Is there a way to use party AI?

[skyhrg]

I don't like to micromanage each member, but would rather have them follow some kind of AI like in Pillars of Eternity (1 and 2).

Is there a way to do this in the game, or is there a mod that enables this?

[Mork]

Sadly no, the only option is:

AI on/off
'H' hold
'G' stop

[skyhrg]

What do you mean AI on off? Doesn't that mean the answer is yes? Or does the AI work in a different way, as in not using spells and abilities, etc.

[Mork]

Originally posted by skyhrg:

What do you mean AI on off? Doesn't that mean the answer is yes? Or does the AI work in a different way, as in not using spells and abilities, etc.

No, its more like auto-attack on or off.

[skyhrg]

Originally posted by Mork:

Originally posted by skyhrg:

What do you mean AI on off? Doesn't that mean the answer is yes? Or does the AI work in a different way, as in not using spells and abilities, etc.

No, its more like auto-attack on or off.

Oh dear God.... TTTTTTTTTT

[Mork]

There is a really good turn-base mod if its your thing.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/640820/discussions/0/1645418448927040249/

[skyhrg]

Thanks!

[dwarner]

I use party AI with a stop at the end of every round to assign new actions for the next round. You can use the V key to slow down time and pause as necessary.

[Lord Yanaek]

There's also an option to assign an ability/spell as the auto-action for the character if you right click on it (the icon will then be visible just at the left of the action bar).

But the control over companion AI is minimal compared to most RTwP games in Kingmaker unfortunately.

Playing turn based as suggested by Mork is certainly an option but i suggest you try both styles to decide which one you prefer as it changes the game a lot. The mod allows you to easily switch between Turn Based and RTwP so you won't have to restart a new game if you want to try it.

[skyhrg]

Originally posted by Lord Yanaek:

There's also an option to assign an ability/spell as the auto-action for the character if you right click on it (the icon will then be visible just at the left of the action bar).

Does the AI use ONLY this if I were to use this? Or would he use the ability first, and then attack?

[Triple G]

Originally posted by skyhrg:

Originally posted by Lord Yanaek:

There's also an option to assign an ability/spell as the auto-action for the character if you right click on it (the icon will then be visible just at the left of the action bar).

Does the AI use ONLY this if I were to use this? Or would he use the ability first, and then attack?

The AI will only use this then. The game lacks an option to queue commands - or a more complex AI - or the ability to customize it. I´ve set it to pause each round as dwarner wrote - and this works ok. There´s also an option to pause after each party members turn ends - that would be like turn-based - but for me that option is too annoying. But either way You sometimes have to manually issue commands to make most of Your abilites in game. There´s also an option that the AI also uses limited abilities or spells - but i haven´t tested that so far.

[Remove skull merchant]

Just prebuff mostly and take a martial party with 2 healers. If you find 6 characters too much of a headache try 5, with adjusted difficulty.

[Gregorovitch]

The party AI problem is a perennial issue with classic style cRPGs to which there is no answer IMO.

The fundamental issue is that if, excepting on lower difficulties, it was possible to survive using party AI with a ruleset as complex as PFKM then experienced players would face no challenge at all and the game would become a total bore-fest for them.

@OP: notwithstanding your dislike of micro, the truth is cRPGs of this style only truly shine on higher difficulty levels (relative to your own skill and experience) where you are forced to manage your squad carefully just to survive at all. In this situation thoughtful micro makes a colossal difference to performance in combat.

You might try out how I use the AI in this game (or any other suggestions that others make, there are going to many ways to skin the cat with many different builds, party compositions and play styles) and see how it goes:

* I always turn AI off for my front line melee at battle start. The reason for this is I will always want them to one of two things. One is I want them to charge the enemy to initiate combat (making them flatfooted, not me) in which case I manually select the charge ability for them whilst paused, the other is I want them to take up specific positions to form a wall against the inevitable enemy charge and stay there until I say otherwise. I will then carefully manage their positioning so as to protect my backline damage dealers until I feel I have supremacy, then I will turn their AI on so they can go round mopping up automatically. There isn't much micro do here actually, just major decisions and any spells and special abilities. Tanks just tank.

* I turn my backline mage's and archer's AI on with either their ranged weapons or a cheap spell selected for auto-attack. If the encounter is hard and I need to up the anti I will select a more powerful spell for auto-attack for a time. I may also allocate them priority targets from time to time. Obviously I may also manually order AoE effect spells, high level powerful spells etc as the occasion demands. The amount of micro involved is heavily dependent on the difficulty of the encounter, often times it's virtually none.

* For big DPS characters like Amiri, who I use mostly, and also Nok-Nok when I have to use him, I micro them very carefully all of the time and never have their AI on until I am sure they're not going to get themselves caught by more than one enemy in melee (they die quick if they do). Amiri probably occupies about 50% of the total micro time I do. But given the endless trail of dead bodies Amiri leaves in her wake if you keep her out of trouble, I don't mind.

[dwarner]

Charge can be a good opener, but it can still leave you flat-footed. Charge occurs during the Surprise Round. The following round you roll as normal and if you lose you’re flat-footed.

It does do a good job turning on fighting defensively/combat expertise.

Luckily for Amiri she’s got that Barb splash so it’s easy for her to get Uncanny Dodge and never have to worry about it, though I wouldn’t open combat with her charge.