Issuing general orders while paused is broken.

[Crafty]

You're supposed to be able to pause the action and issue explicit Attack/Move orders to your squad, then unpause the game once your done.

Trying to issue orders with the keyboard is NOT work.

How has no one complained about this yet? Its literally supposed to be a core feature of the combat system.

It seems to work with a controller, but its totally broken trying to do it from the keyboard.


Hell, the original PC release had an entire panel with icons just for general Attack/Move orders.

*Edit* To clarify, this is happening on ME1. Seems to be the same on the rest of the series too though.

[PatT4]

Press Alt while doing so. it works for me. I bound the Left Alt key to something else that was easier, but I do that frequently, and it never fails.

[ositodefelpa]

I'm not sure why you have this problem, but I have not had this issue myself. So it is not universally broken, but it seems like there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

[dulany67]

Originally posted by ositodefelpa:

I'm not sure why you have this problem, but I have not had this issue myself. So it is not universally broken, but it seems like there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

You can target while paused? Actually move the cursor?

[tevrarain]

Originally posted by dulany67:

Originally posted by ositodefelpa:

I'm not sure why you have this problem, but I have not had this issue myself. So it is not universally broken, but it seems like there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

You can target while paused? Actually move the cursor?

Not who you were asking but I have no problems aiming while paused with keyboard and mouse. I'm even able to line up an attacked that would initially miss and re issue the command.

[ositodefelpa]

Originally posted by dulany67:

Originally posted by ositodefelpa:

I'm not sure why you have this problem, but I have not had this issue myself. So it is not universally broken, but it seems like there is a problem that needs to be addressed.

You can target while paused? Actually move the cursor?

Because I'm playing ME2 at the moment, I was in 'ME2 mode' and answering for that game, where I can target when paused.

However, on reflection I think you're talking about ME1. In that game I did have the same problem you mentioned, although I understand from discussions with other people that not everyone experienced that problem.

[dulany67]

I'm in ME3 and using M&K- stil can not target while paused.

[ADhalism]

why not target them before you pause

[Crafty]

Originally posted by ADhalism:

why not target them before you pause

Because its supposed to act like a 'pause based RPG', akin to what was done in KOTOR.

Where you control multiple party members and can pause the action to micro the entire fight. The AI in the Mass Effect series is basically brain dead, it is intended that you micro your party members.

So without being able to pause the action to issue commands is like not being able to pause the action in Baldur's Gate series.

It makes trying to play the game on the harder difficulty a total chore.

This isn't some minor thing, this pause function is one of the key features of what was showcased back before ME even came out. ME was designed as a mix of KOTOR with the third person shooter element.


It seems to work ok if you use a controller, so its definitely a bug with the keyboard and mouse setup.


People ought to be more vocal about fixing this issue before they wrap up official support for the Legacy Edition release. This issue is a huge oversight.

It makes the combat unbearable to me with K&M setup. No wonder so many people playing the PC version of this series for the first time were complaining about the combat. The ME series wasn't designed to work as a full on real-time shooter.

Again, the combat is supposed to be KOTOR mixed with shooting elements.

[Crafty]

Here is a wicked old video of showcasing this entire pause/order feature.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB1z8xb2rWo

He starts talking about it at the 3:00 mark.

Again, just showing that this entire pause/order feature is a core aspect of how the combat system was built.

The only difference is that they decided to not allow players to control the other party members directly.

[PatT4]

That doesn't look like a PC interface. When I pause, there's a bunch of my abilities at the bottom, and each companion has their own below their pic, also including their health and shield status. I can select skill for each follow plus myself, unpause for a split second, then pause again, make new selections, unpause. I'm using PC/mouse/keyboard. No controller. I've played through ME1 a few times and Me2 once, and i`t's working fine for me. Something else going on for you?

[PatT4]

And yes, I select those abilities using the mouse. It's free to click with.

[Crafty]

Originally posted by PatT4:

And yes, I select those abilities using the mouse. It's free to click with.

I'm not talking about the special abilities. Those work fine. I'm talking about general move orders, or focus on targets commands not working while the game is paused.

Screenshot

Here is the original PC command menu.

Not only could use pause the action and issue move commands and whatnot with the keyboard, there was an entire command UI panel for both party members.

UI Panel Close Up


So, you could pause the game, look directly at an enemy, and click the "Attack" UI button and they would focus the target you were looking at. Very much how it worked in the KOTOR series.


So to sum this all up, trying to issue those 4 general commands with the command menu open, and the game paused will NOT work with a keyboard and mouse setup.

Not only did they decide to not include the UI panel in the original PC release, the keyboard shortcut keys don't even work while the command menu is open.

It drives me nuts, I hope they see this and actually fix it. Its not supposed to act this way. It makes combat way more clunky that its supposed to be.

[Taskmaster]

Works flawless on my PC

[PatT4]

You are right, those panels and commands are not there. I'll have to pay attention to how I do things. I don't usually pause to tell my chars where to move to, and there's no way to tell them to take cover. It's been forever since I played the original game and I dont' remember what I did back then. I think Me2 is better for that type of thing.