I've mentored quite a lot of android players or just helped them out when they were new. While 3d person view looks "coolish", its very bad for controlling. Everyone i've met was happy to use 1st person as it was much better with the already hard to control setup.

Newbs unable to aim, unable to fly into cargo, etc. Try 3d person on android yourself and you'll find out how pain it is...
Can we make 1st person a default? I even had people who left VO cause they were so pissed and in all the rage didnt listen anymore on how to switch to 1st person view.

3d person might be good for videos or the first look, but to handle it its horrible. For those thinking otherwise who havent tried it, i urge you to try it out on android.

Xeha

Fair point Xeha, I do tend to use 3rd person view but acknowledge it's limitations.

It would be interesting to see some of the VO vets give touch-screen android a go - they may well be surprised (and not pleasantly). I discussed some stuff with ray in game and it is clear that the devs don't have much, if any, experience of actually using android either.

I discussed some stuff with ray in game and it is clear that the devs don't have much, if any, experience of actually using android either.

Somehow, I doubt that's the case.

Rather than default to 1st person, I'd prefer to see the game do something like detect whether a new player spends a certain amount of time in motion within a certain radius of cargo with sufficient hold space available, about a minute or so, and then ask "You seem to be having difficulty picking up cargo. Would you prefer to try a 1st person perspective? Yes / No".

If the player selects "Yes", then automatically switch the view to 1st person and mention how to change it back.

I like that suggestion too. but its much harder to implement.

+1 xeha I only fly 3rd person when I also turn hud off so it looks cool, 3rd person is horrid in all situations, some noobs have had trouble even finding a docking bay rar.

I discussed some stuff with ray in game and it is clear that the devs don't have much, if any, experience of actually using android either.

Talking to Ray should not lead to conclusions about what is known by "the devs". Ray doesn't actually play the game; I do.

Anyway, 3rd person was not chosen for "coolness factor", but for situational awareness with a small screen. It has some definite tradeoffs, the process of picking up cargo needs to be improved. But I'm not convinced defaulting to first-person would be better in a lot of cases. Much of it depends on the size of the device.

People also have trouble finding docking bays in any situation, which is really a separate issue that we've been improving lately for VR.

I'm sorry Inc, but as a mobile + PC user, I have to disagree. Even the new(ish) tweaked 3rd person camera leads to a miserable experience overall. And ray might not play much, but Sarahanne did, and I bet she never used 3rd person either.

The situational awareness is just rubbish, without plugins like enterleave its crap no matter what cam you use.

I mean awareness literally of the positions of asteroids and other objects immediately around you. Not some plugin-related thing.

If you have some criticisms more specific than "miserable experience overall", I'm open to hearing those.

Well, a good example is shooting stuff. In 3rd person view, unless you are using a gun like Gauss, leading a target is horrid. Lining up a rocket attack? Forget it. Collecting cargo? Nope. Docking - well, with autodock it is actually not too bad, but only because you can slap your ship into the side of a docking bay and still dock, but without? It's just a LOT harder to aim your ship in the right direction.

As for avoiding roids and stuff, that is also a lot easier in 1st person than 3rd. Sure, it might look nicer; but seeing the ship in an environment where you can go in any direction, its just harder in 3rd person to actually see which way your ship is moving, which makes dodging harder too.

You all sound like you are only speaking of personal preferences, not actual undeniable trade-offs.

I play 3rd person exclusively ON PC. I made this switch around January and will never use first person again.

It is solely a matter of personal preference. There isn't anything that has caused me even the slightest bit of headache since switching.

The only factual advantage that 1st person has over 3rd person is mouse-look. Some people argue that having mouse-look helps you to recover from flares a bit faster.

This is an example of an undeniable (still deniable, but very hard to argue against) advantage of 1st person. Saying that its too hard or anything along those lines is a matter of preference.

Inc, my apologies and I take "devs" not playing on android back.

It wasn't based on a big enough sample size, but I don't see any other devs on that often.

picking up cargo in 3rd person isn't difficult - simply place the cargo below the pointing reticle (the circular one that tells you where your ship is pointing) to about a millimeter or two. then move forward. before I switched to 1st person, that's what I did. as for giving a combat disadvantage? yeah, ...yeah. but I'm not sure what could be fixed about that. other than changing default to 1st person (or better yet, allowing new players to set these settings themselves first time the game runs), that is, and some people may prefer the 3rd person.

Once again, some newbs i helped (in this case hive hunting) were obliterated due to the horrible controls on 3d person. Can we please have a fix? Its tough telling each newb to switch to first person view even though they think 3d looks/is better and then once they do, they feel trolled by the devs...

I completely forgot to mention this during my review of the MOGA controller... Things were a lot easier once I went into first person.

That's ok, I intend to do a separate video on mobile device tips/setup anyways.