Lack of auto-pause options and status effects overview hampers combat

[Tanred]

[Auto-Pause]

 

After playing the beta for some time, I came to conclusion that it is not possible to play combat efficiently, especially when I want to chain spells or actions. It requires far too much micro managing and manual pausing and constant observation of what is everyone doing  = and this all becomes quite frustrating after a while.  I know there is the action bar but in its current form I rather play without it as it clutters the screen too much and adds to the overall messiness. 

 

I severely miss the option to auto-pause when a party controlled character casts a spell (currently there is such option only for enemies) and possibly other auto-pause options (for an example when a character is idle) as suggested in other beta threads. It would allow me to use a "fire & forget till ready again" approach, especially when controlling 5 characters concurrently.  For example, in IE games, I was able to set auto-pause not only on spell being cast but also when a combat turn ends. I did not use it every time, but it helped me a lot in difficult fights and allowed me to feel that I play optimally. I started enjoying combat in NWN 2 only after I installed Tony’s AI mod and turned on its auto-pause options for the very same reason.

 

[Enemies status effects]

 

Another aspect which hampers the ability to play tactically is a lack of an overview of enemies status effects. I simply can not tell if and what enemies are affected by my debuffs, or if they have any buffs. Thus I am unable to concentrate fire on a debuffed enemy for example.

 

As suggested in another thread the solution could be adding a mouseover popup tooltip showing status effects (buffs, debuffs, modals) of enemies (similiar to what the "Show Relative Defenses" is doing now).

 

 

 

[Sensuki]

Spell VFX are too over the top. I already warned them that this would make combat look like a mess before they started doing the majority of work on them too ... didn't listen

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66197-pe-spell-fx-suggestion/

 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9547

 

Flashy AoE FX are not needed for buffs or debuffs, just need an effect on the units that it effects.

 

When you cast Bless in the IE games - it only has an effect on the units that it affects, there is no AoE circle or whatever blocking the field of view.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Sensuki

[Monte Carlo]

I too find this confusing, along with the little timer bars I don't know if my next click is going to cancel the ability I've activated or not. By the time that happens, the enemy unit has done something.

[Gromnir]

lack of appropriate and/or useful combat feedback has been our (Gromnir's) most frequent complaint thus far. the combat log itself is extreme brief and the numbers, while useful, often do not make a great deal o' sense if we cannot tell who is affected by buffs and debuffs. we has played a mmo or two where we could save combat log to a text file. such a feature would be a great help as we could see more than, perhaps, a single action by each party member. is likely too late to add such a feature, but is possible fodder for the expansion which is seeming already in development.

 

more significant is the lack o' an ability to identify which foes is suffering debuffs. we has pointed this out numerous times and even made specific reference to the ranger's marked prey ability. marked prey is a powerful per-encounter ranger ability, but there is no simple way for us to observe which freaking wood beetle or spider were tagged with marked prey. even when we scroll over each wood beetle, we frequent get very little useful info feedback. we have many buffs and debuffs in this game, but am struck by how the lack o' useful feedbacks makes such abilities far less appealing to us. the effective layering of debuffs is an important tactical concern in many squad-based tactical combat games. PoE often makes such layering a matter o' guesswork rather than strategy. is bad design, from our pov.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Tanred]

Spell VFX are too over the top. I already warned them that this would make combat look like a mess before they started doing the majority of work on them too ... didn't listen

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66197-pe-spell-fx-suggestion/

 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9547

 

Flashy AoE FX are not needed for buffs or debuffs, just need an effect on the units that it effects.

 

When you cast Bless in the IE games - it only has an effect on the units that it affects, there is no AoE circle or whatever blocking the field of view.

I agree, circle spell effects are not needed unless the spell is stationary, like wards or something. But it is probably too late to change this.

[IndiraLightfoot]

Tanred: Nope. Like a day ago, Kaz confirmed that they are working on changes to this as we speak, including tone-downs of effects. Another dev, working with sound fx, told me he's tweaking said effects as well, so we should have high hopes for real improvement in this case.

[PrimeJunta]

 

Spell VFX are too over the top. I already warned them that this would make combat look like a mess before they started doing the majority of work on them too ... didn't listen

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/66197-pe-spell-fx-suggestion/

 

http://www.rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=9547

 

Flashy AoE FX are not needed for buffs or debuffs, just need an effect on the units that it effects.

 

When you cast Bless in the IE games - it only has an effect on the units that it affects, there is no AoE circle or whatever blocking the field of view.

I agree, circle spell effects are not needed unless the spell is stationary, like wards or something. But it is probably too late to change this.

 

 

The P:E equivalent of Bless is a stationary circle though, as are most priest spells. I quite like that actually. 

 

The FX would be quite easy to fix, too. Just tone them down: flash them brighter when they take effect and end, and keep them rather faint in the meantime.