Larian Studios Forums Beyond Divinity (English) Suggestions Auto-attacking in combat mode

I have no idea what the combat system will be like for Beyond Divinity, but I'm assuming that it will be similar to Divine Divinity. With that assumption, I would like to suggest that while in combat mode, our avatar should automatically attack enemies that come within range. If there are more of them, then he'll attack the closest one. By attacking I mean use the power that is mapped to the left mouse button so that caster's and archers and set a ranged type of attack there. Of course once you realised that your guy is attacking something, you can force him on a different target if desired. There are a few reasons why this feature would be good to have.

1. By chance I thought I was paused but wasn't really and went afk and got killed. With the feature, at least I have a chance.
2. When one enemy dies, it's nice to have my guy auto engage another without me telling him to. Without this feature, when the screen is filled with enemies, it's hard to know when I've killed one guy and are just standing there taking a beating.
3. Makes fighting less tedious and allows you to focus more on spells.
4. Sometimes I like to eat and play at the same time. This would help. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

A compromise would be to auto-attack only if you are being attacked instead of just being in range. And or allow the player to set a preference flag whether they want characters to auto-attack or not while in combat mode.

I'm sure the combat system has already been designed so if it's too late for BD, keep this suggestion in mind for DD2.

Auto attack would be nice. And it's not too late for Beyond Divinity! Personally, I like the system in Neverwinter Nights. The player must initiate the combat, but after that, the target automatically shifts as each foe dies. I don't think it should be fully automatic. The player should have to see the monster first, otherwise it just becomes too easy and lacks player input. Attacking in retaliation would make sense.

It might be a problem for Beyond Divinity as there is more of an emphasis on limited ammo (arrows, mana). Unless you have a melee weapon drawn, you could quickly and unexpetedly run out of attacking power. Even melee weapons can have charges (eg. poison). If it's added, it definately needs to be optional.

Check out this thread: Auto attack

And welcome to the forums!

Yeah of course I meant only if the enemy is naturally targetible and attackable, i.e. if something is invisible or attacking from air and your guy has a melee weapon, he should just stand there doing nothing.

Oh and that link was started by me. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Just wanted to make sure the suggestion was made for BD and future Divinities.

Why not have the game to play instead of you?
You know? There's a very good free online MMO RPG with many skills and stats and several servers called Progress Quest. If you want autocombat, please try it first.
Have a good day.



Handy, NWN is a turn based game, it's completely different.

Yeah, played PQ before. Got bored, not enough interaction. Sure, I'd like to make things easier, but not to the point where I'm not doing anything at all. Although your guy will be auto-attacking, you can't win without actually playing, i.e. moving around, solving quests, casting spells, etc. For me, it's an annoyance and convenience issue, really.

hey deathatthedoor, NWN actually isn't turn-based. it's real-time with some turn-based concepts. more like time-based. let's just say hybrid. whatever crappy definition i can come up with, i know NWN isn't turn-based. played it as well as its first add-on.

i'm really looking forward to <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> as i haven't find fun in most games especially RPGs. ok, maybe except SW: knights of the old republic.

ok, i'm done <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> .

I can see both sides to Neverwinter Nights. It's based on a turn-based system, but presented in real-time. Each character acts once every six seconds. (Quite clever, I thought.)

And how does it being turn-based have anything to do with auto-attack?

I guess it would be cool If he got attacked that he would at least defend himself, there where a few times that I got busy while playing the game and came back to a dead Warrior. And only a single enemy around. Just a thought!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />

HandEFood: Because in turn-based, nothing depend on your actions: in NWN, no matter how fast you click, the character will attack his No. of attacks per round, if you roll 1/20, no matter what you do, you miss. DD though is more real-time action, and because you hit almost every time, having 'auto-attack' is exactly like Progress Quest.

Don't eat while playing because:
1) You don't notice how much you eat and you might finish up eating just for the matter of eating (ie: not being actually hungry). Don't argue about this. [it applies to eating while watching tv too].
2) You might spill food or drink on your keyboard.
3) You lose the game because you cannot give it your full attention.


JollyJoe: yes, I agree. I had the same once.

If you are attacked and the character returns fire it's one thing. But bloody auto-locking + auto-attacking ruins the game. What about Auto-walking-to-the-quest-location and auto-shutting-down?
What if you want to run but the character locks on a very big monster and no matter what you do you cannot stop him? What about spells? "you cast spells and the character attack". But remember, in Divinity you cast spells just like attacking, no precasting or memorizing, just right mouse button...

Isee your point. That makes sense. Neverwinter Nights is a slower game.


But it's so tasty!

JollyJoe: yes, I agree. I had the same once.



LOL I got to the point that If I needed to do something I would f5 and then go do what I needed to do, just made It a habit after dying when I walked away for about 5 minutes!! I sort of asked for It as for leaving the game while my character was still active so to speak.. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />

Yes, but when I played DD, I had 128 mb RAM...
The load times were long for me.

I think this post is getting side-tracked. All I'm saying is that I would like auto-attack option to be there. By no means will it make the game play itself or make it too easy. Unless you've hacked all your equipment or fight enemies one at a time, you cannot win by just auto-attacking. Moving around, casting spell and fighting smart will still be necessary, not to mention all the other non-battle related things you need do to win. Those of us that want the option have our reasons and likewise those that don't, but what I'm saying is to give us the option to decide for ourselves. Is it absolutely necessary? No. Is playing the game absolutely necessary? No. But it'll be a nice thing to have and would make the game a better game.

And to whoever thinks that it will lock you into a fight while you are trying to run and get you killed, that's not how it works. Auto-attack will only happen if your character is not actively doing something, which means if you are running, auto-attack won't activate. And if you don't like it don't turn it on. But for those of us that may want to eat and play, get interrupted alot by wife and friends, don't want to retarget 30 times when faced with 30 enemies, or whatever other reason we may have, give is the option to turn on auto-attack.

I don't like auto-whatever. When I played the pre-alpha version of <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> it had an auto-pause after loading. Didn't like that too. I don't want the game to think for me.
Besides that even with an auto-atack things can go wrong and your character can be killed an auto-pause on monster sighting would be better.

But as long as it is configurable and can be turned off, I don't mind what auto features they create.

YES! 5 points for myrthos!

i agree that it should be optional & can be switched off. so that whoever that wants or don't want the feature can be satisfied.

Myrthos can always summ everything I can say in a couple of sentances. You shame me, Myrthos <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />.