My name's Yeesh and I chime in.
I found the real-time but 'round-based' mechanism of BG to be particularly lame on my most recent attempt at a play through. I got to a part where I had to walk into a room with 4 or 5 hostile mages, and I just gave up. Too annoying. But let me focus on what I thought was lame.
In pure real time, a spell that takes 2 seconds to cast could be cast 10 times in 20 seconds (hope I got the math right). In BGII, my casters could fire off one spell per round; whether the spell takes 2 seconds or 10 seconds, that caster is done until the next round. Except this is a real-time game, so I can't see when the frigging rounds are. So time and time again, I'd select a caster who was just standing there, and I'd tell him to cast so and so spell, and he'd just keep standing there. And I'd go ARRRRGHHH and somebody would get their brain eaten by a mindflayer. RELOAD.
Anywho, I found that to be lame, in a game where magic plays such a critical role. In a true TB system, of course, this is not an issue. One spell per turn? Fine with me. And in a pure real-time system, this is not an issue. Some spells take long and some don't? Fine with me (I can cast more of the ones that take less times, and less of the long ones). But in this mixed mode, this round-based but real-time system, I can't tell what's going on.
Well, they could pop a yellow light above each char's head once that char has done some once-a-round action, and when the new round starts the lights could all turn green. But which actions trigger and which don't?
At some point, you just have to make the call, real-time or TB. And you have to accept (and we have to accept) that if the devs take real-time, there will be less control, no matter how pausible the game is. Unless you simplify gameplay down to Syndicate-like levels... (Move the group, click on the enemy. Rat-tat-tat-tat. Move the group...)
