Tactics demonstration

[usprivateer]

Finally starting to feel like I'm getting a grip on how to use the tactics control screen for the characters. Have found 2 very helpful posts in Bioware forums on the basic and some more advanced settings. It's interesting, My PC was usually around 60 to 65 percent of the kill ratio, once I got a bit more proficient with the tactics, he soon rapidly dropped to around 45 percent. I understand that some folks like to pause and manage the game, so do I on occasion, but I have to tell you, there's a perverse sort of beauty of watching "a plan come together". With archer and mage support, Alistair is like a wrecking ball into a flock of penguins (do penguins flock?). Heh, "we work well together....".

 

Anyway, what I'd like to ask is if people can post screenshots of their open tactics loads to the online profile boards or elsewhere that demonstrate what they're using. I've seen a few write ups of amazing loads for Morrigan that are way beyond crazy. Focus fire on ranking enemies, tank support, ranged/melee swapping, spell combo shots, targeted and level and group specified healing. All of that and more on a single tactics load, with the AT mod of course. Makes me feel like a giant idiot for failing to get my mind around it at first.

 

The tactics screen may indeed be the most difficult part to master in DA, and having done quite a bit of study, I figger others might be interested. I am not an expert, but I do know where to look now. I think it would be useful for peeps to post their tactics loads, the strategy behind it, and how they've used it. Brag a bit.

 

As an example: I use Alistair as a mace carrying shield wielding tank. Normally, Leilanna supports with ranged attacks and all their coolness, and Morrigan/Whynn support with DPS/crowd/healing as needed. The PC wanders about sticking knives in tender spots. Wheee......... Now, my tactics loads specify that Alistair garners threat, and does the tank bit, Leilanna targets baddies attacking him, and mages attack whomever Alistair is currently attacking.

 

When I first started playing, Alistair died nearly every decent fight. Now, it's very rare. The PC is now more likely to get kak'd when Alistair loses threat and the PC ends up on the heavy end of the hammer.

 

Enough of that. I'd love to have some screenies of people's tactics loads. If there's interest, I'll post links to the tutorials and we can go from there.

 

Feel free to PM me with questions or scorn.

 

BTW: I've been playing RPGs since BG. Loved BGII, liked NWN, Really liked Morrowind and had a great deal of fun with Oblivion. Oddly, the game I really liked, Deus Ex. Well, I probably like Shadows of Amn more.... When you get 2 to 3 hundred hours of gameplay for 50 bucks, who can really complain?

 

Cheers,

 

-USP

[Mlai]

I've never understood using Tactics extensively. If you make the game setting hard enough for you, and don't exploit min-maxing, how can the Tactics AI possibly play good enough to ensure survival??

 

For example, when combat starts I would predict enemy mob movement, and move Morrigan into position in advance to throw a CoC hitting most enemies without hitting allies. The AI can't do that. The AI also can't differentiate 1 lieutenant from another lieutenant. Yes I do use Adanced Tactics mod.

[usprivateer]

I'm not really saying that proper/extensive use of tactics can ensure survival. I believe that it is necessary to pause the game and cast your own eye around to set things up and issue special commands. I think that's part of the fun. The player that looks at what's going on and thinks, this isn't working/going to work and makes changes to standard battle tactics on the fly.

 

*what is CoC? In my world it means Chain of Command*

 

No, AT cannot move Morrigan into position to avoid friendly fire, but it can have her identify clusters and distinguish types of bosses for ancienneté. The post on Bioware that I was looking at had a chain of tactics commands for Morrigan that was 37 points long. It included self healing/mana, group healing/stamina, self defense, ID of bosses and targeting, chain spell hurling and so on. All in a very sophisticated pattern.

 

This post was to try to encourage people that have a good grasp of the tactics controls to post screenies of the setup so those looking for help have a graphic template from which to start. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out the intricacies of the settings, and came across many people with the same problems.

 

If you have some good basic tactics settings that you're using with AT, send me a link to a screen shot. I'd like to take a look and try it out in my game.