descender wrote on Mar 20, 2012, 14:32:
I never understood this... at least it added SOMETHING random and unknown to the combat, rather than "sigh, another 3 guys to kill... click click click moving on". Having to make and change plans in the middle of combat was more tactful in DA2 than in DA:O because it was WAY easier to control the fights in DA:O.
I get what you're saying but it was just lazy design. There's nothing tactical to DA2 spawning methods, the randomness serves no practical purpose in advancing the combat, its strictly a design concession. In fact it tramples on combat pacing as players are always holding back abilities for fresh waves of spawns, particularly crowd control. It dilutes most other aspects of combat like using terrain/LOS, laying traps and etc.
DA:O used waves too but it did it in balanced encounters that were crafted by hand. It didn't just mindlessly spawn things at you to the point where you could literally predict the entire encounter.