Given the current state of the RPG genre, any developer who makes a party-based RPG in a fantasy setting and using RTwP combat will automatically get my support and my money (at full price).
But I don't love RTWP at all. Even in the classic RTWP games I played and enjoyed, that was more an acceptable compromise than an ideal solution for me.
Sure. And this is exactly how I feel about TB combat. But when people like you say this about RTwP combat, it's considered a very reasonable thing to say, whereas when people like me say it about TB combat the reaction from the TB fans is something like: "How dare you say that! You don't know anything. You're a troll!"
As a TB fan, you have a TON of RPGs to play these days. But as a RTwP RPG fan, I don't. So that's why I will buy and play any RTwP cRPG that gets made. If a game is perfect in every other way, but is TB, the highest possible score I will give such a game is 7/10. So it is pretty easy for a RTwP RPG to get a high score from me.
I think this is partially because a person can play TB, and though it may be viewed by RTWP fans as slow and boring, a person can play TB and get through the game just fine.
In reverse, those who suck at RTWP can't get through the game if the game is 100% RTWP... or, at the very least, they struggle to get through it and have to reload all the time because someone is dying, etc. Frankly, if Pathfinder: Kingmaker didn't have the TB option, I would have quit before even beating the Stag Lord. Almost every time I've tried switching to RWTP, I wind up with characters who lose more HP or are knocked out of the fight as opposed to TB where I can fight the same battles without anyone even getting hit. Quite the difference.
For example: Replaying Icewind Dale. Not even past the dang Vale of the Dead, on Normal and not Core difficulty setting, mind you, and I've already had to reload multiple times because I lost a party member - usually the wizard - because I lost track of her and 1 skeleton or another targeted her instead of the person I wanted them to target, and she died before I realized she was being attacked.
I'll say this much. IF RTWP was improved - where your party members had even half a brain - and I mean GREATLY improved - I would actually prefer it. I tried it multiple times with Pathfinder, but the issue is just like Tuco said. All the characters just do base attacks unless I constantly pause and tell them to do something different. If they're about to die, they don't flee. They just stand there and take it until they die.
I don't mind fast-paced combat if I'm only controlling 1 character, but in games like BG3, Pathfinder, Solasta, etc., it's just a nightmare for me. I find myself constantly frustrated because of just how stupid my characters are and how I can't tell who is doing what and when. Are they hitting? Is there a reason they're missing? Wait. What? The monster is immune to certain types of attacks? Wish I'd known that when the FIRST party member tried to hit it and failed. Now it's been like 30 seconds of combat and I'm still not killing anything and half my party is dead - or maybe it's just how sucky I am at the RTWP gameplay.
Whatever the case, it's just no fun. I've tried so many times to force myself to enjoy RTWP, but I can't. And, as a result, I can't get through the games.
But, I suppose you who love RTWP could say that TB is so boring that you just can't keep interested in it. Which, I totally get that. I did actually turn off TB and went to RWTP in Pathfinder: Kingmaker when I fought the zombies outside the Stag Lord's base. There were so many, and they were so easy to kill that I did find myself quite glad that RTWP existed and I could turn it on. Lord have mercy, it was just getting plain boring constantly slaughtering countless zombies one round at a time using nothing but standard weapons anyway. Why waste spells or whatever on THAT?
