I am concerned about the limitation on group size in TOR. This will be a bad feature if there is no way to group easily with more than four people. The 6 man group has been a flexible tool, and though it can be a bummer to fill those groups sometimes, for people who have more than 3 friends there better be some way to not have to say, "sorry, guess you have to go do class story while we run this." It doesn't have to be there at launch, but sometime in the future this will have to be addressed I think or the game could suffer.

I agree. I don't understand why they would limit the groups in the first place.

Originally posted by ignore_me

I am concerned about the limitation on group size in TOR. This will be a bad feature if there is no way to group easily with more than four people. The 6 man group has been a flexible tool, and though it can be a bummer to fill those groups sometimes, for people who have more than 3 friends there better be some way to not have to say, "sorry, guess you have to go do class story while we run this." It doesn't have to be there at launch, but sometime in the future this will have to be addressed I think or the game could suffer.

You can say this about any group size.

If you have 7 friends and try to run a 5 man what do you ?

If you have 9 friends what do you do?

Its a case of "cant please everyone" now I agree 4 is a low number but it is a number that can work quite nicely if the content is designed right.

It's Herioc Star Warsy combat, not stand about the space port spamming L42 BH LFG, PST

Besides, you can solo most of the game with your companion anyhow

Originally posted by i_own_u

I agree. I don't understand why they would limit the groups in the first place.

Yeah, I agree. I can't see any issues with 500 people doing a mission together.

I plan to play solo or as a trio primarily but four does seem a small number for group size?

I liked DaoC group size at eight, that just seemed best to me.  But it is all so relative, I do hope there is some way to form a raid or have more than four if you want to though.

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Originally posted by Kothoses

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Originally posted by ignore_me
I am concerned about the limitation on group size in TOR. This will be a bad feature if there is no way to group easily with more than four people. The 6 man group has been a flexible tool, and though it can be a bummer to fill those groups sometimes, for people who have more than 3 friends there better be some way to not have to say, "sorry, guess you have to go do class story while we run this." It doesn't have to be there at launch, but sometime in the future this will have to be addressed I think or the game could suffer.

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You can say this about any group size.
 
If you have 7 friends and try to run a 5 man what do you ?
 
If you have 9 friends what do you do?
 
Its a case of "cant please everyone" now I agree 4 is a low number but it is a number that can work quite nicely if the content is designed right.

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Yeah, I get that, but does the 7/9 man situation happen all that often? The group dynamics are different there, but a group of 6 friends who play together frequently may have issues with this system. Shouldn't there be a way to circumvent this such as eight man groups that can be buffered with companions?

Most games have a 5man group...I dont see how 4man is a big deal?

Originally posted by i_own_u

I agree. I don't understand why they would limit the groups in the first place.

SWTOR doesn't have scaling instances, so they had to set a limit on group size for design purposes. They could have set it higher, but it still would have had a limit.

There are a couple of interesting points supporting a 4-person group size. It matches the number of classes, so you could spread around group buffs such that the ideal group is exactly one member of each class. The other thing that comes to mind is that you can use companions to fill in spots, so two players can theoretically run instances. Not sure how important either point is though.

The big downside is the relative number of tanks and healers needed. Most people tend to lean toward damage dealers, so reducing the relative need for damage dealers could be problematic. I'm hoping that the companion system will encourage more people to run tanks and healers as they will be at less of a disadvantage for solo leveling than is typical in some MMORPGs.

I have no problem with there being a 4-man group limit.  If you want to do the group content, it should make putting together a PUG easier.  Besides, there's nothing stopping anyone from doing a 3 player group + companion if you don't want to wait.

The way they describe DPS only advanced classes makes them pretty much pointless to play just to do dps in group play.  I think people might migrate towards ACs that have a tank, or healing tree, just to have options for grouping.  Which could possibly make it easier to group.

I don't mind the group size being limited to 4 players since I usually run with a small group anyway.

I'm sure I'll be corrected with someone who has seen them enough to know when and where.. but.. 4 man groups sorta remind me of .. Han, Chewie, Luke and Leia. :) .. And if you ever noticed, if those 4 werent together, they typically had their "companions" with them,  R2-D2, C-3PO, Jar jar Binks (har har haha)  So the basic 4 group thing seems well in lore maybe?

