Interesting, that is not what I would have expected. Mechanically if you're moving last hitting and skill shots should be more difficult to target because your view is moving and making them a moving target. My perception is that people don't use free camera because it is an extra thing to manage. I would prefer to help people overcome that.

I will say that I play almost exclusively with the camera locked. Not because I'm incapable of playing with it unlocked but because perspective wise it gives you the best view of your character. You can see evenly in front and behind you as well as being easier to keep track of your character in chaotic team fights.

There are only a few times when I unlock it and it's to either use a global ult (GP, Noc, Ez, etc) or when I'm playing the top team on Summoners Rift because the perspective of top team is horrible and being hit by Nid's spears without being able to see her is extremely annoying.

Also being able to zoom out a little bit more would be awesome.

Play without needing to look at your champion, switching between looking at the minimap and your target on the screen, then you will be able to achieve great feats in this game (just my 2 cents)

I've been playing regularly since the old DOTA days (hell, I remember when it was Aeon of Strife) so I've never had an issue with an unlocked camera. Even so, I gotta say that having the space bar in this game is a god send. I use it constantly to recenter or a temporary lock-on during confusing team fights, and every other game seems sluggish and unweidly to manage by comparison.

I went from around level 10 to level 29 (when Dominion released) playing unlocked half the time and locked the other half, for purple and blue respectively, because the camera angle is terrible when going south.

I come from a mostly-console background and never really played any RTS, so doing more with the camera than rotating it feels like a chore and I'm used to it rapidly moving. In fact, playing console FPS got me used to using strafing for fine aiming controls, so I use camera movement to line up shots.

Having the camera locked is more comfortable and lets me focus my attention and actions on playing my character, watching my opponents, and keeping an eye on the minimap, so having to unlock it negatively affects every part of my play, from overall map awareness, to landing skill shots, to learning my opponent's little quirks. I still won more than I lost (~1.2 W/L ratio in SR last I checked), so it's not that I'm incapable of playing unlocked, it's just worse. The unlocked camera just feels like extra unnecessary inputs that don't enhance the gameplay, kind of like if I had to alternate pressing two buttons to get my character to walk, but obviously to a lesser extent.

There is still the problem that the current locked camera angle is terrible. If there was an option for a rotatable chase cam, even with the current angle, I would constantly use that, even if most RTS players would find it unusable. Throw in an option for WASD movement controls and it would be even better.

I am really glad that this game defaulted to locked camera mostly because I would have given up if the camera had been unlocked. This is mostly due to the fact that I play with a touch pad, and playing on unlocked camera mode is almost impossible. Also, I didn't even notice I could play with an unlocked camera until I was level 30 because there isn't really anything telling you that you can play with a locked or unlocked camera ( I just pressed 'y' by accident one day). I do unlock my camera from time to time just to check around the map and do long range skill shots and teleports, but for the most part I play on locked camera and am very grateful that it was given as a default.

EDIT: I started to play this game over a year ago, so I'm not sure if you guys tell the new players that they can lock and unlock the camera in the tutorial, but if not, you might want to add that to it.

I probably wouldn't even try to play this game without locked camera though unlocked is of course good for globals I tend to do ok with unlocked lately but it is just plain annoying which is unfortunate cause I have to do it whenever I'm on purple. I'd love being able to zoom out a bit more (don't think you can even see everything your champ has sight of as is) a rotate of some kind would be nice to but unnecessary if I could just see a bit more.

Wow... This is unbelievable. So you are saying no one should be allowed to play with locked camera? I am appalled by this from a UI designer.

Let's see. The game should be designed to allow the most players to enjoy it the way they want to enjoy it. The option exists, but currently, with the zoom locked so close and the angle of camera setup to gimp locked camera players trying to fight from purple, it's not a viable option around 50% of the time. You seem to believe the solution is to force players to not be able to use a locked camera when there are plenty of solutions that OTHER MOBA games have come up with that fix this issue!

How about a simple fix that doesn't hinder the UI or the graphic engine. Make it so the Y locks the camera in the position relative to the player that its in. In other words. Lets say I am on purple and I need to see more to the south of my character but can't seem to make the choppy "scroll" camera work to my enjoyment. The fix I propose would allow me to use the unlocked camera to scroll down a bit, then lock it relative to the character. Now, my character is off-center but not gimped. Solution! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Not even that hard to implement and you don't have to worry about "us poor noobs" who actually just enjoy playing the game differently!

A very annoyed and frustrated,
-Arcie

Agreed.

The interface is designed to the User.

Not the other way around.

You cannot account for all the different arrangements for every individual, whether we're talking physical limitations or equipment limitations.

I hate bottom lane when I'm playing top team.

Or you could add some other mode such as:

Mobile Locked Camera mode:

When ON your camera moves as your champion moves (like Locked Camera), but you can move your camera by moving your mouse at the border of your screen (like Unlocked Camera) and your camera will still move as your champs move, just your champ wont be at the center of screen, but the camera can follow him even if it is at a corner.

This is only one compromise, you can read this too:

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=12761830#post12761830