Rojahar wrote...
If I want to give Sten's (who is at camp) gloves to Alistair (who is with me) while I'm in the Deep Roads, just let me.
I'm not the only one who considers the four-person party limit a completely random, arbitrary gameplay constraint and assumes that everyone in the party is actually at every fight, am I?
Well, maybe not in DA2, because the characters all have lives of their own and I can see parties varying in size from "hey Varric let's go look into that lead" to "ok, I need absolutely every one of you out here to fight off this invading army", but in DA:O, I cannot begin to fathom why Sten would be sitting around topside with his thumb up his ass playing cards with Zevran while everyone else in the party went down into the Deep Roads to do the thing the doing of which is the whole reason he agreed to be released from the cage in the first place.
Why wouldn't Sten and Alistair be able to swap gloves in the Deep Roads? Sten is obviously there, after all. He's just not part of the fight because the gameplay is balanced around four-person parties.
Actually I'd rather have more recognition of that than a specific single party camp. For example, say you're putzing around Redcliffe before the battle. What if every party member had a location flag somewhere in town? If Leliana's in your party, great, she's in your party. If she's not, she's in the Chantry, with some short looping banter that has her telling stories to scared kids. If Oghren's in your party, great, he's in your party. If he's not, he's over by the smithy, arguing with Alistair about how sharp his pike is. Point is, everywhere you go, there everyone is.
Generally, yes, though. The PC does need a home base of some kind where everyone's enchantments
and everyone's inventory can be handled and trophies can be accumulated and injuries can be recovered from etc. And the player should have an opportunity to see multiple companions together with them in noncombat and nonparty situations.