When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
For those who enjoy scaling, is there a way to "test" your character, take on tougher mobs than you without hanging onto a higher level character in some fashion?
Continuing with my theme of using ESO as an example just because it's the only level scaling MMORPG I have a lot of experience with, a mob's level has never been the only factor that determines the challenge.
Even before you start getting into "elites", mini-bosses, bosses differentiation they have a range of mob difficulties ranging from trivial swarmers like skeevers and wolves, regular ones like bears and bandits, tougher ones like common Daedra and tougher yet again with special daedra, trolls, giants and mammoth... then come the different mini boss and boss ranks with some world bosses for example being much tougher than others - typically several moderate difficulty ones per zone that a well built, competent player can solo even though they are technically a group activity with one or two per zone that are bad mofos that only the best players can solo.
Then there's difficulty based by location: the regular overland locations are the easiest, then comes delves where the same mob types tend to be a bit harder, then comes the dark anchor event mobs then the "public dungeons" that are tough delves with bigger packs and tougher mini-bosses - those are really meant for casual, drop-in grouping since they work like non-instanced dungeons like those in the early MMORPG games... they can be done solo too by above average players.
After that you get into group instances with their own difficulty range from very easy to very tough (specially the newer DLC dungeons) and then the solo raid, Maelstrom Arena and finally full raids with their own range of difficulties as well.
All of that is done with all mobs being the same exact level: level 50 / CP160 equivalent and all of them represent a different challenge for the noob level 10 guy with little choice about which abilities and passives they have to work with and the geared to the teeth vet players with 100s of CP points and all abilities they care to have unlocked.
So despite the scaling your progression will eventually trivialize a lot of the content although not to the same extent that it's trivialized in non-scaled games when you go to a zone where everything cons white or gray to you.
What you don't get in scaled games is the red con rats (or rat like thing with a new scaaaaryyyy skin to let you know they're not the same rats from level 1 but their mutant cousins with super powers) that will eat you alive.
I mean lets get real here guys, if you want to look behind the curtain and strip games down to their mechanics essentials don't just do it for the scaled games you don't like - do it for all of them. Because all of them always have you fighting the same thing at any level be they scaled or not. Sure their 3D texture may change to make the level 162 thing look different than their level 1 cousin but it's the same bloody fight lol.
And when they aren't the same fight it's because they have added new AI mechanics to the mob that you're not so familiar with - something that can be done with mobs of the same exact level (as ESO does) or reserved for higher level mobs in games that cling to the traditional "Dings matter!" formula.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
Scaling is awful. Makes pretty much the whole game is the same from day one to the day you quit. ESO does it in the worst way possible. You group with lower friends but gear you get is to high for them, gear they get is too low for you.
pre-scaling if things were too easy and/or you were grouped, you could move to a tougher area. ESO has very few tougher areas for smaller groups.
The games that scale down higher lvl toons to lower areas or to the lower lvl members in group are tolerable. As long as they don't scale lower lvl toons up to all content and make it so that at day 1 I can basically go anywhere and have really nothing more to look forward to... I can tolerate it. Otherwise it's a game longevity killer. Killed one mob you've killed them all.
When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
It is all a numbers game. There is nothing stopping them from having easy, standard, hard, elite, group difficult creatures anymore than any other game. Level scaling does not prevent that.
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
I literally one shot things in WoW till like level 50. Then it generally became two or 3 basically up to about 80 before I used my level boost from the expansion. The game is what developers make it.
If it's a level 1 brown snake that just slithers in the grass it would. But if it's a level 176 snake with green, blue and purple fluorescent scales that flies up in the air while taunting you using a famous voice actors' voice and then kicks you for 10,000 damage? That is what YT videos are for!
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
It is all a numbers game. There is nothing stopping them from having easy, standard, hard, elite, group difficult creatures anymore than any other game. Level scaling does not prevent that.
And yet it did and does in games like Eso and GW2
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
And because in other games i can go fight level 35 mobs at lvl 30 and challenge myself you cant do that in your scaling game cause everything is errr level 1
This is pointless here , its not if you are equal level its a tactical problem for me , There are 0 Tactics used in a game like ESO for a huge portion (the majority) of the game ..
The levle problem comes again where everything feels the same , in other games you can go to higher level area and challenge yourself ..
since T1 and scaling nearly all of ESO content can be soloed by any player very quickly , heck you can get to lvl 50 in 2-4 hours if you want then rack up some CPs rather fast ..
Further making the content trivialized ..
Its my biggest beef with ESO , alto there are parts of the game i really enjoy ..
