Wow am I ever having trouble dealing with the speed of this game. The AI never seems to work just right for me and when it is on, I can't get my characters to do certain things I want (like heal or cast a specific spell). With the AI off my characters will stand around stupidly and let the monsters just beat on them. Thoughts? Comments?

The AI simply does not work very well. Keep one hand on the mouse and the other on the space bar. Pause the game often and control your characters manually.

You can also make use of the auto-pause feature. I have the game to auto-pause when I'm attacked and at the end of ever round. This way I don't get jump by surprise and during combat I can keep a good handle on what is going on. It makes the game more of a turn-based system rather than real-time but I prefer it that way. You may not like this but it does work for some people. I set the AI scripts but my PC really never get a chance to use them. I control then round by round. A little slower but if you don't die you don't have to load and in the long run it's faster.

TURN OFF YOUR AI SCRIPTS!

I did the same thing in Baldur's Gate. The AI scripts sound really cool, but unfortunately they just don't work that well. Your characters always seem to do something incredibly stupid when you have these on, like charging into battle with 25% health, or not supporting badly injured party members. It saves you a little bit of micromanagement, but it's just not worth it.

I prefer to turn off the AI entirely and make all the decisions myself. You can pause combat at anytime (spacebar), and give new orders, which are carried out when you unpause. You can also go the the inventory when paused if you need to make equpiment adjstments.

The only things you have to watch out for with no AI scripts are:
1) When a characters target is destroyed, they will (sometimes) look for another enemy in range and attack it, if there are no monsters in range they will just stand there, even if other party memebrs are fighting nearby. This mostly happens with ranged weapons, as there may still be enemies around, just slightly out of range. So you have to monitor the battles closely and make sure everyone is busy.
2) You have to be selective about your targets. I usually have my 2 fighters with melee weapons rush forward. If there is an enemy mage or cleric, everyone else targets them with ranged weapons, that usually prevents them from casting spells. If there are no enemy magic users or archers, then everyone targets the closest enemy.
It's easier if you concentrate your attacks on 1 enemy at a time.

Voltric's suggestion about the auto-pause is a good one. I auto pause when attacked, when a weapon is unusable, and when a character dies (then I restart).

[This message has been edited by Lord Balduran (edited August 05, 2000).]

keep the AI off, those are the best suggestions, although i dont use auto pause,
which is a very cool feature. i like to control every member, especially mages.


In BG, there was a Default script, which i used for all my characters. this came in handy when using missle weapons, if a targeted creature died, my party would move on to the next monster, if there was one. i did not see this Default setting in IWD. to bad i really liked using it in BG, but i made thru IWD w/out it.