Question: What exactly do you watch when you dont realize "only 1 character is locked in combat"? I mean ... wich part of screen do you focus on?
I'll play, as part of team Absent Minded.
Quote
Upper side > there is turns order ... you can clearly see that somebody is missing ... [...] Middle > i mean ... enemies all over? missing party members? ... If you dont notice here, i doubt you would notice anywhere.
Noticing an absence from a crowd isn't trivial. Think of a school teacher. They can see everyone in their classroom but they still have to call out every name at the start of class to make sure no one's missing. The game is effectively asking that the player make a roll call at the beginning of every combat, under penalty of lost turns.
Quote
Left side > there is party UI ... you can clearly see that one of your companions dont have crossed swords icon on him ...
My issue here is that this is the only information provided by that side of the screen. There's no other reason to look there unless the player is actively thinking about who might have been left out of combat. If I thought to check, then great. If I didn't, then small icons that appear inconsistently on summons don't help a lot.
Quote
Bottom side > there is "End turn" and "flee combat" buttons ... it should be clear that you are fighting. Right side > here is no indicator i gues ... but also nothing to look at. Unless you were "just studying your combat log" ...
To be fair, the bottom side has a million buttons and icons, which like to move around and aren't clearly legible. That and the combat log usually get more of my attention than anything else.
None of this is inherently bad. Designers are expected to place obstacles between players and their goals. I feel it's useful feedback to let Larian know that making sure everyone is in combat requires some sort of active attention and proactive steps. This way they can decide whether that should be part of their game or whether they'd rather have their players' attention focused elsewhere.
