Party Control and Party Tactics

Party Control

Personally, I really don't like the current system where, when you choose to interact with an object, container, or NPC, the party member nearest to that object, container, or NPC is used for that interaction (e.g., looting, lockpicking, talking.) If my party is passing by a nearby barrel and I choose to interact with that barrel, I receive no feedback about whether I'm interacting with that barrel. My party stands still and the loot window just pops up.

I want control over which of my party members interact with the game world—when I have the entire party selected—and I want to see them act out that interaction. I think this might be achievable with a simple "party leader" system. In that system, the first character I select is designated the party leader, and as the party leader, all other party members follow his/her lead.

This would work like so: I would select the party leader and then select the rest of the party. Or, when I dragged a selection rectangle around the party, the first selected party member would be the party leader. When I choose to interact with a barrel, the party leader would interact with the barrel. The other party members would either follow the leader or stay put.

There's probably a more intuitive way to do this but RTS controls seem to make sense here.

Tactics

One feature that I really liked about the Dragon Age series was the Tactics system, where you could customize the party's AI behaviors. A user mod, called Advanced Tactics, greatly expanded that system. Looking at this screenshot, it's fairly self-explanatory. I think a feature like this would give party management significant flexibility, especially with regard to player preferences.

I'd use a smaller, better screenshot, but my ISP is dropping packets like crazy and the Internet is barely working for me.