More NPC Slots - The one thing that would make me buy the Enhanced Edition
Luge
Member Posts: 90
I'm actually amazed this hasn't been mentioned before. Or if it has, my search-fu is weaker than I thought...
It sounds like there are a lot of cool new things in EE, but with the modding community ten years old, a lot of it has been done before.
Ported into the BG2 engine? Check.
Fixed the bugs? Yep
More NPCs? Pick from dozens of mods with high-quality additions to your party.
More quests? Been done before.
High resolution/widescreen? Double-check.
I bought the BG1 and BG2 collectors edition years ago, so I've already supported the developers. But I was to buy EE, what's the one thing that hasn't been done with the engine (but which the GEMRB environment might finally achieve?) More NPC slots.
There's no roleplaying reason why you're limited to six characters. Why do you have to abaondom someone just to help Eldoth rescue Skie from Baldur's Gate? Why do you have to leave one of your party of six behind after you finally make it through the Gnoll fortress and find that the only way to "rescue" Dynaheir is to add her to your party?
BAD! No cookie for you.
I'd like twenty NPC slots, please. Especially now you're introducing three new characters to bring along. I'd be happy with a dozen or so, at a push, but I'd rather have all I can get. Feel free to scale the difficulty to the number of players in my party - In fact, I'd prefer it, since I like a challenge.
Looking forward to the release!
L.
It sounds like there are a lot of cool new things in EE, but with the modding community ten years old, a lot of it has been done before.
Ported into the BG2 engine? Check.
Fixed the bugs? Yep
More NPCs? Pick from dozens of mods with high-quality additions to your party.
More quests? Been done before.
High resolution/widescreen? Double-check.
I bought the BG1 and BG2 collectors edition years ago, so I've already supported the developers. But I was to buy EE, what's the one thing that hasn't been done with the engine (but which the GEMRB environment might finally achieve?) More NPC slots.
There's no roleplaying reason why you're limited to six characters. Why do you have to abaondom someone just to help Eldoth rescue Skie from Baldur's Gate? Why do you have to leave one of your party of six behind after you finally make it through the Gnoll fortress and find that the only way to "rescue" Dynaheir is to add her to your party?
BAD! No cookie for you.
I'd like twenty NPC slots, please. Especially now you're introducing three new characters to bring along. I'd be happy with a dozen or so, at a push, but I'd rather have all I can get. Feel free to scale the difficulty to the number of players in my party - In fact, I'd prefer it, since I like a challenge.
Looking forward to the release!
L.
15
Comments
We should also create an FPS mode and introduce a +1 M-16 in the game!
No, I dislike this idea, for balance, storyline and replay value depend on a small party.
This either means that they had the intention of adding at least one more slot and had time constraints, or because it was so hard coded, they couldn't change it (the latter being doubtful). I couldn't find a way to link it so that you could see it, but he said it on July 16, 2012...
The makers obviously thought about doing this too... I think it would be a grand idea, with the choice to have a meter and choose how many party members you want to use at the same time going from... let's say... minimum 3 and maximum 7. Then have them just have this dial somewhere in the options menu so that people can more proffeciently choose their difficulty level.
It might unbalance the game... but at the same time, players might decide to have that many people because of Role Playing reasons. I for one LOVE having different people with me of all walks of life, just to get the most drama out of it. For instance... Aerie and Korgan together... absolutely a wonderful thing to behold
Trent Oster tweeted that it may be in the future, for those who wish to have larger parties (like myself) as an option, but it's extremely difficult to get past the hard coding, the sheer amount of it
I already had a thread on the subject =/
I've always had a full party for BG but when I played BG2 with a party of four (including PC) it was FAR easier than any time I'd done it with a full party. Four chars is enough to cover all the roles and they gain experience substantially faster.
I mean, every time I play the game, I've got at least a couple of NPCs who aren't all that useful but who I've dragged along for the banters and interactions. Aerie comes to mind. Man she sucks. And she's annoying. But put her with any evil NPC? Hilarious.
