V.A.T.S. article at DaC

[sydney_roo]

Great article.

 

[Blackfang]

In the IE games it immediately starts a new action, as UW said. There is no turn structure, just cooldown times.

Well, I can't say if 'tis so in the older games (BG, PST, IWD), I always gave nearly all my orders in the beginning of combat/round - so I didn't have such a situation. I admit, that's possible, although I doubt it.
But starting from NWN (and that's seen the best in KotOR), the turn structure is clearly there.

 

[UniversalWolf]

In the IE games it immediately starts a new action, as UW said. There is no turn structure, just cooldown times.

Well, I can't say if 'tis so in the older games (BG, PST, IWD), I always gave nearly all my orders in the beginning of combat/round - so I didn't have such a situation. I admit, that's possible, although I doubt it.

I'm sorry to say but you're wrong. I hadn't played an IE game in several years when I started PST, and I wanted to try and simulate phase-based the way you describe, but it isn't possible. If you set the pause-at-end-of-round option, you'll see how it actually works. The combat pauses whenever any individual character finishes executing whatever order you happened to give him, no matter how long that takes from the time you issued the order. That's why I describe the so-called "turn structure" as pretense.

If the IE had an option to pause combat, say, once every five seconds, you could do the kind of faux phase-based combat you're describing. Computer controlled characters still wouldn't have to adhere to it, though.

 

[Blackfang]

I'm sorry to say but you're wrong.

Well, my experience with those games says otherwise, but I don't know what else to say on the matter.
I played BG1 last autumn and I believe, that all my characters' end-of-round messages were one after another with no delay. I intend to play BG2 this summer, and will try to see if I am indeed wrong.

And still, I highly recommend KotOR 1&2. They are games with good RP (especially the 2), and the combat system is just as I described (what you call phase-based).