Regarding number of experts.

[xstar960]

What is the optimal number of experts to have in a game with one player defusing the bomb ?

[ULTRA]

I've actually been thinking about this recently. There are a few factors going into the decision:

- Efficiency of defuser
If the defuser is well aware of what bomb characteristics factor into what modules, they will begin making verbal note of this from the get-go. For example, a lit-up CAR or FRK goes into button pressing, and this can be seen before the lights go on, allowing a button specialist to begin looking into this. Under certain displays, the defuser can also see things like ports and batteries before the lights go on, which factors into complicated wires, something that can be delegated to experts while smaller tasks are worked on. The better the defuser is at noting this information early, the more experts should be utilized, otherwise fewer are needed or there will be confusion.

- Page-turning/eye scanning speed
If there are more experts, there's less of a need to flip pages. Depending on hardware (if viewing on electronics) or page setup this could save time by, for example, assigning one expert to knobs and one to complicated wires, or having one start at the top of the manual and one at the bottom. More experts means less time searching.

- Cacophony
More experts means more people talking at once, often. Unless experts have an understood pecking order this can make it harder to understand directions. More experts means either more difficulty understanding one another or a greater need for conversational order.

- Specialization
Theoretically, if experts get into a groove, they can begin to be skilled at specific modules. This gives them obvious precedence in responding to these. Thus in theory you could have one person specializing in a chunk of the manual, or even one per module (highest organization), and as long as the defuser can name the modules properly and note special characteristics then more experts means more intuition and speed in solving modules.

- Expertise of defuser
This one is kinda a side note, but if the defuser is confident at certain modules then it is faster for the defuser to solve modules based on personal experience because there is no scanning time, only recall. On the other hand, they may be mistaken.

Overall what it comes down to is, as long as you have the ability to order your conversation/speaking turn then it is more efficient to have more experts. I imagine after, like 24 experts there's no use in having any more because there's nothing to possibly improve upon, though - at this point every semi-difficult module would have multiple people on it, making chance of error very minimal. On the other hand, this would require a high degree of order.

[Neoviper]

At least two or three experts if not more is best, simply because a lot of modules like morse code and password require a lot of time spent decoding on the expert side. With multiple experts, one can work on decoding while another works on a more straightforward module, saving time overall.