I used the IE AI scripts for fighter-types because I had no desire to micromanage having a man walk up to something and stab it (and/or plink with a bow from a distance). There was plenty to manage with the back row casting team as it was. Of course, in this game even the fighters have manually triggered powers, so I can’t see wanting to have the AI use that, really.
stusser
1624
I would like them to use most of their per-encounter powers automatically. Not CCs, but abilities like fighter unbroken, monk swift strikes, cipher and priest buffs and debuffs, ranger marked prey, and wizard arcane assault. And of course, they should use potions and heal when hurt.
Rob, that will indeed be very difficult. The experience bonus is only 5% for each missing character. Get all 6. If you don’t want to micromanage all 6, simply let the strays autoattack. That’s what I do.
I would be remiss with all this talk of AI to not point out that the only real reason we don’t have AI scripts is a lack of resources (time, money, etc.), and not because the developers didn’t want them. But they are planning on addressing the lack of AI scripts at some point (no idea what that looks like, though).
Rob, good luck! I think it will get pretty challenging, but then again there are folks playing Path of the Damned, Expert Mode, and Iron Man with just a single character, so it may well be possible (one assumes) to play on Hard with just 4 guys. You should level up a bit faster, too, I imagine. Once you get more comfortable with 4 guys, maybe add a 5th into the mix and go from there?
The biggest issue I have with combat is the visuals–it’s hard to see what’s going on, and the effects overwhelm the data indicators on the characters, and even the characters themselves. And there’s the environment blocking stuff too. I like the micromanagement generally, but that’s also alleviate a bit by the engagement system, so once your tanks are holding the line you don’t have to do much with them except pop an ability once in a while. Micro is essential for the squishies and the ranged though, I’ve found.
Keeping a Wiz alive means moving around the periphery of the battle and hoping no enemy detaches and beelines to you. When the Wiz gets in the scrum it’s toast time.
I restarted with an Orlan Ranger/Wolf, and am having a much better time of it. My Dwarf Paladin I shelved and may not go back to him, as the Ranger is so much more fun. I also picked up and completed a couple of quests very early on that I had missed, so I think I’m in decent shape.
One thing that is sort of less than optimal is itemization. There is a huge gap between normal or Fine weapons and the fancy named stuff, a gap I guess is supposed to be filled by enchanting. It’s just that you go for ages without finding anything really better than what you are using, and the named stuff is wicked expensive. Still, there are a few gems in there to be found, and I do love the inclusion of a variety of weapons not normally seen in these sorts of games.
ShivaX
1627
AI that did nothing good other than auto attack. Otherwise it ran around aimlessly and got in AoEs.
Placement of spells is fine for me but I’m having a devil of a time with timing spells
So your main character dying restores you back to square one?
So this is just some devious homage to Planescape Torment then…
Yes, that is the complete lack of AI at work. What I do is select all (I bound mousebutton 4 to this) and force attack a single enemy at the start of the battle. Actually, you need to do that twice, once when it autopauses upon sighting an enemy, and again once it autopauses when combat actually starts. For some reason that second pause sometimes resets the attack direction.
There’s an auto-pause setting which cancels party movement on sight or combat start - when I switched that off (on combat start) I didn’t have this issue any more.
I actually really enjoyed the AI scripts in the BG games and in the Dragon Age games.
I sometimes like to think of my little guys as having minds and lives of their own, and I’m only giving them the occasional overview command, or when things get tricky.
I sort of enjoy the “wind 'em up and watch 'em go” aspect of the AI scripts, I wish developers would delve into that a bit further, it could be its own gameplay thing, different from inhabiting and roleplaying a character.
I sort of enjoy the “wind 'em up and watch 'em go” aspect of the AI scripts, I wish developers would delve into that a bit further, it could be its own gameplay thing, different from inhabiting and roleplaying a character.
It was totally its own gameplay thing in FFXII. Lots of people hated it, but it was my favourite thing about the game.
stusser
1633
There’s a happy medium between no AI at all and complete automation ala Dungeon Siege. The AI in Baldur’s Gate 2 is exactly what I want; it wasn’t completely braindead but you were much more effective when you managed your characters yourself.
Yeah, I’d be cool even with some “drink potion X when Y” type of things to play with. I wish potions could be drunk outside of combat - or at least make drinking them faster. Maybe there should be a "Chug!’ talent that makes potion drinking an instant. I’d get that for a few of my characters!
I enjoyed building behaviour-character by nesting conditions. Of course it sometimes went wonky, probably because too complex, but it was very gratifying when they behaved the way I wanted, and when it didn’t work it was often hilarious - sometimes, almost like real people blundering.
zombo77
1636
Is there a vendor somewhere that sells diamonds?
stusser
1637
Yes, and PoE clearly has AI, or the enemies would just sit there not attacking too! They just didn’t get the UI working for players and/or didn’t manage to write player scripts. Hopefully in a future patch.
I really do see this as a notable flaw in the game, when compared to those titles that originally inspired it. I’m still enjoying PoE, don’t get me wrong. But this is one of very few spots, bugs aside (those will always happen, and PoE is less buggy than any previous Obsidian game), where they truly failed in implementation, where they failed to equal or surpass Infinity engine games that came before.
Gendal
1638
Man did I love that. Dragon age was all set to top it in ever way but then they went and screwed everything up by limiting it by level.
A system taking the best of FFXII and Origins AI implemented in PoE would be incredible (to me and 5 other people)
WarrenD
1639
I really got a lot of use and enjoyed playing with the Battle AI Mod that Tony K made for Neverwinter Nights, if they can come up with something close to the function of that, perfect for me.
FFXII is so underrated. Loved that game.
Yeah, can’t wait for the PS4 remaster. Way more exciting than bloody FFVII PC port. Though I’m sure Squenix will manage to mess it up somehow.
Sarkus
1642
There’s a little sunburst type icon on the character portrait for chanters with a number in it. When it hits three you can see that he’s ready to cast. I’m not sure what else they could have done, though I agree that its the kind of thing where being able to script NPC actions would be very valuable at.
The thing is that this game doesn’t really give you much of a tutorial about how the different classes work. I guess they figure you’ll read the manual (as if!) They’ve changed enough from standard D&D that I suspect I and a lot of other players are nowhere near doing things right in a number of ways as a result. But I’m still having fun, so I don’t really care.
