Camera tweaks, view levels & functionality

I'm liking the game so far. I think you guys have done a great job of taking the concept to an interplanetary war. There is much to be done in this regard but I want to address something which is severely hindering gameplay atm.

The camera.

The amount of times I've gotten lost and disorientated looking for a certain building, because my view had rotated after I zoomed out and back in is utterly frustrating. I can see that you have tried to use the SupCom camera on a 3D interface but it needs tweaks to work smoothly.

The camera can be improved tremendously with a few tweaks and changes;

1. Planet Pole lock. Why isn't this on by default? Also by having this option hidden in the keybindings (bound to the right side of the keyboard btw) I didn't even know it existed and was trying to adjust to this confusing camera interface. Setting this as the default camera orientation is far more useful to players. I would like to see an option to rotate this camera angle and ability to snap back at any time.

2. Camera view levels. Make 3 of them.

These are locked zoom levels of the camera that players can quickly toggle between, with allowing manual zoom between them.

a) Planetary level - optimised for planetary view (default) for building your bases and fighting. Ranges from up close unit zoom to battlefield scale unit icons. Just like it is now but stopping you from zooming out too far and going to orbital. Also add double click to zoom to a position would be very useful.

b) Orbital level - Distinctly separate from the planetary level, allows you to manage orbital units without confusing them with ground/air units. It should be further out than the current orbit. Make these units bigger and operate higher in orbit so its easier to recognize them. Players will switch to this level and manage it independently of planetary units. Make it a proper battlefield on its own.

c) Interplanetary (or solar system) level - This lets you view the whole solar system and quickly switch to a different planet. Pan the camera across the system to another planet view or quickly snap to the selected planetary/orbit view. The GUI here should show info about army size and income for each planet your on.

Functionality
Once you have these 3 camera levels, allow users to easily tab through them with a key and put it on the GUI somewhere. With a much more structured method of controlling the camera view, players should find the game far more playable. What we have now is zooming in and out like a mad man trying to micro manage multi-planetary bases

Finally,

3. Re-add the snap camera to alert option. This is so useful especially when you're looking at a different planet. Perhaps have a notification on the GUI for which planet the alert came from and ability to quickly jump to that position.

I hope the team addresses the current state of the camera controls and reviews these ideas, as I think they will drastically improve the gameplay experience.

I like the ideas but having 3 distinct camera levels should be optional, not a fixed feature.

I would like to add that there should be camera hotkeys like in Starcraft 2. Ctrl + F keys to set them, F key to jump to that camera location. Jump to alerts would be extremely helpful as well.

Everything will get infinitely easier once some kind of minimap is implemented too.

After playing for a few hours I think I agree with the OP.
It is hard to distinguish orbital units from regular ones, they are a pain in the *** to find. Having a distinct zoom level that shows just these units and not those on ground and air level would be a tremendous help.

Another thing I have a bit of trouble with is unit icons. Maybe I'll just need more time to recognize them, but this has been an issue for me already with SupCom. They are not easily recognizable to me. They all look and feel the same. While zoomed out to a planetary level I had tremendous trouble trying to find my builder units among the swarm of other stuff walking and riding around.
I thought that this problem (which is specific to me and not a game flaw I guess) had been solved once I saw screenshots like this:
http: //i1.ytimg.com/vi/ZrN_OPo2MJE/maxresdefault. jpg (added a few spaces because I can't use links apparently... I really need it to show my example though).

Now that looked like something I could work with, though I suppose the new icons look cleaner. It would be cool if they could be switched between however. Have a setting in the options that lets you choose which you personally prefer.

There are keybinds for saving camera locations. Like I said everything is hidden in the keybindings. Toggle metal node icons for instance (this is like necessary why would they ever be off?). The GUI needs a lot of work.

I also agree with the above. I'm not looking at the icons anymore, just relying on control groups. I can't remember if this is what it was like in Supcom but about the only icon I can distinguish at a glance is the commander.

I was literally about to start a thread regarding a need for three tier camera levels... Sort of like T1 T2 T3.
If camera modes could quickly jump between the three and also be robust that it is easy to switch between planets and get to the view that you want. I would be in heaven. It can even be a double tap of Q W E OR Q A Z to get planet space and solar system and switch to planet level of a different planet in a couple of clicks... That would be awesome.

If it was also on the GUI it would be helpful for new players as well.

Completely agree with OP

(Good thing I used search)

If we can get some sort of selection filters, it would be very powerful working in conjunction with the camera modes you've mentioned.
I've already suggested using selection-box direction as a filter to select only fabbers (or vice versa). There are surely more that we can come up with.

In the software I use, "double-click mouse wheel" = zoom extents.
For PA, we could break this down into 2 layers.

1. If zoomed in on planet, Zoom extents to current planet. (aka orbital)
2. If zoomed in at orbital, Zoom extents to entire system.

Op is right on the money here. While these different camera view can be assigned with the Shift+#/Alt+# combo it'd be great to have set camera view with the extra information bits and pieces.

One thing I'd like to see in the celestial view is that we can pan in the x and y planes with arrow keys. I personally can't stand not being able to pan the celestial view and instead having to select planets and do all the rotating and zooming. While the camera is really cool in it's rotating it hinders quick play currently.

I'm positive about it overall though - it was great to get the camera into a seamless transition from planet view to celestial and I'm looking forward to when the devs return from a well deserved holiday break.

Wait what?
I've been busy lately and haven't had a chance to try out the new camera.

But wtf? You can't pan?
I would hope that is an oversight, or something soon to come.