So you are not a fan of scaled dungeons - normal, vet, mythic etc.
Serious question btw - no dig intended. As I realised writing the above post however scaling has been common in dungeons for years and I can't remember any serious threads on "its really bad".
Really, the only dungeons I've done in MMOs was EQ. No scaling there. I liked that. No scaling made "powerleveling" a thing, not to mention a good way to "test" a group
Do the mentioned WoW (are those WoW?) examples actually scale to the players? I thought they were meant to be tackled when "at the right character/gear level."
I'm sure many players love scaling in MMOs. Many here like it. I can't say why no "serious threads" have been noted
1. As far as EQ1 goes yes early EQ1 (original RunnyEye say) didn't have scaled dungeons but the 2003 expansion Lost Dungeons of Norrath introduced them: Quote:
"Lost Dungeons of Norrath breaks the mold of traditional zones by
allowing every zone in the expansion to provide adventures for all
groups between levels 20 and 65. Each time you embark on a new
adventure, you're sent to one of 48 distinct dungeon zones, each
customized with challenging monsters and traps tailored to the level of
your group. This means, as long as you're over level 20, you'll have 48
challenging new dungeons to explore and conquer! "
Now this was "pure" scaling and other mmos have also adopted this approach. Sometime all dungeons can be done at different levels sometimes its a mix (LotR's are mostly scaled but not all for example).
2. What I was really talking about though was dungeon difficulty levels which many games have done for - well over a decade now. So you will have your ma level "normal" dungeon; and then the hard version of the max level dungeon; and maybe the "very hard" version. Typically the mobs will have more hit points, higher resists, bosses may get extra minions and - maybe - a special attack here and there.
If you read WoW threads and come across "Heroic" and "Mythic" dungeons runs etc. this is what is being talked about. Basically slightly tweaked content to keep players chasing the next gear level etc. Keep players subscribed! And basically re-use the same content.
If your only experience has been EQ1 presumably before the 2003 LoDN expansion though then you can't comment. Or why this approach would be OK in dungeons but not OK if done in a landscape setting.
Scaling is the worst thing to happen in mmos since .... well it is on par with f2p shops, instatravel, point systems for gear, and removal of roles. Scaling makes everything bland, with meaningless progression and removal of challenge and failure, and therefore feeling of accomplishment. Plus scaling breaks immersion like nothing else, at least in real mmos that are supposed to be build as worlds (scaling is usually fine in lobby/instanced games and other "play by yourself together" type of games which are what many "mmos" have become anyways).
When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
It is all a numbers game. There is nothing stopping them from having easy, standard, hard, elite, group difficult creatures anymore than any other game. Level scaling does not prevent that.
And yet it did and does in games like Eso and GW2
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
And because in other games i can go fight level 35 mobs at lvl 30 and challenge myself you cant do that in your scaling game cause everything is errr level 1
This is pointless here , its not if you are equal level its a tactical problem for me , There are 0 Tactics used in a game like ESO for a huge portion (the majority) of the game ..
The levle problem comes again where everything feels the same , in other games you can go to higher level area and challenge yourself ..
since T1 and scaling nearly all of ESO content can be soloed by any player very quickly , heck you can get to lvl 50 in 2-4 hours if you want then rack up some CPs rather fast ..
Further making the content trivialized ..
Its my biggest beef with ESO , alto there are parts of the game i really enjoy ..
What game? I played WoW and I could go to higher leveled areas I was content locked out of quest by levels so it was a waste of time. Quest generated way faster experience.
As I said before difficulty is a design choice. Leveling scaling can include elite NPCs that would be elite no matter your level.
When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
It is all a numbers game. There is nothing stopping them from having easy, standard, hard, elite, group difficult creatures anymore than any other game. Level scaling does not prevent that.
And yet it did and does in games like Eso and GW2
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
And because in other games i can go fight level 35 mobs at lvl 30 and challenge myself you cant do that in your scaling game cause everything is errr level 1
This is pointless here , its not if you are equal level its a tactical problem for me , There are 0 Tactics used in a game like ESO for a huge portion (the majority) of the game ..
The levle problem comes again where everything feels the same , in other games you can go to higher level area and challenge yourself ..
since T1 and scaling nearly all of ESO content can be soloed by any player very quickly , heck you can get to lvl 50 in 2-4 hours if you want then rack up some CPs rather fast ..
Further making the content trivialized ..
Its my biggest beef with ESO , alto there are parts of the game i really enjoy ..
What game? I played WoW and I could go to higher leveled areas I was content locked out of quest by levels so it was a waste of time. Quest generated way faster experience.
