1) Generalizing yes ? Do most of RTwP games have terrible encounter design ? Fucking yes. So GENERALIZING IS OK. One or two games out of all games do not make this problem invalid. That is problem with real time combat not just "with Pause". BG2 is sure good example of encounter design in that genre but i still fucking remember goblins/mephits in library (irenicus dungeon) or kobolds in sewers. That is beside fact that i mentioned. In BG2 or any IE games you could buff your party to oblivion before fight. That is fucking flaw in design don't say it isn't.
Meta knowledge being a problem in an RPG because it makes encounters easy? oh my! yes, sure its product of evil RTwP mechanics.
Perkel said:
2) What is filler combat ?
Filler combat is combat in which you switch off your brain because encounter is designed for you to just click things and don't think. Fucking kobold with simple bow and you are rolling with lvl 10 party. That is a filler combat.
Fighting 3 skeletons near some random house ? Seems like filler combat. But if those skeletons can hurt you and you start to use your brain then that starts to become proper combat not filler one.
Filler combat =/= filler combat. Filler combat in RT games often only means cut wave of foes and there will be another wave. shitty trash mobs in numbers and so on. Create something like this in TB and you will have 3 hour boredom marathon and any half dumb designer could see something like this from a mile and do something with it.
Take for example whole NWN1. Take prison. Fucking shit ton of trash mobs everywhere. Something like this doesn't exist in TB games. Why ? Because killing all of them in TB would take literally hours as i mentioned. So your TB filler combat is completely different to RTwP filler combat.
And it is also the case of % of filler combat. Take almost any RTwP RPG and most of it is filler combat compared to TB games.
Mate, first, theres literally no reason to deny the existence of shitty TB games with loads of filler combat, they exist. Second, turn based can be just as fast if not faster than real time, at least i remember my rounds in exile going pretty fucking fast, conversely my time fighting in DA2 was fucking painful, oh god, the hp bloat, the endless waves of enemies, make it staph!. Stop generalizing in vain, poor design choices are poor design choices, no matter the base combat mechanic.
Perkel said:
3) Combat model absolutely demanded things i spoke of. Flat system means more or less anyone can hurt you and things i said like positioning, stealth, mobility were CRUCIAL to JA2 combat. "had plenty of turn based RPGs with modern weapons" Now that is bullshit. Because TB rpg with weapons =/= TB rpg with weapons. There is a reason why JA2 combat system shits all over combat systems in other games. Fallout Tactics comes close but it isn't flat system as JA2 system.
Just compare Fallout 1 system with JA2 and see how fucking shitty Fallou1 system is compared to JA2. You could just take powerarmor get minigun and wipe away fags. In JA2 there isn't any magical spell that will make you invincible so you take on 3-4 rookie dudes with shotguns at close range without any positioning or tactic like in JA2 and your dude is sure to be dead in a turn or two.
You keep lumping together things that have no reason to be together in the first place.
JA2 combat system shits all over other combat systems because they knew how to implement said combat systems and made it happen. I cannot think of a single TB RPG with modern weapons were stealth, positioning, mobility, cover, etc. would be undesirable.
Yes, fallouts combat wasnt very good, but this was because of the mechanics used, not because it happened to present a more robust rpg system. You can have both good combat and RPG mechanics in a game, they are not mutually exclusive. A nearly flat progression is a good approach for rpgs with modern weapons trying to be somewhat realistic, but that doesnt mean others with a different kind of progression will surely be bad.
