No Wait! Hear me out first.
First of all, let me be clear. This is not a rage thread but one made out of pure perplexity. The above is an obvious exaggeration yes, but my experience with the AI tactics today really reflects my state of mind during the gameplay.
So, Nightmare mode FF on, Adamant Fortress and the Fade. I haven't defeated the Aspect yet and I don't think I can because I started the entire mission at level 9 with randomly found gear(I barely even touched Hinterlands). Sadly, most of the difficulty was not because of the enemies and their "hardness" but because of how utterly incapable my party felt. This was the first time in a Dragon Age game where I knew I could do better but I couldn't because of the lack of options given to me regarding the AI.
By default, party members always and I mean always follow the player, even in combat. Even the bloody tank! There was a fight before the Fade sequence. It was against the Wardens and a Pride demon. What made that fight annoying was the continuous Red Lyrium spit from Corypheus' dragon. What made it irritating was the fact that everytime Blackwall got hit by the spit while he was fighting the Pride demon, he tried to get around the AoE but instead of going back to the demon, he was following my controlled character around and brought the demon to me.
Stroud and Hawke were of no use either because again, they were following me instead of just attacking the enemy and doing their thing. But the real kicker was when they drank four out of 8 potions in the Fade the moment I touched a supply cache. The f7ck? You guys aren't even remotely useful but you want our share?
So, what happened to the Tactics system? Why was it butchered like that? It was the one thing I loved about DA 2 over DA:O. Having the ability to set specific commands to AI party members for specific conditions was what allowed me to actually have fun in DA 2. That ability made the AI seem intelligent and allowed them to work with the player, and not force him to babysit them(unless they're a melee rogue).
I remember the time when I burst into laughter in the middle of the night when I saw Varric let loose his explosive arrow right into Fenris and the cluster of enemies he was surrounded by, only to see Fenris unharmed because that very moment he used his ability to block the damage and effects. That small tactic worked 90% of the time and brought a smile to my face everytime it happened.
Then there was Merril who switched to Blood Magic when her mana hit 10% and deactivated it when her health hit 50%, with drinking a potion as a follow up because I allowed only her to drink potions at 50%.
These are just small examples but they were really the ones that me revisit DA combat, let alone play at Nightmare. And this is coming from someone who plays RPGs for their stories on the lowest difficulty and dislikes min-maxing gear, crafting and all that.
The synergy between my characters in combat was so good that I even wanted a mod that would allow me to have all four members acting on Tactics alone that I set, with me occasionally dropping in to change something that wasn't working. I wanted it because they were so good when the right tactic combinations were set, even better than me because my reaction time was slower than the AI.
But now?
Blackwall: Hey player, I need a potion cause I was just standing there like an idiot without blocking or attacking the enemy. *gulp*(-1 potion)
Player: *switches to Blackwall, gets him to block*
Inquisitor: *wastes Barrier on random party member*
Player: Aw sh!t *switches back to Inquisitor*
Vivienne: I can't see. *moves really close to the enemy cause she can't target them and is about to die from the enemy's AoE*
Player: Crap! *switches to Vivenne and presses the area to move to*
Vivienne: *ignores player orders, continues to cast* Hey, don't break my streak. Let me cast this one spell and I'll move. *dies*
Blackwall: (-4 potions) I know you prefer that I use WarCry to generate guard but I like Shield Bash better.
*Player turns into Despair demon after the inevitable party wipe*
I can't trust them with potions, I can't trust them with abilities or even movement. Some people may think that I'm blowing this out of proportion but I'm not. Their small mistakes seem small when the difficulty isn't much. But when it's a real challenge, even their smallest mistakes can take significant effort on the player's side to make up for. The effort that should not be made in the first place.
I just can't trust AI with anything. And that's because there's no proper tools to control them with. Either you shut off AI in the most challenging scenarios which pretty much defeats the point of having these party members, or crawl through the battles not because the enemies are tough but because your party is so unreliable that you have to keep tabs on each and everyone of them, every bloody second. The slap in the face is when they ignore orders and continue to cast or act however they were about to, when player commands should've overwritten the actions.
Look, I understand Bioware had limited budget to work with but this is not something they should have ignored. Maybe it was hard for them with the engine change and everything but come on guys, you've had three years and you couldn't make the effort to continue the tradition of Tactics and reliable AI?
Combat is the most significant part of your game, with party combat as your focus. So when you put the least amount of effort into something that has a significant role to play in the game and directly affects the gameplay, you are really betraying your own devised system. Out of all the things that were sacrificed to bring the "bling bling" to DA:I, this one hit the hardest for me.
I could play in Nightmare after picking up a specialization or craft gear to make the game easier but it won't change the fact that I'm not playing at my best because of horrible AI. I made this thread so I could give you honest feedback about something I used to enjoy putting time into, which was stripped of all its fun features from the previous games, to make way for whatever you thought was more important. I didn't make this thread to annoy you guys to fix it in the game. I don't think it can be fixed at this point, but please try to remember this one fan's displeasure of DA:I's AI system and his request to bring back the traditional Tactics system to DA.
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