There is no lock on. We played with it a bit in the past and it didn't feel good to us.

Ok, thanks for the reply :) I definitely understand the need for design decisions like that, but let me add my voice to the 'Wants lock on feature' group. I find having no camera lock very very difficult to work with and unpleasant.

Originally posted by Halcyon:

Ok, thanks for the reply :) I definitely understand the need for design decisions like that, but let me add my voice to the 'Wants lock on feature' group. I find having no camera lock very very difficult to work with and unpleasant.

Yeah I understand, I hope I don't sound dismissive. There is a soft lock on that kind of slightly points you toward the enemy. It also stops you from moving forward if and enemy is in striking range.

maybe it's worth a shot making it an option? have to add I don't know game development and it might be a bit of a nightmare to add something like that - if not, might be good...

I imagine it would be a substantial amount of dev time, given that an optional camera mode is a conditional code branch, plus a set of camera controls that are themselves conditional (locked/unlocked) plus the ability to target swap and the testing needed to get the zoom/elevation/angle right and possibly introduce state dependent transparencies on all environments in case the camera is trying to look through a stalactite or something, plus making character animations automatically orient towards the camera heading. It definitely doesn't sound dismissive to say 'we tried it and decided not to do it'. That's exactly what I would expect from a development team.

Originally posted by Halcyon:

I imagine it would be a substantial amount of dev time, given that an optional camera mode is a conditional code branch, plus a set of camera controls that are themselves conditional (locked/unlocked) plus the ability to target swap and the testing needed to get the zoom/elevation/angle right and possibly introduce state dependent transparencies on all environments in case the camera is trying to look through a stalactite or something, plus making character animations automatically orient towards the camera heading. It definitely doesn't sound dismissive to say 'we tried it and decided not to do it'. That's exactly what I would expect from a development team.

Thank you! you seem to know a lot about the topic! Yeah, for people who do not know. The camera looks easier implement than it actually is. We've had tons of camera issues and our camera is locked at a top down angle. tons of edge cases and we are still ironing out other issues. I'm not even the guy that does it but i know its been a struggle though the lifetime of the project.

Add another vote from a new buyer, who just stumbled across this game on a whim in my discovery queue. Never heard of it during EA at all. But yeah, I feel like the omission of a lock-on function is a massive oversight on the part of the dev team. I've been in game development since 1998, and this feature was pretty industry standard as far back as Zelda on N64.

I just started this game and I was on the first boss when I realized there was no lock-on functionality. I was finding it really annoying to play, as I had to keep manually rotating the camera to keep the boss in view. That fight had a companion, so it was a cakewalk, but I'm worried that this will start getting more annoying the farther in I get. I guess we'll see.

I honestly don't understand why you all feel this is difficult to implement? There's tons of isometric ARPG's like this with that feature, and it's been a standard feature in every From Software title since Demon's Souls.

I'm going to keep playing for now, because I absolutely love the concept here as a huge fan of soulslikes and ARPG's. But from one dev to another, it's always better to include more inclusive options when you can.

In the begining I also found it weird to play with no target lock and I always kept pushing on the right stick to lock on, but I got used to it really fast and to be honest now I really don't see the point in having it since the game as it is does a good job on handling the targeting system without it. However I feel that in boss fights would be nice to have it since things get a bit more chaotic.

No lock on, no buy, tried it on my friends account and no way, it's 2023 are you guys serious, the combat with no lock on is a deal breaker.

Originally posted by Nahp:

There is no lock on. We played with it a bit in the past and it didn't feel good to us.

But your not the one buying the game right?

Originally posted by TheBarbaryGhost:

Add another vote from a new buyer, who just stumbled across this game on a whim in my discovery queue. Never heard of it during EA at all. But yeah, I feel like the omission of a lock-on function is a massive oversight on the part of the dev team. I've been in game development since 1998, and this feature was pretty industry standard as far back as Zelda on N64.

I just started this game and I was on the first boss when I realized there was no lock-on functionality. I was finding it really annoying to play, as I had to keep manually rotating the camera to keep the boss in view. That fight had a companion, so it was a cakewalk, but I'm worried that this will start getting more annoying the farther in I get. I guess we'll see.

I honestly don't understand why you all feel this is difficult to implement? There's tons of isometric ARPG's like this with that feature, and it's been a standard feature in every From Software title since Demon's Souls.

I'm going to keep playing for now, because I absolutely love the concept here as a huge fan of soulslikes and ARPG's. But from one dev to another, it's always better to include more inclusive options when you can.

The main issue is the camera. the game is isometric but you can rotate the camera and when the camera runs into a wall it pushes in and doesn't tilt up. We do not want to tilt the camera up any further as we risk looking at an open ceiling. it would look completely incomplete. You would be looking at the top of your characters head while the boss would be standing almost out of view just destroying you. We never could make a shader that felt good for looking through geo and the one we have is kinda bad. I'm not saying there isn't a way to do it. but we had one guy model 90% of all the assets and then that same guy would design the levels and do the environmental art on top of it all. We had to limit our camera to reduce the work load. the project and genre is a bit ambitious for our team size, a typical new indie team mistake. so yeah ultimately we focused our time and resources into other things. We did have lock on in an early build and we quickly got rid of it because the way we implemented it wasn't good and had all the issues I mentioned above.

I'm not looking for excuses, just solutions, so i will be moving on.
Best of luck with your game, I hope you have success.

Originally posted by ClassicVinyl:

I'm not looking for excuses, just solutions, so i will be moving on.
Best of luck with your game, I hope you have success.

Sorry didn't mean for it to sound like an excuse just trying to explain why the camera is the way we have it.
Thank you! I hope you find a game that fits your preferences more.

Originally posted by Nahp:

Hey no worries, I understand your concern. I just think it would be a good feature to patch in at a later date. As far as the challenge of having the walls go transparent, I actually really liked when I saw that happen the first time, and it's been very helpful in seeing clearly in tight corridors. Also really love the orange glow on enemies behind terrain! I'm about 8 hours in on my play through and honestly, I've gotten used to not having the lock-on feature. Though it would make the game a lot smoother to play. So I still think it would be worth looking into for a future update.

Also kudos on thee amazing vistas all over the damn place. I love seeing my little Grainwake waaaaaaaay off in the distance after climbing some massive structure. I'm really vibing on the aesthetics of this world in general. Sense some Shadow of the Colossus, Nier, Final Fantasy & Skies of Arcadia influences.

I played 20 hours since Saturday (some afk time)

Game really doesnt need lock on, the weapons have big swinging arcs and nice coverage, ive never missed an attack at all I dont think

Whereas Dark Souls lock on is mandatory to even deal damage 90% of the time, it also can cause more issues than it helps