How often will pause be used? What will the combat pace be?

[IndiraLightfoot]

All this talk about RTwP, combat and gameplay in another thread got me pondering over what kind of pace they game will offer. It's a party-based game, but that doesn't stop it from being pretty fast-paced as far as the encounters go. And if you don't press pause a lot, it will be pretty intense.

 

Personally, as someone that really knew the D&D systems at work in, say, BG2 or NWN2, I could build pretty decent characters and then furnish them and plan ahead for encounters rather reliably (except of course some boss fights and surprise badgers). Still, I pressed pause a lot more in BG than I did in NWN2. One reason for that was of course the quick kneelie for a rest in NWN2, whereas in BG2, I was often in dire straits because of no favourite spells left, for instance. Another reason was AD&D vs 3.5 ed D&D. The latter was more versatile while at the same time not so locked to a few options, especially not at higher levels. All in all, this meant that I could play through NWN2 considerably faster than BG2, despite both games having plenty of misses going on during battle.

 

What do you except the gaming pace of PE to be? And I guess I'm referring mainly to combat pace here. In short, how often will pause be a necessity? Also, how squishy will the characters be? In high level NWN2 with a good armour, a few standard magical items and the right protection spells going, fights could last for ten minutes without pause! Perhaps PE will be much faster, and thus necessitate pause for that reason alone.

[Sensuki]

Hopefuly mostly dependent on difficulty setting, encounter type and playstyle.

 

There's also the slow feature as well.

 

I paused quite a bit in tough encounters in BG2 (such as the fight vs the Mercenaries in the sewers), mostly to cast spells to remove status effects, drink potions etc ASAP in game time.

[Sacred_Path]

Me personally, I'm going to use pause a lot. And I don't even have OCD.

 

Combat length, well, 'grazing' hits should help with that somewhat. Although, if enemies have the same stamina : health loss rate, and can make use of 'surges', it could take a while.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

I'm going to use pause in every battle. I wouldn't be able to play a RTwP game without pause, seeing how the random outcomes may force me to completely rethink my strategies.

 

I paused less frequently in NWN2 OC than I did in BGT(I'm replaying both right now and I still pause less in NWN2 OC) because NWN2 OC had a lot more trash mobs that cold be handled easily.

[JFSOCC]

Well, my experience with BG was "combat started, pause, queue up commands, unpause, wait half a second, pause. Did something change? no, ok unpause, pause, ah, let's see. oh, so my warrior has weakness... I don't have a cure for that on my mage or cleric, unpause...

 

 

yeah. I'm thinking I'll pause a lot.