63 réponses à ce sujet

[Tchos]

I went through a few of the arena battles, but I didn't finish all of them either.  I played as a wizard.

 

I agree, it's tedious to go back to check when there's no indication.  One possible remedy would be to have some rumours spoken by generic NPCs or something that would give a clue for you to go back and check.

 

That undesired rogue unlocking behaviour on a dialogue door happens when an author makes the door do something by putting a script in the On Fail To Open slot.  When any character who has a lockpicking skill clicks on the locked door, they will try to unlock it, and the script will only fire when they finish their attempt, but when a character with no lockpicking skills clicks on the door, the script fires immediately.  In the OC, we see a door (in the Sunken Flagon) where a party selection script is put in the On Left Click slot, which fires despite the door not being locked.  But the character has to open the door first, and then click on the door again for the script to fire, which you don't want to do if the script is simulating knocking on the door.  In my work, I have a script attached instead to the door's On Open slot, which fires when the player opens the door, except my script immediately sends a command to close the door again, so in most cases you don't see the door opening, and the script fires anyway.  I think that's a better way.

[olivier leroux]

I agree, it's tedious to go back to check when there's no indication.  One possible remedy would be to have some rumours spoken by generic NPCs or something that would give a clue for you to go back and check.

 

That would require the player to still talk to generic NPCs though, which I've given up a while ago, too, thinking I've mostly heard what they had to say by now.

[Tchos]

That would not be a requirement.  You can make NPCs just talk to each other with bark strings, or mention things to you as you pass by them, without starting a full conversation.  I use perception scripts like this, for instance to have vendors call out to players as they pass by, or to greet you by name, or ask about how you're progressing on the quest you're doing for them before you actually talk to them, but as I show in the video, you can also use them for random generic NPCs to make comments based on a current quest stage.

[olivier leroux]

What are those places you had to revisit in order to take sidequests (maybe use a spoiler tag)? Right now I can only think of a couple of them, and an NPC approaches you outside in both cases.

 

The 40k thing was somewhat poorly done, not because it's that much, but because you may spend the money elsewhere before you even know about it. Perhaps you should have been made aware of it from the beginning, though that'd require changing the plot a bit.

 

I agreed that those doors that require a key are annoying, but there's not much you can do about it. You can right-click and "open", which skips the lockpicking attempt... if you know it's one of those doors beforehand. There's likely a way to make picking locks and disabling traps faster (I've used an insta-rest mod for NWN1 before, so something like that), but don't ask me how to do it.

 

PS: There's an official guide on Ossian's site that goes in detail about all the sidequests. You may want to check it out, even if only where to start them, just to make sure you don't miss any.

 

I was checking the walkthroughs on GameBanshee (I really like those!), and the quests I wouldn't have found without it were:

 

Spoiler

- A Star Is Born: Help Mintassan retrieve his lost diamond from the Undergate, triggered if you visit him in his shop and talk to him.

- Head of the Pirates: Help Drake and the Harbormaster identify a pirate's head for the bounty, triggered if you get near the Bent Mermaid Inn.

- The Knot of Shou Lung: Solve the riddle of the vanished chalice - the walkthrough suggests the player would notice a commotion in the hallway of the Market Disctrict's Tower after talking to Pentical Bleth about the Black Dahlia, but I actually managed to just ran past the NPCs standing there and did not pay attention to them because I had already explored the area and talked to everyone, and in NWN2 new NPCs don't stick out as much as in NWN. They didn't say anything and no event dialogue was triggered when I ran past them, but it's possible I got unlucky and ran into a bug. In any case, after that I didn't think of returning to the Tower to search for questgivers.

 

Granted, those are only three, and the last one might have been bad luck, but that's still three quests and quest rewards I would totally have missed without the walkthrough. I wouldn't be surprised, btw, if the third quest event was intended to be more noticeable and just didn't trigger right, as I've already encountered two other bugs (highlight for spoilers):

 

Spoiler

- One time I entered Okuzo's imports, noticing spider webs everywhere and then Okuzo said: "Thanks for your help. These spiders would have ruined my shop" or something, and I found that quite weird, since I hadn't done anything and there were no spiders to be seen. I did notice though that she suddenly had an HP bar above her head indicating that she was badly wounded (I've installed the HP bar mod). So I read up on this quest in the walkthrough and found out that what should have been happening was the spiders attacking me when I entered the shop. But I guess they must have spawned already when I wasn't there yet and Okuzo had fought and killed them herself.

