Level scaling is the stupidies thing to have in an RPG, it kills the immersion and character progression.
It favors FPS and console players that want the same difficulty all the time (i.e. system with no character progression). Level scaling is anti-RPG feature, it was the most hated feature in Oblivion.
Level scaling is a cheap way to balance the game world, in which developers can't otherwise bother with a reasonable level progression. Anet again took the easy way and it's ridiiculous to see that people actually call this an innovation. Incredible.
....but does any one else besides me *not* like the level scaling in GW2? Don't get me wrong, I understand what they were trying to go for. You have the freedom to choose where you want to go to level, and if you are a completionist you can stick around well past the time you would normally have to leave a zone. And on paper it sounds great. When I was following Guild Wars 2 during development I was telling my wife "See, I can still play when you aren't online, but I can go back and help you and we will still be the same level". In practice however I hate it. If it's a feature that every player just absolutely loves then why not make it optional, like a prompt or checkbox? My experience so far is only up to a 33 Warrior, so this may change later. It really feels like there is zero incentive to level, and you don't *feel* like the epic hero of a story. In other games there is a clear metric that you can see your character gaining in power because challenges in the past are now trivial to you. All the explanations that have been given where people defend it say "It's boring to go back and one shot things, go team Anet!". In case anyone has forgotten sometimes it's FUN to do that! If you played WoW for a fair amount of time admit it, you went to goldshire and one shot Hogger and spat on his corpse. And you did it because at that level he was hard, and he may have killed you. It's fun to look back on things like that and say "Look how far I have come". Also for a role playing game it's a huge immersion breaker. You can be 'Rocktar, Slayer of Dragons, Warmaster of the Vigil', but you might be helping your level 13 buddy and get killed by a lvl 14 champion crab.
TLDR: As long as games have new and exciting content at max level for you to do then there is no need to have level scaling, and sometimes it's fun to roflstomp old content, because you earned that "Badass" title.
I have hard time understanding this from my own perspective, not saying that you are wrong with anything, it's just I see mmorpgs as these huge games where you have a huge open playing field shared with other players. If 95% of this huge world becomes trivial after I've done my leveling, the world that used to be huge got just shrunk to 5% of what it used to be since 95% of it now is useless.
That's why I love this feature, and why it should not be optional. It evenly makes the whole world relevant all the time for everyone. There's no lvl80 going to come and one shot that giant you've been just fighting for 5 minutes on an event. Or come fart a centaur assault force into hell on a nanosecond that you just kept pushing back. We have this ONE game that does this, and I really hope it stays this way, ONE game, please.
Also you are more powerful going to level 10 area. You have unlocked all second bar skills + elite, and you also have more stats through traits, how's 50% crit rate not powerful Vs 10% crit rate?
What I hated in games like WoW and TOR is the fact that all that huge open MMO world becomes useless after you level through it, and only the max level area has any purpose anymore.
Level scaling is the stupidies thing to have in an RPG, it kills the immersion and character progression.
It favors FPS and console players that want the same difficulty all the time (i.e. system with no character progression). Level scaling is anti-RPG feature, it was the most hated feature in Oblivion.
Level scaling is a cheap way to balance the game world, in which developers can't otherwise bother with a reasonable level progression. Anet again took the easy way and it's ridiiculous to see that people actually call this an innovation. Incredible.
Level scaling is the smaterts thing to have in an MMO-RPG, the world stays immersive since there's no god-modding-one-shotters (the most un-immersive thing ever) walking among the rest, and the world + the content in it stays relevant.
It favors all the people who are sad that the huge open world in most mmo's become useless after leveling past it, everything is one shottable in 95% of that huge WASTED world, nothing gives any XP rewards or useful loot anymore, wasted world.
For once we have a mmorpg where the open world does not get WASTED as soon as you've done leveling in it. It's amazing that it took this long for developers to understand how to create a mmorpg world where most of it is useful to even max level people and not have these tiny in comparison "end-game" designated areas for high level people. Incredible.
