Hi.

I'm just wondering if there are others around that are annoyed by not having access to freelook. I mean, for some of us, we're spending a lot of our time walking and running around, yet we're forced always to look straight ahead or walk in the direction we walk to look.

In another game I play (Arma2/OA) this has always been beautifully implemented, and we constantly use it. We can even control it using TrackIR and FreeTrack, combined with lean, roll, and zoom capability, pluss different stances.

Not that all of those are needed in this game, but I really really miss freelook. I'm constantly walking, and unlike Arma2/OA, there is so much to look at (sights and flora for the picking, unlike there where all we ever watch is those tiny pixels being the enemy - which is far more dangerous of course).

In that game, it is implemented as follows (together with other things):
Hold Alt - mouse is now in freelook mode, you still control movement with WASD as usual.
2 x Alt - toggles the freelook mode, if on you hold to disable freelook mode.
W - jog mode.
2 x W - sprint mode.
Hold Shift - Walk mode.
2 x Shift - Toggle walk mode, if on you run while holding shift.
Q/E - Lean and Roll (stance dependent), controls speeds in vehicles (could be our horses).
ZXC - Different stance modes, although in Skyrim we have Ctrl=Sneak which may be sufficient.
V - Vault (jump over an obstacle, we don't have regular [bunny] jumping in that game).

With that, we still have QERTFGZXCV as easily accessible keys for "that other stuff".

I think it's bad enough that we can't see our own bodies, but head-on-a-stick? That seems so old. On a tactical level, it is made so that AI spots you easier if you actually move, less so if you rotate on the ground with your whole body, and even less so if you only move your head. What is your opinion on this, especially if you're on PC "controller"?

Example clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fPKBtRE1Ls
Observe how player sometimes look in another direction from where his weapon is pointing, or in other direction from where he is moving. And this also works nicely in combination with 3rd person and vehicle 3rd person.

Great, thanks. Now I know how unimportant this is to others.

yes this is something that bothers me. I'm sure a mod will address the problem at some point.

It's a nice feature. I don't feel it adds enough play value to worry about but it is a nice feature

Was there mods to achieve this in earlier TES/FO games?
Guess it's only an annoyance factor when you know what you're missing

you mean for example, you can't walk south while looking east?

because you can...

Creative use of your direction keys will do ya up. It ain't perfect, but, it works fairly well.

I think being able to walk in 8 different directions relative to your facing is sufficient, and you don't need to be able to sprint north while facing southeast. If you want to glance back at the guys chasing you, you have to slow down for a second or risk breaking your neck. It works fine.

I haven't played those other games you mentioned, though, so maybe this freakshow system you're talking about is awesome. One game having a weird control scheme shouldn't imply a new industry standard, however.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like you simply need to learn to use A and D in addition to W for movement. If you want to look to the left while proceeding forward, release W and press D. This seems obvious, but if you can't look around while moving then maybe this will help. I'm not trying to tease you; I just don't see the problem.

I do combo strafing of course. But it doesn't allow me to look over me shoulders to check on my followers if I have enough room to bow/spell them without slowing down. It's not the same as full speed backwards running in Oblivion, as I still have to turn around to make the shot. Also it doesn't allow you to see your character in 3rd person from the front while walking (currently a horrible implementation). And you can't have decent control of a horse at all while trying to look for dangers - we're forced to stop and look, or risk riding of a cliff (done that a few times).

Put your weapon away, then you can rotate the camera to look at yourself from any angle, you just can't look at yourself with a weapon out.

So yeah, what you talking about?

I do really hate the 3rd person camera. A lot. No idea why they decided on such a constrained control scheme this time out. Agree; very bad implementation.

Try walking. And yes you can look at yourself also with a weapon out, but part of the angle (altitude) have to be set prior. It's super cumbersome, I don't understand how you can like this. In Arma2/OA all I do is hold my alt key in 1st or 3rd to look around. A/D is strafe while on foot, and steering while mounted. And zoom in/out on +/- keys as the mouse wheel drives something else.

seems like it would be rather complex on the 360, which i play, but ignoring that i stll dont care much for the idea. the only problem i have is that the first person camera is set in the chest not my head

It's nice to sometimes look at my character from the front all kitted out in his armor. But thats it really, not sure why you need to be able to run looking at your character from the front...

I play on console.

This might be the most irrelevant thing I've seen to complain about yet.

Console controllers.

Personally, I am big on "vanity shots". I like taking screenshots of my character doing cool stuff. I hate to be that guy that says, "You could do it in earlier games!", but ... you could do it in Oblivion and Morrowind. I have some really cool desktops from those games. In Skyrim, I have some nice landscapes, and then I have pictures of my character standing there rigidly still. I can't even get a screenshot of my mage casting a freakin spell.

Forced camera angles make me feel kinda Dragon Age 2.

Yeah, well those "vanity shots" are what I'm looking for, except the way I showed above it can do "vanity shots" in 3rd person AND in 1st person. That was something I always hated with Oblivion, you were forced to use 3rd person if you wanted to "look around". Another "progress made? Just remove it?"...

Console controllers? Why not make it right in the first place? I can't play with those things, but I can look around in some other games. It does look like 3rd in general have been improved - why are we 1st fans so abandoned? It's "just" a hold-key-to-look-around. I realize 1st weapon can be problematic, but I could live with (for now) only while traveling by foot without weapons drawn. In "my game" we have 3rd person animations also in 1st (for full body awareness), but that is easier to accomplish with rifles compared to swords and huge movements.