Titanfall devs cite proper balance for 12-player limit
When the giant mechanized suits of Titanfall touch down in March, its battlefields will be populated by a maximum of 12 combatants, according to Vince Zampella, founder of Respawn Entertainment.
Zampella was asked point-blank how many players the game will support in a single match. "6v6 is max player count," he replied. "Turned out to be the best balance with AI for us." Following Zampella's tweet, prospective Titanfall players reacted negatively, throwing around descriptors that we'd rather not republish on a family website. In response, a Respawn Entertainment employee calling his or herself "DKo5" took to the NeoGAF forums to offer a more comprehensive explanation of why Titanfall is limited to six-on-six skirmishes.
"[W]e tried a huge amount of playercounts (all the way down to 1v1 and up quite high) and designed the maps, gameplay mechanics, and entire experience around which played best," DKo5 wrote.
"And FYI, for amount of stuff happening at once in a map you'll be hard pressed to find a game that keeps the action higher. I literally have to stop playing every few rounds because my heart just can't take it some times. Remember, you can get out of your Titan and let it roam on AI mode - meaning there can be 12 Pilots wallrunning around, 12 Titans stomping below, and dozens of AI doing their thing."
Finally, DKo5 addresses player speculation over what Zampella meant with his mention of AI: "Oh, and I keep seeing people thinking we've got 'bots' when we talk about AI. Thats not how they are. The AI in Titanfall are not replacements for human players. Our playercount is not 6v6 because of AI - AI play their own role in the game and are a different class of character in the game."