Level scaling is the stupidies thing to have in an RPG, it kills the immersion and character progression.
It favors FPS and console players that want the same difficulty all the time (i.e. system with no character progression). Level scaling is anti-RPG feature, it was the most hated feature in Oblivion.
Level scaling is a cheap way to balance the game world, in which developers can't otherwise bother with a reasonable level progression. Anet again took the easy way and it's ridiiculous to see that people actually call this an innovation. Incredible.
Level scaling is the smaterts thing to have in an MMO-RPG, the world stays immersive since there's no god-modding-one-shotters (the most un-immersive thing ever) walking among the rest, and the world + the content in it stays relevant.
It favors all the people who are sad that the huge open world in most mmo's become useless after leveling past it, everything is one shottable in 95% of that huge WASTED world, nothing gives any XP rewards or useful loot anymore, wasted world.
For once we have a mmorpg where the open world does not get WASTED as soon as you've done leveling in it. It's amazing that it took this long for developers to understand how to create a mmorpg world where most of it is useful to even max level people and not have these tiny in comparison "end-game" designated areas for high level people. Incredible.
I am sorry but in GW2 with my lvl 80 if not one shotting i usually two shot everything when i go to lower zones. Down scaling gives you an illussion of content being worthwhile by giving you loot that scales to your level. However as far as challenge is concerned it becomes trivial.
Level scaling is the stupidies thing to have in an RPG, it kills the immersion and character progression.
It favors FPS and console players that want the same difficulty all the time (i.e. system with no character progression). Level scaling is anti-RPG feature, it was the most hated feature in Oblivion.
Level scaling is a cheap way to balance the game world, in which developers can't otherwise bother with a reasonable level progression. Anet again took the easy way and it's ridiiculous to see that people actually call this an innovation. Incredible.
Um.... theres still plenty of progression. Just ran through the 1-15 Charr zone on my 36 Asura Thief leveling groups of mobs in vs having to take them 1, 2 if Im lucky, at a time when I was that level. Your whole idea that it's anti-RPG and that it was the "easy way" is pretty ridiculous. Its an option. Nobody is forcing you to go back and play the lower content. They did it to allow people to go back and play witht heir friends and not have it be a complete snooze fest. with absolutely no risk.
I see what they were doing with level scaling, but even still I don't like it at all. Maybe if it wasn't quite so active, but as it stands, you are seldom even as much as 2 levels over the content, with all the utilities and epic skills true.
So much of this game seemed so fresh, so new and unique. Now I am getting glimpses behind the curtain and seeing how rushed and poorly designed some of the oh so hyped features truly are.
Level scaling is the smaterts thing to have in an MMO-RPG, the world stays immersive since there's no god-modding-one-shotters (the most un-immersive thing ever) walking among the rest, and the world + the content in it stays relevant.
I am sorry but in GW2 with my lvl 80 if not one shotting i usually two shot everything when i go to lower zones. Down scaling gives you an illussion of content being worthwhile by giving you loot that scales to your level. However as far as challenge is concerned it becomes trivial.
Oh, did know that. I dont have max level char, and I've down leveled plenty along the 25-40 zones and it works quite well at that range at least if the level differences are not that high. Then I dont know what the hell the OP is whining about, is he just a bad player? This comes as bad news to me though, I understand the very first zones are easy and you one shot the mobs even while being on even level with them, but if most of the world is trivial at max level it's not quite what I thought.
Oh well, time level some more and see for my self in due time
I kinda have mixed feeling about the whole levelscaling thing. On the one hand it's good because it really would be no fun at all if one high level character would be able to own an entire event, AoE the crap out of everything and send all the appropriately levelled players home with a bronze reward because they dealt out crap damage.
On the other hand when you try to kill a mob 5 levels higher than your character is, then you're going to have to really give it your all to get that kill, unless maybe you have über gear or something.
Also some zones seem to scale better than others. It's really no fun to be downlevelled from 75 to let's say 48 and be killed by two level 51 mobs. It just makes the zone pretty much a no go, just world completion and you're outa there forever, which is the opposite of what they're trying to achieve.
