in single player stopping combet to ask what you want to do will slow things down ...
Again, as always, this is false.
It has been actively demonstrated to be false.
It is hyperbole and assumption made by people who speak without knowing based on what they presume would be the case, without evidence, and it's a complete fallacy.
This. Is. Not. True.
It doesn't slow things down, and in demonstrations has been shown to enhance the flow of combat, smooth game-play and speed up combat encounters overall by virtue of the weight of tactical flexibility it allows.
Videos have been posted that demonstrate this.
I wish, absolutely wish, that people would stop repeating this complete nonsense as though it were some kind of valid truth when it is demonstrably not - and has BEEN demonstrated not to be.
in multiplayer where the guy drops their network or just goes afk to get a coffee it stops the game from running at all
This is completely irrelevant and has no impact or bearing on a reaction system in any way - because if another player drops connection or goes afk AT ANY POINT the same issue arises, since you end up waiting on that player. It is completely unrelated to reactions at all and is a pointless strawman of a complaint.
In multiplayer scenarios that have been tested the
Absolute Biggest sink of time that leave other players twiddling their thumbs and waiting with nothing to do happens during other players turn, while that other player messes around fighting the UI, trying to move where they want and face where they want, and trying to target their spells with the clunky design and antagonistic camera, and generally while other players take time deciding what they want to do with their turns... THAT time-sink is so far and away the biggest hold up so much so that it blows all other delays completely out of the water and renders them insignificant... and the only thing that a functioning reaction system changes about that is that it happens LESS because combats are over FASTER due to more precise reactions and better tactical control. Players also reported
fewer moments when they felt bored or less engaged, because these times were mixed in with moments when they could do something outside of their own turn.
