OI! [tactical/combat] PAUSE!

Perhaps @[BIO]Tiberius could help us lost souls out and shed some light on the reasoning behind the apparent removal of tactical pause?

Pretty please, Ian?

Apparently there is no combat pause, this makes me sad as I can see literally zero reason for it to be dropped and it presents a hurdle wrt accessibility for people like moi with shitty reflexes and response time, not even mentioning people who just like to pause to assess the battlefield.

What do you think the reasons for dropping it is? It can't be engine limitations as it was present in DAI and that was also in Frostbite. The only thing I can think of is if there's some kind of seamless multiplayer shenanigans and if that's the case SOMETHING IS ROTTEN IN EDMONTON. I want nothing to do with multiplayer and if it's the cause of the long lost pause I am going to be in quite the tizzy.

This, to me, is the most frustrating part. Why would you remove a feature when there is literally no downside to doing so? What, to streamline everyone into playing how you want, instead of how they want (and how they could in all previous games)? Unfortunately, this is something Bioware has done a few times recently, with DA:I and ME:A, and I find it vexing.

Here's the new radial menu:


As you can see, it is now used for consumables (ammo powers) and weapon-switching. Only. But why? Here are the ME1/3 power wheels:



There are tons of powers available there, so you can't tell me it's because there wouldn't be room for everything; there already was. The original trilogy actually had two radial menus, the other had weapon-selection. On console, these were accessed by holding two of the power hotkeys instead of pressing them. We know that some or all powers in ME:A have alternate effects when held, so obviously you couldn't employ this system again, but that's fine, ME:A also only allows for 3 active powers. That means you only need the space of one radial menu, which they already have.

I don't get it. Why not let us do what we could in previous games and let us command our squadmates' use of powers to allow for better synergy and tactics? What is the advantage of limiting us and ending up with something less strategic? I don't buy that it's because of MP, because ME3 still had the radial menu in SP despite not having one in MP, and people (including me) had no problem switching between the two modes. I know I probably sound like a broken record by now, but I really just don't understand.

For me, this problem also overlaps with the newly-imposed 3-power limit. Why limit us to 3 active powers when we could use more in the original trilogy via hotkeys on the PC or radial menu on console? I said the exact same thing after DA:I was released with an 8-power limit when previous games had no limit. If each series had a limit since the beginning, it would be an entirely different discussion. But they didn't, and now they're arbitrarily imposing one, which makes it a flat-out downgrade. If there's something I can't stand, it's regression.

Lastly, we combine these factors: Not only are we limited to 3 active powers, but we can't "borrow" from our squadmates to setup combos or synergize in general. So instead of going from controlling somewhere in the realm of 10+ powers (enough to cover any given situation), we get 3. Yay? I'm not a fan of this gradual removal of tactical options from Bioware games of late. I try not to be a downer, but getting rid of attribute points and tactics in DA:I, limiting our powers in DA:I and ME:A, giving us almost no control over squadmates in ME:A... It's not the direction I hoped they'd go.

I used the radial menu all the time in the trilogy. Sure I didn't have to, but why remove an optional feature for no benefit? No benefit and some downsides. Not just for my playstyle, but for people with disabilities or who need to or would rather take the game at a slower pace? It's hardly fair to them

So again, I ask: Why?

As an aside, I'm not too hyped about ammo powers being consumables now. It's not nearly as irksome as the above, but it's just another thing to manage on top of limited-use powers such as grenades.

Here's the thing -- for you it's more enjoyable to not use pause. For others it is more enjoyable to use pause. 

Keeping pause in means you get to not use pause, and I get to use pause. We are both happy.

Taking pause out means you don't have to use pause, and I don't get to use pause. You are happy. I am not happy.

On the subject of tactics, when I talk about it it's specifically from the point of view of how the squad system was created to begin with: that is, you were the commander of a squad, and you picked your squad (and trained your squad, by picking their powers) to compliment your own skills in battle. Then, as was the design of the entire system, you could directly command your squad to use specific skills in the heat of battle, at the time of your choosing, so as to best synergise with the ones you were going to use, or to best synergise with each other.

This isn't about tactics in the sense of "move here" or "I trained this squad mate in reave so they can use it if they want" but rather "I am the commander of this squad and I am shouting out orders on the battlefield as the battle unfolds, telling my squad '10 o'clock! Centurion! Overload!' so that I can immediately charge into them and cause damage."

If you don't play that way, that's great. But the original system was designed around that concept, and it's not unreasonable to expect a certain fraction of players will see that as emblematic of Mass Effect's combat, and will be disappointed to see it being left behind and your squad being relegated to gun-carriers who don't really need to be there.