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Riot, please, I beg you. Do me one favor. It'll be my birthday eventually. [Zoom-Out Functionality]

Cynical Rain·2/13/2017, 3:06:40 PM·2 votes·1,758 views

Please seriously consider allowing players to zoom out further by default akin to Xerath and Jhin's ultimates. I've considered the pros and cons, as seen below.

Pros

  • Helps out locked camera players to an incredible extent. I cannot stress how much it would help. I know people usually have no sympathy for locked-screen players, but there are many who just can't adjust to the camera system, and this would be a kind gesture which does no harm to the rest of the player-base. This is a significant limitation for me, and some others when it comes to the LoL experience. I've been playing locked-screen since Season 3.

  • Presumably not difficult to implement. We've already seen it applied to Xerath and Jhin's ultimates. I assume you'd just change a few camera-related global variables to bigger numbers.

Cons

  • Takes out a certain perceived difficulty or challenge. It's a skill to maneuver your camera properly and balance it with your mechanics. That said, it's a pretty artificial difficult. It doesn't arise from the game-play, it's a by-product of the interface. I believe it would just come down to some older players feeling slightly cheated

  • This quote from Riot jinxylord - "Zoom outs can only go so far before things start looking bad, FPS goes down, and possible buggy stuff gets more prevalent." The quote is taken from a thread where somebody wanted Xerath's ult-range increased. From the quote, it appeared that zooming out up to a range of 3500 (Jhin/Xerath's ultimate range) is acceptable for current technology, but not more. I'd appreciate the zoom going as far as possible, but it doesn't even have to be 3500 units, just increase it to whatever you feel is fine in terms of textures/FPS/bugs. Just increase it, please.

This topic is brought forth from time to time, but is never really considered because there isn't enough demand for it. According to statistics, there isn't much demand for the customizable item-sets either, but wouldn't it be nice to cater to certain niches of the community? I'd be able to fight properly in the jungle, and actually see what's going on in team-fights. More so than mechanics, or map awareness, or strategy, this would result in the biggest improvement to my performance in games. ** Please seriously consider this matter. It would be the single most important improvement to LoL for me, and some others.** Thank you.

35 Comments

4632/13/2017, 3:24:40 PM4 votes

Sounds like a personal issue.

Kr1sys2/13/2017, 3:08:25 PM2 votes

there's a better solution: stop playing locked camera

Mizuki Zahra2/13/2017, 3:15:18 PM1 votes

why not just use the map and ward?

LostFr0st2/13/2017, 3:18:39 PM1 votes

Zooming out the camera wouldn't just be a perceived loss of difficulty it would be an actual loss of difficulty. Jungle ganking would be basically worthless if the jungler doesn't have an extreme gapcloser from FoW like Zac. That's only one reason. There are more.

Locked camera does have advantages, such as it being easier to cs and navigate fights without losing track of one's champion. Unlocked camera gives those things up for a different NOT added view of the map. You can be killed while looking somewhere else or miss someone sneaking up behind you if you're not paying attention (less likely to happen while locked if being careful).

tldr: both have pros and cons, don't just list the pros of one and all cons of the other. People should learn to use both.

I am Pacman2/13/2017, 3:44:58 PM1 votes

The zoom feature you are requesting would never be implemented only for locked camera as it would make it unfair by allowing you to see more of the map on the same sized screen than people playing with unlocked. Sure you can move the camera around but for every pixel you move it up you lose a pixel of vision on the bottom side.

They also wouldn't implement it for both modes because a. what Riot Jinxlord said and b. the game is designed and balanced around the fact that players receive x amount of vision on their screens and it is even used as a form of measurement when talking about distance in the game such as "he landed that varus q from a screen away". Sure the varus had his camera probably unlocked and on the enenmy but that means he can't see himself or where he is.

I reccomend practising with unlocked during laning phase by moving your mouse to the edge of the screen to see how much it moves and how fast and using the space bar to recenter yourself if you ever go to far. Literally just keep practising moving the camera every laning phase or when you walk back to lane, lots of pros play with locked in laning and then only unlock it when they want to take a quick look around or in teamfights.

DrCyanide2/13/2017, 4:10:35 PM1 votes

Takes out a certain perceived difficulty or challenge. It's a skill to maneuver your camera properly and balance it with your mechanics. That said, it's a pretty artificial difficult.

It's literally as "difficult" or "challenging" as using a mouse to click where you want to go.

Do you left click? Do you right click? Do you move using the scroll wheel? Is the mouse movement inverted?! SO DIFFICULT!!! /s

Both of them are mechanics that have been around since the early days of PC gaming, and are still used because of how well they works. If you're struggling with that then it's a personal problem.

It doesn't arise from the game-play, it's a by-product of the interface. I believe it would just come down to some older players feeling slightly cheated

Actually it does arise from gameplay considerations.

Vision is restricted to allow for things to sneak up on you. If you can see the entire map all at once l then you'll be very aware when Top or Mid goes MIA or when Bot starts Dragon, far moreso than if you're just using the minimap. That changes the focus of the gameplay, making it more like an RTS than a MOBA.

If you want a game focused more on strategy, you show more of the map. If you want a game focused more on mechanics, you show less of the map. League tries to strike the middle ground.

As a side note, I really don't like the zoom out as Xerath . The camera angle doesn't line up the way you expect at the edges of the field of view, resulting in easier to miss skillshots. Yeah, you can see more map (it's a strategy focused ult) but that only helps with target selection, not with execution.