Possible Viewing Glitch

[Cloudy]

I didn't see this mentioned when I searched for it but if it's already been mentioned, I apologize. I've watched the Battle of the Yellow Sea twice, having set both players to computer control so that I could admire the ships:

I set the view to "View Following Battleship A" or words to that effect which is confirmed in the messages at the upper left of the screen. I then sit back and watch the ship I'm interested in for a period of time until the view automatically switches to "Shellcam". This is fine except when the view returns from shellcam, it is no longer follwing the desired ship - although it still states so in the messages. The view apparently moves down the battleline with each switch to shellcam until the end result being your viewpoint eventually ends up being left behind the fleet! Not a major problem but still an annoyance if you are interested in a single vessel.

Alan

[saddletank]

I think during the flight of the shell the shellcam is tracking, the camera that's fixed on your ship pauses, so when you return to that cam it is still tracking the ship you selected but that ship is now somewhere off screen.

I have to say that I have not experienced this but then I tend to switch shell cam off (h key toggles it on/off) as after a few shells it gets a bit irritating when I need to watch the action elsewhere.

[Cloudy]

Thank you for the reply. The explanation makes sense but the execution of that command is probably something that should be looked at. I would eventually be left viewing nothing but sea & sky :crosseye: I enjoy the shellcam view since with full graphic effects, you can watch bits of the target cartwheel into the sky leaving smoke trails as they go...

[Sheik Yerbouti]

I set the view to "View Following Battleship A" or words to that effect which is confirmed in the messages at the upper left of the screen. I then sit back and watch the ship I'm interested in for a period of time until the view automatically switches to "Shellcam". This is fine except when the view returns from shellcam, it is no longer follwing the desired ship - although it still states so in the messages. The view apparently moves down the battleline with each switch to shellcam until the end result being your viewpoint eventually ends up being left behind the fleet! Not a major problem but still an annoyance if you are interested in a single vessel.

Yes, it happens and it's a bit annoying.

...I tend to switch shell cam off (h key toggles it on/off) as after a few shells it gets a bit irritating when I need to watch the action elsewhere.

I do that too, but sometimes there are less busy situations when you just want to watch a certain ship, and see if her shells hit anything.

[HMSWarspite]

Thank you for the reply. The explanation makes sense but the execution of that command is probably something that should be looked at. I would eventually be left viewing nothing but sea & sky :crosseye: I enjoy the shellcam view since with full graphic effects, you can watch bits of the target cartwheel into the sky leaving smoke trails as they go...

I can confirm that this is exactly what happens - I have done it with single ships, so there is nothing else to trak. It ends up tracking a point 10 (or whatever the flight time was) seconds after where you were. Slightly annoying, but no biggy in my view. Same thing happens if you go to the info ('I') screen.

[Bullethead]

The name "Follow Ship" is somewhat misleading. That makes you think the view will always be centered on that ship until you tell it otherwise. This isn't actually what happens.

It should really be called "Constantly Move POV's Center at Course and Speed of Selected Ship, Regardless of Where POV's Center Is". That's what really happens. All the controls that rotate, elevate, strafe, and jump the POV still work in "Follow" mode, but the POV itself is always moving along at the same course and speed as the ship you're "following".

This is actually very useful once you know that's what it's doing. You're able to tweak your POV off-center to the selected ship as far as you want, and rotate it so you're not looking at your selected ship if desired. Say you've got a division in line and you want a close look at several of them at once, while having the view also showing the enemy in the distance. You can do this with "follow" mode stuck on any ship in the division, and the POV will stay where you put it relative to that ship without you having to constantly tweak it as the ships move. If the POV really was stuck centered on the selected ship, then the only way to achieve what I'm talking about here would be staying in "free" mode and constantly tweaking your POV to keep up with the moving ships.

So back to your original thing about the jump into shell view throwing your view off. This works just like you'd jumped the POV by right-clicking on the minimap. The POV follows the shells but once they land, it goes back to sliding along at the course and speed of the ship you're tracking, only now the POV is out there where the shells landed, the same as if you'd jumped there with a right click.

I find shell view to be useless, so I always turn it off. Now, if they put a little man sitting on the shell, so I could pretend it was "Doctor Strangelove", it would be worth watching :D.