Maybe there was originally a technical reason for making the party travel as one, and it adds to the atmosphere of camaraderie, adventure and steel-on-steel, a little bit. Then again, a group would want to stick together on the whole without any incentives. Not dying as much is a strong argument, I think. And as far as new-chapter mystique is concerned, well, Cloakwood is locked until after the Bandit Camp, whether the whole crew would want to brave it or just Edwin and Kagain. And vice versa, if an area is turned off for plot reasons, it becomes closed to everyone. And when a quest transports the whole party, as, say, to the Lycanthrope Island and back or to the Ice Island and back, the scripts already grab all of the party members, even without a "You must gather..." After all, by the old logic no Player6 may be left behind, it case there is a Player6; scripts don't run checks to first determine party size when moving it somewhere else, so Players 1-6 will be taken care of. As for NPC, they speak to the first PC they lay their eyes on, as though representing CHARNAME in every case. It would be strange if they didn't - just stood there, bandits, mad sorcerers and all, and waited for Player1 or Protagonist to show up. They don't do that, and they can just as well react to a single wanderer as to many.
So I ask, why do we need the group travel feature now? Wouldn't it open up more possibilities for split parties and different spells - being left in stasis somewhere, lost to sirens' charms, polymorphed, you name it, not to mention give a real application to teleports, which are just conveniences now - if we flagged off "Party required" for all map borders? Or at least for all overland maps. Maybe the presence of Player1 is required indoors at places, at plot points, but the World map, I think we can free it for ranging. And imagine: when a couple of the characters bring that tome of great value to Candlekeep, the rest are absent. The two are taken in, and the gates close. They must now take on the catacombs with reduced strength, but the others can try to navigate the caves from the other end (whenever the entrance opens, at the start of the new chapter, probably) and meet them. Or perhaps a wizard could join them on the grounds with Dimension Door. Possibilities.
XP distribution? Let all characters earn XP for the party, wherever they may be. A lone character may not be able to do much anyway, or he might - through Charisma, by shopping and returning with full bags of holding, by Intelligence, if enough dialogues are written to register that (and now there would be a reason to), by taking new quests from NPC while the rest of the party does the grunts' work. And separating a character would allow a kind of customizable solo play when wanted, but without detriment to the rest of the party experience-wise. "Can I take these Doom Guards with my mage alone? No? Well, if I do, the points will be shared, so I won't doom myself to solitude and the others won't become useless weaklings."
The party can't rest while scattered, it's true, not normally. But then, they don't need to do it normally most of the time, just every so often for dreams and romances. We can introduce separate resting, in fact I've made a mod to that effect myself.
So I ask, why do we need the group travel feature now? Wouldn't it open up more possibilities for split parties and different spells - being left in stasis somewhere, lost to sirens' charms, polymorphed, you name it, not to mention give a real application to teleports, which are just conveniences now - if we flagged off "Party required" for all map borders? Or at least for all overland maps. Maybe the presence of Player1 is required indoors at places, at plot points, but the World map, I think we can free it for ranging. And imagine: when a couple of the characters bring that tome of great value to Candlekeep, the rest are absent. The two are taken in, and the gates close. They must now take on the catacombs with reduced strength, but the others can try to navigate the caves from the other end (whenever the entrance opens, at the start of the new chapter, probably) and meet them. Or perhaps a wizard could join them on the grounds with Dimension Door. Possibilities.
XP distribution? Let all characters earn XP for the party, wherever they may be. A lone character may not be able to do much anyway, or he might - through Charisma, by shopping and returning with full bags of holding, by Intelligence, if enough dialogues are written to register that (and now there would be a reason to), by taking new quests from NPC while the rest of the party does the grunts' work. And separating a character would allow a kind of customizable solo play when wanted, but without detriment to the rest of the party experience-wise. "Can I take these Doom Guards with my mage alone? No? Well, if I do, the points will be shared, so I won't doom myself to solitude and the others won't become useless weaklings."
The party can't rest while scattered, it's true, not normally. But then, they don't need to do it normally most of the time, just every so often for dreams and romances. We can introduce separate resting, in fact I've made a mod to that effect myself.
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