First, understand that you don't do anything with the tactics menu while in combat. It is a list of rules that the selected character will follow whenever they are in combat, so you don't open it while in combat, you set it up before combat. Imagine that it is a series of "If...then..." rules.
For my example, here are some tactic rules you might set up for a rogue:
1. IF my health drops below 50%, THEN drink the weakest health potion in our inventory.
2. IF I am surrounded by 3 or more enemies, THEN use my "Dual Weapon Sweep" attack.
3. IF the health of my enemy is greater than 90%, THEN use my "Dirty Fighting" stun attack..
During combat, the computer CONSTANTLY checks to see if any of the IF conditions you set up for each character in their tactics window are true. It starts with the condition on the top of the list and goes through them in order until it finds one that is true. When it finds one that is true, it stops there and executes the command you have associated with that condition. NOTE: If a condition evaluates to true but the skill it wants to execute is on cool down, it will skip over it and go to the next condition in the list.
There is no manual intervention needed by you and there is no noticeable effect going on since the compute does these checks (presumably) many times every second of combat.
So, in the example of the the tactics for a rogue that I listed above, here are some scenarios that might play out:
(NOTE: I use the term "rounds" to mean the passes that the computer makes through the tactics rules. I do not mean to bring to mind the turn-based games like NWN where you have rounds of play.)
ROUND 1
Lets assume we go into combat and I don't give my rogue any instructions other than she is free to move on her own. I have set her "Behavior" setting to"Default" which means that she will not attack visible enemies unless she is attacked first.
Now let's assume that she gets hit by a lightning bolt which drops her health to 51% and at the same time she is surrounded by three bad guys. Two of the baddies are at 100% health, but the other one is at 5% health after having been it by an AOE on the way to get me. What happens? Let's do what the computer does and find out.
Is the the condition for rule #1 true? No, my character is NOT below 50% health, so the computer moves on to rule number 2.
Is the condition for rule number 2 true? Yes. She is surrounded by at least 3 enemies. Since this rule is true, the computer stops right there and makes my rogue execute the command I associated with the rule that is true, which, in this case, is "use my Dual Weapon Sweep attack." So my rogue uses that skill.
Does the computer ever get to rule number three on this split second pass through the rules? No. It stopped at rule 2 because it was true and it executed the rule two instructions. Now the computer starts over and does another check as soon as I am done with me Dual Weapon Sweep move (which is over in a split second anyway).
ROUND 2
Let's assume that during the time when I did my Dual Weapon Sweep move, I got hit by one of the enemies and I am now at 50% health and that I hit all three of my enemies. One of them died and the other two are at 92% health now. (Got to love Dual Weapon Sweep!) What does the computer do now? It starts the check again.
Is rule #1 true? No. I am still not less than 50% health. I am exactly 50% health, so the computer moves on.
Is rule #2 true? No. Now I am not surrounded by three or more enemies. I have two enemies around me. The computer moves on.
Is rule #3 true? Yes! The enemy I have targeted has 90% or more health. The computer stops here and executes the instructions I gave for rule #3 which is to use my Dirty Fighting move. Then, it starts the check ALL over again. (You can see how this happens many times each second!)
ROUND 3
Lets assume that while I was executing my Dirty Fighting move, I hit the target and stunned him and he is now at 87% health, but I got hit so my health is at 40%. The computer starts the checks again from the top.
Is rule #1 true? Yes! I am at less than 50% health. The computer stops right there and executes the instructions I gave for rule #1 which is to use the weakest healing potion I have. My rogue drinks the potion and is brought back up to 100% health and the computer does what? Starts checking the rules all over again!
ROUND 4
Is rule #1 true? No I am at 100% health. The computer moves on.
Is rule #2 true? No. I am not surrounded by 3 or more enemies. The computer moves on.
Is rule #3 true? No. My target is at 87% health. The computer moves on.
Wait. that's the end of my rules! What does the computer do? It let's me do my normal melee attack and it starts at the top of the rule list again and checks to see if any rules are true. This goes on many times each second for every character in your party as long as they are fighting.
Hope this helps!
ADDED AS A RESULT OF ONGOING THOUGHT AND COMMENTS:
Additional thoughts on tactics and issues related to tactics and fighting:
1) Tactics are NOT active for any character that you have selected. This menas whichever character you are controlling AND any other characters you have selected (the ones that have the pointy yellow circles around their feet.) So if you just selected all four party members and told them to attack the leader of the bandits, make sure that you then deselect all of them except for whichever character you wish to control or all they will be doing is attacking and they will never run their tactic logic!
2) If a condition evaluates to true but the skill it wants to execute is on cool down, it will skip over it and go to the next condition in the list.
3) To answer people in the the thread, yes you have tactics for each character. I implied that in my OP but did not explicitly state it. On the top of the left-hand pane of the tactics window there is a character selection control. The name of the character for whom you are viewing/editing tactics is displayed. To change the character, simply click on the arrows on either side of the name to scroll through the various characters for whom you may edit tactics.
4) I have mentioned this is other posts, but I forgot to include it here: The "Behavior" setting in the tactics panel is very important. It is in the upper right part of the tactics panel for each character. Drop the list down to see your choices and as you mouse over the choices, the explanations of the default behaviors are very good. These seem to control what party members do if you have not given them *any* explicit instructions and none of their tactic conditions are true, but I am not 100% sure.
5) The "Move Freely / Hold Position" setting is also important. You can toggle this party-wide setting by either 1) clicking on the icon which is displayed below your party member icons on the left of your screen; or 2) hitting the H key. If you have this setting set to "Hold Position" your party members will usually just stand around if you have not given them instructions. This seems to apply even in combat. I usually walk around with the setting on "Move Freely" so that they all follow me, but when I want to go into stealth mode and scout ahead, I hit the "H" key to toggle to the "Hold Position" setting. If combat ensues, I toggle back to Move Freely if I just want my party members to fight on their own. If I want to hyper-micro-manage, I leave it on Hold Position and pause the game every 0.33 seconds. :-)
Again, hope this helps!
Modifié par Grahamers, 12 novembre 2009 - 05:05 .
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