But in any case, I like the idea cause it is easier for grouping.  I have numerous friends who dont mind what so ever waiting a turn for help or something.  Im not a hardcore player who has to keep leveling fast or I feel like I'm wasting my time so I like small group sizes. I just really REALLY hope they dont put some thing in the game that rates players and their equipment  in a group and then people are like.. "We won't be able to do it with this guy.. kick him out."  Its annoying in games when in order to GET the stuff, you need the raid groups but then they dont want that player who will make it difficult for them.  Sorry to ruin how easy your game is? ( haha. ) .. As always, opinions here, be nice! :) 

I think they are pushing to have each class worth more. healers and tanks will probably both do decent amounts of damage. it sucks having to deal with 30 million DPS and no tanks or healers

Like the other guy said, It's in the design, maybe content not revealed may hold more players, but some instances just don't make sense with too many players.

It will be intersting to see how this plays out for the entire game. Flashpoints is the place where the 4 will matter the most. Those are dungeon instances that can take hours and should require teamwork. And there are not that many yet. Only 5 per side for sure. The rest of the content is a combo of open world and short or small story instances. Not a lot of teamwork realy, except for the group story chains.

From what we have seen so far. Questing in the open world requires you to go to an open area and kill x as a bonus quest. Then find the opening to your story area and enter solo or with your group. So if you have to, you could have two groups going to the same area, But each group would enter the final stage of the story quest in their own instance. Complete that part and then exit back out to the open world with everyone.

It is not the same as larger groups. But it at least will allow you to play with your friends for most of the quest. Just not the story part. Also, there are heroic areas, but two groups in that area may cause problems with who gets credit for kills. Maybe they will allow raids to all get credit for heroic areas?

With the many different types of quests, we will have to see it work before we can judge. There are the class quests, open world quests, open world group story quests, heroic areas and flashpoints. The group size of 4 will make it easier on many, but more difficult if you have a large group of firends. At least you will be on vent and can BS even if you aren't in the same area.

[quote][i]Originally posted by artemisentr4[/i] [b]It will be intersting to see how this plays out for the entire game. Flashpoints is the place where the 4 will matter the most. Those are dungeon instances that can take hours and should require teamwork. And there are not that many yet. Only 5 per side for sure. The rest of the content is a combo of open world and short or small story instances. Not a lot of teamwork realy, except for the group story chains.   From what we have seen so far. Questing in the open world requires you to go to an open area and kill x as a bonus quest. Then find the opening to your story area and enter solo or with your group. So if you have to, you could have two groups going to the same area, But each group would enter the final stage of the story quest in their own instance. Complete that part and then exit back out to the open world with everyone.   It is not the same as larger groups. But it at least will allow you to play with your friends for most of the quest. Just not the story part. Also, there are heroic areas, but two groups in that area may cause problems with who gets credit for kills. Maybe they will allow raids to all get credit for heroic areas?   With the many different types of quests, we will have to see it work before we can judge. There are the class quests, open world quests, open world group story quests, heroic areas and flashpoints. The group size of 4 will make it easier on many, but more difficult if you have a large group of firends. At least you will be on vent and can BS even if you aren't in the same area. [/b][/quote]

So can you create a raid group for the content I highlighted?

they have not said if everyone in a raid group would get credit when doing quests out in the open world but even if they do, the content is meant with the 4 player parties in mind, so i imagine the content would be quite easy with more players.  the only open world content we have heard of involving raid groups is for world bosses, where daniel erickson talked about how he put together a 10-man raid group to kill a world boss on dromund kaas

Originally posted by naraku209

I think they are pushing to have each class worth more. healers and tanks will probably both do decent amounts of damage. it sucks having to deal with 30 million DPS and no tanks or healers

Very good point :). Not to mention I do notice a lot of the time people doing the "have 4/6, need " all the time in most popular mmos out  now. I think having a smaller group size will allow people to  get instances/group content done with less wait (as a lot of people dont have a lot of time to sit and wait fer 30min/hour to get groups together too). I just hope they dont add dungeon/instace finders to the game.

4 man groups doesn't really bother me to much, but I hope it won't feel as if other MMO's where you need 6 but "can do it" with 4 if you have a healer, tank, dps, and CC.. Everyone's job gets that much harder and intense..