Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Multiplayer Discussion Turn based isnt

Turn based is working in clumps.

My wife and I do PS5 multiplayer from different rooms and we see a diff order on screen so we overlap and waste actions.

It needs to work 1 at a time or at least treat separate humans as distinct and do the characters individually by initiative that way.

We're playing in co-op mode and have been encountering issues during battles. Even after 119 hours of gameplay there are instances where we find ourselves taking our turns simultaneously resulting in sheer chaos. Phrases like "Where are you going? I was about to bless you!" or "Hey, I was going to kill that enemy and I've already planned my actions!" and "Where are you positioned?" keep cropping up despite our best efforts to coordinate. Paradoxically in Divinity: Original Sin when only one player took their turn at a time we meticulously planned our moves and had a much better understanding of each other's abilities. As it stands now while we do get through turns faster and everyone has something to do there's a constant overlap and confusion.

Yet another unnecessary change from their Divinity games.
There is no reason two controlled characters should be able to go at the same time. That's the whole point of the turn order line and initiative. You go when it's your turn.

Once again a gaming company caves to the gamers who can't handle action that isn't constantly moving.

5e D&D (upon which the game is based) allows for characters to interchange their actions as long as non-allies don't come between them in initiative.

For example, if you roll a 20 on init, and I roll a 19, and a monster rolls a 17. You could take your bonus action, I could take my action, you could then take your action, followed by me taking my bonus action, then we both move - or any other combination - all before the monster gets to go.

If playing with other players, simply communicate (voice comms?) and work out who does what when (it is frequently in your best interest to go at the same time, such as the second person moving to within melee range so the rogue who technically has the higher initiative can get a sneak attack).

Thank you for the explanation! It helps me better understand the reasoning behind the decision to design the combat system this way. It's certainly commendable to strive for as close an adaptation of D&D as possible. However what works at the table with others where face-to-face communication is key may not necessarily translate smoothly to the PS5 on the couch. I suppose we'll have to get used to it although I would greatly appreciate it if an exception to this rule could be considered.

Couldn't you just notice when you're clumped and be like "okay, you go first, then I'll go"?

That's what my fiance and I have been doing (after some frustrating situations where we attacked the same enemy and stole a kill, hit each other with an AoE spell the other just walked into, etc)

The clumping your seeing is created by the fact Larian decided to change the Initiative rolls for D4 instead of D20. So you have a lot of times groups acting simultaneously.

That's all well and good except for the fact that this annoying (and unnecessary) split screen makes it very difficult to even tell where you are in relation to the person you are playing with. That and you can't tell if you are targeting the same enemy.

Out of curiosity, where are you getting this idea and concept from? This is not a rule or even an optional rule in 5e - it's not in the PHB, nor is it in the DMG's optional combat rules. If I've forgotten something, I'd appreciate a reference for where you're getting this from; both the combat section of the PHB and the optional combat section of the DMG are and remain very clear that each player takes their turn individually, even if you're using by-sides initiative.

This is not to say that linked initiative of players is a bad thing, per se, and it has its benefits (as long as you don't mind enemy creatures getting those same benefits against you - i.e. pack tactics all the time for everyone, wolves, and so on), but it's not any part of 5e, formally.

This sounds like a combination of inhouse rules and the basic rule of holding/readying actions.