Do you rotate companions?

[WhiteShark]

Should you have to return to your camp/base/ship or should every companion have the magical ability to teleport to you?

It depends on whether there's any meaningful cost or threat to traveling back to the base area. If not, they should be able to teleswap freely.

What is the ideal party size in your mind?

In a proper tactical, grid-based RPG, I'd say at least 5. In action RPGs, 2 or fewer is fine.

[aweigh]

every time this thread gets bumped and i read the title again all i can think about is using the rotate function on someone

[Irenaeus]

Depends on the game. For example, in NWN2 I rotated my companions depending no the quest in an effort to roleplay. In PoE, you can do the companion sidequests but otherwise have a main team for hard quests. In other games, I stuck with dudes I recruited and forgot about undesirables.

[Envergence]

► Show Spoiler

How do we feel about games that let you freely rotate out your companions on the fly? Should you have to return to your camp/base/ship or should every companion have the magical ability to teleport to you?
I think KOTOR II has a decent way of dealing with this by having you able to quickly swap people out as long as you are in the same "zone" that the ship is in but if you venture beyond that you can't just swap people out on the fly.
Extra question: What is the ideal party size in your mind?
To me BG3 style letting you take 3 companions is the best. Typical bioware style only 2 companions is too limiting as you're probably always going to want to take one companion you really like/are romancing (if you're weird) which leaves little room for other companions to get a chance to really stand out.

I don't mind free swapping on the fly as long as it makes sense. In most cases the companions you don't have with you are still all going to be in the same area you're in, somewhere off-screen. It makes sense for that, versus swapping freely while deep in a dungeon or, in ME's case, on a mission. ME1 and 2 had an immersive way of doing it, while ME2 refined it to be more convenient (e.g. the transit terminals).

Gameplay-wise, a squad of 3 worked for Mass Effect, but for story reasons I'd always wished I could take one more. The party size of 4 felt nearly perfect in the Dragon Age games more often than not; I didn't often want a fifth party member along. I like Pathfinder's party size of 6 best, but depending on the game, 6 or more could end up being a clusterfuck.

[Oyster Sauce]

How do we feel about games that let you freely rotate out your companions on the fly? Should you have to return to your camp/base/ship or should every companion have the magical ability to teleport to you?
I think KOTOR II has a decent way of dealing with this by having you able to quickly swap people out as long as you are in the same "zone" that the ship is in but if you venture beyond that you can't just swap people out on the fly.
Extra question: What is the ideal party size in your mind?
To me BG3 style letting you take 3 companions is the best. Typical bioware style only 2 companions is too limiting as you're probably always going to want to take one companion you really like/are romancing (if you're weird) which leaves little room for other companions to get a chance to really stand out.

I think 4-6 is a good party size, the issue is when there aren't enough likable party members to fill it out (Pathfinder). Not a fan of using soulless mercs.

[asf]

i go solo

[Silver]

Extra question: What is the ideal party size in your mind?

3-4 in most games.

[Vergil]

Extra question: What is the ideal party size in your mind?

3-4 in most games.

I think 4 is likely the limit before it starts to get unwieldy. I imagine it would be pretty hard to balance a game around expecting you to have 4+ additional people with you but also be doable by yourself if you don't want to use companions.

[WhiteShark]

I imagine it would be pretty hard to balance a game around expecting you to have 4+ additional people with you but also be doable by yourself if you don't want to use companions.

Why would it need to be balanced for solo play? Just balance for a full party and let the challenge runners figure it out. Devs tend to err heavily on the side of lesser difficulty, anyway.

[Acrux]

Party size depends on the perspective, I think. I can manage a large party in an overhead/isometric view pretty easily and keep their roles distinct in my mind, but I think it's harder with a first- or third-person view. I think it was Mordheim where you could assemble a pretty large team, but the camera was part of the challenge in keeping track of everyone. Plus it gave me really bad vertigo.

[Silver]

Definitely 3-4 including player character. After that it's too much.
Unless it's something like BG3 where I wouldn't care about getting a party size+ mod just for the sake of going through companion quests. Wasn't as smart for my first playthrough, oh well.

[Vergil]

I think games that are going to have a big focus on story and relationships with characters should incentivize rotating them out more. I don't think it feels very natural to stuff somebody in a broom closet for months on end except to pull them out for one conversation where you say something they like and then immediately tell them to fuck off back to the base and still end up with them liking/trusting you just the same as the companion who has been glued to you for 100 hours of gameplay.

[WhiteShark]

Speaking of stuffing companions in the broom closet, the real difficulty is finding a plausible explanation for why you can only bring X companions with you when adventuring. From a game design perspective it's obviously for the sake of balance, but rarely is an in-universe explanation offered.

[A Chinese opium den]

I always stick to the same party once I find my favorites, but then I feel bad for the other likable characters so I do a different playthrough so I can use other party members I like but never used in the first run. Now I try and never 100% a game the first run because of how common this is, so at least I'll have some fresh content on a second playthrough and not just autistically redo every action the exact same way two or three times.

[rusty_shackleford]

Optimal party size is 6-9, as RPGs were designed for.