....but does any one else besides me *not* like the level scaling in GW2? Don't get me wrong, I understand what they were trying to go for. You have the freedom to choose where you want to go to level, and if you are a completionist you can stick around well past the time you would normally have to leave a zone. And on paper it sounds great. When I was following Guild Wars 2 during development I was telling my wife "See, I can still play when you aren't online, but I can go back and help you and we will still be the same level". In practice however I hate it. If it's a feature that every player just absolutely loves then why not make it optional, like a prompt or checkbox? My experience so far is only up to a 33 Warrior, so this may change later. It really feels like there is zero incentive to level, and you don't *feel* like the epic hero of a story. In other games there is a clear metric that you can see your character gaining in power because challenges in the past are now trivial to you. All the explanations that have been given where people defend it say "It's boring to go back and one shot things, go team Anet!". In case anyone has forgotten sometimes it's FUN to do that! If you played WoW for a fair amount of time admit it, you went to goldshire and one shot Hogger and spat on his corpse. And you did it because at that level he was hard, and he may have killed you. It's fun to look back on things like that and say "Look how far I have come". Also for a role playing game it's a huge immersion breaker. You can be 'Rocktar, Slayer of Dragons, Warmaster of the Vigil', but you might be helping your level 13 buddy and get killed by a lvl 14 champion crab.
TLDR: As long as games have new and exciting content at max level for you to do then there is no need to have level scaling, and sometimes it's fun to roflstomp old content, because you earned that "Badass" title.
It's not about liking it or not Get used to it. I know the place you came from. I was thinking something like that myself for a while when I was playing beta. But not anymore. GW2 is very social game. I can give you few examples.
1. When I was around lvl 20, my friend joined. I went to his area and we played together. We had a blast. It would not be possible otherwise because I would 1-shot all mobs and there would be no point.
2. I can always go back to some place. In GW2 you don't have low and high lvl areas. You have ones that you can survive (your lvl and below) and one that you will be killed (above your lvl). I find myself going back to low lvl areas quite often. For mats, for friends, for fun etc. Sometimes I just want to see some nice location I found at some point. Or launch myself from a catapult near some vista :P
3. No one ruin someone else fun. In events and other stuff (almost everything in GW2 is group oriented).
4. We can still come back to low lvl areas and kill area big ass boss and we will still have fun and challenge doing so.
5. Guild can play together. We have people from lvl 10 to 80 and we still can gather in some place and have fun.
Same with scalling to 80 in PVP. We all have blast doing PVP because we are all equal and most of the time - only thing between win or lose is my skill.
What is the price for being able to play where I want, how I want with who I want ? Lvl 14 champion crab can kill me.
....but does any one else besides me *not* like the level scaling in GW2? Don't get me wrong, I understand what they were trying to go for. You have the freedom to choose where you want to go to level, and if you are a completionist you can stick around well past the time you would normally have to leave a zone. And on paper it sounds great. When I was following Guild Wars 2 during development I was telling my wife "See, I can still play when you aren't online, but I can go back and help you and we will still be the same level". In practice however I hate it. If it's a feature that every player just absolutely loves then why not make it optional, like a prompt or checkbox? My experience so far is only up to a 33 Warrior, so this may change later. It really feels like there is zero incentive to level, and you don't *feel* like the epic hero of a story. In other games there is a clear metric that you can see your character gaining in power because challenges in the past are now trivial to you. All the explanations that have been given where people defend it say "It's boring to go back and one shot things, go team Anet!". In case anyone has forgotten sometimes it's FUN to do that! If you played WoW for a fair amount of time admit it, you went to goldshire and one shot Hogger and spat on his corpse. And you did it because at that level he was hard, and he may have killed you. It's fun to look back on things like that and say "Look how far I have come". Also for a role playing game it's a huge immersion breaker. You can be 'Rocktar, Slayer of Dragons, Warmaster of the Vigil', but you might be helping your level 13 buddy and get killed by a lvl 14 champion crab.
