theleif: it should be exactly as you described, only changing the zoom position when you are zooming in. it does not pick new zoom targets as it is zooming out.

SE-Weed: My wheel setting in windows is also 3 lines to the click, so there must be something else going on.

Can anybody explain to me (preferably with a diagram or screenshot or video or something) a situation that reproduces any zig-zaggy or bizarre behaviour? My zoom is smooth like butter, even when I'm scrolling as fast as possible.

is thier a shortcut key to hit to change the zoom to curser,

it is somewhat cluky to have to go and click it at top of screen.

DatonKallandor: You're thinking along the same lines - best of both worlds is the target!

EvilTesla: Right now the shortcut key is defaulted to M.

SE-Weed: You shouldn't have to adjust your play style or center your zoom target, that would defeat the purpose of ZTC ! When you say that you kept going past your intended zoom target, could you give me a few more details? Like - your intended target (I assume a ship)? Was the intended target in mesh or icon mode? What did you keep zooming to (I'm guessing the planet that the ship was at?)? Was it possible at all if you're super careful or totally impossible?

FYI: You can zoom in on the selected entity by putting your cursor over the picture of the entity in the bottom center of the HUD and scrolling.

EDIT:

If you are finding the zoom seems to be jumping around as you are zooming out, check your mouse wheel technique maybe you are accidentally moving the scroll wheel forward a click as your finger goes to grab it. I think both Craig and I did this the first couple of times, but it's pretty easy to work it out of your muscle memory. Likewise if you find the camera zooming in and out as you are trying to zoom in.

Thanks all for your feedback! Keep it coming

The one thing about zooming that bugs me is if I center on anything using ctrl+click, as soon as I zoom in or out it'll break the camera 'lock'. I think this is one of the issues DatonKallandor was talking about as far as Homeworld-style camera goes. There you stay locked on your object until you actually move the camera yourself, zooming in/out keeps the camera centered on the object. That would be a fantastic feature

1. Place your middle finger at the top end of your scroll wheel (basically standard holding position)
2. Whip it down (to your palm) as fast as you possibly can without actually pressing hard enough to click "mouse 3"
3. Lift hand just enough to clear the scroll wheel when you reverse the flick.

Repeat as needed. You can also do this in reverse, just place your finger at the base of the wheel, palm arched upward slightly (as if you were holding it in a normal grasping position just a minute ago, fore finger on left mouse button, ring finger on right mouse button, middle going over scroll wheel). Flatten palm while running finger along the mouse.

Basically just scroll really fast, and the game will sometimes reverse the scroll. Its happened in a few other games, but not many. I can't reproduce this effect elsewhere (for example, in Firefox if I try to scroll down a page fast), almost always in games with some kind of zoom.

Please note that this is not a "reset" issue, it usually happens somewhere in the middle of a "flick" -- I'm not accidentally hitting the mouse wheel in the opposite direction

Another feature to the zoom system (that would be nice) is a "sensitivity" option -- let me really RAMP up the sensitivity, because its way to low. Or, make it so the shift key increases zoom speed, rather than decreases.

Usually medium area -- going between far enough out to look at a star system, and close enough in to deal with an individual grav well (in either direction). And its only a real issue when trying to zoom in a hurry, otherwise it either doesn't occur or isn't noticeable.

Thanks, I'll fiddle with that.

DroneFragger: that definitely sounds like a bug. Can you figure out a way to make either the super-fast or super-slow things happen so we can figure out what's happening?

Are you using a normal mouse or a built-in laptop mouse?

It's a Logitech G5 running on my desktop. I think it might be to do with the drivers myself, because some games refuse to accpet that the Logtich G5 has a middle mouse button and counts it as Ctrl, so I set it to P. however, I don't click that hard to make It actaully press P 99% of the time.

DroneFragger: as a temporary measure, try using the z,x,c buttons. Does your scroll work normally in web-browsers, etc?

SE-Weed: The next patch should include some fixes to make it easier to select things with planets behind them, but for now you should be able to get around it by just rotating the camera slightly so the planet isn't behind the object and then zooming. Looking down on the planet grav well also makes it easier.

Edit:

For those of you who have trouble with weird zooming behaviour that is going in/out at weird times or seems to be reacquiring a new zoom target at strange times - as a test, try and use the zoom keys (I think V and B by default) instead of the scroll wheel and see if it continues happening. (Apologies, the keys zoom a little faster than the mouse, this will be fixed soon)

Ok so this is weird, today I was playing around testing planet upgrade strategies, when all of a sudden I couldn't zoom in either direction...

I wasn't focused on anything, and the mouse wheel was totally unresponsive.

Once I clicked on a plant I was able to zoom again...

Bug?

np DroneFragger, it's good to have solutions posted in case somebody else has the same problem.

lordkosc, definitely a bug. were you zoomed way out?

Ron, I'll see about that sensitivity setting for the next patch.

Thanks, that seemed like the kind of thing that should be in there