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Posted By: jfjohnny5 Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 02:29 PM
I can't find many threads on this (though admittedly searching "combat" pulls up a LOT, so it's difficult to sift through).

Am I alone in thinking that combat feels a bit hectic and hard to follow?

The camera jumps around quickly, and often, as it leaps from combatant to combatant. Turning off Dynamic Camera helps a bit, but it's still difficult to see who is directing what at whom. My comparison would be turn-based combat in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. Granted, in that game I do turn up the Combat Animation Speed a bit (a great option to have), but there are still short "settle in" pauses built-in as the camera shifts around the battlefield. That game gives me a moment to take in which combatant is about to act before they do. In BGIII sometimes the camera jumps to the target who performs a quick action and then the camera jumps to the next target with essentially zero pause. I lose a lot of sense of situational awareness, and the combat log doesn't quite do enough to allow me to review (though I'd rather not have to read the log every time just to know what spell was cast and how much damage it did).

Just curious if I'm alone or if it's something that has come up much already. (Just pulled the trigger on Early Access the other day)
Posted By: PrivateRaccoon Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 03:00 PM
First off, Welcome to the forums and glad to see yet another one joining the community.

I have to say though that you're the first I've seen that find the combat too hectic. More have complained combat is too slow for their taste.
Posted By: jfjohnny5 Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 06:30 PM
Yeah, that's what I've seen too. Turns definitely move quick. Maybe I'm just getting old haha. More than once I've had someone get downed and I have no idea who hit them or with what unless I go to the log. I'd prefer to get that feedback direct from the action itself. I dunno, it's hard to explain, but the turn based combat in the Pathfinder game just feels more "measured" to me. Now slow, but measured. And with the option to adjust the animation speed in the settings, it's quite easy to tune to your level of speedy preference.
Posted By: Wormerine Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 06:31 PM
In general, combat is simple enough for me to get a gist of what is happening, but yeah, it is a bit messy and rather tricky to get finer details. Compared to classic games this one has a zoomed in view (with all the graphical fidelity on display) so if combat doesn’t happen within small patch of land then yeah, camera zooming around can be annoying. i also found that the camera often fails to properly frame long distance attacks.
Posted By: jfjohnny5 Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 06:40 PM
Yeah that's what I'm trying to get at. It's not so much about combat being too fast or too slow. It's more that the framing (close in, tight, with rapid camera movements) is difficult to follow, especially without any semblance of the action pausing for even a half second to let the view "settle." It makes combat look very energetic and visceral, yes, but leaves something to be desired for implementing and evaluating tactics.
Posted By: Flooter Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 07:03 PM
I agree that when an enemy caster starts or ends their turn by casting a spell, the action has usually moved on by the time I’ve fully realized what they did to whom. For following attacks and movement, a zoomed out camera works best.

I haven’t really minded so far because there are no decisions to be made until your own turn, at which point there’s plenty of time to assess what happened and react accordingly.

However, if the next patch revamps reactions, the player will need to be able to fully understand what’s going on around them. Then the camera might be an issue.
Posted By: Tuco Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 07:52 PM
Even as someone who never really spared criticism to the game across this entire EA, I can't really say I'm having much of a problem following what's happening on any given time on screen.

And while improvement is always welcomed, I'd say it's one of the few areas where they are already in a pretty good spot.
Posted By: jfjohnny5 Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 09:30 PM
It's not awful, by any means. Playing zoomed out helps. I think it could hit the sweet spot where it's just not an issue with only a few minor tweaks:

1) a camera "settle in" period after it jumps (with an option to enable/disable)
2) a slider for animation speed
Posted By: Zarna Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 26/05/22 11:39 PM
I gave up trying to see who is doing what. I can't even see if my attacks will be blocked most of the time because I can't properly angle the camera. I feel like they expected everyone to only play in a tight melee blob rather than taking up tactical positions around the area. I wouldn't use the word hectic to describe it, but it is really frustrating and makes me just tab out and do something else until my turn because it doesn't matter what is happening.
Posted By: Niara Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 27/05/22 01:02 AM
What I do find is that there is no focus delay when it does switch characters in combat, and not focus alignment for action context; these things are pretty important in turn-based combat games. The result is that the camera may hang and linger on enemies while the AI is thinking about what to do, leaving you looking at nothing, but in the same breath, it will switch to the next character, and that enemy will have run 15 feet *Before* the camera is even properly focused on them - or in some cases, if they aren't moving first, will already have taken their shot before the camera 'gets there', and you don't really see what happened. This coupled with the fact that they've designed for themselves combat interface that cannot reliably show both the actor and the target of the action on screen at once, and also doesn't track with the action, leaves them with combat that can often feel slow and heavy, but Also like it's not showing half the things it's meant to, or like it's struggling to keep up with what's happening - especially in larger scale combats or combats with many actors. I suspect this is what the OP is experiencing.
Posted By: jfjohnny5 Re: Is Combat Hectic? - 27/05/22 12:51 PM
Originally Posted by Zarna
I gave up trying to see who is doing what. ... it is really frustrating and makes me just tab out and do something else until my turn because it doesn't matter what is happening.

See, that's really not good player feedback in response to one of the core mechanics of a game - in this case, combat.

Originally Posted by Niara
leaves them with combat that can often feel slow and heavy, but Also like it's not showing half the things it's meant to, or like it's struggling to keep up with what's happening

This. 100%. Some elements feel "heavy" while others feel like they're struggling to give the player a good sense of the action. It all needs a more measured pace.

Take a look at any modern turn-based combat game to get an idea of what is needed: XCOM 1 & 2, Wildermyth, both Pathfinder games (after the patch to Kingmaker), Gloomhaven, I could go on. There are plenty of examples of what good turn-based combat should *feel* like. I don't think BG3 is there. It has the bones for it, but it's not there.
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