OK I've determined that in most cases it's the overblown lighting that accompanies spell effects that is the culprit. Another culprit is grass interacting with this lighting and blocking out selection circles on some maps. The result is that the characters and background have the same lighting values and it's impossible to make out anything.

 

If they didn't have the resources to redo the spell effects, it might be a good idea to tweak the lighting down, together with some selection circle tweaks. I would personally prefer double circle on selected characters.

 

Also, perhaps instead of a green glow effect on characters, there could be a flashing outline of the character on mouseover or select so they are discernable under spell effects.

This is what every battle with spell effects looks like. How is this acceptable at all?

 

 

Can you imagine if you were one of the guys in that battle? You would probably be swinging wildly and hoping to hit something :D

Yes custom color rings for my party and a highlight outline character feature that is toggled. Not needed every battle but some. And especially when there are trees!!!!!

 

Eff you trees!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you can see what's happening very clearly, read the combat log.

At least negative status effects should always be on top, if they aren't already.

This is what every battle with spell effects looks like. How is this acceptable at all?

 

 

 

I just thought of another simple way this kind of mess can be cleared up and made infinitely more playable. Just completely remove all forms of occlusion on selection circles when the game is paused. That way units and spell effects don't obstruct anything and we can just command everything via circles.

 

Of course tuning down the spell effects and lighting is still important, but if that can't be done please at least make the circles visible at all times. It's insane that a game with tactical combat at its core can't even present it in a way that is visually coherent and playable. DO SOMETHING OBSIDIAN!!

Edited April 17, 201510 yr by Justinian

+1 to being able to getrid of the spell effects.

bump

Yeah, in Pause, it would be nice (at least as an option) to adapt the UI for maximum information over maximum pretties.

Showing an icon or number in circles to help find your party or identify enemies, showing easily readable AOE for persistent effects, and above all else -- making sure that UI stuff is always shown above anything else.

Beyond that, speeding up effects and slowing down the pace of combat will reduce the amount of time the screen looks like a complete mess.

Not making the game full 3D like NWN2 was a huge, bizarre mistake.

 

It created a host of issues.

Not making the game full 3D like NWN2 was a huge, bizarre mistake. [the basis of the entire project]

 

I can't see how it's any harder to avoid excess sparkles in 2D than in 3D. For one thing, DAO suffered from exactly the same problem.

I started playing hard battles in the half-combat-speed setting. It helped a lot. I highly recommend doing that! It also reduces the pause-spam significantly.

Highlighting characters in combat and refining spell effects, so they aren't as blinding, is a very good idea. Don't much like the olympic-circles feature of the BGEE, to be honest, but things can certainly improve in that area. It's even harder to fight behind trees, because there's zero visibility. 

I have to agree - it's definitely pretty difficult to tell at a glance what's going on in spell-heavy battles. Making selection circles more prominent would go a long way towards improving things, as would an option to tone down the flashiness of spell effects.

One legitimate criticism of the combat in this game is that you often can't tell what the **** is going on. A few ideas that might help clear things up a bit:

 

Turn spell effects off on pause

 

 

Agreed. Sad to see that Obsidian has fallen into the gaudy Christmas Disney light parade show that absolutely must happen with every combat.

Pause remove tress too!!!!!!!!  Or just the leaves. For the love of god please

Quick bars please, we had them back in the day, even BG let you set 3 quick spells.

Quick bars please, we had them back in the day, even BG let you set 3 quick spells.

 

You can hot key anything at least.

Doesn't BG:EE have different colored circles for each party member? It had its share of controvery, however, IIRC.

Doesn't BG:EE have different colored circles for each party member? It had its share of controvery, however, IIRC.

 

Yes. And its so much better that way.

Unlock the damned camera.

 

More zoom levels (infinite, please, what on earth is the limiting factor here?  I seriously don't get arbitrary zoom levels.)

 

Make the selected character(s) a different color from the others - say, blue.  You get red bad guy circles, green good guy circles, and blue selected people circles.  

 

Gotta be able to toggle (easily) see-through walls, trees, etc.  Just an inexcusable oversight.

Tone down the lighting effects of all spells.  Someone got excited when setting these up.

 

More than 3 speeds for the game, please.  Why isn't this a slider or at least 5 settings?  Probably should be 7.

 

Unlock.  The Damned.  Camera.

...

Unlock.  The Damned.  Camera.

Unlock the camera and then what? All you will see will be a 2D plane with 3D characters hovering over it

It will not solve anything.

 

Sorry for poor English