[Vergil]

Speaking of stuffing companions in the broom closet, the real difficulty is finding a plausible explanation for why you can only bring X companions with you when adventuring. From a game design perspective it's obviously for the sake of balance, but rarely is an in-universe explanation offered.

I'm not sure if I'm remembering this right but I think Mass Effect 3 sometimes had your companions just out in the over world in certain safe locations doing their own thing if you don't take them with you. I think that could be a solution. If you're in a safe area/town/whatever your companions who aren't part of your party will be going about doing their own business or if it's in a dangerous area most of the group would need to hang back anyway to make sure the ship/camp/base/whatever is safe.

[J1M]

In a typical game I rotate out the most annoying members as a new one joins. Then the party remains static. I like when games frequently require certain party members for a mission. It implies there might be some gameplay related to their traits.

Given the choice of a personality-free customized party I will usually opt for that. I have no idea what any of the companions from Pillars of Eternity were like, for example.

[MadRussian]

I hate it when there are more characters than party slots, as I never know who has an important character moment when and it gives me FOMO and anxiety.
Also, if a character shows up much later in the story, I can't but see him/her as a johnny-come-lately. Unless one of the earlier character is a complete piece of shit that I'm itching to replace, all johnny-come-latelies end up benchwarming.

[Vergil]

I hate it when there are more characters than party slots, as I never know who has an important character moment when and it gives me FOMO and anxiety.

This is why I only play games that I've played dozens of times for 10+ years and know everything that's going to happen from the start.

[rusty_shackleford]

Sword coast legends had a plot item that allowed any party member to participate in conversations regardless if they're in the party or not.

The game itself was … alright, i guess.

[Gregz]

Do you rotate companions into your party throughout a campaign

Generally I hate having to do this. I get emotionally attached to my party members and I want them to progress and succeed throughout the game.

[rusty_shackleford]

XP split between party members always seemed like a decent way to deal with allowing players to run a party size of their choosing.

[Oyster Sauce]

Also, if a character shows up much later in the story, I can't but see him/her as a johnny-come-lately. Unless one of the earlier character is a complete piece of shit that I'm itching to replace, all johnny-come-latelies end up benchwarming.

Agree with this. Pretty sure Legion in ME2 even had lines for planets you visit before you can recruit him.

[Anon]

XP split between party members always seemed like a decent way to deal with allowing players to run a party size of their choosing.

This makes rotating basically unviable though

[rusty_shackleford]

Also, if a character shows up much later in the story, I can't but see him/her as a johnny-come-lately. Unless one of the earlier character is a complete piece of shit that I'm itching to replace, all johnny-come-latelies end up benchwarming.

Agree with this. Pretty sure Legion in ME2 even had lines for planets you visit before you can recruit him.

There's a mod to make him available earlier which restores this content

[Vergil]

Also, if a character shows up much later in the story, I can't but see him/her as a johnny-come-lately. Unless one of the earlier character is a complete piece of shit that I'm itching to replace, all johnny-come-latelies end up benchwarming.

Agree with this. Pretty sure Legion in ME2 even had lines for planets you visit before you can recruit him.

Legion gets mega fucked over because if you want to play the game optimally where you have time to do everyone's loyalty mission you have to recruit him last and only limited time before you're in the last stretch of the game where you have to rush to save your crew. Which sucks because he's better than a lot of the ME2 companions. I would much rather have the cool robot bro for most of the game instead of the the BIG LIPPED BLUE GUMMED COAL BLACK PORCH MONKEY FUCKING NIGGER Jacob.

[Oyster Sauce]

They made 12(13) of these fuckers and I don't hate a single one. Even Jacob is just boring (and black) but at least he didn't try to rape me.

[Fargus]

Usually i stick with the ones i like but one of the games where i used to rotate companions is BG2. I done so to see more content. For example i usually recruit Korgan for the bag of laughs he is, to do his quest and to kill him later in the game when he chimps out. The same i did with Anomen, i finished his quest with the worst outcome and then just pissed him off in dialogue provoking him into trying to kill me. I also wanted to see more banters from other companions.

Also, if a character shows up much later in the story, I can't but see him/her as a johnny-come-lately. Unless one of the earlier character is a complete piece of shit that I'm itching to replace, all johnny-come-latelies end up benchwarming.

Agree with this. Pretty sure Legion in ME2 even had lines for planets you visit before you can recruit him.

Legion gets mega fucked over because if you want to play the game optimally where you have time to do everyone's loyalty mission you have to recruit him last and only limited time before you're in the last stretch of the game where you have to rush to save your crew. Which sucks because he's better than a lot of the ME2 companions. I would much rather have the cool robot bro for most of the game instead of the the BIG LIPPED BLUE GUMMED COAL BLACK PORCH MONKEY FUCKING NIGGER Jacob.

Last time i played ME it was trilogy remaster and i was using the mod called "early recruitment". I downloaded it for the sole reason of getting Legion early and keeping him throughout the game. It's a great mod and some of the reactions like the one you get when you bring him to Tali recruitment mission are almost if not completely impossible to see if you play the game normaly.

[Protean]

Yes, I rotate companions and prefer it to playing the same party all the time. I allow companions to leave, or die and leave them dead, if resurrection's too costly.