Real time with pause would be awesome, but so much would have to change. Between changes to AI, logistics, and combat balance, it would practically be a new game. Not just a few lines of code changed. Real time with pause can be an excellent balance between combat flow and tactics, but the game really has to be designed for it from the get go. I think a real time with a time slow button might be cool too, so you have some time to make decisions, but there's still the drama of your opponents attacking you if you don't decide what to do fast enough.
Another cool format would be simultaneous actions but with discrete turns. Check out
Friends and Foes to get an idea of what I mean. It's a fantasy team brawler board game where everyone picks their abilities at the same time and then each player has to decide how to play their turn (movement, who to attack, etc) depending on what abilities the other players have chosen. It's a little turn-based for announcing effects like damage and movement, but each player is constantly engaged, and there's not really much feeling that you're waiting for the other player to finish their turn. There's a ton of meta strategies and prediction that goes in, and I think the same system could be done in a computer RPG. Definitely not D:OS, once again, but maybe a future game by Larian.