- In the companion quest for the cleric Charissa you get a choice between killing the Thay wizard or saving the slaves from poisoning. When I went with killing the Thay wizard though, the quest remained incomplete. The walkthrough said, that Charissa would retrieve a journal from the wizard's corpse after the fight, but she did not. I reloaded an earlier save game and repeated the fight, but once again that event wasn't triggered. Only when I tried the other option of freeing the slaves, I was able to complete the quest, because the cutscene with Charissa picking up the journal worked as intended.

[olivier leroux]

That would not be a requirement.  You can make NPCs just talk to each other with bark strings, or mention things to you as you pass by them, without starting a full conversation.  I use perception scripts like this, for instance to have vendors call out to players as they pass by, or to greet you by name, or ask about how you're progressing on the quest you're doing for them before you actually talk to them, but as I show in the video, you can also use them for random generic NPCs to make comments based on a current quest stage.

 

Ok, but then you'd still have to place these NPCs in spots that the players are guaranteed to pass a second time and hope that they pay attention to the one-liners in running by. Some players could for example use the free camera, scroll to the edge of the screen where the map exit is, click there and then just wait for the party to reach that spot. They wouldn't notice any casual comments from random NPCs that the party passes, because that would be happening off-screen for them. I think the method of forcing event dialogue windows on the player when they pass a mandatory spot might not be the most elegant, but it's probably the most fool-proof.

[Tchos]

Your spoilers are openly readable without highlighting for any users using the Bioware forum's "Dark" theme.

Spoiler

You can hide spoilers like this.  (Surround with "spoiler" tags.)

 

I don't like forcing dialogue on anyone, especially for a minor side quest, where it's just an extra, not needing a guarantee.  The text will remain in their chat log if they miss it floating by anyway.  Even so, since it would happen every time they pass an NPC until they advance the quest, they'd be likely to notice it eventually.

[olivier leroux]

Your spoilers are openly readable without highlighting for any users using the Bioware forum's "Dark" theme.

Spoiler

You can hide spoilers like this.  (Surround with "spoiler" tags.)

 

Whoops, thanks for pointing that out!

 

Well, another good method to make the players take notice is not to put important new stuff in areas that they already had ample chances to explore before.

[Tchos]

But I think it's nice to have existing areas change over time, making a more "living" world.  If the NPCs directing you back toward the old areas are in the area where you're currently exploring, that's not enough?  Random NPCs are walking around everywhere.

[olivier leroux]

But I think it's nice to have existing areas change over time, making a more "living" world.  If the NPCs directing you back toward the old areas are in the area where you're currently exploring, that's not enough?  Random NPCs are walking around everywhere.

 

Oh, sure, that would work. As a mod author I'd find it tempting too to have the areas change over time. I'm just saying that many players will get less attentive when they feel like they know the areas already, and then there's a certain risk they will miss those changes, that's why I think there should be clear pointers to them.

[olivier leroux]

In the meantime I've finished MoW! Now where to go from here? I'm a bit intimidated by the length of the OC and the fact that I already know the first half of it, so maybe I'll try some custom modules instead. Which raises new questions:

 

@Tchos: How long would you say is "The Black Scourge of Candle Cove" approximately? Would you recommend creating a new character for it, or can I use my character from MoW? She should be around lvl 13 at the end, but I've got plenty of savegames, and maybe in one of them she's only lvl 11 or so. And she's a rogue - would that be a problem?

 

@everyone: I'm a sucker for Planescape, and I know of that well-received "Planescape: Shaper of Dreams" series for NWN2; I also know that it was originally written in German, which happens to be my native tongue. My installation of NWN2 is English though and I'm not fond of mixing the languages. So I've got two questions in this regard: (1) Has anyone played the English translation? If so, what did you think about it? (2) Would it be possible for me keep two versions of NWN2 installed on my harddisk, one English installation from GOG, one German installation from my retail discs? Or do you think that might cause serious issues?

