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I like the party system, and NWN felt empty without it. But I can also appreciate the merits of only focusing on one character.

So I think it would be cool that you could get a party, or companions if you will, that travel with you and help you but that you don't control. Not just one at a time like in NWN 1 but a full fledged party that travel with you. Good interaction with them would also add a lot to the game.

Basically the good things from the party system as used in BG etc. but still allowing you to focus just on your own character.

Faerun wrote: So I think it would be cool that you could get a party, or companions if you will, that travel with you and help you but that you don't control. Not just one at a time like in NWN 1 but a full fledged party that travel with you. Good interaction with them would also add a lot to the game.

Agreed. I never like team-based games where you have to control every single character's action and movement. Does get irritating after a while and babysitting your team members in any team-based game is not what I call useful at all, in my honest opinion. That's why I always avoided team-based games with that nature.

Anyway, it's best to wait as to how the game unfolds as I have not seen much of the game aside from a few game videos I've seen in some of the gaming sites I frequent during E3.

DesR85 wrote:Agreed. I never like team-based games where you have to control every single character's action and movement. Does get irritating after a while and babysitting your team members in any team-based game is not what I call useful at all, in my honest opinion. That's why I always avoided team-based games with that nature.

Have to control...? I don't recall seeing that much. Instead, games like the BG series offered you the option of controlling your entire party, or turning on the AI and letting all characters save your PC run a script. NWN never let you control your party. Instead, you had the great joy of watching your party members ignore the battle completely while you were attacked, or use magic in a very stupid way while aware of attacks.

Myself, I would love to have the option provided of letting me control my entire party, every step of the way. But I strongly doubt this is going to happen, because I suspect that if you can't control your party directly, it means the developers can settle for creating fourth-rate combat AI in your enemy scripts. Leaving you without that kind of control "evens" the field, so to speak, though it aggravates the hell out of me watching my party act like the Three Stooges during combat.

fable wrote:Have to control...? I don't recall seeing that much. Instead, games like the BG series offered you the option of controlling your entire party, or turning on the AI and letting all characters save your PC run a script. NWN never let you control your party. Instead, you had the great joy of watching your party members ignore the battle completely while you were attacked, or use magic in a very stupid way while aware of attacks.

Myself, I would love to have the option provided of letting me control my entire party, every step of the way. But I strongly doubt this is going to happen, because I suspect that if you can't control your party directly, it means the developers can settle for creating fourth-rate combat AI in your enemy scripts. Leaving you without that kind of control "evens" the field, so to speak, though it aggravates the hell out of me watching my party act like the Three Stooges during combat.

I agree. The "party" AI of NwN was close to being abysmal and I often found my NPCs standing still while my character was being attacked, run off after enemies I had not even seen yet etc. Stooges
I'd much rather have control (even full control) compared to this, although the party AI of games such BG and even the SW:KOTOR series was much better where you had the option of both.

Xandax wrote:I agree. The "party" AI of NwN was close to being abysmal and I often found my NPCs standing still while my character was being attacked, run off after enemies I had not even seen yet etc. Stooges
I'd much rather have control (even full control) compared to this, although the party AI of games such BG and even the SW:KOTOR series was much better where you had the option of both.

A recent interview I've read leads me to think there may be grounds for hope on the party control front. For what it's worth, the NWN2 project leader was stating that you can now tab through party members to have greater control during combat. This makes it sound at the least as though you can give each party member a single command, but it might be more like the KotoR command system that permits stacking of up to 3 commands per member. If so, this would allow players like you or me to have more control, while allowing others to simply let combat take place.

That doesn't mean the combat AI for enemies will be tweaked at all, of course. And the enemy AI in the KotoR series was truly awful. But in a few days, we'll find out, either way.