OH! In BG1? Well, I like to bring along Khalid, even though he's pretty crappy. And Tiax. Tiax is the definition of "Guy who sucks but you want to have along anyway." Tiax is what I would want an expanded party limit for.
Anyways, I would also like it for roleplaying. For Baldur's Gate 1, I would play my usual six member party and be able to pick up any extra NPC's to complete their side quests. For Baldur's Gate 2 I would like to keep my favorite NPC's as well as try out different combinations of party members. For me, I always have to have Minsc, Yoshimo and Jaheira in my party and at least a 7th slot would make a big difference.
besides, remember the xp cap in bg. it would be nice at least to extend the limit of party members so by the endgame with all the quests done, all of them would reach the maximum xp.
and i agree softcoding is the way to go (just warn the people they won't reach max level if they have all the npc's ingame in party at the same time).
I've already mentioned the roleplay aspect. There's no practical reason why you would turn your friends away and make them wait for months. I usually ended up leaving my favourite chracters like Imoen in the wilderness somewhere because I knew they wouldn't vanish and I could get them back later.
The second reason is experience. Not experience points, but the experience of exploring the Sword Coast and seeing the reactions and banter of all the Bioware and Overhaul together. I really don't want to have to replay the game seven times in order to see the banter between Neera and the other twenty-five NPCs - I'd prefer to have them altogether.
It's impractical to have any combination of NPCs that you want in your party. Generally, you need at least one thief to deal with traps, and at least one cleric for support and a mage for dealing with certain enemies that need magical attention. This is less of a problem in BG1, but is definately true of BG2. You CAN run a party of six fighters to see what it would be like to have Minsc, Shar-Teel, Kagain, Khalid and Ajantis together, but it's a very different experience.
I'm not saying that you should always have twenty NPCs with you, but I'd certainly like the option.
L.
Not only that, but the six-members system simulates the fact that some people will not travel together or do not wish to participate in anything that resembles more a moving circuse than an adventuring party. Of course, in game they can't simply say "no, I won't come", but you can imagine that Viconia may be reluctant to join if you have three paladins already in your party. There is but a small number of nuisances the characters can cope with.
That, plus balance and replay possibilities (if you can see every banter you can see in the game in just one playthrough, you might not want to play again), makes me think that this is a terrible, terrible idea.
However, a seventh slot... maybe?
It's a lot of fun having the new party members together with old favourites.
Raising the limit to 8 would make the most sense. In ToB we had a nice spot for NPC that weren't active at the moment. That would help in gameplaying fun, but also if we have a party that is limited back to 6 at certain areas (for example to avoid bugs). Of course some explanation would be needed in game to convince players why this is happening.
I can see your point, though. A large group of people could be easily located by assassins and the Chill mercenaries. But as I said, I'd like to happen for added NPC interaction and the potential to have some really large battles occasionally.
L.
Personally, I'd be fine with a 7-slot limit (A 8-slot party would be luxury!) as I would keep one slot free until I get Sarevok in ToB without ditching anyone, and it would be even more challenging as the game would 'think' I wanted 7 NPCs in my party but enemies are still calibrated for a 7-NPC party. This plus the chance to keep my BG1 party in BG2 would be absolute perfection for me!
The new party limit is four.
not intended to be a factual statement
I'm a big fan of soloing, so I don't quite adhere to the 20 man group idea, but if it doesn't clutter the game, and people would play it, why not try it?
War game
L.
And in terms of unbalancing the game... friendly fire DOES exist... Try having 20 people and then go and cast a lightning bolt... let's see the fun we'll have with that....
6 party members might not be realistic in the sense that your Bhaalspawn might be like 'yeah, I'll take all the help I can get!', but it would make gameplay horribly, clunky, heavy-handed and just... no. I would loathe it. 6 is a perfect number, in my opinion. And although I can't be certain, I think a lot of people tend to play with less than that. Which I find strange - I like it! It offers the perfect variety while maintaining manageability. But to each his own, I guess
Don't want to? Don't do it. Simple.
Right now, I'm playing a party of 4. Sometimes, I CLUACONSOLE extra characters into my games if I want more.
Different things for different games, I just want the option to choose.