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I would like to get some opinions on this topic, although I'm guessing that there won't be any consensus. Followers are NPCs that you can add to your party. Typically, in this sort of RPG you have a pool of followers that you choose your current party from and I believe it has been said that that will be the case in Project Eternity as well. Now, my question is: How much influence do you, as the player, want to have over these NPCs? Basically, it comes down to how much micromanaging you want in the game. I think the poll covers the two most important aspects - gameplay and stats (I left out inventory managing because I see no alternative there, but I might be wrong). To elaborate, the gameplay part of this concerns the following actions: Managing their movements through a dungeon Making use of their abilities (lockpicking, detecting traps etc.) Looting chests Ordering them around in combat These are all things that they could do themselves if they have powerful AIs. There's no reason for the player to tell them this. But is it feasible to have them do it themselves? Is it fun to order them around? My personal answer to that last question is a definite "no". I hate micro-managing and I especially hate having to juggle 4 different classes at the same time. Every time I start a D&D based CRPG, I'm thinking "I won't play a wizard, wizards are too complicated for me to handle right now". Then a couple of hours into the game, I get my first wizard in the party and I realize that no matter which class you choose at the beginning, you usually have to play all of them at once. The followers often don't have AI of their own or they have only the most basic AI, forcing you to do most of their moves. I also do not want to concern myself with their level-ups, which fortunately isn't necessary most of the time. But here there is another reason: in my mind, I think of these NPCs as characters with their own will. I am in control of my own character and I have no right to tell them which skill to increase next. They're not my characters. But of course, having to level-up followers of sometimes 8 different classes is also way too much micro-managing for me, especially if I don't know and do not want to know their classes very well. In my opinion, playing a CRPG should be like playing a Pen & Paper RPG with a group of friends with me being the dedicated leader of the group. They all have their own characters and they do with them whatever the heck they want, and while my character can give them orders, I cannot. So what do you think? How much influence should you have over your party, and why?