Anyone else looking forward to Dragon Age? (Spoilers and plot discussion here)

[Slargos]

Turnbased RPG is superior.

BG level of "pausing" was a great compromise between realtime and turnbased.

[DisturbedPervert]

I'd be more worried if there were not enough pausing options.

Indeed.  If frequent pausing to issue orders and micromanage my party is needed I'm very happy. 

I think I remember reading there is even an auto pause option but am not sure.

[Syt]

I guess it will also depend on how good the AI for your team mates is. If they act well enough all by themselves (or if you can give them detailed enough standing orders for what to do in a fight) that you can focus on what your main char does during combat, or that you don't have to micromanage too much then it would also go a long way - though it has the danger that combat is on autopilot and you don't have to do anything.

[crazy canuck]

I guess it will also depend on how good the AI for your team mates is. If they act well enough all by themselves (or if you can give them detailed enough standing orders for what to do in a fight) that you can focus on what your main char does during combat, or that you don't have to micromanage too much then it would also go a long way - though it has the danger that combat is on autopilot and you don't have to do anything.

I would rather have good AI or the ability to preset reactions then having to pause everytime something happens.  Ideally I would love AI for NPCs that makes them react according to their personality (ie minsc always charges in bravely).

[grumbler]

I guess it will also depend on how good the AI for your team mates is. If they act well enough all by themselves (or if you can give them detailed enough standing orders for what to do in a fight) that you can focus on what your main char does during combat, or that you don't have to micromanage too much then it would also go a long way - though it has the danger that combat is on autopilot and you don't have to do anything.

I would rather have good AI or the ability to preset reactions then having to pause everytime something happens.  Ideally I would love AI for NPCs that makes them react according to their personality (ie minsc always charges in bravely).

Agreed.  If the AI isn't even good enough to prevent NPCs from dying while having healing potions available, that doesn't bode well for the competence of the designers in other areas.  Ideally, as you say, this would be a role-playing RPG (ie where you are in the role of the character, not in the role of someone playing a computer game).

[DisturbedPervert]

The game is 360/PS3 as well so they must have figured out some solution for people that don't want to micromanage.  The console version doesn't even have a BG/NWN style bird's eye tactical view option like the PC does.

[saskganesh]

the BG design was open for lots of pauses or very few. ymmv.

[Habbaku]

Turnbased RPG is superior.

BG level of "pausing" was a great compromise between realtime and turnbased.

  I am definitely in the pause-happy camp as well.  I tend to micromanage RPG combat quite a bit and the style of pausing that BG introduced (I think?) works perfectly for me.

[DisturbedPervert]

The party characters in BG/NWN would happily drink potions if low on health, cast buffs or offensive magic, switch between ranged and melee weapons, etc all on their own if you wanted them too.  I preferred to turn it off, but the option was there.  It should be even more advanced in this if you want it.

[Slargos]

Turnbased RPG is superior.

BG level of "pausing" was a great compromise between realtime and turnbased.

  I am definitely in the pause-happy camp as well.  I tend to micromanage RPG combat quite a bit and the style of pausing that BG introduced (I think?) works perfectly for me.

Yeah.

I will admit it was a LONG time since I played BG, but I seem to recall it had markers for almost any event in combat, and that way you can basically set up your own scheme for what's necessary to break for which should probably please everyone.

In this day and age, there is in addition no excuse for a sloppily written AI so I am comfortable in my assumption that it will be possible to play without pausing at all. In the vid you can see they have several different ways to tweak the behaviour of the followers so I think they've got all bases covered.

[Valmy]

If what you are saying is that I need to pause a bunch in order to make the appropriate actions then I guess I will pass on this.

How would I know that?  I do not even have the game yet.  I was just saying I do not expect to be pausing that much more than I normally do in a Bioware game (obviously Mass Effect and Jade Empire excepted since you only controlled one PC in those games).

I was just wondering how a Bioware fan could be so against pause and play gameplay since that is all they do.

In BG and KOTOR you did not HAVE to pause alot but I did since I love to micro-manage and order every detail of my squads tactics.

[grumbler]

The party characters in BG/NWN would happily drink potions if low on health, cast buffs or offensive magic, switch between ranged and melee weapons, etc all on their own if you wanted them too.  I preferred to turn it off, but the option was there.  It should be even more advanced in this if you want it.

That's what I am hoping for.  I don't mind the option to pause and micromanage, it is the apparent (effective) requirement to pause and micromanage that concerns me.  If the playthrough was so pause-happy because the player turned off the AI so he could micromanage, then I still have hope.

[grumbler]

... in a Bioware game (obviously Mass Effect and Jade Empire excepted since you only controlled one PC in those games).

I was just wondering how a Bioware fan could be so against pause and play gameplay since that is all they do.

You answered your question before you asked it; because pause and play isn't all that Bioware does.  They do "RPGs" as well.

[Valmy]

You answered your question before you asked it; because pause and play isn't all that Bioware does.  They do "RPGs" as well.

I still paused and played in Mass Effect...I do not really remember Jade Empire that much since my X-Box died rather early on it.3

Sorta funny you call those two real RPGs since there are probably a billion flame wars about how they are not really RPGs because of the action elements.  I am not sure what sort of games BG and KOTOR and Mass Effect were but I like them.

[Cerr]

Here's a bit about the combat from here:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/dragon-age-origins-hands-on_6?page=1

When it does eventually reveal itself in full, Dragon Age proves to be a flexible RPG that accommodates a wide range of playing styles. Baldur's Gate veterans will be happy pulling the camera back to a top-down view, pausing the action with the space bar and micro-managing the party's actions and placement in a quasi-turn-based mode. World of Warcraft players might prefer to zoom in close, let AI take care of party behaviour and punch out skills in real time, flicking between characters for variety. It's perfectly possible to smash through the game in this way on easy mode (the difficulty can be adjusted at any time) without ever hitting pause or needing to think, but even the normal setting is a significant step up that will require the occasional moment of reflection.

Or you could choose to do this reflection in advance - if that's not an oxymoron - by using Tactics. Tactics are a smart lift from, of all things, Final Fantasy XII. They are a version of that game's Gambits, a brilliant system of programmable rules for party behaviour that had the potential to revolutionise the single-player party RPG, but that we'd given up hope of ever seeing again after Square Enix dropped it. Happily, BioWare has had the good sense to revive it.