When playing a Baldur's Gate, I prefer to focus on the game. Besides, I would rather use my reflexes in case I encounter the enemies/get ambushed/spot a trap etc; than depending on auto-pause.
@ZelgadisGW , I prefer to think that although I have a party of six , I still have only two eyes . =D
I use auto-pause for enemy sighted, trap spotted, enemy killed, character killed. And I manually pause routinely quite a few times during combat anyway to get my bearings on the way things are going.
I play the game for it's strategic combat (among other things) and want to be a part of every decision. I also generally run with the AI off so I can micro manage such things as spells and consumables.
For me, I would be even happier if it were an actual turn based game like ToEE was.
I'm not even sure what you mean by "enemy attacks". If red circled toons are sighted, they *are* attacking. Did you mean "character attacked?" If you check both of these, the game will pause both when the enemy is sighted, and multiple other times as they target different members of your party. That's a *lot* of pausing, so I *don't* check "character attacked".
I always use auto-pause for "enemy sighted", "spell cast", and "trap found". "Spell cast" is especially helpful for maximizing round-to-round casting efficiency during the more difficult battles, where using every segment of every round can be the difference between life and death.
I always use auto-pause for enemy sighted or trap found. It seems like common sense to me. If one of the party sights an enemy then realistically in the game he's going to alert the others. I don't want my mind to be somewhere else when my party is already aware of something. Similarly with trap found. The thief sighting the trap is obviously not going to walk into it, but I might. The former is of course more realistic.
It's funny, but in playing BG2 this weekend something strange happened.
I was playing with 'Enemy spotted' auto-pause. I encountered a group of animals attacking and charmed one of them. After all the enemy was killed off (minus the charmed animal), a conversation sparked taking me into a dialogue box. While the dialogue took place, the charm ended. This did not cause the auto-pause to fire and the animal started attacking my party. They simply stood there and took the damage until I could extricate myself from the conversation.
I imagine it was like:
Charname: Who are you?
Shadow Thief: I am here to help you.
Yoshimo: Um, guys??
Charname: Help me how?
Shadow Thief: by giving you information on your current quest.
Yoshimo: Um.. ouch, ouch, ouch... GUYS!!!
Charname: What do you know of my quest?
Charname: And how can you help me?
Yoshimo: :::bleeding profusely::: groan!!!
Shadow Thief: I have information that, for a price, will help you find that which you seek.
Jan: Hey, look Yoshimo has sprung a leak. That reminds me of that time... Way back...
Using auto-pause for weapon unusable also makes a lot of sense. When a quiver of arrows is finished or a melee weapon is broken then I think the game doesn't have the NPC or PC make the adjustment automatically. What I mean by this is that on seeing weapon unusable for an NPC's ranged weapon, it most often means that a single quiver has been emptied. He still often has another quiver of arrows, but the melee screen shows just his fist and no ranged weapon. So it appears the NPC will not automatically start using the next quiver (which he would do auto- matically) and you have to do it for him. I believe that with a melee weapon he/she will also not auto-matically switch, but that would also be the reasonable thing to expect him to do whether the player is aware of it yet or not.
Also, you want to make sure that an NPC party member doesn't start using expensive +2 arrows or poison arrows on a couple of goblins just because one of his normal arrow quivers has been emptied. He realistically wouldn't do that.
I use Auto-Pause for Enemy sighted, Weapon Unusable, Party Member Dead, and Trap Found. These four features are essential for me to have fun in my game.
I always use auto-pause for enemy sited, find trap, and weapon unusable. I don't see why not. It's not like the game is designed very well with character pathing or reaction-time.
Otherwise my thief tends to accidentally walk over dangers he can see, and that's just plain dumb from an interface perspective and a role-play perspective.
Otherwise my thief tends to accidentally walk over dangers he can see, and that's just plain dumb from an interface perspective and a role-play perspective.
Not if he has an unconscious death wish.
Or if you tanked his INT because you thought it was a dump stat.
Otherwise my thief tends to accidentally walk over dangers he can see, and that's just plain dumb from an interface perspective and a role-play perspective.
Not if he has an unconscious death wish.
Or if you tanked his INT because you thought it was a dump stat.
Imoen, Safana, Shar-Teel and Alora are offended by your choice of pronoun.
Um, Women don't have Death wishes. Un-like men, women understand that it is better to drive the source of your misery into misery and make them wish for death rather than kill yourself.
