If you don't have any reasons TF- then I will ignore you. And one comp or one player?

I'd have to go with one or five.

One player for story based RPGs. Five players for action based RPGs.

4 is the perfect number. Its 'even' and its good enough for fun gameplay with friends AND the public. AND you get a fair amount of comps. Then if you want a more epic rpg use 3 comps. Epic as in the three musketeers.

I think anything under 3 will provide a decent rpg with a storyline that isnt hack'n'slash.

Whenever I made my RPGs, I always had four human players.

I always needed four computer players though, simply because I was very trigger happy when it came to my RPGs.

How does a story improve as the player number drops? Can't you still come up with a nice story with more players? I mean i've played quite a few Rpg games with as many as 6 playable characters. What are the limitations that make you need to drop that in exchange for computers?



clumsy how? and super helpful how? I mena you can vary monster stats and all but i don't see how thats super helpful. There are ways arround powering up monsters as it is.

Ok if you can get by with 2-3 comps with triggers what on gods green earth do you need players 9-15 for? I guess i don't quite understand.

Fleibility in triggers meh ok i guess i can by that even though i'm not sure how. Flexibility in unit stats meh ok again i can by this even though there are other ways arround it.

Seriously what am i missing? I wana make and rpg and i'm not trying to hijack but it appears this thread is somewhat dead so i figured i would save space and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I can see 2 allied computers if really need be but this is for sake of color only. As for comps i could maybe see 2 warring comps or 2 warring allies. This is roughly 3 -5 comps most likely 3 though possibly even 2 if necessary.

It depends on what kind of RPG you're making really. You can use one set of computers just for upgrade stats and a different colour so you can sort of recycle units a little bit. You can also use the boss/mini-bosses as a different colour so they can also have different stats, and also because it may work depending on your spells. Like if you have a really strong spell, you can make it really strong against the weak enemy, semi-strong against the upgraded enemy, and ineffective against bosses, like % percentage spells that reduce HP. I think it just allows you more flexibility in your spellwork and creativity. I also sometimes like to use a computer player just for spells, so if he kills something, I know it was because of a spell used by someone and I can reward them accordingly. Usually if you're playing with a high amount of players, I'm going to say that most of them probably don't care and want to hack and slash their way to the finish. By lowering the amount of players, it encourages teamwork because it's much easier to do stuff like puzzles with 3 players rather than six. Also, usually RPG file size may be big so it'd be impossible to fill the slots, so why waste them sometimes? It's also a lot easier to find two friends to play with rather than five. It's also easier to balance gameplay wise with three players too.

i see the point about spells but would this work with spells using dirrect dmg method aka scarabs? If so you would almost need like 2-3 of comps just for that and that would be rather taxing. as for ups I don't quite understand wont you usually be using different units for say bosses and higher level guys and thus adjust stats accordingly? I guess you could sort of recycle but imo that wouldn't be as fun especially since they reward the same exact exp/cash. For effects of spells you could just moniter the types of units it effects since each unit has a different name/unit type. don't get me wrong i love my friends i just don't see the reason to make a huge ass map and give to a handfull of people especially when it would be more fun with more people. To me an ideal number would be 4-5 people i guess.

You could use DDS but if you were looking at crutex's old topic in the UMS map making assistance, it's still flawed. Keeping a significant number of scarabs on screen takes up a lot of weapon sprites, which will severely limit how much is going on in the map. It would probably fine in an RPG, as you can control that kind of stuff.
Also, with the upgrades I mean one computer would have 0/0 upgrades and the next computer would have 10/10 upgrades and the boss could have 20/20. You could easily adjust their hp so it scales with the heroes. Also, you can just change how much exp/gold it gives depending on how you're tracking the player, using player deaths or just setting a death counter when they enter the area with new enemies. I don't always think more people = always more fun though, unless you can get 5 people who really want to play an RPG with you.

ok the ups i still don't see point for unless your needing to recycle tons and tons of units. If you wish to adjust stats you can do that when its two different units. I guess if your doing a thing where your trying to find the bandit leader that is where you need to change stats like armor/hp/dmg. As for exp is there a way to adjust for killing a specific comp's unit? If not i can't really see how that would be good especially if you have one boss bandit surrounded by tons of mini bandits.

I think the more human interaction the better. Granted you don't want people that aren't gona have the patience to play all the way through but you do want more than just computer interaction. 3 Players is ok but the fun things you can do with teams 2v2 or the 5th wheel would be more fun imo.

ok lets see what im up 2. one comp for bosses, one for regular units, one for spells, one for town, one for town allies. Hmmm not looking good at all that leaves me with 3 humans. Is there a way to shrink this or to compensate some how without needing the one for spells? Could i use the town allies if they will only interact with town and thus keep units seperate?

Like I said, you don't need a whole computer for spells if you don't want. In one or two player RPGs it's easy to track their kills and thus easy to compensate for them. It just adds a more flashier effect because of giving wraiths to the player, you give cloaked wraiths to the spell computer and it looks like you're shooting lasers and stuff. If you're using more than 3 I would just recommend using the players own units for spells. Like I said, make a kills to cash but I usually add a death counter condition in there to tell if it is a regular unit or a tougher unit, or everytime they enter a specific area, you keep track of it with a death counter and you can re-adjust how much they earn.

Do you really need one for town allies though?

well my spells i plan to use direct dmg for so the comp will be killing with scarbs. and i pretty much need a town allies because i want to have like 2 towns that can basically kill each other if i want them to. For example a feud breaks out between two towns.

From a player's perspective, the number one thing that I always love to see in an RPG is human interaction. I've played many single player RPGs (in Starcraft and outside of Starcraft) and they were fun, but I always thought that if there was just one more person with me, that would make the game so much more fun. This is why I think having more than one player in a Starcraft RPG is important.

However, this is a subjective topic because you can't always have more than one person because of the storyline or whatever events the mapmaker plans. The RPG 5th Station, for example, would be quite awkward with more than one person playing. However, the RPG Legacy of Haean would get boring without other people (in my opinion). Both of these RPGs are fun, interesting, and well-made.

In the end, the number of players needs to revolve around what you want to do with your RPG. If it has an amazing storyline, then perhaps keeping it down to three or four people would be better. If it's a game of exciting gameplay, then perhaps two or three people are enough to keep everyone entertained. Open RPGs will almost always need five or more players because they are so broad.

The question should not be, "How many players does a good RPG have?"
Instead, it should be, "I want to make the players in my RPG feel like this and the gameplay should be like this, how many players would be ideal for this type of RPG?"

Wow, Score one exile! +1!

I agree with him.
If there is more than 1, I'd stick to 4, though. 3 is quite little, and there is not much noob compensation.

i like 3, just like demon incubus and spellsword

Honestly, I like RPG's with small numbers of players. This way, you usually get to pick who you play with, so they don't leave, as well as having a more involving story. It's really hard to have a story line that needs 6 people actively participating in.