| abstract | - Trope common in Real Time Strategy games, in which the overall number of units or the count of a particular powerful, but not unique unit are limited by assigning a completely arbitrary Cap to them. This limit is often far lower than what the resources available or the technical limits of the game engine could allow. Particularly ridiculous when the rule can be broken through scenario design or using a perfectly legitimate game feature. Most often implemented as a way to enforce game balance. It can also be a matter of resources; each unit requires not just rendering power but AI, collision, and other intangibles. This can be partially justified by representing the High Command's reluctance to commit too many resources into one battle when you- in theory- have more than enough resources, though this justification does not work as well when you are fighting THE climatic battle and yet there are only so many units you can deploy. However, occasionally it may be hardware related, since processing and showing many units at once can slow a game down considerably to the point where it runs really choppy, particularly on high graphic settings, hence the need to limit how many units one can have at any given time. Since developers have to take console hardware limitations into account, or multiple PC configurations, they will usually try to balance between gameplay, and allowing the game to still run smoothly. Many Role Playing Games have this as well, centered around the three-to-five-person size of the active party. In addition to the Hand Wave explanations common in Real Time Strategy games, Role Playing Games can use the plot to explain the size limit. For example, in Final Fantasy IV, every time it looks like the party will grow beyond five, one of your current members will discover pressing business elsewhere. Or die. Or reveal that they had been a monster in disguise. This version has something of a real world justification: many groups would keep a reserve behind to prevent the entire unit from being wiped out in one fell swoop. Recently, the trend of allowing the side characters to "switch out" with the main team is growing, at least in the aforementioned Role Playing Games. If the characters "on the bench" travel along with the main characters but refuse to switch out, or jump in if the active party gets defeated, they're Lazy Backup. (The Gameplay and Story Segregation may also explain that all of them are fighting, and the battle scene simply represents it.) See also Cap and You Require More Vespene Gas. Kind of related to Conservation of Ninjitsu and Construct Additional Pylons. When applied to temporary things like active bullets, it's One Bullet At a Time. Examples of Arbitrary Headcount Limit include:
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