20th August 2004, 4:02 PM
But it would be better that way! :)
Would constructive criticism be better than just criticism, though? Probably.
Of course as I said I'd never expect that game to be isometric, since the whole idea was to do a 3d third person console-focused d20 game, after all. What I really wish, as I said, was that they had implemented it a bit better. Like... I recognize that you won't be able to target people you can't see in third person. And that the AI for the guys following you can't be perfect, and since you can only control one there are unavoidable problems there. But what they could have done is had it so that when you target an enemy (and it pauses) your teammates automatically go into combat mode if there are any enemies in their view (even if they are "out of range" -- they're in the range of your other character, after all, and like in BG you should be able to target things in the other players' action ranges!). Yes, they do eventually, but it could have been better.
I would also have liked to see customizable formations. That is, being able to tell your teammates where they should try to stay when you're wandering around... that would be a very helpful addition that is in BG. Would greatly help with this problem as well if the AI was good enough to keep up.
What it really gets down to is that I want to have complete tactical control of my party in combat and that's tough to do from third person. Sorry, OB1, it has nothing to do with me being bad at 3d games or something... it's just tough to be in three places at once, you know! Of course that leads right into my criticisms of the PC interface (as in, I want to be able to click on my other party members to switch to them while in combat and to be able to click on a location on the ground while paused and have the character move there after I unpause, whether I'm controlling them or not. The importance of this really cannot be understated. Think about it for a little while and you should be able to understand how much that would help... Much of the rest is just stuff to adjust to, not really flaws... except for things like that and not having the other members of your team react to combat nearly as quickly as would be good.).
I mean, what if you have two people in places you don't want them and want to urgently move both of them? In KotOR you simply cannot do that.
Would constructive criticism be better than just criticism, though? Probably.
Of course as I said I'd never expect that game to be isometric, since the whole idea was to do a 3d third person console-focused d20 game, after all. What I really wish, as I said, was that they had implemented it a bit better. Like... I recognize that you won't be able to target people you can't see in third person. And that the AI for the guys following you can't be perfect, and since you can only control one there are unavoidable problems there. But what they could have done is had it so that when you target an enemy (and it pauses) your teammates automatically go into combat mode if there are any enemies in their view (even if they are "out of range" -- they're in the range of your other character, after all, and like in BG you should be able to target things in the other players' action ranges!). Yes, they do eventually, but it could have been better.
I would also have liked to see customizable formations. That is, being able to tell your teammates where they should try to stay when you're wandering around... that would be a very helpful addition that is in BG. Would greatly help with this problem as well if the AI was good enough to keep up.
What it really gets down to is that I want to have complete tactical control of my party in combat and that's tough to do from third person. Sorry, OB1, it has nothing to do with me being bad at 3d games or something... it's just tough to be in three places at once, you know! Of course that leads right into my criticisms of the PC interface (as in, I want to be able to click on my other party members to switch to them while in combat and to be able to click on a location on the ground while paused and have the character move there after I unpause, whether I'm controlling them or not. The importance of this really cannot be understated. Think about it for a little while and you should be able to understand how much that would help... Much of the rest is just stuff to adjust to, not really flaws... except for things like that and not having the other members of your team react to combat nearly as quickly as would be good.).
I mean, what if you have two people in places you don't want them and want to urgently move both of them? In KotOR you simply cannot do that.