Free Camera Insight+Ubisoft+Obsidian+Assassins Creed

[Osvir]

Hi! The Free Camera Insight stuff is further down, starting off with Assassin's Creed thoughts.

Some Endorsement
So I began playing Assassin's Creed and wow, what an intense story. There is SO much that can be done interestingly. But anyways, enough endorsement of the story. I have not yet gotten very far in Assassin's Creed 3 but I think I need a little bit of a break or pause, the sudden jump in setting (and location) between Revelations and AC3 is a bit off-putting. I'm gonna have to play AC3 before I can make a full judgement.

Thought bubble
I was playing Revelations, and sometime very early in the game I felt "Hey, wait a minute, the animation for that block+counter is in the game. What if that sequence was decided by a dice roll instead?". This made me start to think about Project: Eternity, Baldur's Gate, Numenera. In "Top-down RPG's" essence.

Assassin's Gate? *-*
How well would an Assassin's Creed game work in a top-down environment in the spirit of Baldur's Gate-esque RPG's? (RTWP* to be exact) [closes eyes] yes, it would work amazingly well I believe. Having a group of 6 Assassin's+Pause button, perhaps being able to control a HUGE amount of Assassin's as well in an RTS-mode battle. When further playing Revelations and getting to a "Tower Defense" session I was mindblown on many levels, but I was a little bit bitter that I had to be stuck to Ezio (Developers should make more use of a Free Camera).

Strategical Thoughts/Positioning/Team Management
Positioning, climbing buildings, sneak missions with the entire team (and you are in control, it was so much epic in Revelations when you were running on top of buildings and the rest of your team is running in front of you, heading towards the palace, the only thought I had was "Wouldn't it be cool if I could control this & guide it?"). So much could be done that could re-innovate top-down RP and RTS genres.

Fallout 3+New Vegas Thoughts on lack of Top-Down
Take Fallout 3 or New Vegas for instance, how great a feeling wouldn't it be to just, zoom out, put your camera top-down and then pan the screen how you want and control the game like the old-schools? Imo, that would make both Fallout 3 and New Vegas so much epic better instantly.

Like, putting the game in completely different perspective 

What do you think? If you could make Fallout 3, today as it is today, into top-down, would it be the same game? Would it be a better game? A worse game? Is modification or this intent possible? Is a Free Top-Down Camera Modification for F3+FNV a possibility, or too complex to adjust? (You can zoom out in F3+FNV, but it isn't the same thing as what I am asking about, you're still stuck to the characcter).

F3+FNV: How to Mod thoughts/questions

* How do you add a Pause Function? Very Easy.
* How do you map the Camera pan (Map-Scrolling/Map-Panning)? Easy.

* How do you turn off "Character Aim" or simply "center" the character aim? Easy. (You only need VATS+Auto-Pause to make Combat flow as the Player see's fit).
* How do you remap the WASD controls into a Mouse-based Point+Click control? Very Hard.

I base/assess "Very Easy", "Easy" and "Very Hard" on difficulty to implement if you are a professional team+have time for it. Talking about PC-versions.

Free the Camera PC Propaganda!
Personal input is, I think it would be a better game (by my own preferences). It would also give BOTH F3+FNV some lost glory and appeal to the nostalgia fan-base. I bet it would!

Action Camera
I've never been too fond of action cameras, they force the Player into a camera position "Hey, look at this cool perspective!" "Awesome!" [300 times later] "STAHP IT!". Dragon Age: Origins is fine, it doesn't force the Player into a specific perspective (I can still pause, move around the camera etc. etc, it does force the Player into slow-motion though). But games like X-COM and Fallout 3+New Vegas that suddenly "teleports" me (the Player) to a different view and locks me to that position is frustrating after Cinematicx300 times.

Thoughts?

* Real-Time With Pause

Edited March 24, 2013 by Osvir