Battleview

[babasparks12345]

Description:

Since this is the Frostbite 2 engine, players will need some serious hardware to play it, so using the power of the Frostbite 2 engine. I had the idea that when in battle in-game, players can zoom in to the unit's perspective of the carnage and view the battle up close which could also add advanced ordering for units to take cover or take objectives etc......

Positive Effect:

More entertaining to watch gunfights.
Brings players closer to the carnage in a exciting way.
Allows players to see detail of game graphics up close and personal.
Allows players to enjoy the power and beauty of the Frostbite 2 Engine.
If game is being played in 3D, WOULD LOOK AMAZING and the experience would be emersive to the player and whoever watches.

Negative Effect:

Could cause lag for players on less powerful machines.
May require more powerful hardware.

[TriggerSappy]

I think there's a few more problems that you didn't take into account. Don't get me wrong, if they could get the idea to work, it'd be pretty cool, but you have to take the following into consideration:

- This is predominantly an RTS, a lot of people would be playing simply to command units. Not that many people would be able to use Battleview without sacrificing their ability to command the rest of their units across the entire map. Control is something essential in RTS games.
- The development time that would go into getting this into the final shipped build would be way too much time taken away from developing the core-RTS aspects of the game. This sort of time could go instead into polishing and developing the RTS section of the game.
- Even if this was implemented, this would bring with it alot of issues in the shipping of the game and it's final state. Something to remember when discussing not only game development, but software development in general, is that each new feature that's introduced in a program brings with it the risks of introducing more bugs alongside it.
- The cover idea is a bit iffy, looking at it from a C&C enthusiasts perspective. Sure, you've got games like Company of Heroes using it, but that is a pivotal aspect of SQUAD micro. C&C Generals 1 never had squads. Sure, it had control groups, but this isn't a game like C&C 3 for example. A better game to compare Generals 1 to is, believe it or not, Starcraft. Each unit is meant to be able to be controlled individually, in order to allow more control for players, coming back to one of my first point.
- As you get more into detail with graphics, the less people that will be able to run the game, like you said, however, this leads into another problem. A feature like this would not be a main selling point. And if I know game developers well enough, it's that every aspect of the game should be a selling point, you CANNOT have any deal breakers, especially when it comes to AAA game-development. I really don't mean to sound cruel by saying it, but what you've described for me could be a deal breaker for some.

Please don't let these points get you down, what you had was a good idea for a game that could be made in the future, but with the limited time and resources that the guys at Bioware Victory have left, it's not feasible to implement something like this as of now.

[CnC_Fin]

You mean zooming in into FPS view? Nah. I still prefer keeping the game in simple classic C&C style RTS view. CGI's then again can and even should be viewed from both air and ground level

[Harrrr]

Frostbite 2 really has nothing to do with it, as any 3D game engine with a camera is capable of zooming in and out. It's more about design decisions and how many LOD assets you want to pump into the game, and what that will cost players of every level. Your basic gameplay design must take the lowest denomination, and really BF3 didn't have THAT high of requirements...basically 6 year-old hardware will play it, but certainly not look great.

In reality, considering scaling, Battlefield 3 maps are still not as large as Generals maps or really any RTS map. Given the difference of scale, you can't get away with the repetition that shooters have. There have been RTS (RTT)/FPS cross-breeds before but each make scarifies to do so, whether it would be wise remains unseen.

Leaping off sacrifies, a "branch-out" of sorts isn't necessarily a good idea at this stage. CnC4 really ticked a ton of people off, and it is probably best that Bioware Victory focuses first on making the best RTS they can.

[Polla12]

I think that this is a great idea , but it will be hard to pull of. Maybe somehting only available in co-op and SP. Would be awesome to spectate. Specialy in replays , CnC should have replays and tv like dota maybe , would be cool.

[Borreh]

This would be distracting at best, useless at worst, and totally gamechanging at even worst.

First option: If it would have little impact, yet people would do it, then they would simply waste time while equal or more use would be just standard control. It would be more of an irritating gimmick I think.

At worst, if you could just zoom and make no real use of it, it would be used once or twice by players to get the feel of the battle and the forgotten. Equals pointless.

In absolute worst, when the gameplay role would be important, it would detract the attention from RTS to some Full Spectrum Warrior style tactics, which would completely change the gameplay style and it's an issue for major discussion and being the main game feat, not just a gimmicky addon. Not to mention IMO it's pointless since RTS view offers much better orientation that FPP/TPP one, and adding direct control-only important orders to limited tactical overview would be just confusing and irritating.

[hellodean]

sounds to me exactly like what universe at war had,
if you wernt giving commands it would look at the battles from 1st person view to watch the battles. as soon as you moved the mouse it put you back to normal view.

for making videos or screen shots it would be truely awesome (tho recording and pausing the game is needed for that really to make the most of that)