I forced myself to play with the spacebar instead of toggling lock and unlock. It'd be nice if that did show up in the tutorial.

(if anyone doesn't know, holding spacebar locks the camera, but releasing it will immediately unlock the camera)

Ok, I see a lot of thoughts being repeated and ignored or brushed aside. I have seen a couple people other than myself say they would love to see a relative position lock (good name). A lot of people are saying they used locked camera, never thought they'd change but then realized the game gimped them for using a locked camera. To me, a locked camera should have more options to even the playing field. With a relative position lock, it's possible to get the range most characters need in the direction they need it. Yeah, it's more complicated than the poorly designed solid lock camera, but it's still more flexible to gameplay then the unlocked. Most people that play locked do so because they can't keep track of moving the camera, map awareness, moving the champion, and fighting. Set the camera locked in a position that you have the space in front of your champion you want and then focus on the game.

Now, not everyone's brain works the same. There are a reason some people are RTSers and some people are FPSers and some people are RPGers, etc. So handling this like the free camera is just something everyone can learn as opposed to people not being able to learn to see red and green again is a bit of a shallow argument. Yes there are players who can micromanage incredibly well. If LoL had multi-unit champs, like I know some of the competition have, I know people that would rock those characters. I would not be one of them. My brain doesn't work that way. It's not about practice, its about how I function. I am more comfortable focusing on the fight than the camera. Keeping map presence with an interactive minimap isn't hard with a fixed camera and for people like me, it's easier. I spend less time fidgeting with my mouse, paying attention to whether my character is overrunning where I told him to go, focusing on 2 different movements and I can really spend time watching the map. If only I could lock that **** camera so my character wasn't centered!

Look, the focus on this solution should be creating a viable alternative style of play. Yes locked camera is gimped. How can it be ungimped without imbalancing the two playstyles as much as possible? There are a lot of player solutions here to consider, most of which are not impossible to add. The relative camera lock should be a quick solution. It would be great to see this on the test server just to see how people like it. As it stands, most camera locked players shift to free camera because of the restrictions the developers place on that style. You do this because you don't think its a legitimate playstyle, but who are you to judge how other people prefer to play? It won't kill the game to consider improving this mode, and it certainly won't take much of your extremely busy lives. Just sayin.

-Arcie

PS, Color Blind Fix: Green Circles under allies, Red X's under enemies. The solution to color blind friendly programs is shapes. AoEs could have the X through the circle (which would certainly help non-color blind players as well). Aesthetically it wouldn't detract from the game and early recognition would be quicker for both color-blind players as well as non-color-blind players.

PPS, The other thing I forgot to mention was that I am still advocating for a more comfortable click-drag camera movement instead of the current click-scroll that feels so awkward. Again, look at any new touch screen technology. Tablets, iPods, cell phones, they all use a click-drag movement system, the map scroll middle-click should work exactly the same.

PPPS, Awkward is a very awkward word to type...

Just saw this and wanted to chime in since I am a camera locked player. When I started, I had not played Dota, but I had played many RTS's and several top-down RPG's. Camera Locked felt more natural in the beginning especially since what I was looking for in the game was basically Neverwinter Nights (obviously it's a very different game, but I couldn't really tell what the future held in my first few matches). I do go to camera unlocked anytime I need clear vision of a distance away. It's only a keypress and I can easiliy move back.

The main difference once you reach a good understanding of the game is how you think of your cursor. Skillshots are simple to me because I always know exactly where my character is on screen, and every player, minion, and action is a direction around me.

Ugh, I thought this would be easy but I can't describe it. I know unlocked is better in teamfights, since you can keep your camera on the entire fight regardless of where you move. But in high action situations, I always feel like I can react quickly because clicking in the upper right area of the screen will always move me to the upper right. I wish I could explain it better, but that's my opinion.

I can tell you, I wouldn't play this game without Locked Camera.

The day I will get a third hand to move my camera, I will.

I rather have my mouse busy targeting than moving my camera at the borders of screen.

I think everyone should learn to play with both locked and unlocked camera. There are advantages in both cases, and learning how to manage your camera efficiently is part of the mechanical skill ceiling in this game.