Enemy sighted Spell Cast Trap found Weapon unusable Unit untargetable
Help maximise efficiency in combat. Attacking a target as soon as sighted so they won't murder me in 3 seconds without me doing anything. Spell Cast to maximise spell efficiency (esp. with Imp. Alacrity). Trap found because pausing & centring on finding unit helps me see it. Weapon unusable because I like Minute Meteors + Energy Blades + Ranged combat and don't want those guys charging with their fists out. Unit untargetable because switching targets as soon as they are dead. Though has the annoying effect of proccing upon unconscious sometimes.
Thanks for all the replies to this thus far, and apologies for a poorly designed poll (I was looking for specific info that's too narrow to match the average gaming style). I also never really tried any of these until just very recently, so the poll also reflects inexperience with the feature.
If I were to run a "Do You Use Auto-Pause? - Redux (More Options This Time)" which poll options would you like to see? Looks like
Enemy Sighted Trap Found
are really the main ones that most people use. Any suggestions for polls options for another go at this poll?
I find "Spell cast" extremly usefull in powergaming, as it gives better micro. "Weapon unuseable" as well, since it activates when you run out af MMMs and the like.
Comments
I play the game for it's strategic combat (among other things) and want to be a part of every decision. I also generally run with the AI off so I can micro manage such things as spells and consumables.
For me, I would be even happier if it were an actual turn based game like ToEE was.
I'm not even sure what you mean by "enemy attacks". If red circled toons are sighted, they *are* attacking. Did you mean "character attacked?" If you check both of these, the game will pause both when the enemy is sighted, and multiple other times as they target different members of your party. That's a *lot* of pausing, so I *don't* check "character attacked".
I always use auto-pause for "enemy sighted", "spell cast", and "trap found". "Spell cast" is especially helpful for maximizing round-to-round casting efficiency during the more difficult battles, where using every segment of every round can be the difference between life and death.
I was playing with 'Enemy spotted' auto-pause. I encountered a group of animals attacking and charmed one of them. After all the enemy was killed off (minus the charmed animal), a conversation sparked taking me into a dialogue box. While the dialogue took place, the charm ended. This did not cause the auto-pause to fire and the animal started attacking my party. They simply stood there and took the damage until I could extricate myself from the conversation.
I imagine it was like:
Charname: Who are you?
Shadow Thief: I am here to help you.
Yoshimo: Um, guys??
Charname: Help me how?
Shadow Thief: by giving you information on your current quest.
Yoshimo: Um.. ouch, ouch, ouch... GUYS!!!
Charname: What do you know of my quest?
Charname: And how can you help me?
Yoshimo: :::bleeding profusely::: groan!!!
Shadow Thief: I have information that, for a price, will help you find that which you seek.
Jan: Hey, look Yoshimo has sprung a leak. That reminds me of that time... Way back...
Also, you want to make sure that an NPC party member doesn't start using expensive +2 arrows or poison arrows on a couple of goblins just because one of his normal arrow quivers has been emptied. He realistically wouldn't do that.
Always.
Otherwise my thief tends to accidentally walk over dangers he can see, and that's just plain dumb from an interface perspective and a role-play perspective.
Or if you tanked his INT because you thought it was a dump stat.
:P
Shar-Teel especially.
You'd better start running, friend.
But I do use "Spell cast" and "Trap found"
Spell Cast
Trap found
Weapon unusable
Unit untargetable
Help maximise efficiency in combat.
Attacking a target as soon as sighted so they won't murder me in 3 seconds without me doing anything.
Spell Cast to maximise spell efficiency (esp. with Imp. Alacrity).
Trap found because pausing & centring on finding unit helps me see it.
Weapon unusable because I like Minute Meteors + Energy Blades + Ranged combat and don't want those guys charging with their fists out.
Unit untargetable because switching targets as soon as they are dead. Though has the annoying effect of proccing upon unconscious sometimes.
If I were to run a "Do You Use Auto-Pause? - Redux (More Options This Time)" which poll options would you like to see? Looks like
Enemy Sighted
Trap Found
are really the main ones that most people use. Any suggestions for polls options for another go at this poll?
"Weapon unuseable" as well, since it activates when you run out af MMMs and the like.
I think Enemy Sighted/Weapon Unusable is also very popular.