[Tchos]

Rogue would not be a problem, though I think if you don't take the rogue companion you'll miss some of the best companion dialogue, since I put the most work into hers.  But there are enough companions around town to make a well-rounded party no matter what class you use, and you also have the option to create or import additional party members.  You can use your level 13 character if you want the fights to be easier, because they're designed to be challenging for a 5-member party at level 10.  Still, having only one party member that's higher level than the rest shouldn't offset things as much as it would to import your whole custom party at a higher level.  If you start at level 10, you'll likely to be midway through level 11 by the end of the campaign.

 

As for length, assuming you explore and find all of the side quests, and depending on the length of your play sessions, it could be as little as 1 day or as much as 6 or 7 days.  Most people who have played it haven't given me an estimate of their play times, unfortunately.

 

I haven't played Planescape: Shaper of Dreams modules yet, but I know of another unfinished but playable Planescape module by Rogue Dao with a lot of custom Planescape content.  Maybe the German one also uses custom content, but I don't know.  I also don't know about multiple language installations.  I did install NWN2 in two different locations, once, and it didn't seem to hurt anything.

[olivier leroux]

Rogue would not be a problem, though I think if you don't take the rogue companion you'll miss some of the best companion dialogue, since I put the most work into hers. 

 

So what companion did you put the least work into? (Or in other words which PC class would be the best supplement to your favorite companions in the campaign?)

[Tchos]

Probably the fighter has the least interesting, and the least amount of dialogue.  He's pretty stoic.  The bard can tell you what he's heard about any area where you take him.  The wizard has a good amount of special dialogue options and an extra little personal bit at the end.  The rogue has connections in town and lots of special dialogue options.  The druid also has some interactions with characters in town and a passive-aggressive personality.  The cleric has a bit of work, but less than most.  The barbarian I thought was amusing in his personality.  Aside from the bard, most of what they say isn't when you're speaking directly to them.  In general, most of what they say is spoken when they're exploring, or is available in conversations with other people, where you can choose to allow them to participate in the conversations (the aforementioned special dialogue options).  They appreciate having a say in party matters.

[olivier leroux]

I'm getting more and more used to NWN2, but I've noticed the engine has some weird and annoying quirks.

 

For one, it's constantly changing the order of the portraits on the right side. I haven't found out why and when, but I suppose it might happen when companions are incapicitated during combat? Or is there some way to change the order yourself that I might have triggered accidentally?

 

Then it makes me turn off the companion AI each time I load the game, because it always defaults to companion AI on.

 

I think there's also a difference between AI off and puppet mode on, because sometimes the companions act of their own accord even when AI is off, as long as puppet mode is not enabled. So either these modes mean different things, or NWN2 is slow and imprecise in changing between modes.

 

And sometimes it enables a semi-AI mode (the button is half blue, half red), but I haven't found a way yet to toggle this mode on myself. If I click the button, I only have the choice between on and off, blue or red.

 

In any case it often feels like the engine is somewhat obstinate and does - or doesn't do - some things automatically in a way that interferes with my control over the party and precise tactical planning.

 

Not to mention those moments when companions don't even try to carry out orders due to bad pathfinding - in NWN the engine would display that a character tries to follow a command but can't for some reason, in NWN2 the command is simply canceled if the engine thinks it's not possible at the moment; so you always need to check whether the character actually put the command on their 'to do list' or just ignored it.

 

As to my issues with the camera, I think they are related to the fact, that even in free camera mode, you are restricted in how far you can move the camera away from the active PC (it's not as free as in NWN where you can let it scroll across the whole map or in Baldur's Gate where you can even click on the map directly to move the camera to the selected area). And there is no mode that works for all situations. Exploration with free camera is probably the best but it doesn't allow to draw rectangles around characters to select them. Of course, there is the button for selecting the whole party but how do I select e.g. two or three characters out of four? Is there a way to do it via the portraits? Something like holding Ctrl while clicking on individual characters (which doesn't work)? And sometimes, in higher outdoor terrrain, the camera in exploration and strategy modes zooms in too close on the floor and doesn't let me zoom out (not sure if a bug), so that, weirdly enough, I need to switch to character mode because only that one lets me zoom out out to an acceptable distance. And if you enable free camera mode, it sometimes interferes with events, because if you are teleported or something important happens, the camera doesn't automatically focus on your characters' new location or the event, and there seems to be no option to enable free camera mode but also make the camera focus on the party in situations like these. I'm also often torn between zooming in to better see the details (because NWN2's graphics have a lot more details than NWN) or zooming out to get a better overview. Only that NWN2 isn't really suited to be played in close view, but even when you zoom out, the view is often obstructed by houses, forest canopies etc., hence my feeling that the camera is still too close and should be moved higher atop the roofs, walls and trees.

[kevL]

tl;dr /agree

 

I'm getting more and more used to NWN2, but I've noticed the engine has some weird and annoying quirks.

yep. no one disagrees with that, methinks.

NwN is the more polished game, hands down. I/we play NwN2 for the graphics (sorta), advanced terrain, and the multi-party tactical combat (yes.)
 

For one, it's constantly changing the order of the portraits on the right side. I haven't found out why and when, but I suppose it might happen when companions are incapicitated during combat? Or is there some way to change the order yourself that I might have triggered accidentally?

yeh they blit about pseudo-randomly. We should grab our pitchforks and liberate the source ;p
 

Then it makes me turn off the companion AI each time I load the game, because it always defaults to companion AI on.

might be changeable in scripts, maybe not. Lately i've had to toggle AI off-on after loading just to get the party to follow.
 

I think there's also a difference between AI off and puppet mode on, because sometimes the companions act of their own accord even when AI is off, as long as puppet mode is not enabled. So either these modes mean different things, or NWN2 is slow and imprecise in changing between modes.

I looked at the scripted calls for toggling AI at the player menu, and clicking puppet mode in Behaviors. Fundamentally the same call. But there is latency ....
 

And sometimes it enables a semi-AI mode (the button is half blue, half red), but I haven't found a way yet to toggle this mode on myself. If I click the button, I only have the choice between on and off, blue or red.

The red/blue thing happens when AI is on (or off), but puppet-mode has been deactivated (or activated) for one+ companions (but not all) on their Behavior sheets. see above
 

In any case it often feels like the engine is somewhat obstinate and does - or doesn't do - some things automatically in a way that interferes with my control over the party and precise tactical planning. :unsure:

I usually don't get this but see below.
 

Not to mention those moments when companions don't even try to carry out orders due to bad pathfinding - in NWN the engine would display that a character tries to follow a command but can't for some reason, in NWN2 the command is simply canceled if the engine thinks it's not possible at the moment; so you always need to check whether the character actually put the command on their 'to do list' or just ignored it.

A cleric in my party recently got killed in a bossfight. She had two heals lined up, one on another and the second on herself. Something happened and the second cast was cancelled. Fortunately the fight was nearly over and PC had a Raise Dead scroll .... But yeah, no message.

Honestly I'm constantly clicking between characters (paused) to make sure they're still doing what I ordered.
 

As to my issues with the camera, I think they are related to the fact, that even in free camera mode, you are restricted in how far you can move the camera away from the active PC (it's not as free as in NWN where you can let it scroll across the whole map or in Baldur's Gate where you can even click on the map directly to move the camera to the selected area). And there is no mode that works for all situations. Exploration with free camera is probably the best but it doesn't allow to draw rectangles around characters to select them. Of course, there is the button for selecting the whole party but how do I select e.g. two or three characters out of four? Is there a way to do it via the portraits? Something like holding Ctrl while clicking on individual characters (which doesn't work)? And sometimes, in higher outdoor terrrain, the camera in exploration and strategy modes zooms in too close on the floor and doesn't let me zoom out (not sure if a bug), so that, weirdly enough, I need to switch to character mode because only that one lets me zoom out out to an acceptable distance.

I find that, in Strategy mode at least, the surface directly at the center of focus may cause any zoom-movement to go a bit whacky (a sudden zoom-in), and I have to nudge the camera slightly onto a different center of focus to get the right zoom.
 

And if you enable free camera mode, it sometimes interferes with events, because if you are teleported or something important happens, the camera doesn't automatically focus on your characters' new location or the event, and there seems to be no option to enable free camera mode but also make the camera focus on the party in situations like these.

Double-click a portrait of the char you wish to center on ....
 

I'm also often torn between zooming in to better see the details (because NWN2's graphics have a lot more details than NWN) or zooming out to get a better overview. Only that NWN2 isn't really suited to be played in close view, but even when you zoom out, the view is often obstructed by houses, forest canopies etc., hence my feeling that the camera is still too close and should be moved higher atop the roofs, walls and trees.

