My Dearest Wish: more than 5 NPCs
Contemplative_Hamster
Member Posts: 844
Dear modders,
OH! How I wish someone could figure out how to break the 5 NPC limit in an EE game. 7-8 NPCs would be wonderful! A 10-man party would be Heaven (Baator, possibly, or the Nine Hells, or Pandemonium, but it'd be an out-of-this-world experience nevertheless)!
I've read up on the GemRB mod, if that's the correct term here, that allows one to have more than 5 NPCs. As GemRB is a complete re-creation of the game in a different format, the Enchanced Editions are not included, and I need my Siege of Dragonspear, man, I NEED it!
OH!Mephistopheles I mean, @JuliusBorisov 
, you can have my soul if you can convince the dev team to un-hardcode the 6-player limit. Don't make me choose between Dorn, Quayle, Tiax, Montaron, Xzar, Xan, Edwin, Shar-Teel, Eldoth, Kagain, Viconia! I love all my companions equally!
According to @PaulaMigrate in this thread , the issue is that the game would break because so many things rely on the hardcoded player 1->player 6 sequence which does not allow for more than 6 characters.
As far as EXP and difficulty, well, EXP would be shared equally, meaning a larger but lower-level party, and increasing the difficulty level in-game and/or installing SCS would probably balance things out. On my own head be it if I made my game ridiculously easy through mods, of course.
OH! How I wish someone could figure out how to break the 5 NPC limit in an EE game. 7-8 NPCs would be wonderful! A 10-man party would be Heaven (Baator, possibly, or the Nine Hells, or Pandemonium, but it'd be an out-of-this-world experience nevertheless)!
I've read up on the GemRB mod, if that's the correct term here, that allows one to have more than 5 NPCs. As GemRB is a complete re-creation of the game in a different format, the Enchanced Editions are not included, and I need my Siege of Dragonspear, man, I NEED it!
OH!
, you can have my soul if you can convince the dev team to un-hardcode the 6-player limit. Don't make me choose between Dorn, Quayle, Tiax, Montaron, Xzar, Xan, Edwin, Shar-Teel, Eldoth, Kagain, Viconia! I love all my companions equally!According to @PaulaMigrate in this thread , the issue is that the game would break because so many things rely on the hardcoded player 1->player 6 sequence which does not allow for more than 6 characters.
As far as EXP and difficulty, well, EXP would be shared equally, meaning a larger but lower-level party, and increasing the difficulty level in-game and/or installing SCS would probably balance things out. On my own head be it if I made my game ridiculously easy through mods, of course.
Post edited by Contemplative_Hamster on
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Comments
I know it's just a very small compensation, but:
There is Argent's Djinni Mod - the Djinni will follow as a 7th party member.
And my Solaufein NPC does follow as a 7th party member, too - alas the mod is not fully translated to English yet.
Mine is EET, so generally even in dungeons I can handle the group quite well.
The extras also have banters and stuff like NPCs, the Djinn has spells and inventory even if managed different from normal NPCs. They all can be healed when injured or can be given potions to heal.
My impression is that it's a good compromise between group of six and having too many NPC army.
EET is good for this because the larger group is still not overpowered when SCS is installed.
I haven't got Solaufein yet because not reached underdark yet.
Typically in the past I have worked out my party in advance, basically meaning that I go for the companions I want in the very beginning and keep them the whole game.
My current playthrough I’ve tried something different. Let me tell you about how I’ve decided to work with the 6-player limit.
Charname, a good-hearted but somewhat naive stalker-ranger, surprised and lost after Gorion’s death, met up with Imoen the morning after that horrible night. They met two shifty characters on the road who offered to help them, Xzar and Montaroon. Not knowing the way to the Friendly Arm Inn to meet with some random people Gorion had known in years past, they accepted any help thy could get.
On the road to the Friendly Arm Inn, it became pretty obvious that Xzar and Montaroon were not the type to be trifled with. Charname intended to ditch them, but they saved his life from an assassin on the very steps of the Inn!