As I said before difficulty is a design choice. Leveling scaling can include elite NPCs that would be elite no matter your level.
This explains alot as you sound like a player who seeks the path of least resistence , you chose not to challenge yourself in combat because you could better XP questing , and why you lean towards scaling.. It is also a path of least reistence..
Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that , there are many playstyles , some present more difficult and rewarding challenges .. others not so much , Scaling is of the latter imo
Scaling is the worst thing to happen in mmos since .... well it is on par with f2p shops, instatravel, point systems for gear, and removal of roles. Scaling makes everything bland, with meaningless progression and removal of challenge and failure, and therefore feeling of accomplishment. Plus scaling breaks immersion like nothing else, at least in real mmos that are supposed to be build as worlds (scaling is usually fine in lobby/instanced games and other "play by yourself together" type of games which are what many "mmos" have become anyways).
Themepark are immersion breaking for me period. It is a matter of taste.
I solo'd the Lich King and other cataclysm event causes in WoW over and over. Yet I died to some random dungeon creature I was trying to solo. How does that make sense? Died to a high level regular bear afk.
The whole vertical progession thing never makes sense.
It's crazy how some folks brains are so clamped that they can't fathom a game having different zones with different challenges rather than some arbitrary power creep to be scaled.
If we were in general chat this would probably be my first time typing the words "Go back to WoW".
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
Depends what you mean by scaling... I don't mind players having the option to scale down for certain events and instances, or when in a party, but whole of world scaling where nothing changes but the numbers is bland, boring and pointless (i.e. focus on horizontal progression if you want the world to be 'accessible').
When it's properly done, it's definitely an awesome feature making the world more immersive.
For me, ESO nailed it.
Think of the real world... even a kid can stab a kung fu master and kill him. The concept of a level 10 orc archer that can one shot you when you are level 1, but can't even dent your health when you are level 20, has always been a weak feature of the EQ/WoW clones to me.
I love the worlds where mobs are designed to be easier or harder depending on similar factors than our world. A mammoth will be harder to kill and will stomp your face harder than some feral rodent. An elite king's guard when be harder to kill than a peon.
But the problem IMO with ESO and GW2 is all those fights play out and feel exactly the same reagrdless of lvl or CP , every fight wether a rat or elite King Guard , feels and plays out the same .. over and over to nauseum ..
And it should not feel that way , you know the difference in EQ for example from fighting a Rat from an Elite Gnoll Guard even early on , it feels the different the Guard presents a much more difficult fight and challenges , In ESO that Rat and Elite Guard feel exactly the same .
That is a challenge issue not a scaling issue. Even in traditional vertical leveilng many times a rat will be as tough as a guard if they are the same level. Even as you level up combat challenge remains the same no matter what you fight.
Lol yes very good , exactly and Scaling removed the any challenge fro ESO after T1 the game became a simplified spam fest , there are exactly 0 tactics used in ESO PVE before Vet Trials , Scaling borks challenge and puts nearly the entire game in casual easy mode , but thats what the Devs were aiming for sooo.
It is all a numbers game. There is nothing stopping them from having easy, standard, hard, elite, group difficult creatures anymore than any other game. Level scaling does not prevent that.
And yet it did and does in games like Eso and GW2
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
And because in other games i can go fight level 35 mobs at lvl 30 and challenge myself you cant do that in your scaling game cause everything is errr level 1
This is pointless here , its not if you are equal level its a tactical problem for me , There are 0 Tactics used in a game like ESO for a huge portion (the majority) of the game ..
The levle problem comes again where everything feels the same , in other games you can go to higher level area and challenge yourself ..
since T1 and scaling nearly all of ESO content can be soloed by any player very quickly , heck you can get to lvl 50 in 2-4 hours if you want then rack up some CPs rather fast ..
Further making the content trivialized ..
Its my biggest beef with ESO , alto there are parts of the game i really enjoy ..
What game? I played WoW and I could go to higher leveled areas I was content locked out of quest by levels so it was a waste of time. Quest generated way faster experience.
As I said before difficulty is a design choice. Leveling scaling can include elite NPCs that would be elite no matter your level.
This explains alot as you sound like a player who seeks the path of least resistence , you chose not to challenge yourself in combat because you could better XP questing , and why you lean towards scaling.. It is also a path of least reistence..
Not that there is anything particularly wrong with that , there are many playstyles , some present more difficult and rewarding challenges .. others not so much , Scaling is of the latter imo
I don't like pure themeparks in general. If I want to randomly kill crap for a challenge there are games that do it better and more fun.