Opacity can be adjusted somewhere (but only if the model/.2da itself supports it for the particular object).

the camera could be better, but i don't have serious complaints about it other than my slow video card. ( oh, btw there's an important setting in the .Ini that's not even accessible in Options -- forget what it is tho, sry. Tbh i've been all over camera settings like a dragon over gold ... Pain included my settings as "smooth camera" in his NeverLauncher app. if you care to dig around and find them /shrug/ He also brings *all* camera settings out & accessible in that app.)


ps. I think there's a setting that allows Strategy mode to scroll all the way across areas. "Camera Focus, Can be moved freely (Free Camera)"
pps. In NwN I could be in an overhead view and intuitively zoom in to precisely look down a long narrow corridor. Maybe with a better vidcard I could do that in NwN2 -- and that'd be, for me, the true test of the NwN2 camera.
ppps. I've gotten used to using all three cameras. Exploration for exploring, Strategy for tactical, and Character for the overland map (after console-unlocking the camera). But i'm definitely not a "click and hope for the best" type of player ...

[Tchos]

Then it makes me turn off the companion AI each time I load the game, because it always defaults to companion AI on.

 

Exploration with free camera is probably the best but it doesn't allow to draw rectangles around characters to select them. Of course, there is the button for selecting the whole party but how do I select e.g. two or three characters out of four? Is there a way to do it via the portraits? Something like holding Ctrl while clicking on individual characters (which doesn't work)?

 

even when you zoom out, the view is often obstructed by houses, forest canopies etc., hence my feeling that the camera is still too close and should be moved higher atop the roofs, walls and trees.

 

I can't answer questions about the puppet mode, etc., because I play with the AI on.  I'm pretty good at controlling unruly AI.

 

Selecting multiple characters: This can be done in Strategy Mode by holding Shift and clicking on portraits.  It should be Ctrl, to match the standard keys we're used to in Windows applications, but it's Shift here.  Just like dragging a marquee on the ground to select characters, this seems to only work in Strategy Mode.

 

I agree there's no one camera mode that works for all situations, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I like to specialise. 

 

Camera obstruction by trees should not happen, as long as Object Fade is turned on in the options panel for whichever view you're using.  You need to select it separately for each view.  I turn off Object Fade for Character Mode, but turn it on for the other two modes.

 

When you say the view is obstructed by houses, you mean that the camera has pulled back behind the houses, and you can't see your characters anymore because the houses are in the way, right?  Not saying that the objects prevent the camera from moving back far enough?  Obstruction by objects such as houses happens whenever the object does not have a collision mesh, or when it has been turned into an environmental object.  I regret that I did not know this when I turned most of the houses in my city to environmental objects for purposes of a cleaner walk mesh and presumably lower resource demand.  In my newer areas, the walls and buildings are left as placeables instead of environmental objects, and so never block the view.

[Arkalezth]

Shift + selecting characters works in exploration.

[Tchos]

It didn't in mine.  Maybe there's a setting for it somewhere, and I don't have it enabled.

[Dann-J]

Oh for the 'good old days', then the 2nd edition isometric games usually had a button on the toolbar to auto-select your entire party, and even let you determine what formation they moved in...

[olivier leroux]

Double-click a portrait of the char you wish to center on ....
 

 

Yes, that is a solution, but not the most elegant one. And are you sure it would also work during a dialogue?

 

Opacity can be adjusted somewhere (but only if the model/.2da itself supports it for the particular object).
 

 

I know, but even when that option is activated I feel that I don't get a good overview. But maybe it's partially due to models not supporting it, like you said.

 

 

ps. I think there's a setting that allows Strategy mode to scroll all the way across areas. "Camera Focus, Can be moved freely (Free Camera)"
 

 

I I thought that too and I've already toggled all free camera stuff on in all modes, but I still can't move the camera everywhere I want to. Once it gets to a certain distance from the active (and offscreen) character, it stops, as if on a leash.

[olivier leroux]

Selecting multiple characters: This can be done in Strategy Mode by holding Shift and clicking on portraits.  It should be Ctrl, to match the standard keys we're used to in Windows applications, but it's Shift here.  Just like dragging a marquee on the ground to select characters, this seems to only work in Strategy Mode.

 

Great, thanks! It works in Strategy and Exploration mode, only Character mode does not allow to select multiple characters that (or any other) way.

