I think it has gotten worse. In the grymforge if a low strength PC makes the jump onto the platform near the dormitories, the rest of the party will fall. If you aren't micromanaging the trail on the final boss battle your characters will walk into lava. Same goes for the mephit fight. I even had shadowheart miss that first infamous fire jump near the nautaloid crash. And, yeah, In that corridor before Shadowheart's pod I somehow walked into the mind flayer - cambion fight. Not getting better . . .
I'm serious about a root and branch reprogramming. Areas like grymforge are fun if you feel in control of your party but are slogs otherwise. With the chain system I never feel in control of my party.
I get that the games with good controls -- WotR and Solasta -- are unity engine games and this is the unreal engine but with the amount of talent that Larian has assembled they should be able to find *someone* able to replace some of the gears in this machine.
I hate the jump mechanics. I can never tell if a jump is going to hurt my characters, or if a jump is needed or not unless it says, "Can't reach." Characters jump up 30+ feet into the air, etc.
My Drow Mage jumped down at a spot that looked like a maybe 5 foot drop. She lost HP. Why? I can scoot off the edge of a 5 foot drop and land just fine in real life, and I am NOT athletic.
I REALLY REALLY think they need movement mechanics that are more like Solasta. I click on a spot, and my character gets there in the most normal way possible. If they need to jump to get there, they jump - provided they can actually do it. If the jump requires a roll, the game tells me, "DC 10 Athletics Required". Something like that. And if the jump is up and its ridiculously high, they just can't do it. None of this Gale jumping up 15-30 feet business. Come o. Don't make jumps like that. Make the characters climb instead.
No jump button necessary (though available for some cases, like in combat, where you might need to jump over something as opposed to going around, like a box is in your way and it's less movement to jump over than go around). Example: You are at Grymforge. You need to jump from one platform to another. No jump button required. You select the platform you want to go to, and your character jumps across automatically. No button necessary. If a roll is required because it's a considerable distance, it says, "DC 10 Athletics." Boom. Now you know that it's a big jump and you could take damage. You need to drop down 15 feet? Select the spot you want to go to. Game makes you climb down instead of jump because that's a bit further of a distance. Or, if they think it shouldn't be able to be climbed, the game warns, "DC 10 Athletics." Hmmm. Now you know if you select that space you'll potentially get hurt.
And for the love of all that is holy, PLEASE make it so characters can move through other friendly characters. I got stuck AGAIN in the Dank Crypt trying to fight Mari and Barton and their mercenaries. Guy at the front entrance, Shadowheart won initiative and was stuck behind everyone else, so she couldn't move through them to get to a blank spot to attack. She had to use a Bonus Action to Jump to the free spot, as if she was jumping over their heads. Why? Just let them pass through friendly spaces. Don't make me waste a Bonus to move through someone. Astarion was the same. Instead of using 2 weapon fighting, I had to use a Bonus Action to Jump over everyone's heads so he could get to a free spot to attack the one guy they were all fighting.
And the climbing up and down thing is still happening. Happened to me twice. One time was outside the crypt. Climbed down the ladder, and Lae'zel, Astarion and Shadowheart climbed down and right back up again. At least they didn't jump down this time.
And in Patch 6, man, so many times people caught on fire from Grymforge or just died because of pathing issues. The last time I did the area where you go mine mithral and go to the little island near the elemental, I had to just leave everyone behind and only send my main. They were all dying because of exploding bubbles or just plain landing in the wrong spots and getting set on fire. It's not fun.