I did do dungeons until it became impossible solo in WoWs prior expansion. I didn't find it challenging. Either I could kill them with a rotation or gear score/design said no. There isn't a lot of technique or counter moves that can really make you achieve beyond what you should.
You have to run through baby goblins and wolf cubs -- oops they scale -- guess you have to pay attention when running through the newb zone.
You have a class pretty much designed to take on +7 level mobs singly and slowly or a class designed to take on huge groups of -3 level mobs. Sorry -- the mobs are your rank. Tank class be really bored. AOE glass cannon -- well you'd better group to fight solo mobs.
So far most if not all arguments against scaling are in order to trivialize world content and make it ezmode. lulz and people wonder why MMOs are in this state.
I disagree. It seems that the main point against is that it makes everything the same and trivializes advancement.
So far most if not all arguments against scaling are in order to trivialize world content and make it ezmode. lulz and people wonder why MMOs are in this state.
And that's when they bother to give reasons that make some kind of sense. Most of it's about how they hate it just because or they use an example that applies just the same to games that don't scale but instead dress up the same rat in a new skin with slightly more polys slap a higher number on it, buff its damage and HP a bit and presto, you're now fighting higher level rats more suitable to your higher level.
How people can't see that the only real difference is how and when they dole out mobs with more tricks and that your own fighting looks a bit different because they just gave you a new skill when you dinged.
It's the same grind from beginning to end whether you or the mobs have new level tags on them or not.
I like the honest way Diablo 3 does it that barely bothers to disguise the grind. You're destroying things at Torment 1 so you crank it up to Torment 10 and now the same mobs are destroying you. You play D3 (or not) because you enjoy the unadulterated grind (or not.) There is no attempt to help you delude yourself into thinking there is something substantially different about the higher torment level. You do the same thing there you do in MMOs but it's raw and unfiltered.
MMOs just have all kinds of tricks to make you think you're not hitting the same 10 keys at level 100 you were hitting at level 20. They do this by changing the look of the mobs, the GFX of your own more advanced skills and the damage and healing numbers... it's still the same 10 keys more or less though.
Scaling or not scaling is just such a silly non-issue to fight over. I think the real issue it annoys some people is that it forces a peek behind the curtain at the mechanics and you really, really don't want to look too long behind that curtain because it'll just ruin the immersion for you.
"Social media gives legions of idiots the right to speak when they once only spoke at a bar after a glass of wine, without harming the community ... but now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. It's the invasion of the idiots”
― Umberto Eco
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?” ― CD PROJEKT RED
So far most if not all arguments against scaling are in order to trivialize world content and make it ezmode. lulz and people wonder why MMOs are in this state.
I disagree. It seems that the main point against is that it makes everything the same and trivializes advancement.
That is a game choice. You can have challenging or easy content in any style of progression. But the general nature of hard levels limits that anyway. These game generally are not fighters that let you go way beyond your limits. Either your build, gear or rotation let's you win or it doesn't.
Comments
Even before you start getting into "elites", mini-bosses, bosses differentiation they have a range of mob difficulties ranging from trivial swarmers like skeevers and wolves, regular ones like bears and bandits, tougher ones like common Daedra and tougher yet again with special daedra, trolls, giants and mammoth... then come the different mini boss and boss ranks with some world bosses for example being much tougher than others - typically several moderate difficulty ones per zone that a well built, competent player can solo even though they are technically a group activity with one or two per zone that are bad mofos that only the best players can solo.
Then there's difficulty based by location: the regular overland locations are the easiest, then comes delves where the same mob types tend to be a bit harder, then comes the dark anchor event mobs then the "public dungeons" that are tough delves with bigger packs and tougher mini-bosses - those are really meant for casual, drop-in grouping since they work like non-instanced dungeons like those in the early MMORPG games... they can be done solo too by above average players.
After that you get into group instances with their own difficulty range from very easy to very tough (specially the newer DLC dungeons) and then the solo raid, Maelstrom Arena and finally full raids with their own range of difficulties as well.
All of that is done with all mobs being the same exact level: level 50 / CP160 equivalent and all of them represent a different challenge for the noob level 10 guy with little choice about which abilities and passives they have to work with and the geared to the teeth vet players with 100s of CP points and all abilities they care to have unlocked.
So despite the scaling your progression will eventually trivialize a lot of the content although not to the same extent that it's trivialized in non-scaled games when you go to a zone where everything cons white or gray to you.
What you don't get in scaled games is the red con rats (or rat like thing with a new scaaaaryyyy skin to let you know they're not the same rats from level 1 but their mutant cousins with super powers) that will eat you alive.
