Do you trust inXile to pause your combat for you, or would you rather do it yourself? That's what the Torment: Tides of Numenara developers would like to know before they lock the game's scrapping down, and they're hitting up Kickstarter backers for their opinions on the matter. The team posed the question - turn-based or real-time with pause? - as part of a typically lengthy development update , giving backers plenty of information on both approaches before they vote with their keyboarding fingers. In turn, I'm going to ask you the same question: would you prefer Torment to feature turn-based combat like Fallout 1/2, or real-time with pause like Baldur's Gate? Your opinions won't change anything, but hey: opinions are fun.
In inXile's opinion, the advantages of the real-time with pause approach are that "combat is resolved more quickly, even with a large number of combatants" and that "it is more flexible: the player can pause a lot or a little depending on whether they're looking for a fast pace or a slow one".
Turn-based, meanwhile, will allow for "more thoughtful" combat, and combat "truer to tabletop RPGs". Among other things it also "allows greater depth of choice: you have time to explore all your options, so we can include more options, and more complicated options, without overwhelming the player." The game's creators are leaning more towards turn-based, which I am too - I found Baldur's Gate's/Planescape's fighting a little pernickety, all told. AI is another issue: I much prefer having total control over my party members, rather than having to constantly manage their feeble attempts to assert their own minds.
The whole post is an interesting read if you've been following the game, or you like delving into the nitty-gritty of RPG systems. If you've backed Torment on Kickstarter, you can vote for your choice in the backer's only forum .
