How to use combat time efficiently
Alonso
Member Posts: 806
Tl;dr: How do you know when a round ends in combat? The end of round auto pause doesn't pause at the end of rounds.
I have realized that my characters tend to waste a lot of time doing nothing when they are in combat. It happens most with spell casters. The reason is that some actions in the game cannot be done twice within the same round. I think those actions are: casting a spell, using an ability, using an item's special power, and using a potion. That means that if I want my guy to perform two of these actions, I have to wait a few seconds between the time he finishes the first one and the time he start the second. He could use that time to do other things, like moving around or attacking, but in most cases he just stays there doing nothing at all.
A simple example: My bard is attacking an enemy with magic missiles. As soon as he finishes casting one I tell him to cast another. The casting time of Magic Missile is 1, which means my guy spends just 0.6 casting the spell. Since he can't cast twice in the same round, he has to wait until the beginning of the next round to start casting the next spell. This means that each round he spends 0.6 seconds casting and 5.4 seconds doing nothing. Obviously that is very inefficient. He's wasting 90% of his time. He could use that time to attack with weapons, for instance.
The obvious solution is to use the option to autopause the game when a spell is cast. Thus, as soon as he finishes casting, the game pauses, I tell him to attack with a weapon, and he wastes no time being idle.
Unfortunately, this approach has a disadvantage: I don't know when he's going to be ready to cast a new spell. Since I'm managing the other party members at the same time, chances are that I will forget that he was meant to cast another spell, and he will just keep attacking with his weapon for a few more rounds. Depending on my strategy, it's quite possible that this is worse than wasting 90% of his time.
I thought that the solution for this would be to use the end of round autopause. However, I just discovered that, quite surprisingly, the end of round autopause doesn't pause at the end of the round (you can check this thread for the details).
My current approach is: For easy battles I ditch the autopause. They're going to waste a lot of time, but it doesn't matter because they're gonna win anyway. For difficult battles I check all the autopause options. I still don't know when each round ends, but the game pauses so often that it gives me time to check what's going on and give orders accordingly. However, this is far from perfect and also quite tedious.
So, finally, my question: Is there any way to know when the round ends and my guy is ready to cast again?
I have realized that my characters tend to waste a lot of time doing nothing when they are in combat. It happens most with spell casters. The reason is that some actions in the game cannot be done twice within the same round. I think those actions are: casting a spell, using an ability, using an item's special power, and using a potion. That means that if I want my guy to perform two of these actions, I have to wait a few seconds between the time he finishes the first one and the time he start the second. He could use that time to do other things, like moving around or attacking, but in most cases he just stays there doing nothing at all.
A simple example: My bard is attacking an enemy with magic missiles. As soon as he finishes casting one I tell him to cast another. The casting time of Magic Missile is 1, which means my guy spends just 0.6 casting the spell. Since he can't cast twice in the same round, he has to wait until the beginning of the next round to start casting the next spell. This means that each round he spends 0.6 seconds casting and 5.4 seconds doing nothing. Obviously that is very inefficient. He's wasting 90% of his time. He could use that time to attack with weapons, for instance.
The obvious solution is to use the option to autopause the game when a spell is cast. Thus, as soon as he finishes casting, the game pauses, I tell him to attack with a weapon, and he wastes no time being idle.
Unfortunately, this approach has a disadvantage: I don't know when he's going to be ready to cast a new spell. Since I'm managing the other party members at the same time, chances are that I will forget that he was meant to cast another spell, and he will just keep attacking with his weapon for a few more rounds. Depending on my strategy, it's quite possible that this is worse than wasting 90% of his time.
I thought that the solution for this would be to use the end of round autopause. However, I just discovered that, quite surprisingly, the end of round autopause doesn't pause at the end of the round (you can check this thread for the details).
My current approach is: For easy battles I ditch the autopause. They're going to waste a lot of time, but it doesn't matter because they're gonna win anyway. For difficult battles I check all the autopause options. I still don't know when each round ends, but the game pauses so often that it gives me time to check what's going on and give orders accordingly. However, this is far from perfect and also quite tedious.
So, finally, my question: Is there any way to know when the round ends and my guy is ready to cast again?
1
Comments
However, just playing the game enough will give you a good feel
Use the new "turn off cosmetic attacks" option to help.