote: »

I really don't want the game to hold my hand through everything. Situational awareness is a skill.

I agree! Which is why there should be toggleable. I did say it should be toggleable, didn't I?

I didn't? Oh... I should have.

thunderwell · February 2016

In first person perspective, it should be harder.
You wouldn't "see" the AoE area in real life, why would you want to break immersion?
Learn the different animations. If you have multiple mobs, keep them on screen by dancing around them.
But if it has the option to switch on/off, I say add in a visual.

LadyNalcarya · February 2016

Something is really weird with the camera in 1st person mode, I cant use it even for quests and immersion.

Tried in my first day in eso, but it was giving me terrible vertigo and it was very hard to fight small enemies like banekins so I switched to 3rd person.
P.S. But even though I wont use it anymore, I think that improvements are always a good idea

Altaire · February 2016

There is a FOV setting I think is under camera, max that and it's better. It is a shame the developers haven't improved on 1st person setting, there not been much change since start.
If I had to play ESO in 3rd person/ I'd alrdy be gone.

dodgehopper_ESO · February 2016

thunderwell wrote: »

In first person perspective, it should be harder.
You wouldn't "see" the AoE area in real life, why would you want to break immersion?
Learn the different animations. If you have multiple mobs, keep them on screen by dancing around them.
But if it has the option to switch on/off, I say add in a visual.

Logically you wouldn't be able to see what is going on directly behind yourself, but then that's a logical oddity of 3rd person view isn't it? At any regard your peripheral range gives you a lot of cues about what is going on above, below, and to the left and right. You can see a lot more in reality than what your little computer screen shows you.

Elijah_Crow · February 2016

I play the game in third person. I understand the desire of others including fans of the original ES games who want the same experience of playing in first person however.

For third party play the devs have clung to their desire to give visual ques for everything such as buffs and debuffs.

I support this and I can support giving visual ques particularly for first person play to make game play easier from that perspective.

AshTal · February 2016

I support this I like to play in first person but for most "hard" content you can't. First person PvP is a death sentence.

Sausage · February 2016

Ive thought something like this too. Id love to play in first person, but you simply cant know where dmg is and coming from.

KhajiitiLizard · February 2016

AshTal wrote: »

I support this I like to play in first person but for most "hard" content you can't. First person PvP is a death sentence.

I used to PVP all the time in first person. Somehow I'd always kill more than I died. Having come from a first person shooter background I had pretty good awareness of my surroundings. Then I started playing in 3rd person and did even better. But I don't really play anymore. If the lag ever gets better in PVP I'll come back.

Jar_Ek · February 2016

I play first person alot and it has some big issues, esp for melee.

1. FoV is too small esp vertically as you often cannot see enemy animations/tells and unlike real life you cannot do a quick head motion to get your SA. And it's nigh on impossible to see the ground tells and large monster tells at once.
2. You often have no idea if buffs are up or down as the visual cues are difficult to see, esp when stacked and some are massively too dominant (evil hunter et al)
3. Some gap closers close you past your opponent. This is really bad for PvP esp as you lose your target.
4. Because you cannot see yourself it can be hard to tell if your rooted or snared because the visual cues just aren't really there. This leads to a lot of PvP and maelstrom death.

Those are the main issues. I would also agree that although knowing you're in the red is helpful it's not really enough as you have to get out of it.. normally when there is a shed load of red on the ground.

Shogunami · February 2016

This is a great idea and something like it really should be added in-game.
And while we're at it, why not add a 1st person only mode with the new PvP "battlegrounds" or whatever. And also, 1st person only modes for dungeons/pledges with extra rewards. Something like a hard mode, something to really test your skill

Whatzituyah · February 2016

When I played Final Fantasy 14 ARR now HW we called it creep. But yeah this would be nice we begged for 1st person we got 1st person and we use 3rd person instead because its plain out better. Atleast thats what I recall went down.

adriant1978 · February 2016

I play in first person because my brain is not wired for third person; must have played too many first person shooters in my youth. This is a great suggestion and I hope the devs consider it.

ZakuBeta · February 2016

The field of view in 1st person is about what you have in real life. Sure you lose a bit of peripheral vision, but really, hw much can you really see peripherally? Not much, just the awareness that something is there, and whether or not it is moving, and towards or away from you. If you turn off the music, some of the abilities have audio cues that you can hear. Even Wreaking Blow has a yelling sound. Turn on your sound effects, they are your friend.

I still believe that 3rd person is easy mode. I would love an all 1st person PvP area, or two with one that doesn't allow the use of CP's and one that does.

Lysette · February 2016

Well there are add-ons which help with learning combat in ESO - with messages like "dodge NOW", "block NOW", "execute NOW", "cleanse NOW" "potion READY" and so on. This add-on helps with learning the ropes of what to do when and over time I get to know what the animations look like and will automatically counter it in 1st person and without add-on support - but as long as I don't, I use this add-on to help me build my muscle memory, which will later let me do this subconsciously.

Milktray · February 2016

I play constantly in first person (on X1 now) and i'll admit i tend to stand in the red but knowingly so I can't see a problem with how it is, if i know being in the red will REALLY be bad for me i get the hell out of it, if it's going to just knock a little off health i race them to who hits first and if i lose then take the hit with no worries.

Gidorick · April 2016

adriant1978 wrote: »

I play in first person because my brain is not wired for third person; must have played too many first person shooters in my youth. This is a great suggestion and I hope the devs consider it.

I'm the same way @adriant1978 ... I've tried to play ESO in 3rd person and it just feels clunky.

Pendrillion · April 2016

Great Idea Gidorick

UltimaJoe777 · April 2016

First person has always been about only being able to see an enemy coming from the front, so being attacked from behind is the only time you'd know they are coming, besides their shouting lol

Perhaps make it so enemies engaging you have an icon overhead? Turning the screen red can get confusing with being low health.

Gidorick · April 2016

That's funny that you mention that @UltimaJoe777 I actually had a more complex concept that I didn't post in this thread because it started to get to be too much and I didn't want to muddy the core concept.

I thought that perhaps we could have the following indicators:

Standing in Red
Red 1 roll distance behind
Red 1 roll distance to the left
Red 1 roll distance to the right
Directional enemy indicators with size denoting distance from the player

Anyway, here's the screenshot mockup for that:

W67FfK0.jpg?1

Low health also reds the top of the screen so that would be the indication to the player that their health is low.

UltimaJoe777 · April 2016

Gidorick wrote: »

That's funny that you mention that @UltimaJoe777 I actually had a more complex concept that I didn't post in this thread because it started to get to be too much and I didn't want to muddy the core concept.

I thought that perhaps we could have the following indicators:
Standing in Red

Red 1 roll distance behind

Red 1 roll distance to the left

Red 1 roll distance to the right

Directional enemy indicators with size denoting distance from the player

Anyway, here's the screenshot mockup for that:

Low health also reds the top of the screen so that would be the indication to the player that their health is low.

Yeah but personally if I suddenly saw red I'd be pretty alarmed even if it's just the bottom of the screen lol

Not because of the encounter though