dtgreene: * RTwP has neither of those traits. You get irregular pauses, which destroys both the rhythm and the fluidity.
You get pauses when you want them, so you have exactly the rhythm you're comfortable with at that particular moment.
dtgreene: (Plus, it's often hard to tell what's going on in RTwP combat.)
Far easier than in full real time. And what's going on has to do with the information that's displayed, not with the combat style. Entirely likely to not know why something's happening in turn based too, if the inner workings aren't displayed.
dtgreene: This can be done in turn based. In Wasteland 1, for example, all ranged combat happens at the same time.
Hardly the same thing.
dtgreene: You can have a turn based battle system where you can do this. Just delay until after the enemy's turn comes up, then perform your own action.
Also, being able to react perfectly does destroy some of the suspense, particularly when it comes to healing injured characters before the enemy has a chance to finish them off.
The first is not in the least the same thing, in fact I may say it's the opposite of what I'm referring to, since in that case the enemy is guaranteed to act first. And that sort of suspense is definitely what I want to avoid; play for immersion, escapism and a power fantasy, not to trigger my often already crippling anxiety even more, thank you very much.
dtgreene: It's common, when positioning is involved, for a unit to be able to both move and attack in the same round.
Also, not every game needs positioning; battle systems can work fine without that mechanic.
Some games have those systems, I also play them, but I don't prefer them and wouldn't exactly say that they work fine in general. And being able to move and attack in the same round is, again, hardly the same.
dtgreene: That's what autobattle features are for, and they're found in many turn based games.
Then again, if random encounters in level-approriate areas are this easy, the game is likely too easy.
(There's also the approach of getting rid of the regular attack; the CRPG I'm making is not going to have a notion of "regular attack", for example.)
Autobattle options take away control from the player, no thank you. And please, let common encounters be easy, especially later in the game, that reverse difficulty curve that I know you hate but which is something I look for, see the power fantasy part. And taking away regular attacks is an unnecessary complication in itself, and really wouldn't work with how I play, slow and patient and as frugal as you can possibly be (since I'm assuming that non-regular attacks use some sort of resource in some manner).
dtgreene: Full control isn't always a good thing. When the player has full control over the encounter, the encounter no longer poses a threat and is therefore pointless.
The timing of turn based has the advantage of being rhythmically regular, and also keeps the battle from essentually "running away". In turn based combat, if you lose a battle, you likely know why you lost.
Again, it is a good thing for me, and being constantly threatened is not.
And, also again, knowing what's going on has to do with what information's displayed. If the proper information is shown, you'll know exactly what happened.