TLDR: As long as games have new and exciting content at max level for you to do then there is no need to have level scaling, and sometimes it's fun to roflstomp old content, because you earned that "Badass" title.
I rather had them get rid off levels and make the gap between noob and vet a lot smaller, but I think you would hate that even more since it would have about the same effect but worse.
With levels is this the best way to solve the issue.
Outleveling stuff too fast really sucks, like in TOR a storyline usually becomes grey before you finnish it. And it also makes no sense that you easily could kill a dragon in an earlier zone and then get stomped by a rather scrawny looking outlaw wielding a club.
Yeah, the makes sense argument might not be particularly strong to most people, but even fantasy gets better with at least a little realism in it somewhere.
Level scaling is what makes the world of GW2 possible. Otherwise this would happen: "Oh, look it's the Shatterer!" *level 80 one shots it*. "Well, that was fun...NOT."
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
I just can't see the fun appeal in "I'm so powerful; I walk into a level 20 zone at 80 and everything dies in one shot. I just turn on retaliation and watch every mob in an 8 mile radius die. Yay."
Level scaling means I can help my lower level friends level up, AND get meaningful XP. I can go grind low-level crafting mats and still level. I just can't see the downside to that either.
Dais, when I play gw2 I basically level in a zone 3-5 levels above me to keep it tricky. When I do go to lower levels I do basically destroy mobs just like jogger. Downscaling gives me 1 big advantage - I can play with anyone at anytime.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
I do feel there is toon progression, because if you go back as high lvl toon with full traits and lvl80 gear, the early zones become a lot easier. You hit mobs harder and they hit you for less dmg. But it will never become trivial no.
And I am glad about that. Not just to keep the gameplay in those areas more interesting so I can help guildies without falling asleep. But also for immersion reasons. One thing that always annoyed me in other MMO's is how mobs can be one shotted in early zones if you are high lvl. This immediately makes any 'serious problem' that inhabitants of that zone have completely meaningless. Because it just doesn't make sense to be able to one shot a bandit in one zone, while having to kite for what feels an hour when fighting the same gang in a different zone. Also, there wouldnt be a problem for those ppl to begin with, if those mobs can be roflstomped like that.
I'm with the person saying I have too much fun to pay attention to my level! Especially not being able to out level your content anet figured out a way to allow people to just keep playing.
Lower level mobs are still trivial just not to the point of doing 8950% of their hp in damage in one hit. If you go to the lvl 1-5 area you'll notice you kill mobs in about 2-3 hits.
Honestly, I'm almost thinking the level scaling might be in part what is making me feel rather bored of leveling. I just feel no satisfaction from leveling, and I think its in part due to the fact the level scales you down. It feels like I'm making no progress at all. Talent points just don't feel like they do anything to change stuff up, and skill points you typically will have everything you need relatively early, myself having everything done on my thief by 35 and my mesmer right as a hit 30. I think in part it contributes to the feeling that you don't progress and tires out some people from playing.
It does keep some 'challenge' but at the same time, its not really hard to begin with. In truth too you have no real point doing lower level content as well since the experience you would get is trivial the higher level you get and its just a time waster mostly, unless you might be going for the 100% complete and praying its not bugged so they don't go "Sorry, we can't fix bugs" and screw you over royally due a bug on their side making your 100% a waste of time.
uhm no, downleveling is the best thing ever. We don't have griefers running around messing everything up for everyone else for one thing.
secondly, you don't have to wait for your late blooming friends to get up to your level to play with them.
and finally, when you do the hearts in a zone you don't always catch them all. not all of the events occur on timers which is what the rest of us were trying to tell you guys the entire time prelaunch so you can go through and do the hearts that are active when you are there in the zone but if you are a completionist then you won't have REALLY completed that zone and can come back later to get the hearts you don't have.
