OI! [tactical/combat] PAUSE!

I think the main reason is likely to streamline it with multiplayer.Like you I'm not interested in MP but I can certainlyunderstand their thinking behind it though. Generally speaking in my case although I don't like it I think I can adapt but then I'm on PC which does give me a little room to maneuver when compensating for such things. Are you on PC or console? Because if your on console I can see the reason's why you might be stuck but on PC I've already come up with a plan that'll likely allow me to compensate for it.

I'm super grumpy about it, but I acknowledge they haven't yet shown us what they're replacing it with so I'm not getting entirely pitchforks at dawn about it yet.

The 'pause to command squad' function has been what I'd consider the iconic symbol of BioWare combat for the last decade, and as the OP rightly points out is something that has enabled BW games to remain accessible to people of different skill and physical abilities. For example, BW games have remained accessible to certain physically disabled people precisely because of the ability to take combat at a slow pace, without needing to have lightning reflexes to push the right button at the right time. Now, if the ME series had never had that mechanic, this wouldn't be a problem, because no one would expect it, just as they don't in myriad other games. But it has been the defining feature of ME combat since the beginning, so to remove it now (and to not widely publicise that it has been removed) will surprise quite a lot of people, and most assuredly anger a few who relied on it.

Just because something works in multiplayer doesn't mean it's the right thing for singleplayer. Many people have demonstrated their ability to switch between the two modes with no problem, so I don't understand the argument about unifying them so they are the same experience. In fact, there are plenty of people who have absolutely no interest in MP and never will do, and want the SP experience to be conducted at their own pace. What's so confusing is that in previous games pausing was entirely optional anyway, and I've heard from plenty of people who never once used it. The presence of the pause option didn't impinge on their ability to not pause. But of course, removing the pause feature impinges on the ability of people who rely on it to be able to use it, since, you know, it doesn't exist anymore.

And what of squad mates? By the time the next game comes out, will we even have them? Will they just be random tag-alongs, hired guns who make the occasional amusing quip? Because the point of having squad mates in combat is that you can utilise them as an extension to your power set, ordering them to set a primer that you detonate a second later. I can see how we can easily command squad mates to 'attack my target' or 'move to point' without a pause function, but how can we reliably fire off all their abilities and our own during live action with only limited gamepad keys? Does it mean we won't be able to directly order them to use overload against target X at the time of our choosing so we can charge into them a moment later? Does it mean we'll have to set up tactics a la Dragon Age and simply hope they get it right and magically know that the shielded enemy who just popped up from around the corner is the one I want to charge and therefore need them to strip the shields of right this second? Because that's a recipe for frustration.

Are we eventually going to be setting up all our own combos? Are we going to be a lone soldier, rather than the commander of a squad? If so, the series will have lost something that defined its combat and set it apart from every other action shooter out there. And I think that will be a huge shame.

But as I said, they haven't yet shown us what they're putting in the place of 'pause and command your squad' - maybe it'll be amazing and invite an even greater level of squad control than ever before...

It is going to take some getting used to. I am doing some more Hugh octane shooter games to try to help train myself to better get passed the learning curve, though.

ME3 works perfect with pause in SP and no pause in MP, it could be the same for MEA,
we will have to think and react faster in this game then

Is this a definite thing/has BioWare stated it? If it is there is no reasonable explanation for it because all the previous titles had it, but, and this is the key distinction here, it was completely optional. As a few others have already stated in this thread Mass Effect's gameplay flexibility has always been one if it's greatest selling points. It would be absolutely ridiculous for them not to have it and will guarantee nothing but less sales. Longtime fans that needed/utilized this mechanic will be turned off by its absence and new gamers (including the impaired) just coming into the series might not stick around long because they can't manage the mechanics (regardless of difficulty).

This is my concern also. Heck, I'll be honest, I sometimes had to use the pause function just to move my squad into position.. though I used to command my squad a lot more in ME2 than I did in ME3. This just cements my usual practice of starting on casual until I learn the new game controls/mechanics. 

yeah thankfully I play on casual anyway so it's not too bad for me.

The difference between MP and SP, though, is that in MP there are other human players strategising alongside you. You can choose to be in contact with them via voice chat, and you can work together tactically to ensure victory. Or you can just plug away relying on your own powers, which is, I expect, how the majority of people play it.

In SP, the combat has been set up so that your squad are an extension of you. Sure, you can just go about it as though you're a lone player, and ignore that you have squad mates altogether, and succeed perfectly well, and that's a valid way to play, but that's not why this squad combat system was designed in the first place - it was so that players could command their squad to synergise skills in combat and to bring a level of strategy to what would otherwise be just another shooter. If you want to play it as just another shooter where you only have to rely on  your own skills, that's fair enough, but there are lots of people who've never approached the ME games in that way, and consider the squad system the defining symbol of Mass Effect combat.

So sure, you can already play singleplayer just like you play multiplayer - but then, what's the point of having squad mates at all?

From what I have seen the aiming assist is very generous, but it could just be me seeing things that are not there. I think that would be the way I would make up for it if I was BW though.

where you are sad, I'm happy. good riddance pause. This is more fluid, something we need more of. It's like water.

I am glad to see I am not the only one who would miss a tactical pause option. Bioware seems to go for a very fast paced combat, and while many players love this kind of gameplay, I find it very frustrating. Sure, you can lower the difficulty, but that feels like admitting you are too stupid/slow to play the game properly. Different people play ME for very different reasons, and combat has never been my personal priority, so I can live with it, but I don't like the general direction they are pushing the ME-franchise, from RPG (sort of) to action game with flashy combat, but little else.

I've played MP, I've even solo'd a bit. For me, it's not only about accessibility (although that can't be ignored considering the broad range of players BW has attracted in the past), nor about being able to get the hang of playing without pausing. It's about the idea of strategy and the reason for squad mates being used in combat alongside you to begin with.

If you take away the ability to strategically use squad mates and their skills in combination with and to synergise with your own, it becomes a game where you focus only on your own skills set in combat and nothing else. Some people do that already, and ignore their squad mates, let them do their own thing, and that's fine. But up to this point ME was never designed to solely be that experience. Remove in-battle squad strategy and that becomes the only option. And in the next game, perhaps we won't have any control over our squad at all, they won't show up on our hud, and will just be there to shoot alongside us and give a few words of wisdom during cut scenes.

You know, in a way it's a decision that has been timed incredibly well. It reflects perfectly our cultural and political times - the move towards people reflecting inwards on the individual, at the expense of cooperation.