Everything feels way too fast

[BobbinThreadbare]

In combat, beetles and spiders are running towards me at relativistic speeds, attacks are happening all the time. It feels even more chaotic than BG2.

 

When you couple this with basically every attack hitting, it becomes really hard to follow what's happening.

 

I wish full misses were more frequent, and I'd like everything to go slower.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Mayama]

When I played the beta for the first time I had the same feeling but now everything is to slow for me. Their is also a slow motion button and you can always pause the game. I dont know about you guys but I constantly used pause in BG when I fought dangerous enemies.

[Marceror]

Now that I've been able to play a bit more of combat, I'm not concerned with the speed of combat so much. There are 3 games speeds by the way, so I stick with the middle one.

 

But what I'm finding is that PoE less a Real Time with Pause game and more a Pause with Real Time game. I tend to spend more time paused than not in combat, as I'm perpetually issues commands, engaging special abilities, casting spells, and just trying to make sure all of my guys are making their proper contributions in combat.

 

This feels very different to Baldur's Gate and other IE games, where it was much more common for me to send in my troops to fight, pausing just occasionally to cast a spell or activate an ability.

 

It's not that I mind this per say, but the more I play the more I think turn based combat would have made more sense for the way combat is shaping up in this game.

[Yonjuro]

In combat, beetles and spiders are running towards me at relativistic speeds, attacks are happening all the time. It feels even more chaotic than BG2.

 

When you couple this with basically every attack hitting, it becomes really hard to follow what's happening.

 

I wish full misses were more frequent, and I'd like everything to go slower.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

It's hard to sort out what is due to a new system vs. a buggy beta release. It might be worth trying to hire a second fighter as a work around. I found the combat to work much better that way.

[Ahvz]

But what I'm finding is that PoE less a Real Time with Pause game and more a Pause with Real Time game. I tend to spend more time paused than not in combat, as I'm perpetually issues commands, engaging special abilities, casting spells, and just trying to make sure all of my guys are making their proper contributions in combat.

 

That might improve with patches. I had a few lucky battles where I was able to attack properly with all of my characters and there were no autopathing issues, and that really reduced the micromanagement required. I'm not sure if they're going to add in optional party AI but if they do that'll be another step towards less micromanaging for those that don't like it all that much. 

 

You'll still probably have to rely heavily on pause to get through the tougher difficulties, but on normal (unless they decide to make normal more difficult between now and release) you should be able to beat most enemies with fewer pauses than right now. 

Edited August 23, 2014 by Ahvz

[Marceror]

@Ahvz - I'm in agreement that the level of micro should reduce with additional polish and patches. But the "per encounter" abilities lead me to expect that it will generally far outweigh what it was in the IE games.

 

In the IE games your abilities were pretty much all on a per rest basis, so the natural tactic was to save those abilities until they were absolutely needed. But PoE seems to be balanced around those abilities being used in perhaps all but the most trivial of battles. Again, I don't mind this necessarily. Ultimately it results in a more tactical combat experience, and that's a good thing in my book.

 

But I'm still very much still getting used to the combat system in the game. I really can't wait to see it polished up a bit. It can only get better from here.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Marceror

[BobbinThreadbare]

Now that I've been able to play a bit more of combat, I'm not concerned with the speed of combat so much. There are 3 games speeds by the way, so I stick with the middle one.

 

But what I'm finding is that PoE less a Real Time with Pause game and more a Pause with Real Time game. I tend to spend more time paused than not in combat, as I'm perpetually issues commands, engaging special abilities, casting spells, and just trying to make sure all of my guys are making their proper contributions in combat.

 

This feels very different to Baldur's Gate and other IE games, where it was much more common for me to send in my troops to fight, pausing just occasionally to cast a spell or activate an ability.

 

It's not that I mind this per say, but the more I play the more I think turn based combat would have made more sense for the way combat is shaping up in this game.

The "slow" speed is 50% speed. That's way too slow.

 

When I played IE games, I would set about half the autopause options, and constantly be pausing and making sure I was making the right moves.

 

A lot of the autopause features in PoE are bugged right now, which I understand will be fixed, but that combined with faster attacks and seriously the beetles and spiders are racing along right now, nothing in IE had footspeed like that, makes it all feel too fast.

Edited August 23, 2014 by BobbinThreadbare

[Shadenuat]

As for now the efficient play is a slow mo + pause after every action, at least when there are more than 3 weak enemies around. You can click to death lonely enemies.

 

I feel that while IE games were more about choosing right set of actions, PoE for now is more about rotating right skills. And since many of them are infinite (per-encounter), it makes sense to always use stuff like fighter's Knockdown.

DA:O had player-customisable scripts for that.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Shadenuat

[Tartantyco]

Relative speed is still a little slow, with enemies being able to close the distance far too quickly and consequently negating a lot of spells and abilities. As we haven't seen too many enemy types yet, it may just be this specific selection(Wolves and Lions, in particular), but I think movement speeds should be reduced across the board by a relatively small percentage.

[Silverbarr]

Now that I've been able to play a bit more of combat, I'm not concerned with the speed of combat so much. There are 3 games speeds by the way, so I stick with the middle one.

 

But what I'm finding is that PoE less a Real Time with Pause game and more a Pause with Real Time game. I tend to spend more time paused than not in combat, as I'm perpetually issues commands, engaging special abilities, casting spells, and just trying to make sure all of my guys are making their proper contributions in combat.

 

This feels very different to Baldur's Gate and other IE games, where it was much more common for me to send in my troops to fight, pausing just occasionally to cast a spell or activate an ability.

 

It's not that I mind this per say, but the more I play the more I think turn based combat would have made more sense for the way combat is shaping up in this game.

 

I agree, to an extent. I find the combat has a more Arcanum feel, which isn't quite the gameplay I prefer as it felt more hectic than BG series.

 

I remember at the beginning of the Divinity: OS beta that the combat also felt incomplete and more hectic. So I do have some hope that the combat in PoEt will improve quite a lot over the coming months.

 

Turn-based gameplay seems to be doing incredibly well these days, but I still hold out in hope that the BG-feel will come into the combat over time. Perhaps I'm being naive?

[NeV3rKilL]

Normal speed is ok for trash mobs. Click the slowmotion button and will be ok for bosses.

[Tartantyco]

Normal speed is ok for trash mobs. Click the slowmotion button and will be ok for bosses.

 

As I seem to have to repeat all the time, absolute speed is not the issue. It's relative speed. Movement speed relative to ability or spell casting time. Movement speed of X relative to movement speed of Y. Slow-motion changes absolute speed, not relative speed. You can't hit something with an AoE spell if it takes longer to cast the spell than it takes for the enemy to get into melee range.

 

I also feel that absolute speed should be a little slower, then you can have a higher speed and a slower speed, with a mellow middle ground for your average combat.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Tartantyco

[Namutree]

Once the feedback system is improved it'll be much easier keep track of what's going on. This will alleviate the feeling of confusion it has greatly.

Edited August 23, 2014 by Namutree

[Davaek]

I felt the same way about combat but now after playing for a while I am quite enjoying the combat. It felt weird and different at the start but now after the original "no this is wrong" feeling it isn't too different to the old IE games combat. The only problems I am having with the combat is that there is no marker of who you have engaged (although I have read on these forums that the devs are aware of this and will do something about it). Also I am playing a ranger and marking a target has barely any visual effect in combat making it hard to find the target I have marked. Other than that the combat is fine in my opinion.