[olivier leroux]

I find that, in Strategy mode at least, the surface directly at the center of focus may cause any zoom-movement to go a bit whacky (a sudden zoom-in), and I have to nudge the camera slightly onto a different center of focus to get the right zoom

 

Regarding the camera modes, in the OC I'm currently in the mountains at the Githyanki base and I've noticed it is impossible to get a strategic overview in Strategy or Exploration mode. They just don't work well with elevated terrain, because for some reason in these two modes it locks the camera at a certain angle and prevents it from going lower, so that I can only see the ground a few feet in front of my party but not zoom in and look up to the enemies waiting on top of the hill, like I can in Character mode (and without having to zoom in). This wouldn't be that much of a problem if the game allowed the camera to zoom out far enough to see the top of the hill from a top down view, but that's not allowed either. The camera in Strategy and Exploration mode is locked within a certain range that is absolutely no use in the mountains; not close enough, not far enough, which is another evidence that even with the free camera option enabled, the camera isn't really free, and that's my issue with it. I wish there was a hak to completely free it of its restrictions, like there was for NWN.

 

And in Character mode, I toggled off "Camera Follows When Turning In Place" and it's still doing that. Which seems to be another evidence of unreliability and glitchiness. :/

[Dann-J]

When I'm using Exploration Mode (the only camera mode I ever use), I find I can tilt and rotate the camera relatively freely while holding down the mouse wheel. I can't see straight up or straight down, but I find the range of camera angles to be more than adequate most of the time. I also find that scrolling the mouse wheel to zoom out reveals quite a large area around the players.

 

I played through the OC relatively recently, and was able to see the githyanki archers waiting on the mountain above well before they reacted to the party, allowing my own archers to get the first shots in.

[olivier leroux]

When I'm using Exploration Mode (the only camera mode I ever use), I find I can tilt and rotate the camera relatively freely while holding down the mouse wheel. I can't see straight up or straight down, but I find the range of camera angles to be more than adequate most of the time. I also find that scrolling the mouse wheel to zoom out reveals quite a large area around the players.

 

That's what I do, but "relatively freely" isn't the same as "freely", and "most of the time" is not like the more desirable "always". The thing is, unless there's something wrong on my end, I feel it's pretty inconsistent. At some rare occasions I actually manage to get the camera in a very good position like this (maybe because I was up a hill and on coming down, the camera has a greater distance to the floor?):

 

 

Then, to test this, I zoomed in and then tried to zoom out again, and the camera gets locked at this distance and doesn't allow me to zoom out further to the old position:

 

 

I can cope with the camera most of the time, but its behavior seems pretty random and I would prefer full control over it, without limits, because the latter screenshot is not a view I feel very comfortable with, and often the game forces me to stay that close, which is also why objects often obstruct my view. I've paid more attention to that and that's inconsistent too. The Fade out option is activated and trees in Neverwinter do fade out, but buildings don't. Like I said, this wouldn't be so much of an issue if I had better control of the camera.

 

Mind you, I'm still playing and enjoying NWN2 even though what I post here probably sounds quite negative - I'm absolutely not trying to badmouth it and slam it because I hate it, I'm just a bit disappointed in the wasted potential, because I actually like it and just wish it was a more polished product that doesn't always remind me of its imperfection because they're getting in the way of its enjoyable gameplay (and there's quite a lot of that, I haven't even mentioned e.g. how inconvenient it is for a game with party-based tactical combat that the game only stores the position of your active character in a savegame, not those of your companions - and sometimes not even those of your opponents).

 

There's one - completely unrelated - negative thing I've got to say about a part of Act II of the OC though, just because it's still fresh on my mind:

Spoiler

First they built up all this suspension about the trial and combat trial, have you watch and click through all the cutscenes and dialogues without giving you time for a break or for saving the game, and then the actual duel is such a farce because of Lorne's overpowered "can't be killed during frenzy" ability, which is the only thing that makes the fight difficult. After all this long and suspenseful prelude, I was actually hoping it would be a more glorious battle than me summoning an elemental, drinking a Haste potion and then running circles around the arena until "Near Death" Lorne's frenzy wears off and he dies ...

[Arkalezth]

Not trying to tell you how to play the game, but I think Exploration Mode works better if you use a more isometric angle most of the time, rather than cenital, if that makes sense.

Random pic of my default angle in Exploration (more or less):

 

Spoiler