Hearts of course being mostly in the pre-30 zones as they begin to go poof as you go up in level and diminish.
uhm no, downleveling is the best thing ever. We don't have griefers running around messing everything up for everyone else for one thing.
secondly, you don't have to wait for your late blooming friends to get up to your level to play with them.
and finally, when you do the hearts in a zone you don't always catch them all. not all of the events occur on timers which is what the rest of us were trying to tell you guys the entire time prelaunch so you can go through and do the hearts that are active when you are there in the zone but if you are a completionist then you won't have REALLY completed that zone and can come back later to get the hearts you don't have.
Hearts of course being mostly in the pre-30 zones as they begin to go poof as you go up in level and diminish.
Blazeridge Steppes lvl 40 to 50 zone, 15 heart quests. I am pretty sure that is not pre 30. Next 50 to 60 zone i will do the count and let you know how many heart quests are there since i can not play right now. Stop spreading mis information please.
Originally posted by GrumpyCharr Level scaling is what makes the world of GW2 possible. Otherwise this would happen: "Oh, look it's the Shatterer!" *level 80 one shots it*. "Well, that was fun...NOT."
Easily solved by implementing a political system and/or punishments.
Originally posted by Gaia_Hunter That is because level isn't the system that classify how hard mobs are, level is a player indicator.
Mobs have ranks.
You have common, veteran, elite, champions and legendary mobs,
Elite, Champion and Legendary mobs will always be hard.
And your premise is fake: you can kill the crab just fine and it won't pose a threath unless you are asleep, but you are still mortal,
Also part of the god effect is more a design to sell expansions and monthly fees than exactly RPG.
What a load of crap. "Level" is too a measure of how hard a mob is. Let's see you take your level 20 hero and go kill a common level 40 crab. Tell me again how level is just "a player indicator."
Yes, mobs have ranks. They also have "levels." A level 5 bear is not as tough as a level 15 bear. Same mob. Same "rank." Differing levels.
With the downleveling that GW2 has, yes, these mobs will ALWAYS be tough. There is no way to go back and beat the snot out of that one elite mob that owned your ass back in the day. NEVER will you be able to go back and one-hit him, no matter how great your achievements are.
RPG. I just killed the biggest, baddest, most terrifying mob in all the world. I am great! On to a different zone and maybe do some world exploration. Nothing, and I mean nothing should pose a threat to me. I just saved the world! Yet here I am, outside of Divinity's Reach, trading blows with some worm, getting knocked down by some boar, and picking my way into a centaur camp. I should be able to waltz right in and clean everything out with no trouble. Thus God-mode.
This has nothing to do with sub fees or expansions. Why would I invest in something that takes away my God-mode. This new content that gives me new, tougher content to overcome?
What planet do you live on?
A level 5 bear is exactly as tough as level 15 bear and fight exactly the same - the only difference is that there is this silly stats spreadsheet. I can't beat a level 15 bear with a level 5 character because the developers don't let me.
Yes, level is a stupid archaic mechanic from a genre that required almost no mechanic player skill.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Originally posted by Bladestrom Lolwhat, ' a political system' there is not a single game that does this successfully, and for good reason - human selfishness.
RF Online did it successfully for instance. It comes down to the principle that if the elected people are not meeting the demands of the people, they lose their power during next mandate period.
Comments
+1
I have hard time understanding this from my own perspective, not saying that you are wrong with anything, it's just I see mmorpgs as these huge games where you have a huge open playing field shared with other players. If 95% of this huge world becomes trivial after I've done my leveling, the world that used to be huge got just shrunk to 5% of what it used to be since 95% of it now is useless.
That's why I love this feature, and why it should not be optional. It evenly makes the whole world relevant all the time for everyone. There's no lvl80 going to come and one shot that giant you've been just fighting for 5 minutes on an event. Or come fart a centaur assault force into hell on a nanosecond that you just kept pushing back. We have this ONE game that does this, and I really hope it stays this way, ONE game, please.
Also you are more powerful going to level 10 area. You have unlocked all second bar skills + elite, and you also have more stats through traits, how's 50% crit rate not powerful Vs 10% crit rate?
What I hated in games like WoW and TOR is the fact that all that huge open MMO world becomes useless after you level through it, and only the max level area has any purpose anymore.
