Someone suggested Pillars of Eternity on my last blog, and I noticed from initial scanning of Google Images it looked like a.. Next-Gen type of DS, I suppose. Same game play style.
Then I watched the Angry Joe Review, If you haven't seen Angry Joe by the way, you'll love him, just search him up on Youtube.
I noticed something about half-way through the video that never really occured to me before. Dungeon Siege 2 has very little micromanaging. It's safe to say that most people play on Mirror or Rampage mode rather than on Wait mode, right? Well, even if you pause the game and plan out attacks, it takes a while, and the only thing you can REALLY decide with precision is power usage.
So that got me thinking; DS2 as I've heard is built similarly, if differently, from the original. Similarly enough so to where a lot of the tricks for original DS modding work for DS2.
Could we bring in at LEAST the same amount of micromanaging as the original offered?
GRRR.
Setting each characters aggression and movement individually made it incredibly easy to have them act generally how I want them to. I can tell you that healers would be much more effective if they were set to not be distracted by enemies and just heal the party, while everyone else handles the monsters. That could arguably be accomplished by having the active spell be a heal or resurrect spell while having a heal be in the autocast, but that just feels messy.
PROTECT ME, YOU FOOLS!
I've noticed, too, that whenever you set a character to be 'Guarded' and unless you're the Hero character, as soon as you switch from them they'll go back to guarding the Hero. Can we make it so that each character can be set to guard a specific character? I'd very much like Yoren or Lothar to be hanging around Taar consistently. Similarly, I'd like to have Deru or Vix watch Raymus' back while he's in the thick of it.
YOU'RE NOT AS HANDSOME AS HE IS, I CAN'T HELP YOU.
Setting independent character priorities, this will relate to the guarding feature. Raymus is fully capable of handling himself, even in a cluster-storm of evil critters gnawing at his face and body and such. Meanwhile Taar needs to have constant defense because.. well, I mean, obviously. This would tie in to the defenses that you set just fine, because even if you set Deru to watch your Hero, you can have them go to defend Taar instead when she reaches below %50 health, or something. Similarly, you could have Taar focus on healing your Hero, before anyone else.
THAT ONE!
What about that feature from the original DS where you can set each character to target a certain type of foe first? If they are the closest, if they are the weakest, or if they are the strongest? This would work beautifully in Rampage mode in DS2.
ESCAPO! ESCAPO! ESCAPO!
Have it so you can Toggle follower's bravery. If any character that you are not currently controlling falls below a certain amount of Health, or has the ire of a certain amount of enemies, you can have them flee automatically away from them. Granted, this could have your followers blundering into OTHER groups of enemies, but this could create some interesting situations and would likely work out more often than not.
HERE'S YOUR DELIVERY, SIR. SIGN HERE..
When someone runs low or out of potions, potions that you have previously decided through a menu or something that this character needs to always possess, a follower with the largest amount of those potions will give you a few. Could be a set amount, 2 or 3, could be a set size, small to colossal, could be a random amount. Etc, etc..
Because I don't believe potions can be used from other character's inventories, though I might be wrong, in which case I fail to realise the point of personal inventories at that point, Lmao.
IT'S AS EASY AS ONE, TWO, THREE! ... FOURFIVESIXSEVEN.
Macros! Have certain hotkeys activate pre-planned Macros' in which characters will use a certain spell, a certain combination of spells, a certain power, a certain combination of powers, to a certain type of enemy (Closest/Weakest/Toughest/Ugliest).
Granted, I can see this one as being skipped, and I wouldn't mind, I just figured it was too obvious not to mention.
And for christssake, make resurrect work as an auto-cast. I don't think it's beyond the power of DS2, really.
I'm sure there are others, but nothing I could come up with on the spot.
And no, these aren't projects I would pursue myself (yet) because the last thing I plan on doing (yet) is learning anything to do with coding or numbers or what-have-you. Not until I'm out of school..
... Or at least out of Math.
