cRPG Full Party Control

The most famous cRPGs that employ full party control (FPC) are Baldur's Gate 1, Icewind Dale 1 and Jagged Alliance 2. But what is FPC?

By full party control, I mean party control in which the player has full control over the actions of each and every companion in the party, rather than just the actions of the player character (PC). 

We can select units individually with a simple click or group-select multiple units with Shift or Ctrl-click. We can also employ numerical hotkeys or marquee selection group bandboxing.

Once selected, our companions carry out the order given, such as:

• Move to exactly this point and stop
• Attack this target and only this target until it's dead
• Cast this spell right here, right now

Want your Assassin companion to stealth in and position herself right next to an enemy Wizard, ready to open up with a Death Attack? You can. 

FPC is contrasted with the dumb, afterthought companion AI shipped with the original Neverwinter Nights 1, in which laughably limited tactics are available mid-combat, namely:

• Attack nearest 
• Follow me
• Stand your ground

Outside of combat, we can call up a clumsy dialogue mode:

• Buff me with spells
• Switch between melee and ranged weapons
• I.D my gear
• Sing a song
• Let me tell you how stupid you are 

Want your Dwarven Defender to stand in a doorway, holding off the aggro trying to get inside? Good luck trying to position him there. Basically, your companions usually end up doing what you don't want them to do; worst case scenario, they just stand there doing nothing, get themselves killed, or get you killed. This is what happens in party-based cRPGs that don't employ FPC. Remember Ian shooting you in the back in Fallout 1; how can we forget? 20 years later, companion AI hasn't exactly improved in leaps and bounds.

Note that sfall adds in-combat FPC to Fallout 2.

Ideally, cRPGs would feature full party control with marquee selection and strategy cam along with formation-based positioning/movement (see: cRPG Tactical Formations), full party chargen, building and inventory management.

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