Does combat need to be slowed down?

[Gorionsson]

 

 

 

Yes, absolutely spot on.

[AdaMusic]

The speed seems fine but I have only watched streams. I'm going to try to get into the beta so I can try it out too.

[archangel979]

 

The other problem is enemy movement.  I accidentally moved my Cleric a bit ahead of the party and she aggroed 3 lions.  They instantly pounced on her before I could really react to seeing them and she was practically dead from that moment.  Attempting to move her out of the way just meant taking all those hits of disengagement and she went down the moment she took one step.

This sounds about right. 3 Lions surprising you should be instant death for any single human without crazy amount of buffs or magical equipment.

Edited August 19, 2014 by archangel979

[GilliusThunderhead]

anyone else think characters regenerate health too quickly post battle?

[Tartantyco]

They regenerate stamina, not health.

[SSH83]

Yes the real problem is the D key being bound to DOUBLE SPEED mode and it doesn't notify the player that they are in double speed. lol

 

Hit D again to return to normal speed.  S is half speed.  

[tinderbox]

I've only fought a couple of battles against beetles so far but it did feel quite fast. So much so that on the first go I got totally toasted.

 

I kinda like that: it put me in mind of the first Baldur's Gate encounter outside Candlekeep after Gorion got squished and you have to go up against Gibberlings. I got wasted by those a few times, and I like that element of danger. I also feel for realism, battle ought to be a little confusing -- it's not called fog of war for nothing, it should be a little bit of a challenge to keep up with the flow of events. I don't want it to be a pushover.

 

How much of this challenge is due to the new combat system, I'm not sure. But if the combat speed were to be slowed down, I wouldn't want it slowed that much I think. I'll have a better feel in a few days when I'm more familiar with everyone's capabilities.

[sheriffharry]

Just my 2 cents: YES combat is way too fast. (haven't try the "slow" mode yet..)

I really would like to get the "one round at the time" combat feeling of pen and paper RPG, this is not the case.

I end up pressing the space bar after 2 seconds maximum of action, this is a bit too much for my liking..

 

That said, character really respond to the exact commands given, I like the Stamina/Health idea, and the fact you cannot disengage easily from an opponent.

[philby]

I'll try changing the speed settings but apart from things moving quickly I'm also just having general trouble keeping track of what the hell is going on! Everything is just mashed together and I have trouble picking out my characters and enemies.

[The_Jooze]

To those of you who use the auto-pause feature: for what events do you have the auto-pause set to occur?

Perhaps if I get a setting that works for me, the combat will come more naturally.

[PsychoBlonde]

I found combat to be quite confusing and really devoid of feedback for what the heck was going on.  The font in the text box is HUGE which prevents you from seeing enough lines to get any useful information.

 

I really find myself wishing for some floaty text or at least colored numbers for things like:

 

CRITICAL HIT!

CASTING SPELL/USING ABILITY--SUCCESSFUL USE! or INTERRUPTED!

MISS

MISSED BY ENEMY!

ENGAGED BY ENEMY!

SPOTTED BY ENEMY!

etc.

 

Damage numbers are hard to see.
It's really hard to tell who is targeting what.

[krellen]

Combat needs something. I have ended two playthroughs now, both on Easy, being slaughtered by beetles.  BEETLES.  SOMETHING is wrong with the combat system.

 

This is not a reflection of "old school" values. Baldur's Gate wasn't this full of nonsense. The old TSR Gold Box games weren't this full of nonsense (I was playing some of these just last year, so this is recent memory talking).  There is something just fundamentally wrong at the very core foundation of this combat system.

Edited August 20, 2014 by krellen

[sheriffharry]

Update:

The "slow" mode is sloooowwwww as molasse going uphill in January.

The "normal" mode is a bit too fast, and yes it's very hard to follow who does what damage to who...

The "double-speed" mode is just there for comic relief I suppose.

 

I'm playing Baldur's Gate on my Android tablet right now and the combat speed is just right, the timing is really important in that type of game.

 

And yes, I've overcomed all the BEETLES, with a fully rested party and a lot of spell-casting!

Edited August 20, 2014 by sheriffharry

[Namutree]

Slowing down the combat at this point would be a huge mistake. Already we have petty battles that are an ordeal. If those battles gets slower I'll have to put the game on easy just to keep my sanity.

 

What needs to happen is movement speed across the board needs to go down 10%.

[Tartantyco]

That... would slow down combat, Namutree...

 

( It is also one of the things I suggested )

[Mayama]

After some playing around and playing through the game 3 times I actually find the combat way to slow. Im constantly anoyed about how long it takes till my guys can do something again. 

[Tartantyco]

Isn't there a speed-up mode? It goes to 200% or something?

[Mayama]

Isn't there a speed-up mode? It goes to 200% or something?

 

Yes but thats to fast

You cant react to damage spikes from stuff like crystal eater spiders

[Mr. Magniloquent]

My issue isn't exactly with the speed per say. The very first thing I did when loading the game was go to the options and tweak my auto-pause conditions. They are your friends.

 

My problem with combat being chaotic, is that I don't feel like I can effectively protect characters, or have a meaningful formation/strategy once melee is engaged. While engagement is noticeable, it doesn't have quite the stopping power I was hoping for. The constant combat coupled with the brief duration and limited availability of protection spells leaves my squishy casters vulnerable to the more durable and nimble monsters that readily shove through.

 

While I feel that engagement will ultimately prove successful, it's the asynchronous "combat rounds" that's really hurting me. I feel like strategies I try to implement fall apart because my characters are queuing their actions at very sporadic times. It may be due to different armors equipped, or subtle mechanics that I may not have yet grasped, but many actions feel unresponsive. There are many a time when I've issued a command to cast a spell, only to watch the action bar deplete, reset, and run down again without ever having cast. Mind you, these characters are not experiencing an interrupt.

 

I don't feel like any of these problems are insurmountable, but they are going to require a great deal of tweaking. Their difficult to articulate aspects certainly doesn't help either.

[sheriffharry]

 

 

 

 

 

My problem with combat being chaotic, is that I don't feel like I can effectively protect characters, or have a meaningful formation/strategy once melee is engaged. While engagement is noticeable,

 

 

 

 

Seconded!

 

Edited August 24, 2014 by sheriffharry

[freche]

I haven't played the beta that much yet, it's too broken right now for me to get into the game. But from the little I have played I think you can't just say it needs to be slowed down. The pacing needs some fine tuning, movement feels a little bit too fast but character "turns" are a bit slow in my opinion.

Damage vs. turn speed also felt off. Now this might come from lack of gameplay experience but I didn't feel I could properly use my priest during combat because if I wasted a turn on auto attack I could miss a critical moment where I needed to cast a spell.

[DnaCowboy]

Agreed, combat is way too fast, it completely destroys immersion and makes the game seem cheap somehow.... The 'slow' mode is great now and again in that it allows you to thoroughly understand spells and combat skills but for general use we need the combat speed to be slowed WAY down.

 

Combat is at the moment rather like this:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXgUiRhxdg4

 

Edited August 24, 2014 by DnaCowboy

[Mayama]

Agreed, combat is way too fast, it completely destroys immersion and makes the game seem cheap somehow.... The 'slow' mode is great now and again in that it allows you to thoroughly understand spells and combat skills but for general use we need the combat speed to be slowed WAY down.

 

Play a bit with the beta, after some familiarization it feels a lot slower. You will notice that your characters actually hit VERY slow.