I know that one!
I haven’t verified that it works but each tier has a benefit associated with it, e.g. 20% discount on equipment upgrades. The UI references it when you hover over a tier with your cursor.
Oh geez, i somehow i have missed the tooltip… the is embarrassing…thanks for the tip, i will check it out
In other news, I completed one of the Odyssey arcs without knowing realizing it. There was some closure, but then I was left in the game as if nothing had happened.
heh, I miss stuff like this all the time in games. The merc system is a little odd as it is.
It does. Look at the bottom when you’re viewing a particular tier if mercenary, the tooltip tells you what each tier provides.
Edit: sorry, didn’t see that this was already answered!
Hey all I appreciate the scaling stuff above. That was good research.
Scaling I think matters not only In the obvious (two levels up or whatever) but as you level over the cap – if that is aa thing --gear also plays a roll in that. And gear scales in a strange way. If I am a level 17 fighting a level 15 boar and I am fully upgraded gear wise – that Is an easy fight.
So it is leveling over the rec level and the gear level scaring that seems to matter.
Plus strategic decisions about warrior, hunter, ass spec. Overall the system isn’t terrible. Though I dislike scaring generally.
Since I’m assuming most people haven’t gotten to level 50 yet, a point of difference from Origins. In the previous game, you could continue to ‘level up’ past the max level, at least in terms of earning abilities. You didn’t get any stronger, do more damage, can’t level up your equipment anymore, etc - but you would continue to earn ability points. With Odyssey - once you hit 50, you just don’t accumulate XP anymore.
It’s an odd choice. Not happy about that or the scaling. Still a great game, tho.
I wonder if the season pass DLC packs will increase the level cap as they did in Origins.
I have waded into a full blown war about scaling on the Ubisoft AC boards; I’d like to get the perspective here. Perhaps as a newcomer to the series (this is my first AC title) I’m not predisposed to care but why are some people so up in arms about scaling?
Here’s what I know: A zone may have a low and high level pre-set. We all get this I think. If you start a 20 - 24 zone at level 21, everyone you meet is 21. You level 22 and they are either still 21 if you haven’t zoned or will be 22 and so on until after you are 25.
After that zone’s ‘soft cap’ of 24 the scaling becomes dependent on your difficulty setting. On Normal if you are 25 or 26 they will remain 24 and thereafter a 2 level gap from your current level. On Hard the distance is 1 level and Nightmare they stay level with you. On easy there can be a 4 level difference; I’m 28, they’re still 24; I’m 29 now they’re 25 and so on.
This seems pretty sensible to me. What is driving so many players crazy?
A lot of people don’t like the concept of scaling in general. I’m in that camp, although not as militant about it as a lot of other people.
I find scaling tends to make game worlds feel very flat. There’s no easy areas to fall back on if you’re not feeling up for a challenge. Odyssey at least has areas above your level, so you can still push and test your mettle when you feel like it. Still, if you find a particular area very challenging, with scaling there’s not really a way to outlevel it and beat it that way. It always follows along with you.
All that said, I don’t think Odyssey’s implementation is too bad. Having scaling correlate to difficulty is a decent way to go about it, as it does allow you to outlevel areas if you so desire. And like I said, it has areas above your level so you can still look at a map and go “Oh wow, that place is nasty. I’m going to come back and visit it later!”.
It is actually a good system. Part of the problem with Origins is that once you outleveled an area, the quest rewards were worthless, and the combat trivial. This keeps it challenging through the game, but still allowing you an advantage over areas you’ve outleveled.
Kevin,
Would you say that partly it is because this is new to the series; previous AC titles didn’t have scaling?
I guess what really puzzles me (not you here, the Ubi board feud) are the ones who feel they need to tell you that they play on Hard, or on Nightmare but complain about scaling. Are they too proud to dial back the difficulty level to take a breather?
To me, the way this scales is refreshing and makes the game more realistic. If I have had one gripe throughout the history of RPGs, from pen-and-paper D&D through electronic gaming, it is how characters level in such a way that a level 5 is completely beneath a level 20 or 50. Enemies become ‘gray’ and worthless or are one-shotted with impunity. To me it feels like this game is recognizing that doubling or quadrupling your level didn’t make you a god; your gear is better, you have better or more abilities, but you still need to pay some attention because they’re not nothing. Caveat, I’m playing on Normal and Easy so I’m enjoying going back to some older zones and certainly having the odds in my favor, fights are certainly easier, but I’m not going unchallenged completely.
This is my first time getting into an AC game, so I couldn’t say what motivates the angst among the player base. It may be that they like the challenge of higher difficulties but don’t like that it makes the entire world the same level (flat and monotonous). I could see where they would want to be able to separate the two.
I probably wouldn’t have bought the game if I knew it had scaling. It is a design decision I simply hate because it often nullifies the growth of my character. What is the point of leveling up? Oblivion had such a bad implementation of scaling that I have purged that game from my memory.
I will say that with Odyssey the scaling has worked out better than I anticipated. The white enemies being two level below me has meant that they might as well be 20 levels below me, but if I get myself into a sticky situation with mercenaries or a group of whites and an elite, I can be made to sweat a little bit.
Dion,
See, I think the growth is still there; it just isn’t “everything”. You level up, you get a new or strengthen an existing ability. You can wear better armor, equip better weapons with better ‘perks’. Not to mention up until you reach 50 there will still always be enemies higher above you that you need to catch.
I feel that the Normal gap of 2 levels is a pretty good compromise. I do play a lot on Easy where I can be 4 levels above which is very much child’s play. But the fights against elites on Normal just go on too long; I play Easy mostly to ‘get on with it’ and move the story along faster. That is the other RPG pitfall I hate. If I’m so high and mighty why does it take 100 sword cuts to slay the beast? As DM so many times I just went a few rounds of battle to give everyone the flavor of it then I would come up with an ending that was in line… ‘another flawless victory’ or ‘you took a few bruises but came out on top’, etc.
Without seeing the actual thread I can only guess, but I imagine it’s partly because the whole RPG thing is still pretty new for AC, let alone scaling enemies. Until Origins, you could in principle as a starting character one-shot any enemy in the game other than a story boss, if you got a stealth attack. Even in Origins, as long as you kept up your blade damage you could one-shot anything around or below your level, and because it was easy to outlevel enemies, most people were. In Odyssey, you really have to go for an assassin build to do that, at least in the early (ie first 20 hours) game. And the combat feels like more of a slog for similar reasons, if there are any non-mob enemies.
Thanks for the advice!
It looks BEAUTIFUL in 1080p HDR, but Ubi’s performance tuning is kind of crap & I can’t quite get to a solid 60fps running the high detail preset.
Diego
RH! That looks like MY k!~
So I saw all of you talk all day about this game … FYI I run almost always a warrior and fight like a warrior.
I dunno it has gotten easier -I crush guys now. Plus I look spectacular doing so,
I rarely sneak attack. That’s some ac thing from way back. My K just runs up and kills you.
I’ve that read that this part is their best creation. They’ve been working for such a long time on this part. And the graphics looks amazing. This is sparta!!! Can’t wait to buy this game, although I don’t have the money yet :(