I at least would like them to input differing camp aesthetics depending on where you are.
That's what I meant by camp moving together with party.
As for camp being safe and there being random encounters, that can be cool, but it depends on how difficulty ultimately gets balanced in the game. If the game makes it so by the time you need to rest your party is at the end of its rope then a random encounter could potentially be punishing. Pathfinder Kingmaker managed to pull that off by both having mechanics that let you avoid random encounters based on dice rolls and by making it so that if you're resting it's less likely to be because your party is almost completely beaten down and more because of status effects that lower their combat effectiveness. So while you're handicapped in combat you have a fair shot of winning.
That's true, that's why I added my opinion about using other companions in such fights as well. Aka second party. As party powerhouse is bruised, with less than half HP, other camp companions are rested, prepared and having guard duty.
As for xp, I think it's better if all companions level up with you because it's just easier to manage, otherwise you have to be constantly swapping around party members if you want them to keep pace with each other, and given the limitations of the already small party that's going to be an annoying. Especially for people who want to experience every party member's story.
Yes you might be right regarding that. I neither would like to swap party members just to level them up a bit and you brought nice topic.
I really missed opportunity to give Gale his beloved magical item while I had him in the camp. He constantly cried about it, but you can give him something only when he is party member.
It would be great just to do companion side quests even if they are camping.
Using the current party members as a barometer I think (and honestly hope) that all party members will bee quite in depth in terms of their storylines and backstory (though I agree it would be nice if they weren't all tadpole infested) so having a lot of party members would be unlikely, especially since they're all going to be voiced and that represents automatically a large investment of time and money.
That's true, but we will see how it goes. Most of the motion capture for races must be already done. So whenever you introduce new possible companion, you have to add dialogue options and voices.
Depending on how many classes will be available in final game, one companion per class is more or less likely to be an option
