Incentivize larger group play on Arelith in dungeons

[Dagonlives]

I've observed that parties above 4 people aren't really profitable in terms of gold gain on Arelith. In fact, grinding dungeons solo of the midlevel as an epic level character and vendoring the supplies found appears to be the most optimal way to gain gold. This isn't really that fun to do, and many players do it out of a desire to 'keep up' rather then actual enjoyment of said process.

In comparison, large group play is often more enjoyable due to the mingling of many characters, and the dynamics that occur, but above a certain size (Usually four) it is once again, a net loss in gold gained, or resources gained. Arelith is a social game, but it does not reward social gameplay at the resource level, really. It rewards hoarding and minimizing competition.

I've hosted parties of 10+ often for piracy, or adventures in the underdark, but often other players discuss how this is 'counter productive to resource gain' and inevitably the parties disperse after a time for this reason. It's a ton of fun to host 10+ players on my pirate ship for example, but they simply won't make any coin, or resources for their time invested. I'm better off taking only 4 or 5 others at best.

Arelith does not encourage inclusive play in dungeons for this exact reason. Resources are a set amount no matter how many individuals walk into the dungeon. I would forward that mechanics that might help towards this aim might serve to have more of an inclusive feel to the dungeons of the setting.


Examples by which grouplay for dungeons can be encouraged, rather then discouraged:

Interact-able chests which grant a set amount of gold based on party member proximity, the more for each member.

Bosses that have a greater difficulty, thereby forcing high attendance, but also produce more resources.

Scaling dungeons: Bringing more players means more gold and rewards and harder spawns.

Alternatively, lower level dungeons can be nerfed enough in gold gain that partying up for Lowerdark, Oceanic, or Planar adventures makes more sense.

[Mithreas]

FWIW the choice of 4 as the optimal party size was deliberate and related to performance. Large parties have an exponentially larger impact on server performance, and parties over about 7 have been discouraged on most servers for most of NWN's life. We have an awesome server now, but I'm still not sure I'd want to test it with 3 10+ person parties wandering around