Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Reaction Button - RtwP Concept

So, I tried this on the Megathread, and I'm afraid it got lost in the argument between Popups and Presets. I think it's a good potential solution and don't want to just let it die there.

So, what if they created a RtwP kind of button for the player to press? You are watching combat. You see an enemy casting a spell. You hit the "Reaction" button. Game pauses. Your UI comes to life, but only certain Reaction abilities are lit up, like Counterspell. You check the Combat Log. Enemy is casting Bane on Gale. Oh. No big deal. Let that one go. Hit the button again and let the combat resume.

Enemy comes up to attack Astarion. He looks like a baby goblin, so I don't worry about hitting the "Reaction" button to have him use Uncanny Dodge. However, the bugbear with the glowing poison mace comes running up to him. Before the bugbear even starts his swing, I hit the Reaction button to pause time. I quickly click on Astarion's Uncanny Dodge so that it's active in case the bugbear hits. Unpause. Bugbear misses and Uncanny Dodge is refunded to me. I have to remember to click it again if another enemy attacks him that I want to use it on.

Enemy shoves you. You see your character flying off the edge of a cliff. "Reaction" button. Your character is frozen in midair. Your UI is unlocked, and you see your reaction abilities pop up. Feather Fall is highlighted.

Then, on certain actions, like AOO, the game auto-pauses - because you wouldn't have time to respond if it didn't. The animation shows the enemy turn around and start to move away. Game pauses. Combat log pops open and there's a statement, "Enemy has triggered AOO." You see your attack buttons highlighted, including Paladin Divine Smite button. You attack, and it unpauses, showing your character swing at the enemy before they are able to run away.

For multiplayer, the "Reaction" button would only be able to be hit by the active player. So, if the enemy is charging at Player 1's character(s), Player 2 could not hit the "Reaction" button. However, if the enemy is casting an AoE spell, like Fireball, and targeting a location that would hit both Player 1 and Player 2, both players can hit the "Reaction" button and pause the game. Then they could discuss who is going to use their Reaction to stop the spell. To prevent one player from driving another player crazy by taking too long, maybe there could be a timer. Players only have 10, or 20, or whatever, seconds to decide what they are going to do in a multiplayer setting only. Single player wouldn't have a timer. Once the timer runs out, no Reaction occurs. The player took too long to decide.

This method would still be kinda choppy, but no popups. The game would pause only if you are fast enough to react, and only when YOU want it to. There would need to be a Reaction Window providing a set amount of time for a player to be able to react in. As long as they can hit the Reaction Button within that window, they can perform the Reaction. (So, kinda like those games where you have to hit X within a few seconds after it appears on your screen.)

This then forces players to pay closer attention to enemies when they're taking a turn so that you don't miss out on opportunities to React. Any messages that would need to be provided to the player could be done via the Combat Log - like with the AOO example I gave above. For the most party, when you hit the "Reaction" button, the Reactions you can use would simply be highlighted on your UI for you, and you can use them just like you would if it was your normal turn.

So, need to do an AOO? Only the Attack button would highlight indicating that you could click on the target and do an AOO. Once you get familiar with the system, you probably wouldn't even need the log to tell you it's for AOO. You'd see an enemy turn, the game would pause, the Melee Attack would highlight, you'd hover over the enemy and click on him/her, and the game would unpause. You'd watch your character swing at the escaping enemy.

I dont really understand the difference between this suggestion and the ""QTE"" suggestion to be honnest.

+1. and it won't slow down combat either, because you only have 4 reactions per round on your characters, so even if you want to use reaction on every enemy's turn, it will be only 4 times

Big -1
No real-time based things in a TB mode, thank you very much. Anything that would require an input should wait for me to give that input (or I suppose, have required earlier input by me as in "preactions"). In your suggestion, players would have to pay close attention to *everything* in combat *at all times* (ignoring the fact that Larian's camera can make it hard to figure out exactly is happening) AND then have rapid reaction times. This mechanic would be especially egregious given that there is no full-game pause in BG3; you effectively couldn't get up except during other players' turns, and they'd have to wait for you to get back before they end their turns.

Additionally, I feel like combat in the game already proceeds too quickly to reasonably react to..? Enemies don't have thaat long of a wind up for attacks. Spells maybe, but melee actions? And I definitely don't want BG3 combat to be slowed down even more than it already is.

Copy/pasting from the mega-thread:


I don't like particularly systems that require precise timing in a turn-based combat, in general, but I could see something of that type work as an exception with SOME SPECIFIC skills, like Cutting words, which has the problem of being basically impossible to use with the ordinary pop-up system, since practically any action could trigger one.
Basically it's a different type of "reaction" that I would call an "interrupt", as it can be called practically at any time. Like an "instant" in Magic the Gathering.

I wouldn't want this system for AoO, Counterspell, Hellish Rebuke, and all the more common, more typical situational reactions, on the other hand.

I hadn't thought about the camera and how the combat is so fast you can't tell half the time who is doing what. And then, with swarm...

Sigh.

Well. Fine. No Reactions Button. Then we're back to Presets vs. Popups.

Though, maybe instead of popups, they could do something similar to what I was suggesting.

AOO is triggered by goblin. Game pauses. Combat log pops open and tells you the goblin triggered it. Your melee attack lights up. You click on enemy to use your reaction to attack or you just hit space bar to continue the round and not use your reaction. No popups. Just game pausing and if you want to know why, the combat log says why.

Enemy casts spell. Game pauses. Your counterspell lights up. Don't want to use it. Space bar.

I don't know. It's still jerky, choppy combat, but it's more like you're taking a turn more frequently.

Ok. What about a combination of the ideas?

Uncanny Dodge could have presets, for example. If enemy deals x amount of damage or more, trigger Uncanny Dodge. If last enemy in the round hits rogue, Uncanny Dodge triggers regardless because it's the last enemy.

However, like Ragnarok said, you also have the option to set it to pop-up whenever you want. Maybe you're in a fight that requires more player control. So turn on popups for Uncanny Dodge. But if just fighting against a bunch of grunts, turn on presets.

Do this for all reactions. Have some basic presets but allow to turn on popups if needed.

This is mechanically the exact same thing as a pop-up, just in a different UI. So yeah, sure this way would be fine.

Oh look, we've cycled back to the optimum solution of 3 reaction toggles: always ask me / automatic usage / off. Just with a more complicated "automatic" implementation.

They could also add an option when you right click on an(y) opponent and a list of options could pop up like this where you could simply tick/untick what you want to happen:

"Counter spell if...."

"Attack of opportunity if...."

"Smite on crit....."

"Cutting words if...."

Instead of the toggle bar that you have no control over who you use your reaction on.

Imagine right clicking a set of options for specific individuals while ignoring certain enemies if you so wish (low threat enemies for example) so you don't have to have a constant pop up for every single time a single enemy does something like solasta or misremember if you clicked/unclicked the circle thing on the bottom right and wasting your reaction on trash mobs.

Personally I'd be fine with the pop ups like Solasta but it seems some ppl are not.