Indicate idle characters in combat

[bholub]

I haven't played much yet so forgive me if I'm missing something. But it seems like in combat, at times (like maybe after casting a spell) characters can just be standing around. I realize that it's up to me to give all of them commands and there's strategy and skill involved... but an indicator either on the character portrait or on the actual battlefield that one of your party members are just standing there would help. Or an auto-pause when someone is doing nothing.

 

Am I missing something, or am I just bad at video games now  and I should suck it up and not let my characters stand idly by.

[Sensuki]

I agree that there needs to be a different animation for recovery (which should be more active) and the current combat idle. I wouldn't say change the current idle, I'd say make a recovery time animation where units have a more guarded stance. Characters with shields hold their shields infront of them, and so on and so forth.

 

Already suggested this multiple times, but yeah, glad someone agrees.

[PrimeHydra]

I agree that there needs to be a different animation for recovery (which should be more active) and the current combat idle. I wouldn't say change the current idle, I'd say make a recovery time animation where units have a more guarded stance. Characters with shields hold their shields infront of them, and so on and so forth.

 

Already suggested this multiple times, but yeah, glad someone agrees.

It might be simpler to have an icon in the corner of a portrait showing what the character is doing, like in the Baldur's Gate games.  If they're casting a spell, show the icon of the spell, otherwise show the icon of their active weapon if they're attacking. Idle characters would then be easy to spot due to having no such icon. This also solves the annoying problem of not knowing/remembering what a character is currently doing.

Edited September 13, 2014 by PrimeHydra

[Sensuki]

That's not the problem. There is a crowd of hardcore gamers like myself that do not want to use those kind of helper features. I don't want to use combat huds or any stuff like that. Expert mode allows you to disable all of that stuff permanently for that playthrough - that's the real reason why there needs to be those visual cues.

[thelee]

I completely agree with this suggestion. It doesn't help that currently your character's "action" circle is blank while waiting for their next action or when completely idle. A simple "zzz" kind-of symbol for when the character has no action queued would work wonders for easing my micromanagement and would differentiate from characters who are just waiting to do their next auto-attack.

 

(An auto-pause would not be great because sometimes I deliberately want some of my characters to do nothing, e.g. currently I keep my priest waiting around so they can do suppress affliction the moment someone gets hit with that damned-bugged Deep Wounds debuff.)

[PrimeHydra]

That's not the problem. There is a crowd of hardcore gamers like myself that do not want to use those kind of helper features. I don't want to use combat huds or any stuff like that. Expert mode allows you to disable all of that stuff permanently for that playthrough - that's the real reason why there needs to be those visual cues.

The problem is indeed that you can't tell what your characters are doing--or not doing. My solution goes too far for your taste, but that doesn't mean I wasn't addressing the problem.

 

PS--being a "hardcore gamer" has nothing to do with how much UI feedback you enjoy. 

Edited September 13, 2014 by PrimeHydra

[Sensuki]

Well the thing is the Combat HUD already does exactly that - it's just not working 100% properly atm, Josh said so on Something Awful.

 

In a broad sense - UI help is a casual feature whereas no UI help is more old school style which many more hardcore types prefer, I am always going to use that term because I am from the RPGCodex

 

There's two types of crowds to please here and you IMO the devs need to support both with different types of feedback, so that when the helper features are turned off, people can still tell what's going on.

Edited September 13, 2014 by Sensuki

[thelee]

Well the thing is the Combat HUD already does exactly that - it's just not working 100% properly atm, Josh said so on Something Awful.

 

In a broad sense - UI help is a casual feature whereas no UI help is more old school style which many more hardcore types prefer, I am always going to use that term because I am from the RPGCodex

 

There's two types of crowds to please here and you IMO the devs need to support both with different types of feedback, so that when the helper features are turned off, people can still tell what's going on.

 

UI help is a very vague, slippery term. Would you argue that seeing your characters actually attack is "UI help?" After all, you have the combat log, so that should be information enough.

 

With the combat overlay enabled you already have indications of your character actions - attack, spell casting, reloading, waiting. I don't see how adding "idle" to the mix is bad.

 

EDIT - sorry, i now realize you were responding to a specific suggestion from primehydra, not somethin about adding to the Combat HUD.

Edited September 13, 2014 by thelee

[Sensuki]

combat log is in a bad position for on the fly reading though, due to being in the far right.

[Pray]

I agree that there needs to be a different animation for recovery (which should be more active) and the current combat idle. I wouldn't say change the current idle, I'd say make a recovery time animation where units have a more guarded stance. Characters with shields hold their shields infront of them, and so on and so forth.

 

Already suggested this multiple times, but yeah, glad someone agrees.

Characters should also recover stamina while they are "doing nothing," in my humble opinion (or endurance).

[BrainMuncher]

An "Auto-pause when character idle" would be great, if it doesn't already exist. In the IE games I always had auto pause on spell cast, and on target gone, to help minimize idle time.

[Matt516]

In a broad sense - UI help is a casual feature whereas no UI help is more old school style which many more hardcore types prefer, I am always going to use that term because I am from the RPGCodex

That's a bit patronizing - different games demand different types of UI. You wouldn't call a Civ V player casual because they don't use half of the menus, would you? Not that they don't need to get the visual feedback working - they do. But your suggestion that using a UI is somehow "casual" just doesn't make sense. Don't you prefer the solid background UI? Does that make you more casual than someone who uses the minimalist UI? Not that that statement makes any sense... But yours doesn't make a whole lot of sense either. xD

[Seari]

^

 

Seriously tho, I am gonna play without that bar thingy! Muh immershun.

[Sensuki]

That's a bit patronizing

That's IF I was talking about all games. I should have probably included "for PE". Obsidian themselves have made a point of including allowing disabling helper features for more experienced/hardcore players and those that want a more vanilla IE experience.

 

Expert Mode for example.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Sensuki