Feeling obligated, he decided to keep them around. Charname found Khalid and Jaheira in the Inn, both of whom were sad to learn of Gorion’s death. As none of them knew what Gorion had wanted to do once they got there, and as Jaheira, Khalid, Xzar, and Montaroon were all heading towards Nashkel anyway, Charname decided to go that way as he couldn’t got home.
On the way, Khalid accidentally got turned into a gal. Well, this infuriated Jaheira who was already fired up about traveling with two clearly insane and cruel people. In Beregost, the party stumbled into a house full of spiders and both Xzar and Montaroon were “accidentally” killed by the spiders (facilitated by Jaheira) without Charname’s knowledge.
Well, Charname felt guilty about these two dying and, as Jaheira never owned up to being responsible for their deaths, Charname wanted to raise them. But Jaheira tried to talk him out of it. It took two days of thinking for Charname to finally decide to do it. This of course infuriated both Jaheira and Khalid, because the gold was supposed to go to curing Khalid of his curse.
When Xzar and Montaroon came to, neither of THEM were happy about it because Charname had waited so long. Montaroon turned violent and bloodshed was only averted by some quick talking on Imoen’s part. Needless to say, neither Montaroon or Xzar we’re going to be apart of the party anymore.
Fearing night-time retribution from Montaroon, the party fled west. They ran into a more experienced ranger named Kivan who offered to guide them through the wilderness along the coast to Nashkel.
Along the coast they met a thief named Safana. Safana and Jaheira didn’t get along well at all, and Safana was laying it on thick for Charname. Jaheira tried to warn Charname about Safana, but he was too enthralled by her “sensuality”. Jaheira was right and Safana made off in the middle of the night with all their gold they had accumulated since leaving Beregost. This of course infuriated Jaheira and Khalid even more because that gold had been intended for curing Khalid.
It was Imoen, again, who kept the party from completely dissolving. When they got to Nashkel, Kivan, his contract complete, left for another job. They met another sort of crazy so-called ranger in Nashkel who threatened to kill them all if they didn’t help him find his witch. He had a hamster, for some reason, and outrighted attacked a red-robed wizard for no apparent reason. Against the wishes of he party, he started following everyone around. His name was Minsc and he told them to check out the circus. Everyone thought he was from the circus.
At the circus, Charname came across a statue that was supposedly a petrified woman, according to a hawker. After curing Khalid FINALLY of his curse, Charname bought a stone to flesh scroll. He didn’t want any of his party members to laugh at him for believing a charlatan if the hawker was wrong, so he went to use the scroll on the statue alone.
It really was a woman! The blond haired woman fell unconscious to the ground, so Charname hauled her back on his shoulders. On his way, back though, but who did he run into? Xzar and Montaroon! They had set up an ambush!
They quickly knocked Charname out and brought both him and the previously petrified woman, whom it was later learned was called Branwen, on the northern road back to Beregost. They had joined up with Safana who had a contact in Baldur’s Gate where they could turn Charname in for the bounty. She argued that it would be better to turn in Charname alive.
In Beregost, they met up with an old friend, or rather worship-thing, of Xzar’s, another crazy halfling named Tiax. Tiax hadn’t been expecting them, but as he always needed more slaves and gold for his empire, he decided to cash in on the prize as well.
Well, once they got to the friendly arm Inn, Safana decided to swap sides again, figuring she was in a little over her head and had been feeling kind of guilty anyway. She betrayed Xzar, Montaroon, and Tiax to the authorities of the Inn and helped Charname and Branwen escape into the wilderness west.
They met up with a dark elf who needed their help and swore her services to them in exchange for companionship. Further south, they got ambushed by an Amazon bandit, but Charname managed to beat her and get her to swear an oath of fealty to him in exchange for her life.
Once at Beregost again, Safana decided to up and leave with all their gold... again. They had no idea where she went, and so, with Charname intending to meet up in Nashkel with Imoen again, who had no idea where he went, Branwen, Charname, Viconia, and Shar-teel are currently on the road south back to Nashkel from Beregost.
And that’s how I’ve had more than 6 characters in my party so far.