[Ophion]

kefka666333abc123 said:

If people die then thats there fault for sucking I guess....whats that have to do with anything...

That a persons death doesn't affect the team at all, that has to do with everything. What if you replaced 7 players with 7 mercenaries (of player strength). What if one mercenary dies, does that affect you? Nope, not at all, because you have 6 other mercenaries to help you. But what if you had only 3 mercenaries and one dies, then it is going to affect you greatly (relatively), especially now when they can't return instantly through a town portal.

The death of your party members should affect you negatively, why should you otherwise even care about them?

And 8 players are always going to be better than 4, even with balancers like in D2, just because you can lose twice as many people. How many used the player cap in D2 other than to avoid spambots and annoying people that wants to PK you?

[Zanmato]

Exactly, how many? Close to none. That would suggest the majority favors 8 player limit rather than 4. Also, I would imagine they're gonna set things up so that omsters get tougher the more players there are in the server, like in D2. In that case, losing a player would be just as devestating with 8 players as it would be with 4, right?

[Ophion]

Zanmato said:

That would suggest the majority favors 8 player limit rather than 4.

That is very correct, for D2. This is D3, a new game :P

[Psyxix]

We really don't know what's gonna be in D3 and some multiplayer mechanics are not yet announced. I prefer 4-6 players to 8 players, it's more screen friendly when everyone is spamming skills.

[Zanmato]

emilemil1 said:

That is very correct, for D2. This is D3, a new game :P

True dat, mate :P But there are undeniable similarities..

[Jeru5]

8 players. 4 is not enough. Let it be classical D2 party.

[Ophion]

Just to start a conversation; what are your thoughts about the problems that occur with more people in the same game? I can see a lot of people simply thinking "8 people is more fun", or "D2 had 8, so D3 can have 8" and than leave it like that, which just isn't a good enough reason.

Problems:

-The screen cluttering.
-The importance of each party member.
-Bigger server strain (minor issue).
-Balancing.

And the pros:

-More people to interact with.
-More chaos (reason for the first, second and fourth problem).
-You can play with all your friends (assuming you have no more than 8 online).

And a few solutions to problems:

-Adjust the amount of effects automatically after your preferences (against screen cluttering).
-Give each party a separate world when they leave town (cluttering, importance and balancing), but allow a world chat and shared towns so you can trade, PvP and change parties.

Free player cap adjustment wouldn't work because there will always be one setting that is optimal for experience gain, which is what everyone will choose, so it must be enjoyable. There will also always be either easier or harder to play in a game with X players with a specific character setup. It would for example be easier to go farming enemies with high dmg/low hp with 20 players if everyone is using powerful ranged AOE attacks, compared to the same game with only single target melee characters (which wouldn't kill them quick enough). Why would you want a Barbarian tank when his HP doesn't matter because of the demons with insane damage surrounding him/her?

This post has been edited by emilemil1: 14 November 2009 - 11:32 AM

[dirty]

If you want 4 players how about making it so only 3 people can join your game...it really isn't that hard to solve.

[Ophion]

dirty said:

If you want 4 players how about making it so only 3 people can join your game...it really isn't that hard to solve.

Because it would not be optimal. More people is always better, difficulty can't compensate for it.

[dirty]

emilemil1 said:

Because it would not be optimal. More people is always better, difficulty can't compensate for it.

I think you mis understood me. I was talking about if someone really wants to only play with 4 people they should make it so their game, that they create, has 4 player slots.

8 players should be the max.

[Ophion]

dirty said:

I think you mis understood me. I was talking about if someone really wants to only play with 4 people they should make it so their game, that they create, has 4 player slots.

8 players should be the max.

???

Simple:

4 players = easy
8 players = easier

There will Always be an optimal party size, and everyone will choose it because they will level up faster with it.

And ladders. What if the most enjoyable player cap gives you a disadvantage in experience gain?

It is fully comparable with D2. Imagine that D2 got D3 graphics, would anyone choose 4 players because of the improved gameplay? No way, everyone would still play with 8 players because it gives the best experience gain.

So the ability to choose really doesn't exist because everyone will choose the optimal setting, which is what I said in my last post.

[Luigi]

I think that there should rather be an option creater which allows you to choose how many players you want in a game like from 2-8 rather than setting a definite amount of maximun players. This way all the people for 4s and those for 8s would get what they want.

[Sixen]

I haven't gone through the entire thread, but I could've sworn that at the 2008 BlizzCon, 4 players was set in stone.

[LinkX]

I am thinking that the max is 8, but the "recommended" is 4.

Yea, as of a 2008 interview between Jay Wilson and Joystiq, the max is 8, though apparently they may increase it?

Quote

In terms of the engine and its current state, where do you see the maximum number of co-op joint players?

Right now we support the same number as Diablo 2, which is 8. We can actually do more if we wanted -- it's not a technical problem, it's a gameplay issue. What we've found is that the game is actually better with a smaller number of players, even smaller than 8. When we play, we have the most fun with about 4 -- and that's because of the camera and the nature of the game. So we're gearing towards that and really trying to encourage that. But whether we enforce it or not [with a strict limit on the number of players] ... it's hard for us to say at this point.

[Ophion]

Good, they are optimizing it for 4 players :)

[Cat3rmill3r]

They should just make it 6 to be safe

[Ophion]

Cat3rmill3r said:

They should just make it 6 to be safe

What? They are going with 8 for max but optimizing it for the most enjoyable setting, why should they change that?

[eventhorizon]

I would most likely play with 4, which is a nice number- you know what everyone is up to, no-one is rushing off ahead when your're questing and whatnot, but I would like the option of 6-8 for those times when I feel the need to let all chaos break loose. : )

x

[Sixen]

Nice find, Link, =). That sounds exactly like what I heard at the BlizzCon08, I must've just missed the first sentence.

Personally, i'd like to see an 8 player limit again.. It leaves enough room for one of each class within the game and an extra spot (after the expansion with +2 classes). If we decide that we want to restrict our games to 4 players (like the option on Battle.net in D2), then so be it, ;).

[LinkX]

I do what I can. :P

But yea, I think that the games on Bnet of D3 will most likely be almost all 8 players. If you remember, when you install D2, the default is 4 players. And nobody plays with 4 players. :/