I just quit playing two games because I realized they were doing level scaling.
I quit the English Civil War because of Levellers. Radicals! Time to go home, if this is what we’re fighting for!
I recall the auto leveling in ORIGINS to be a feature you could turn off in the options.
I recall leaving it off, so I could go back and farm easy lower level animal kills for resources to upgrade and or sell for gold.
Did they remove that from Odyssey ?
Ugh, I wish I knew this before I bought the game.
Pure scaling is my least favorite mechanic, and killed Oblivion for me. I don’t mind some minor scaling, like a region has a max level enemies can scale to… But level scaling basically sucks every bit of enjoyment from the levelling process for me
Seems the option is NOT included in Odyssey.
Yeah, this is what I ended up doing but even on easy a 1 level disparity is a huge deal, especially if you can’t afford the resource cost of keeping your gear upgraded (spoiler - you cannot).
Here is an example that came up while I was doing a level 16 quest that took me to a level 16 area. This area.
Clearly level 16, but enemies are between 16-18, even wild animals. I’m now playing on Easy, fwiw.
I started on Hard, where it feels like overcoming the challenge and moving to the next would be satisfying… But in light of the level scaling I have dropped the difficulty to normal. We will see how that goes, but may end up on easy soon as well.
I thought most designers learned this lesson with Oblivion. People don’t like this manner of scaling. (Or so it seems to me)
The 18s are a named Mercenary and his pet in that. I’ve also seen 17 elites in the 16 zone in Euboea.
I liked how ELEX handled mob strength. Even in the starting areas there were creatures you simply needed to avoid until much higher levels.
The other thing I’ll say about Odyssey: I feel kinda godlike. I’m not afraid to take on stuff that’s above my level right now. Gear definitely matters. There are three skills in the Warrior tree that feel incredibly overpowered too–the heal, the armor buff, and the warrior damage buff. Thinking about bumping up to hard, maybe.
(WIth that hubris, in typical Greek style I will now be felled by two wandering wolves or something…)
All I know is the map says 16 is the level, and enemies are 2 levels above me.
You’ll encounter named Mercenaries at all levels (above and below the limit) in any province or area in the game. They wander freely as they pick up contracts.
Sure, I get that, but the enemies that were guarding the leader target were level 17, and so was he himself. The level 18 guy showed up while I was engaged, as Mercenaries are wont to do, so the fight went from unwinnable to fucking unwinnable. Whether that follows the rules of the system as the developers intended or not, the end result is it doesn’t feel fun.
Given how resource intensive it is to upgrade stuff (my Gold items take upwards of 150 soft leather alone, and I almost always only have maybe 80-90 and I’m also always broke because I’m not selling anything, I’m breaking everything down mostly for soft freaking leather). I never had any issues with Origins - I blew through that on Normal and had a fucking blast. I’m not enjoying Odyssey in the same way, and I don’t think my gaming tastes or skill level have changed much in the last 12 months.
I bet if I looked in the Helix shop I’d find all kinds of ways to offset my issues. Which is super gross.
This one may be a bit off-topic. :)
I think Elites might be able to be a level or two above the zone as well. I don’t like level scaling, but it hasn’t been too much of an issue. Levels aside, ranking up skills can make them absurdly powerful (in a fun way!).
Was that after depleting nation strength all the way, out of curiosity?
No, but in my experience that only affects his guards (or lack of guards). He was always going to be level 17, in a level 16 zone. I don’t really mind, I actually killed him by assassinating him and then running away from the mob of high level yellows chasing me like Assassin’s Creed 1 intended, but I still maintain the “level range” of the zone’s is not really a good indicator of what level you should be. I’d rather they actually just said “16-17” instead of “16-16”, personally.
I probably should pack up and move on to the next story beat, I have got to be close to where I can put more than 1 point in many of my skills.
I’ve done found upgrading gold items as you level to be a complete waste. Just swap in a blue or purple as they become more powerful with levels. It feels like upgrading them is more of an end game set pursuit rather than maintaining along the way.
Probably, but I like swords the best and upgrading the cool legendary sword I have is fun. It’s a vast bummer I’m not able to keep using it.
Ohhh. Yes, definitely do this. Judging from things you’ve said, I think it’s just around the corner from where you’re at.