Why only six members?

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I realize that BioWare must've limited the parties to only six players because of the limitations of the game engine, but it does cause some roleplaying difficulties.

(minor spoilers)

For instance, once I get into the Asylum and reunite with Imoen, there's NO WAY my LG paladin is going to tell her to find her own way out. But neither does it make sense for me to get rid of the other characters.

Is there a role-playing reason for the six character limit? Heck, maybe that's all the food I can afford to buy, but it still wouldn't make sense to abandon someone in the dungeons.

P.S. Jan does not enjoy being dominated and forced to follow along.

 

There is no roleplay reason - the reason hides in engine.

I think that ad&d never stuck with max 6 party members, however, I don't know anything about ad&d except some rumors...

[This message has been edited by Extremist (edited August 16, 2001).]

 

Oh, sure it's enough to get through the game. More than enough, actually. It just causes problems when you run into certain characters and have to make someone fend for themselves.

("Sorry, Mazzy. I know we busted you out, but you're going to have to fight your way through the Shade Lord by yourself." Ditto for Imoen.)

 

I wouldn't mind the artificial 6-person limit if the characters didn't keep giving you flipping guilt trips about it. Nalia actually started crying when I ditched her after her keep quest. Several of the others say things like "Don't you like me anymore?" Seeing as how in real life you don't have to tell one person to get lost in order to talk to another, I think it really ruins the suspension of disbelief to have the characters keep calling it to your attention with hurt feelings and so forth, when the truth very obviously is a game constraint on BG's part rather than a roleplaying choice on ours.

 

Why six? Why not? You have to set a limit someplace. Should the game allow for every NPC to join?

 

Why not an option to have someone tag along but not be part of the party like Sime does when you sail to Brynnlaw?

Why not allow someone to join temporarily, but if he's the seventh member then he leaves the next time you come to an inn or the next time you rest or the next time you leave a party-required area?

Why not allow a seventh to join permanently but function as if he were charmed (has to run solely on scripts)?

Why not have it so that if you're in a dungeon where you would not normally leave someone and you pick up a seventh it triggers a quest to get that character out -- and he leaves your party when you complete the quest?

There're a ton of options available. I know that they're limited by programming demands, but I wanted to point out that the "it has to end somewhere" that good Jack posted isn't quite complete.

 

There can always be more. If you try to put everything in, it never gets done. So you go for balance. I have been developing software for 11 years and have always felt that I could do more for my customers. However, the product has to ship so you have to stop someplace.

 

just play with 4 or 5 so you always have a slot open to pick up someone when you have to. you dont really need all 6. lots of people can make it with 1. just let go!!!!

 

I agree that there should be a limit but I never did like the idea that you had to kick someone out to talk to a new person. When I find a new NPC I need to know their class and alignment before determining if they should be in the pary (big problem in BG1). I also hate leaving NPCs in a bad area like the asylum or a dungeon. I know it is a game but it kills part of the roll play part.

 

That does annoy me, especially in Irenicus's dungeon where the NPC's find there own way out. Surely you should be able to just follow them?

Also I havent tried this, but what would happen if you say, kicked Anomen out of the party in the planar prison? Would he mysteriously make his way back to the copper corinet?

 

I do wish kicked-out members could tag along the party and live on their own, that'd be interesting!

 

Is it not challenge enough getting exp. for 6 members? I cannot imagine trying to level up with 10 party members.

 

The Quest XP rewards are arguably too high or too many. These give around 1.5 million xp/character already by chapter 6. This somewhat removes the reason to keep your party small since everyone no matter how many you use will get plenty of XP.

 

Bully,

I kicked Jan out when I re-encountered Imoen under the Asylum. The dialogue didn't even give me the chance to say "meet us at the Copper Coronet." I assume he's still standing there in the corner wishing I had let him keep his ring of protection.

 

I don't let the guilt trip get to me. This time round, it is me and three other NPC's (Aerie, Valygar, and Mazzy) and we told Imoen she was capable enough to find her own way out of Spellhold. Some pal huh. Well I justified it because I took her last time and although clearly I had to suspend role-playing just a bit here because as a neutral good ranger cleric I would not have left Imoen with room in my party and Mazzy offering to let Imoen take her place. But I want to complete the game with just these three NPC's so I just have to get on with it. (We let her follow us around in Spellhold but not let her be a part of the party and fight becuase after all she wasn't in good fighting condition anyway Then once on Brynlaw we sent her back on the ship with the guy who helps those two kids off the island.) There, that's a likely story. So even with 6 slots, I don't always use them all.

 

I guess in almost all of the quests there is some way the NPC could get home if you think about it. Even in the planar prison I guess they could have had a mage teleport them back or something after you kill the warden.

PS.

Note to the moderators. Im surprised you allow and even welcome all these trolls (see above) on the message boards. Arf Arf I bet youve all heard that one 1000 times already.