Now that some enemies can move at the same time, I expect to see larger battles in the future. The goblin camp was a good exemple why it really wasn't a good idea before it. Having to wait for every goblins to do their sometimes elaborated fight was way too tedious to go through.
Yes. True. The new system reminds me of XCom DLC with the Lost. They moved all as one in a mob manner. It definitely makes it quicker.
But group movement of enemies doesn't do anything to address whether it is reasonable to expect that a low-level party of four can defeat that many enemies, even if those enemies are mere goblins. So for me, regardless of anything else, the goblic battle situation is poorly designed no matter how you slice it. A person playing on "normal" difficulty, who does not min-max or handle their party turns in a perfectly optimal way and simply does whatever they feel to be appropriate, should not have to keep reloading a fight. If that is what is happening with players, then the encounter design is flawed. Encounters ought to be designed such that an average player playing the game in a very casual way can still end up with a solid win.
Btw, I like your idea three posts up.
100% agree. That's what I mean by delicate balance. And with this, there is no difference between cRPG and Tabletop. A good DM does not bog down the game session with excess combat. Some things are scripted so that players aren't bored while waiting for the DM to play the game by him/herself, moving endless numbers of NPCs during Turn-based combat.
In WotR, Defender's Heart was an example of what I'm talking about. It was, admittedly, too much. In RtwP, the battle is much quicker, but in Turn-based, it lasted forever while the player watches the computer control one NPC after another in seemingly endless combat. I will say, this was poorly done. Instead, it would have been better to have a cutscene where Irabeth basically says, "Cover the left gate." And the player focuses on that gate first. If the player moves the camera around, they see other enemies engaged in combat with NPC allies, but they aren't able to engage in those fights. They are background and scripted while you, the player, focus on one gate. Then, after a certain number of turns, Irabeth cutscene. She calls out, "We're losing on the wall. Quick! Help reinforce it!" Then the battle expands at that point to include both the left gate and the wall. Etc. etc. etc.
As for the Goblin Camp fight in BG3, I have quite a number of issues with it:
Too many enemies. If I convince Minthara to go attack the grove, why are there like 30 enemies still in the camp? Shouldn't there be a LOT less if she's rallying them to attack the grove? If I kill all the leaders, shouldn't the camp fall into disarray? Who is organizing them and convincing them to continue to fight me? Wouldn't a good number of them freak out if they learned their leaders were all dead? Maybe those who are 100% devoted to the cult might remain and attack me to get revenge for the Absolute, but those not branded would likely lose heart and take off (wasn't that Wyll's plan after all?). Ogres without leaders would probably turn on goblins and try to kill them and eat them. Goblins who used to serve Moglobiat (probably misspelled it there) would likely turn on the cultists, accusing them of leading them astray from their one true god. If the Absolute was so great, why are her leaders dead? "Liars!" they would cry and start attacking those who were branded.
And another issue I have is that no alarm is sounded. No one spots you kill the last of the leaders. No one runs off to warn the camp. They just somehow know you've NOW killed their leaders, and they turn on you and attack. There should be two avenues here. One is some of the troops inside while you are fighting the leaders attempt to run off and warn the whole camp (similar to how they have the goblin kids in the dungeon run off if you are rescuing Halsin). If you stop the runners, you avoid the camp even knowing their leaders are dead. If you don't, THEN the camp outside is warned.
If the camp is warned, then enemies should come into the temple in smaller squads to try to save their leaders. They shouldn't just be waiting to ambush you as an entire horde when you leave the building. Once the leaders are dead, some of the goblins/cultists should be fleeing, screaming that their leaders are dead. At that point, chaos should take over the entire encampment, again with some turning on each other, some fleeing for their lives, etc. Smaller groups of enemies to encounter instead of one massive fight.
And when you exit the building after the leaders are dead, you don't engage in any fights unless YOU target an enemy and attack it or you maybe get too close to different groups of combatants. The goblins and their former allies are now trying to kill each other, and you can use the distraction to simply flee. Or, if you're a murder hobo or you want to make sure none survive because they're all evil, you CAN engage in as many fights as you want, targeting one group of enemies at a time as you make your way through the camp.
They could manage the grove fight this way as well. Goblins coming towards the main gate with Minthara. Goblins attacking from the shore where the harpies are. Goblins attacking from the waterfall entrance area. Goblins attacking via the secret tunnels. Cutscene. Zevlor asks, "Which avenue would you like to lead in the defense?" You choose. During whatever fight you have chosen, another cutscene. "We're losing at the main gate. Zevlor needs your help" or "We're losing at the waterfall. Arron the halfling druid merchant is leading the defense. He needs your help" or "We're losing at the heart of the grove. Kagha/Rath needs your help." Then you must choose. Do you keep fighting where you are, or do you fall back and help defend one of the areas that is losing. This would be SO much more epic, and it would avoid a lot of the tedium of watching every single one of the 30 goblins/ogres/spiders + tieflings, etc. move and attack, and it would give a much grander impression of the entire situation.
Instead, at present, if you defend the grove, it feels very NOT intense and exciting. Enemies are easily defeated and the whole scenario is rather "wha wha". If you are siding with Minthara, it seems like a tedious slaughter with very little effort and just boring as you are working your way through to slaughter everyone. In either case, I'd rather have a bit more scripting and a bit less "every single NPC has to be present and taking turns in combat until every enemy has been personally killed by you and your attack squads."
