A More Dynamic Perspective

Coh1 uses the classic RTS isometric view that is neither faulty nor bad. What it lacks, though, is immersion and dynamism, due to its static nature. Thus, I find it very surprising that Relic has not decided to go for a more animated camera, i.e. Total War, since Coh is probably the most dynamic and immersive RTS I know. It seems very contradictory to the general design concept of the game, which is why I would like to see coh2 with camera controls similar to those of the Total War games. Imagine how immersive true sight would be with a dynamic camera? Now that would be something!

I do realize that there are probably players out there that would prefer the classic RTS view, in which case Relic should keep the option open. Furthermore, I don't think that hotkeys need be much altered to compensate for the different camera perspectives. ASWD would be used to move across the battlefield, which I think should be the norm for all camera perspectives, and hotkeys should be positioned around that. The gridkey layout could still work if Relic implements a direct system that allows you to switch back and forth between camera movement and gridkeys. For example, press space and ASWD are part of the grid, press space again and they're reassigned to camera movement (there should be a visual cue indicating which mode you're in). Abilities, such as grenade throw, would be unaffected as they occupy the bottom row of the grid and staple hotkeys, like retreat, attack move, stop, reverse, and reinforce would also remain unaltered, and tabbing through your selection would also always be available. So of the gridkeys only rather seldom used keys would have to be switched to with the pressing of the space bar.

It's rather convenient that CA is also owned by the new owner of Relic, and I really hope something of this sort is implement. What do you guys think?

I don't think that would be very useful. You can pause in TW, which gives you time to move the camera around, zoom in and check out the action...and then return to isometric view and unpause so you can issue commands.

In real time there's simply no room to use any other viewpoints, except the TAC map.

It might be fun for watching replays or spectating (RIP), but I find that holding Alt in vCoH works just fine for that.

I don't think that would be very useful. You can pause in TW, which gives you time to move the camera around, zoom in and check out the action...and then return to isometric view and unpause so you can issue commands.

In real time there's simply no room to use any other viewpoints, except the TAC map.

It might be fun for watching replays or spectating (RIP), but I find that holding Alt in vCoH works just fine for that.

Yeah, I thought of that being a problem as well, but then again COH doesn't necessitate high APM. I suppose beta-testing would be required to find out whether that is true or not. In any case, it would be a nice feature for replay viewing and, in my opinion, the gridkey system I detailed would probably work better than the default one that makes use of the arrow keys for camera movement.

The alt button does like, everything you need except for moving the camera with WASD, and there's no way having a button to toggle between camera movement and unit controls is going to feel good at all in a game like CoH. I know the APM requirements are low but that would just be clunky as hell. Nobody would enjoy that.

Well, that would only be for the gridkey layout and the wasd keys are really only are only used for issuing build orders, so they are rarely used. It might be somewhat clunky, but atleast it's not as unwieldy as constantly swapping back and forth between the arrow keys and hotkeys. I really don't see how tapping the space bar every now and then just to issue a build order is very cumbersome.

I'd rather devs focuse on the gameplay mechanics and tweaking, rather than such fetures. Imho this would be usless in MP gaming, unless the main objective in MP is visuals and immersion.
This is not the case, you need to have the best control possible on multiple of units, and ability to move around as quick as possible. Any fancy camera settings would only prevent that and be a distraction.

For the record, I barely used the ALT in CoH, only for picking weapons on rare occasions.
I also barely used the cinematic mode while watching replays, as it was more annoying than anything else, but ymmv.