OI! [tactical/combat] PAUSE!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record:

Yes, you can still pause, but only to access the weapons wheel and from there the favourites wheel (or general gameplay pause that takes you to the main menu via esc).

All this 'learn to play' stuff... you haven't read a single post in the thread, have you?

Of the people concerned about the removal of the tactical pause function we have:

a) people who have motor issues of one kind or another, who find it difficult to play fast action games either at all or for extended periods, for whom the tactical pause was their only real way of being able to engage with the game (either at all or in an enjoyable way)

people who used tactical pause because they enjoyed the strategy involved with commanding their squad mates to use certain powers in combination with their own (hence the name of the function - 'tactical pause')

Point b was part of what the initial trilogy was marketed around. Here was this action-rpg hybrid, that had strong narrative, a story where you could develop relationships, make a certain level of choices, develop your character in terms of both combat stats and personality to a degree, train your team in particular skills to compliment your own, and take your team into battle with you - whereby you acted as the commander of a squad, being able to control what powers they used and otherwise direct them on the battlefield akin to a leader shouting out orders in the heat of battle so that you worked efficiently as a team.

Some people didn't play it like that, and never used the tactical pause function - and that's absolutely fine. The game was designed so as to accommodate both styles of play. But now, the core squad mechanic that was an iconic feature of the franchise is being taken away. This benefits no one. Those who never used it would have continued not to use it were it still included. Those who did use it no longer can.

So, "learn to play without it" is an entirely moot point, because for most people it has nothing to do with low skill (although I freely admit there are some who don't have a great deal of skill when it comes to fast-paced action, and I defend their right to have options open to them too), but rather a) accessibility concerns, and a change to the fundamental concept behind being the leader of a squad as you go into battle.

I'm pretty sure I wouldn't tbh, even assuming it's something that was purely seated in lack of desire to adjust playstyle. Source: I'm me and as such can say I have never enjoyed a game more for not being able to pause.




I'm reminded of Failbetter which is a tiny studio yet they still went through the trouble of sending a questionnaire about accessibility to their fans and then built that feedback into their next game, so I feel like the least Bioware could do is not actively downgrade the ease with which people play their games. Especially since they're the ones who want to emphasize how inclusive they are, maybe that only goes so far as orientation and gender which are sexy and marketable but at least be less transparent about it.

Just to clarify, the problem isn't the lack of an ability to pause. It's the lack of a tactical pause that you can use to set up attacks, order squadmates and survey the battlefield.

Maybe Fredward could change the title of the thread to 'No tactical pause?' or similar, just for the benefit of people who can't spare a whole 30 seconds to read the OP before replying

Agreed. I forget that not everyone has my stamina, nor the time, to read an entire thread.

A clear sentence that this is about the ability to aim and/or assign squad commands from pause in the OP might do wonders (if anyone reads it).

Just to touch on Dark Souls earlier, I want to stress there is more to that series than mere difficulty.  There are easier ways to play the games and harder ways to play the games in the series.  I think it is more accurately unforgiving than hard, though the third  game is more twitchy than the first two (which are not twitchy).

In fact the first Dark Souls is more like a marriage of action RPG and Metroid to me, and that is the first thing I think about it rather than its difficulty.  Perhaps a better analogy would be gutting the stats of Dark Souls to focus on just action combat.  (Paying attention to stats in that series is extremely important.) 

Also, the series supports robust multiplayer or even NPC companions to mitigate the difficulty of most bosses if people desire it.  So it would be more like that series eliminating the ability to obliterate bosses with a team of cooperatively summoned players.  I emphasize this because many people may skip the Dark Souls series thinking it's only about the difficulty when it's actually an excellent action RPG series.  It's a pity the second and third don't have the Metroid-like interconnected world of the first, but they are all great games in my opinion.
Thanks. That's incredibly disappointing.  Normally I really don't like the bandwagon "they're taking out RPG elements" responses, but this seems exactly that to me.  Shooters are a dime a dozen.  This play style in this series was unique, and it's very disappointing if they gutted it, doubly so if you can't even command your squad members anymore.

Have to agree.  I can live with there being no time dilation if that is indeed the case...but not being able to pause, assess the battlefield as I mull over mine and my squadmates' power options/field positioning, and hand out exact orders to my squadmates while paused is beyond disappointing and to an extent hype killing for me personally   That playstyle was always so core to what I found enjoyable about the ME combat experience.

It does make some sense for the PC with only 3 powers at a time, but I'm not really feeling that either.  I guess we'll get a better idea of how it all works later this week.  I'm really hoping I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The lack of pause wouldn't be so bad if the combat itself didn't seem so rushed and frenetic. It looks like it will be much more difficult to keep track of what's going on than ME3, so the lack of pause makes it even harder.

To be honest, just the ability to move the camera around when you bring the weapon wheel up would help immensely to see where all the bad guys are, or who's shooting at you, where the nearest cover is to head for etc. etc.

It would also allow you to actually see all the cool rag-doll animations etc. frozen in place. I watched the video at 1/4 speed and all the animations etc. looked great but I didn't see a fraction of it at normal speed. If for no other reason the ability to move the camera while paused would let you take in all the cool stuff around you!

dont worry guys, modding will come to the rescue.

I'm concerned about how team executed detonations will work if we can't pause and tell our squadmates to use an ability. It would be nice to be able to control what powers are used by squadmates at certain moments. Otherwise biotic detonations, etc. would happen more by chance (being dependent on our squad's AI) rather than being in our control like they were in the other ME's, right?

So curious to see the next combat video

Bioware is just streamlining and making SP and MP match. Next game like many other game manufactures will be MP only. This is being going on for years. It saves lots of money not to invest in story arcs and such + many people just want to blast away anyways. Since Bioware made a name for themseves with good story arc games it takes them longer to cut it out but they will get there eventually. It is all about money and story arc RPG's will be more of a crowdfunding thing, at least I hope and doesn't disappear totally.