Look, I don't want to come off as overly-intolerant, but try to realize that you literally jumped in this thread after we went back and forth on the issue for months (without much discordance, actually, since the overwhelming majority of the users here seems to agree that the current system ranges from terribad to goddamn awful) and your big reveal was "I DON'T KNOW IF YOU GUYS NOTICED, BUT YOU CAN DO [summary description of the very thing we don't like]. THAT SHOULD SOLVE THE ISSUE, SHOULDN'T IT?"

And the answer is: NO, it does not. That IS the issue.

Here is a practical example (already posted in this very same thread and quoted more times I'd be willing to admit across the rest of the forum and in other places) of why the system is awful:

Quote
Things that with an "RTS-like" control scheme would literally take a couple of clicks here takes an inane amount of unnecessary intermediate steps.

Lets' take a scenario as an example:

PLAYER 1 is at the gates of a hostile camp and decides he wants to set up an ambush. As a starting maneuver he decides to put his party in stealth, move each one of his party members in a specific corner of the area, then he opens the dances, wipes the enemies (let's sya the brigands) from the face of the planet and goes back to move his entire party as one.

In a traditional system: He will select the whole party, click/press the "stealth" command, then with literally just two clicks for each, he will select and move every character exactly where he wants it. When the fight will be done, a quick click and drag on the whole party or a press the "select all" shortcut and and he will go on his way.

With the Larian system: Click stealth. Oh right, only the selected character goes in stealth, so repeat the process for each one of the four men (imagine if it was a party of six, sigh). Time to tell each one where to... Wait a second, why is everyone moving every time the selected character does? Oh right, time to UNCHAIN each one of them, either by dragging the portrait or right clicking on it and selecting the equivalent function. Now he can tell each one where to go, have the exact same fight and be on his wa- Wait a second, why is everyone standing aroud like an idiot? Oh right, before that he needs to re-select each one of them individually, relink them to the party (which by the way works only if they are already in the proximity, so maybe he needs to move everyone more closely before) and then finally be able to go on his way again.

And please, don't make the similar word count fool you, what we have on the latter is not "from 30% to 50% longer", the description of these actions may be somewhat comparable in length but this second process takes almost four times the amount of work of the first one in practical terms.

Can you see why this system is garbage no matter from what angle you may look at it?

As you will be easily able to verify even jumping from post to post discontinuously no one here ignored the possibility to separate portraits by dragging them. We take issue precisely with how stupid and convolute that system is and how quicker and more intuitive a more traditional "click and drag to select" would be.
We even talked about possible ways to KEEP some form of auto-follow as an optional alternative for those few who actually may like it (may the gods have mercy on their souls) without making it the main thing. Let alone mandatory as it is now.

And honestly trying to hold as an argument that "Your party in auto-follow works fine in JRPGs" seems almost mockery. I expect from a traditional party-based CRPG a very different level of control than what I expect from a Final Fantasy.
Especially because in the former positioning is an important factor and in the latter is NOT.

Last edited by Tuco; 23/08/21 09:16 PM.

Party control in Baldur's Gate 3 is a complete mess that begs to be addressed. SAY NO TO THE TOILET CHAIN