Can I play this with 3-4 chars?

[Slish]

Hello, I found out about this game pretty recently. And I'm stoked! I think I will really love this game! :D

But there is 1 thing I always didn't really like, and that is having many characters to manage. Would I be able to play this game with just 2-4 characters? Is it pretty do-able? (I will try to optimize those characters ofcourse).

Or do I have to have a full party? :/ Which would kinda suck..

 

 

[Quadrone]

You can. It's up to you how large your party is.

But the game does not change it's difficulty based on party size, so it will be harder.

[Gairnulf]

You can also play without a party. The developers have said it's possible but not intended, and quite difficult, so probably only good for a second playthrough and on a low difficulty.

[Lephys]

You can. It's up to you how large your party is.

But the game does not change it's difficulty based on party size, so it will be harder.

I know what you meant -- that the game won't adjust to you, so you'll have to adjust to the game with your 3-4 people -- but it's just funny how that happened to be worded,

 

It can be taken as "your party size won't affect the difficulty, so the game will become more difficult because of your party size." Heh. Gotta love English.

[Fluffsy]

I would rather have my party members standing idle during combat, than miss out on potential dialog and banter :D

Edited March 2, 2015 by Fluffsy

[LadyCrimson]

I'll have to see what the game is like re:npc's first, but I always enjoy replaying these type of games whilst trying to use smaller parties. Although in the old days that was partly because dragging 5 bumbling AI figures around drove me crazy. But also because I like using that method to make the game "harder" vs. turning up difficulty settings, especially if those settings just increase enemy dmg/reduce your dmg. or whatever.

[MasterPrudent]

Based on the current backer beta balance I'd say the game will be pretty hard but manageable playing on normal with four NPCs. A good alternative might be rolling with a full party but with four or so of them spec'd so they don't have any active abilities to manage.

[Namutree]

Playing with 4 party members will be perfectly doable. I've soloed the beta on a higher difficulty than normal so... Yeah, definitely doable.

[Osvir]

I would rather have my party members standing idle during combat, than miss out on potential dialog and banter :D

 

That... sounds like an interesting potential for a game concept/mechanic on its own. Only allow 1 character in your party to fight, whilst the rest is more of an entourage/escort group that you protect/defend. Hm.

Edited March 3, 2015 by Osvir

[Sonntam]

 

I would rather have my party members standing idle during combat, than miss out on potential dialog and banter :D

 

That... sounds like an interesting potential for a game concept/mechanic on its own. Only allow 1 character in your party to fight, whilst the rest is more of an entourage/escort group that you protect/defend. Hm.

 

Escort Quest: The Game. 

[Quadrone]

 

You can. It's up to you how large your party is.

But the game does not change it's difficulty based on party size, so it will be harder.

I know what you meant -- that the game won't adjust to you, so you'll have to adjust to the game with your 3-4 people -- but it's just funny how that happened to be worded,

 

It can be taken as "your party size won't affect the difficulty, so the game will become more difficult because of your party size." Heh. Gotta love English.

 

 

But,... that's exactly what I meant.

[Fluffsy]

 

 

I would rather have my party members standing idle during combat, than miss out on potential dialog and banter :D

 

That... sounds like an interesting potential for a game concept/mechanic on its own. Only allow 1 character in your party to fight, whilst the rest is more of an entourage/escort group that you protect/defend. Hm.

 

Escort Quest: The Game. 

 

 

One of the reasons why I play RPGs is companions, no way I'm leaving them out. I always feel the need to have them all with me at every turn so I can see how they react to situations and most of the games lets you take like 2 when you have a roster of 10+ companions. Ugh the frustration! I want to have influence with them all and to see all of their dialog! At least in PoE you can have a party of 6, the more the merrier I say.

[Lephys]

But,... that's exactly what I meant.

What I mean is, in that regard, it's a paradox. "Don't worry, since the difficulty won't change, the difficulty will have changed!"

 

I realize that you mean that since the game's coded difficulty setting will not adjust for you, the actually difficulty level of your playthrough is going to change. But, the wording makes it seem like the above line -- that, because the difficulty won't be different, the difficulty will be different.

[Adhin]

In relation to party size, one thing I've been wondering is how XP is handled when its handed out. Every infinite game split up the XP evenly-ish amongst each person. So a smaller party size, while initially more difficult ended up having you over level rather quickly making some things easier. So yeah curious if when you get 100 xp, do all companions get that, or is it a split. Considering theres a max lvl cap I'll probably go with a full group either way.

[Ark Evensong]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's not as simple as an even split. If you're heading out alone, you don't get six times the XP you would with a full party. Instead, you get something like double? Each extra party member lowers the XP value by 10% or so - so a quest that would give you 100 XP on your own, would give you 50 XP with a full party, but to everyone.

 

Or maybe it was the other way around, and you get 10% bonus XP for each empty party slot? (In that case, you'd get 150% of the 'full party' XP reward if you're on your own. So, full party 50 XP - just self, 75 XP.)

 

... I could use a refresher.

[Lephys]

I wanna say you're right about it being ~10% per missing party member. I think they didn't want you to happen to solo something, then make the rest of the game infinitely easy to solo because you just gained 3 levels from one quest. So, you still get bonus XP, but it's not ALL the XP just going to the one character. Some of it is "lost," I suppose, math-wise.

[DruidX]

I am planning to play with the full 6 party chars