Time elapse in shop screen

caruga

Not continuously as a normal unpaused game, but as a 'leap' of, say, 1 round of time on every sale or purchase.

Reason being (beside, arguably, a touch more realism) that I think the 'friends' spell should have a chance to wear off during bartering.

Elys

I have to disagree with that. I don't want my shopping experience to become a browsing click speed race
I want to be able to read item descriptions without worrying about a timer.

caruga

I have to disagree with that. I don't want my shopping experience to become a browsing click speed race
I want to be able to read item descriptions without worrying about a timer.

It wouldn't be: if you read carefully and not just the topic title, you'll see it says that time doesn't elapse until you click something.

And it goes without saying that these suggestions would be toggled on or off in the options, so it wouldn't intrude on your gaming experience as you could just opt to have it vanilla BG behaviour.

Elys

Well you also a click to read descriptions .. Just kidding, I see what you mean (removed my "Disagree").
I still does not like the idea, but I have nothing against an optional alternative

Senash

Seeing that game time passess faster than "normal" time, and in reality shopping wouldn't take more then an hour (and it that case you really checke everything in the store, talked to the shop keeper, discussed purchases with the group, and generally took your time), I say it's better if time stops. Like @Elys said, you need time to read descriptions, make decisions. Your alternative solution, to connect time passing to items purchased or by clicking is weird and even more unrealistic in my mind (what if u just run in there pick up a scroll of identification, let's say, which would take the same time as carefully choosing a strong magical item for which you have just enough money).

caruga

Seeing that game time passess faster than "normal" time, and in reality shopping wouldn't take more then an hour (and it that case you really checke everything in the store, talked to the shop keeper, discussed purchases with the group, and generally took your time), I say it's better if time stops. Like @Elys said, you need time to read descriptions, make decisions.

You get the same amount of RL time, there is no sense of urgency, only a need to economize how one interacts with the shopkeeper. If you want to keep your buffs (if you have any) it adds to the gameplay to interact 'well' and 'efficiently' rather than anyhow.

Your alternative solution, to connect time passing to items purchased

There was no alternative solution, that was the idea. That's the second person not to have read carefully... did I really word it that poorly? I only see one form of the idea described in the OP.

Disagree with my the idea by all means but at least make sure you're parsing it correctly first.

or by clicking is weird and even more unrealistic in my mind (what if u just run in there pick up a scroll of identification, let's say, which would take the same time as carefully choosing a strong magical item for which you have just enough money).

So you're saying time freezing is more realistic than time passing in chunked durations that might not be consistent with how long item-browsing would plausably take?

I say in either case, the 'realism' of it isn't something you will notice. The metronome will 'jump' on transactions and you'll see and hear status effects wear off where relevent. Your brain won't be calculating whether an appropriate time has passed since you cannot perceive it.

But if it really matters, one could take note of time passage on the bartering window and use a figure derived from that rather than a fixed one. That would fix what you pose as a problem, but it would mean you can't treat the game as paused when viewing the bartering window (of course, you could pause the game manually--or maybe it could freeze time passage if you're 'idle' for more than a minute on there, hmm that gives me an idea...).

Regardless of its implementation, one way or another I think time should pass during bartering and trading.

Coming to think of it, it should pass during inventory manipulation too, but rather than continuous (BG1) style (and as two of you thought I was suggesting with bartering), again it should update only when items are moved around. I think this ties in well with my suspended inventory idea.

I think what could put a stop to this idea is the technical limitations; whether game-state can be 'fast-forwarded' and then graphically refreshed. I'm not sure if the engine is economical enough and the computers of today fast enough to make it happen near-instantly.

Senash

There was no alternative solution, that was the idea. That's the second person not to have read carefully... did I really word it that poorly? I only see one form of the idea described in the OP.

Maybe my wording was the one which was incorrect, sorry for that What I meant was your solution to the time problem,other than how it is or how it could be otherwise (exacfly like BG1 inventory). I pretty sure I understand you well but I still don't like the idea that time should pass according to items purchased.

About the inventory screen:
continous is too fast considering the amount of time a usual player spend there. But while I can see your point with the purchasing window (even though I disagree with it), I'm strongly against passing time based on items moved around,since when you are trying to optimize weight sharing between the party members, some items are moved many times. Although I have to agree on that,that it did bug me a bit that after spending 15 or more IRL minutes looting and managing my inventory, I had go realize that no in-game time has passed...

If ther would be some time passing to.be implemented,I would go with continous,but significantly slowed time passing in inventory and shop screen.