combat management

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 10:17 am

Has anyone else out there found it difficult to manage combat in situations where there is a lot of spellcasting going on. I keep asking myself, "Has this spell gone off yet or what spells has the enemy cast on him/her/themselves." It is cumbersome to scroll through the dialog box to figure out who is casting what. Does anyone else think it would be cool or possible if there was a way to get a quick list of a characters last five actions or an enemies last five actions. For example, right clicking on a character or enemy will display the last five actions performed whether it be hit/miss/spell cast/spell failure/damage received.

fable · Post by **fable** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 10:38 am

Yeah, very much so, but that's the problem with using a 2D engine: there's no ability to try different angles and views of the terrain, during battle. TORN and NWN won't have that difficulty.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 12:37 pm

Yeah, very much so, but that's the problem with using a 2D engine: there's no ability to try different angles and views of the terrain, during battle. TORN and NWN won't have that difficulty.

fable: I'm not sure we are on the same page. What I am referencing does not have a lot to do with visual angles.
Example: Aerie casts a lower resistance at a drow priestess. Since there is so much going on in combat with other characters, I don't actually see her cast the lower resistance. Suddenly, an umber hulk (also an enemy) decides to target and charge Aerie. So I need to know if I can get Aerie out of the way, or, if her spell (lower resistance) has not gone off, get a tank in between the two so Aerie can finish her spell. Right now, the only way I can find out if her spell (lower resistance) has been cast is to scroll back through line by line and find her last action. This takes up a lot of time when looking for multiple spellcaster's last actions. Thus, it would simplify play and speed up combat if there were a way to check out friends and foes most recent actions. Is this making any sense, I am having trouble finding the right words to convey my thoughts.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 12:43 pm

Yes that would be good.

MegaToerist · Post by **MegaToerist** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 1:40 pm

You could always set the autopause to react to the casting of spells.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 2:14 pm

Megatoerist:

You could always set the autopause to react to the casting of spells.

I hadn't thought of that. It is a possibility, however, it only covers a portion of the actions. There is also enemy casting (or does the autopause react to that also), consumption of potions, and usage of items which could also be viewed with the "last 5 actions" feature. It does seem like from a programming and size of code perspective to add this would require a lot of work and maybe that is why it isn't there in the first place. It is really my only gripe with the game. Combat with multiple spellcasters become so tedious it loses a little something because the action is constantly being paused.

Rapper · Post by **Rapper** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 2:54 pm

generally i find that when i am in battle my tanks just hack away and i watch my spell casters and the party bar to keep track of hitpoints... i have it auto paused to stop when my character target dies and it pretty easy to keep track of everything. Just watch for the spell to leave the casters hand and set the next spell for them... it becomes very easy to keep track after a while. Give it time !!!!!

Irenin · Post by **Irenin** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 6:46 pm

It probably wouldnt actually add that much code to the game at all.

Abecedarian · Post by **Abecedarian** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 8:53 pm

Ned Flanders has an excellent point. I, too, engage in large battles through the fog of war, often wondering just what is going on. That's one reason I prefer fighters: at least I usually know what they are doing. Another problem is knowing just what enemy spellcasters are doing. I guess you are supposed to know this, since the battle text tells you each spell they cast, but unless you want to scroll through many many lines of text in the middle of a battle you really can't tell what protective spells are working or what have been dispersed. It would help if placing the cursor on an enemy would reveal a list of what spells they have active (since, as I say, you are supposed to know.)
However, maybe the whole exercise is supposed to reflect the confusion of battle?

[ 06-04-2001: Message edited by: Abecedarian ]

MAC · Post by **MAC** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 9:28 pm

Sometimes I put the pause ending turn option enable to control every move of the party just in time... I think there is a recomendation in the manual to enable this option and play BG2 as a "turn-based" game...

velvetfreak · Post by **velvetfreak** » Mon Jun 04, 2001 9:53 pm

I think that's pretty much what the console screen is for. That is your feedback. But I can imagine what you're talking about, something like the TAB key displaying HPs, but also having character states. Cool idea, but it ain't there... I think you just have to pay attention...

I know a script can check for states, but to test for them all would be pretty tedious if you were checking it manually at the CLUA console (not that I even know if that can be done). You could test for effects of a group with a modified STATES.IDS file. That's starting to get a little deep for me though.

One of the things about casting spells is that you only get to do 1 a round (6 seconds). This was being discussed on one of the Yahoo scripting forums, one of the members was tuning some code to make the most of the 'in-between time' for melee attacks. One issue you might be having is that the first spell you instruct the PC to cast responds straight away, and then a subsequent one won't... they seem to pause, and then revert to melee. Keeping the 6-second rule in mind you could try restricting issuing spell actions to one per round, or take the AI off before issuing the spell action if you don't mind your whole party maintaining their current actions for the next few seconds. The penny really dropped for me when I learned of the one-spell-per-round behaviour...

[ 06-05-2001: Message edited by: velvetfreak ]

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Tue Jun 05, 2001 7:59 am

Velvet Freak

I think that's pretty much what the console screen is for. That is your feedback. But I can imagine what you're talking about, something like the TAB key displaying HPs, but also having character states. Cool idea, but it ain't there... I think you just have to pay attention...

I realize this and I do use the console screen for such information. The purpose of this post was to explore less tedious means of obtaining spell casting/item usage information.

One issue you might be having is that the first spell you instruct the PC to cast responds straight away, and then a subsequent one won't... they seem to pause, and then revert to melee. Keeping the 6-second rule in mind you could try restricting issuing spell actions to one per round, or take the AI off before issuing the spell action if you don't mind your whole party maintaining their current actions for the next few seconds. The penny really dropped for me when I learned of the one-spell-per-round behaviour...

Excellent info Velvet Freak. I had not taken this factor into consideration and it certainly explains some of the problems I have had in the past. As for the AI, I always leave it off. I don't like how it causes certain NPCs to just storm off after enemies as soon as they are spotted. This is also a bummer with summoned monsters. They always just attack any enemy immediately. It sure would be nice to feed those aeriel servants and skeleton warriors a little mother's little helper now and then. A thanks to all who have replied. This is the first thread I've started. I'm a long time player of these games but only recently found this website and baldurdash as well. Outstanding resources, both of them.