At 80 down scaling is nothing but a gimmick. You would feel like you are killing the grey mobs like any other MMO.
However does anyone else feels just like PVP it would have been fun to boost your level according to higher zonesin PVE?
Level scaling is the smaterts thing to have in an MMO-RPG, the world stays immersive since there's no god-modding-one-shotters (the most un-immersive thing ever) walking among the rest, and the world + the content in it stays relevant.
It favors all the people who are sad that the huge open world in most mmo's become useless after leveling past it, everything is one shottable in 95% of that huge WASTED world, nothing gives any XP rewards or useful loot anymore, wasted world.
For once we have a mmorpg where the open world does not get WASTED as soon as you've done leveling in it. It's amazing that it took this long for developers to understand how to create a mmorpg world where most of it is useful to even max level people and not have these tiny in comparison "end-game" designated areas for high level people. Incredible.
I am sorry but in GW2 with my lvl 80 if not one shotting i usually two shot everything when i go to lower zones. Down scaling gives you an illussion of content being worthwhile by giving you loot that scales to your level. However as far as challenge is concerned it becomes trivial.
Um.... theres still plenty of progression. Just ran through the 1-15 Charr zone on my 36 Asura Thief leveling groups of mobs in vs having to take them 1, 2 if Im lucky, at a time when I was that level. Your whole idea that it's anti-RPG and that it was the "easy way" is pretty ridiculous. Its an option. Nobody is forcing you to go back and play the lower content. They did it to allow people to go back and play witht heir friends and not have it be a complete snooze fest. with absolutely no risk.
Maybe if it wasn't quite so active, but as it stands, you are seldom even as much as 2 levels over the content, with all the utilities and epic skills true.
So much of this game seemed so fresh, so new and unique. Now I am getting glimpses behind the curtain and seeing how rushed and poorly designed some of the oh so hyped features truly are.
Oh, did know that. I dont have max level char, and I've down leveled plenty along the 25-40 zones and it works quite well at that range at least if the level differences are not that high. Then I dont know what the hell the OP is whining about, is he just a bad player? This comes as bad news to me though, I understand the very first zones are easy and you one shot the mobs even while being on even level with them, but if most of the world is trivial at max level it's not quite what I thought.
Oh well, time level some more and see for my self in due time
other mmos like COX, EQ2, RIFT have optional player scaling and i wish ALL mmos supported this
GW2 has mandatory scaling on everything
- i love it but it wont appeal to all players
EQ2 fan sites
I kinda have mixed feeling about the whole levelscaling thing. On the one hand it's good because it really would be no fun at all if one high level character would be able to own an entire event, AoE the crap out of everything and send all the appropriately levelled players home with a bronze reward because they dealt out crap damage.
On the other hand when you try to kill a mob 5 levels higher than your character is, then you're going to have to really give it your all to get that kill, unless maybe you have über gear or something.
Also some zones seem to scale better than others. It's really no fun to be downlevelled from 75 to let's say 48 and be killed by two level 51 mobs. It just makes the zone pretty much a no go, just world completion and you're outa there forever, which is the opposite of what they're trying to achieve.
It's not about liking it or not
Get used to it. I know the place you came from. I was thinking something like that myself for a while when I was playing beta. But not anymore. GW2 is very social game. I can give you few examples.
1. When I was around lvl 20, my friend joined. I went to his area and we played together. We had a blast. It would not be possible otherwise because I would 1-shot all mobs and there would be no point.
2. I can always go back to some place. In GW2 you don't have low and high lvl areas. You have ones that you can survive (your lvl and below) and one that you will be killed (above your lvl). I find myself going back to low lvl areas quite often. For mats, for friends, for fun etc. Sometimes I just want to see some nice location I found at some point. Or launch myself from a catapult near some vista :P
3. No one ruin someone else fun. In events and other stuff (almost everything in GW2 is group oriented).
4. We can still come back to low lvl areas and kill area big ass boss and we will still have fun and challenge doing so.
5. Guild can play together. We have people from lvl 10 to 80 and we still can gather in some place and have fun.
Same with scalling to 80 in PVP. We all have blast doing PVP because we are all equal and most of the time - only thing between win or lose is my skill.
What is the price for being able to play where I want, how I want with who I want ? Lvl 14 champion crab can kill me.
I rather had them get rid off levels and make the gap between noob and vet a lot smaller, but I think you would hate that even more since it would have about the same effect but worse.
With levels is this the best way to solve the issue.
Outleveling stuff too fast really sucks, like in TOR a storyline usually becomes grey before you finnish it. And it also makes no sense that you easily could kill a dragon in an earlier zone and then get stomped by a rather scrawny looking outlaw wielding a club.
Yeah, the makes sense argument might not be particularly strong to most people, but even fantasy gets better with at least a little realism in it somewhere.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
I just can't see the fun appeal in "I'm so powerful; I walk into a level 20 zone at 80 and everything dies in one shot. I just turn on retaliation and watch every mob in an 8 mile radius die. Yay."
Level scaling means I can help my lower level friends level up, AND get meaningful XP. I can go grind low-level crafting mats and still level. I just can't see the downside to that either.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
I do feel there is toon progression, because if you go back as high lvl toon with full traits and lvl80 gear, the early zones become a lot easier. You hit mobs harder and they hit you for less dmg. But it will never become trivial no.
And I am glad about that. Not just to keep the gameplay in those areas more interesting so I can help guildies without falling asleep. But also for immersion reasons. One thing that always annoyed me in other MMO's is how mobs can be one shotted in early zones if you are high lvl. This immediately makes any 'serious problem' that inhabitants of that zone have completely meaningless. Because it just doesn't make sense to be able to one shot a bandit in one zone, while having to kite for what feels an hour when fighting the same gang in a different zone. Also, there wouldnt be a problem for those ppl to begin with, if those mobs can be roflstomped like that.
Honestly, I'm almost thinking the level scaling might be in part what is making me feel rather bored of leveling. I just feel no satisfaction from leveling, and I think its in part due to the fact the level scales you down. It feels like I'm making no progress at all. Talent points just don't feel like they do anything to change stuff up, and skill points you typically will have everything you need relatively early, myself having everything done on my thief by 35 and my mesmer right as a hit 30. I think in part it contributes to the feeling that you don't progress and tires out some people from playing.
It does keep some 'challenge' but at the same time, its not really hard to begin with. In truth too you have no real point doing lower level content as well since the experience you would get is trivial the higher level you get and its just a time waster mostly, unless you might be going for the 100% complete and praying its not bugged so they don't go "Sorry, we can't fix bugs" and screw you over royally due a bug on their side making your 100% a waste of time.
uhm no, downleveling is the best thing ever. We don't have griefers running around messing everything up for everyone else for one thing.
secondly, you don't have to wait for your late blooming friends to get up to your level to play with them.
and finally, when you do the hearts in a zone you don't always catch them all. not all of the events occur on timers which is what the rest of us were trying to tell you guys the entire time prelaunch so you can go through and do the hearts that are active when you are there in the zone but if you are a completionist then you won't have REALLY completed that zone and can come back later to get the hearts you don't have.
Hearts of course being mostly in the pre-30 zones as they begin to go poof as you go up in level and diminish.
Blazeridge Steppes lvl 40 to 50 zone, 15 heart quests. I am pretty sure that is not pre 30. Next 50 to 60 zone i will do the count and let you know how many heart quests are there since i can not play right now. Stop spreading mis information please.
Easily solved by implementing a political system and/or punishments.
A level 5 bear is exactly as tough as level 15 bear and fight exactly the same - the only difference is that there is this silly stats spreadsheet. I can't beat a level 15 bear with a level 5 character because the developers don't let me.
Yes, level is a stupid archaic mechanic from a genre that required almost no mechanic player skill.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
RF Online did it successfully for instance. It comes down to the principle that if the elected people are not meeting the demands of the people, they lose their power during next mandate period.