I really don't like it when a game's rules in combat and out of combat operate fundamentally differently. This manifests in movement rates, health and mana regeneration rates, the ability to use certain kinds of abilities - all because the game has decided that combat is or isn't taking place.

 

Aside from straining credulity, this can lead to some strange situations in party-based games where one party member is nowhere near an enemy, and yet because some party member is near an enemy the entire party is restricted in what they can do or even how the rules governing their reality function.

 

Please don't do that. I'd like to see very little mechanical difference between combat and non-combat situations.

Hmm, doesn't this sort of thing fall into the category as the 'same rules for all involed, PC and AI alike', right? I suppose this concern was sparked by the combat/non-combat abilities segregation.

Edited September 26, 201213 yr by Delterius

Hmm, doesn't this sort of thing fall into the category as the 'same rules for all involed, PC and AI alike', right?

That's another form of gameplay segregation. What's being asked here is a little different, though. It's about not entering a new "mode" (with its own rules) when in combat.

 

I suppose this concern was sparked by the combat/non-combat abilities segregation.

I don't think there's any correlation. Many games don't use the combat/non-combat abilities segregation but still change the rules significantly when combat starts.

A "recent" franchise guilty of this is Dragon Age (the second, in particular, builds walls around the different gameplay elements).

Agreed. Seems easy enough not to have the game have to turn on 'combat mode' for combat.

The worst is having some "once per combat" skills or effects.

Then it's a big deal wether the two waves of enemies form one battle or two.

As a corollary, I'd also like to see little or no use of the doors-magically-locking-behind-you-for-no-reason method of keeping a combat encounter contained in a single location.

 

Running away should always be an option.

I'm surprised this topic doesn't have more support. I hope we can get away with no combat state at all.