Forums » Suggestions
Looking Around Without Changing Ship Direction
When you move the mouse, your ship turns. This means it is currently impossible to look around without also moving your ship.
There is one long-standing exception: if Mouse Look is active and you are using Turbo, you can look around freely without changing your ship’s direction. However, this only works while using Turbo. Also, perhaps, VR players generally have this possibility, but I am not sure about it.
There are many situations where it would be useful to look around without causing any movement at all. For example, you may have something targeted, your ship perfectly aligned, and only want to glance to the side or behind you without disturbing your setup. You may want to maintain situational awareness while keeping your capital ship turrets or an L-port weapon directed at one or more targets. It would also be useful when aligning the rear of a capital ship with a docking bay. You may also want to look around without making your movement obvious to other players.
I am sure there are many other gameplay situations where this would be useful.
At the moment, there does not seem to be a dedicated function or keybind for this. The behaviour only exists indirectly as part of Turbo. I can think of two possible solutions:
- Create a new bindable function for looking around without moving.
This would be the best and most universal solution. I am not sure if the ideal approach should be to activate on press or as a toggle, as both variants have their advantages and disadvantages. I would personally prefer a toggle.
- Attach this behaviour to Brakes, in the same way it is currently attached to Turbo.
This might require less work, but it would not allow the player to use this function while flying normally without Turbo, as it is going to stop them. This would be at least something, but I see the dedicated bind as a much better option.
I think this is a fairly basic piece of functionality, and most players would benefit from it in one way or another. I also do not see any obvious balance or gameplay issues it would create. Please feel free to correct me if I am missing something.
There is one long-standing exception: if Mouse Look is active and you are using Turbo, you can look around freely without changing your ship’s direction. However, this only works while using Turbo. Also, perhaps, VR players generally have this possibility, but I am not sure about it.
There are many situations where it would be useful to look around without causing any movement at all. For example, you may have something targeted, your ship perfectly aligned, and only want to glance to the side or behind you without disturbing your setup. You may want to maintain situational awareness while keeping your capital ship turrets or an L-port weapon directed at one or more targets. It would also be useful when aligning the rear of a capital ship with a docking bay. You may also want to look around without making your movement obvious to other players.
I am sure there are many other gameplay situations where this would be useful.
At the moment, there does not seem to be a dedicated function or keybind for this. The behaviour only exists indirectly as part of Turbo. I can think of two possible solutions:
- Create a new bindable function for looking around without moving.
This would be the best and most universal solution. I am not sure if the ideal approach should be to activate on press or as a toggle, as both variants have their advantages and disadvantages. I would personally prefer a toggle.
- Attach this behaviour to Brakes, in the same way it is currently attached to Turbo.
This might require less work, but it would not allow the player to use this function while flying normally without Turbo, as it is going to stop them. This would be at least something, but I see the dedicated bind as a much better option.
I think this is a fairly basic piece of functionality, and most players would benefit from it in one way or another. I also do not see any obvious balance or gameplay issues it would create. Please feel free to correct me if I am missing something.
There is a "hack" workaround for this is to turbo and brake at the same time, you're still going to crawl forward a tiny bit but you're not going to close significant distance to your target.
you do however have to watch out as if you look around too much you'll roll a bit on your longitudinal axis which can throw off your alignment.
That said this feature would probably see some use; particularly by the more advanced players in capships, not a bad idea at all!
you do however have to watch out as if you look around too much you'll roll a bit on your longitudinal axis which can throw off your alignment.
That said this feature would probably see some use; particularly by the more advanced players in capships, not a bad idea at all!
We'll take a look.
Thank you very much. Your implementation is actually better than perfect.
The optional combination with the previously introduced "viewtoggle 9" is just amazing.
The ability to selectively target things behind the ship without turning it in the process is also great.
... and many other use cases. Really, thank you!
The optional combination with the previously introduced "viewtoggle 9" is just amazing.
The ability to selectively target things behind the ship without turning it in the process is also great.
... and many other use cases. Really, thank you!
Hey, really happy to hear it, thanks for letting us know :).
As Infinitis is noting, this went into the patch 1.8.766, released tonight:
- Added "Free Look" bindable commands to use the mouse to look around without affecting your ship orientation. "FreeLookToggle" toggles free look mode on and off, "+FreeLook" is a hold-to-activate version. A snap-back time setting is in Options -> Advanced -> Game and is in milliseconds, defaulting to 150 ms. During this time, the mouse does not affect the ship. Setting the value to 0 results in instant snap-back.
As Infinitis is noting, this went into the patch 1.8.766, released tonight:
- Added "Free Look" bindable commands to use the mouse to look around without affecting your ship orientation. "FreeLookToggle" toggles free look mode on and off, "+FreeLook" is a hold-to-activate version. A snap-back time setting is in Options -> Advanced -> Game and is in milliseconds, defaulting to 150 ms. During this time, the mouse does not affect the ship. Setting the value to 0 results in instant snap-back.