I mean lets get real here guys, if you want to look behind the curtain and strip games down to their mechanics essentials don't just do it for the scaled games you don't like - do it for all of them. Because all of them always have you fighting the same thing at any level be they scaled or not. Sure their 3D texture may change to make the level 162 thing look different than their level 1 cousin but it's the same bloody fight lol.
And when they aren't the same fight it's because they have added new AI mechanics to the mob that you're not so familiar with - something that can be done with mobs of the same exact level (as ESO does) or reserved for higher level mobs in games that cling to the traditional "Dings matter!" formula.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
pre-scaling if things were too easy and/or you were grouped, you could move to a tougher area. ESO has very few tougher areas for smaller groups.
The games that scale down higher lvl toons to lower areas or to the lower lvl members in group are tolerable. As long as they don't scale lower lvl toons up to all content and make it so that at day 1 I can basically go anywhere and have really nothing more to look forward to... I can tolerate it. Otherwise it's a game longevity killer. Killed one mob you've killed them all.
What modern game does fighting a level 50 npc at 50 feel different than fighting a level 30 at 30?
That would suck.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
"Lost Dungeons of Norrath breaks the mold of traditional zones by
allowing every zone in the expansion to provide adventures for all
groups between levels 20 and 65. Each time you embark on a new
adventure, you're sent to one of 48 distinct dungeon zones, each
customized with challenging monsters and traps tailored to the level of
your group. This means, as long as you're over level 20, you'll have 48
challenging new dungeons to explore and conquer! "
Now this was "pure" scaling and other mmos have also adopted this approach. Sometime all dungeons can be done at different levels sometimes its a mix (LotR's are mostly scaled but not all for example).
2. What I was really talking about though was dungeon difficulty levels which many games have done for - well over a decade now. So you will have your ma level "normal" dungeon; and then the hard version of the max level dungeon; and maybe the "very hard" version. Typically the mobs will have more hit points, higher resists, bosses may get extra minions and - maybe - a special attack here and there.
If you read WoW threads and come across "Heroic" and "Mythic" dungeons runs etc. this is what is being talked about. Basically slightly tweaked content to keep players chasing the next gear level etc. Keep players subscribed! And basically re-use the same content.
If your only experience has been EQ1 presumably before the 2003 LoDN expansion though then you can't comment. Or why this approach would be OK in dungeons but not OK if done in a landscape setting.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
As I said before difficulty is a design choice. Leveling scaling can include elite NPCs that would be elite no matter your level.
I solo'd the Lich King and other cataclysm event causes in WoW over and over. Yet I died to some random dungeon creature I was trying to solo. How does that make sense? Died to a high level regular bear afk.
The whole vertical progession thing never makes sense.
If we were in general chat this would probably be my first time typing the words "Go back to WoW".
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I did do dungeons until it became impossible solo in WoWs prior expansion. I didn't find it challenging. Either I could kill them with a rotation or gear score/design said no. There isn't a lot of technique or counter moves that can really make you achieve beyond what you should.
You have to run through baby goblins and wolf cubs -- oops they scale -- guess you have to pay attention when running through the newb zone.
You have a class pretty much designed to take on +7 level mobs singly and slowly or a class designed to take on huge groups of -3 level mobs. Sorry -- the mobs are your rank. Tank class be really bored. AOE glass cannon -- well you'd better group to fight solo mobs.
I don't like world scaling.
Once upon a time....
How people can't see that the only real difference is how and when they dole out mobs with more tricks and that your own fighting looks a bit different because they just gave you a new skill when you dinged.
It's the same grind from beginning to end whether you or the mobs have new level tags on them or not.
I like the honest way Diablo 3 does it that barely bothers to disguise the grind. You're destroying things at Torment 1 so you crank it up to Torment 10 and now the same mobs are destroying you. You play D3 (or not) because you enjoy the unadulterated grind (or not.) There is no attempt to help you delude yourself into thinking there is something substantially different about the higher torment level. You do the same thing there you do in MMOs but it's raw and unfiltered.
MMOs just have all kinds of tricks to make you think you're not hitting the same 10 keys at level 100 you were hitting at level 20. They do this by changing the look of the mobs, the GFX of your own more advanced skills and the damage and healing numbers... it's still the same 10 keys more or less though.
Scaling or not scaling is just such a silly non-issue to fight over. I think the real issue it annoys some people is that it forces a peek behind the curtain at the mechanics and you really, really don't want to look too long behind that curtain because it'll just ruin the immersion for you.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED