What is your "COOL!" party size?

[Domi]

Imagine you hear about a new CRPG. What size of a party it announces will make you go "COOL!"

[jastey]

I am curous: Why do you want to know?

[Kulyok]

http://forums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?t...53&forum=84 , I suppose.

[Domi]

Exactly, plus I am wondering about NWN2 mod design, as in how many NPCs to provide and all that.

[jastey]

I ticked "6+", but that goes for NPCs that are controllable like in BG. For the NWN kind of thing, one companion was more than enough trouble.

[berelinde]

If I could have 8 in my party, it would be perfect.

 

Edit: assuming, like Jastey says, they are controlable by the PC. Otherwise, it would be like supervising a class trip of sixteen year olds.

[Amaurea]

I'm with Berelinde. Eight sounds perfect.

[Hide and Seek]

I took five. More than enough for me. And I say the same as Jastey. BG -controlled. If NWN, I settle for 1-2 companions.

[shiroryu]

IMHO six to me is the ideal size - I feel that any more would make the game too unwieldy. More like a pausable realtime strategy game , like the single player hero-led missions in Warcraft, than a role-playing game. I'm talking BG2 here, not NWN. Though I guess it's more of a matter of taste. Some people treat NPCs as a plague and want all the virtual glory to themselves

 

I can see why 6+ would be fun though. The battles would be epic, for one. And the banter they would have would drown you out . I think in that case, the Charisma the protagonist had would play a part - an average 9 CHR <CHARNAME> would be hard put to controlling all of these guys.

[Caedwyr]

I voted 6+, though I really mean 5-6 party members with 1 or 2 slots for floating/temporary party members. For some games, such as Final Fantasy X, their party member system of 3 active party members, but having access to your entire team of 7 for most battles that can be switched in and out mid fight so long as at least one party member is still alive and the switch costing 1 turn's action worked well.

 

Its worthwhile to note that Final Fantasy X had an effective out of party size of 7, since the whole mob of you moved around as a group. In combat you were a little more restricted. In fact, having your entire party available for plot and dialogue out of combat is fairly common in most console jRPGs, they are just a bit more restricted in combat. I've seen several games where you have a party/group of 7-10 people even though you might only be limited to 6 or so selectable for combat, and only able to use 3 at a time in combat.

[Lysan Lurraxol]

As many as possible.

 

Seriously, cheated a bit, and was able to take ten NPCs along with my PC for NWN2...which screwed things up, but kept me entertained

 

I prefer more, but it can make things a bit too easy, combat wise, and a bit of a nightmare logistically.

[Domi]

Well, 'solo' pretty much includes the game without NPCs, and 6+ - flexible upper limit. As for game mechaniques - you simply don't know. This is purely about what concept of a party size gets your immediate interest/love etc.

[Fyorl]

I like 4. Just enough to have a well-rounded party in terms of classes and not too much so you lose touch with them.

[Evaine Dian]

1 PC and 6 NPCs.

[Gabrielle]

More than 6. One of the things I liked about Diablo 2's necromancer was being able to have a small army at your command.