What are you playing right now?

[Fenixp]

Because I hate level scaling.

What does 'level scaling' mean to you, tho? I mean... There's Oblivion's way of doing it (which is rubbish) and then there's Baldur's Gate of doing it where it only really makes sure the game doesn't throw a random encounter you can't win at you (in other words, it does a DM as opposed to fixing monster levels in such a way that they're all exactly as powerful as you are) - both of these are a no-no?

[Keyrock]

^ Yes. I explicitly want there to be a possibility of running into enemies I have no business fighting and have to run away or die a horrible gruesome death. Clear enough?

 

Edit: It's part of what I love about Elex so much. I love that I can be in a seemingly "safe" area exploring and killing low level mobs when suddenly...

 

OH GOD OH GOD I'M SO DEAD. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

 

I'm weird like that.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Keyrock

[Fenixp]

I'm weird like that.

Oh no, it's fair enough. I still think just scaling encounters is a fairly lazy solution all things considered, and games in general should offer more choice in how to deal with encounters - sadly, most don't even offer the 'flee' option properly (I'm looking at you, Pillars of Eternity.)

[Tale]

Level 7 is technically optimal because you get open locks and find traps to 100%, but you only need above 80% in TotSC and you can use potions to help you out when you get there.

Level 7 is what I'm talking about. 30 hours in and even my main hasn't gotten 90,000 XP. Durlag's Tower actually has 95 detection traps. Which are undisarmable, so maybe that doesn't count.

 

The standard Imoen dual class is level 7. That's what Shadows of Amn does to her.

[Chilloutman]

^ Yes. I explicitly want there to be a possibility of running into enemies I have no business fighting and have to run away or die a horrible gruesome death. Clear enough?

 

Edit: It's part of what I love about Elex so much. I love that I can be in a seemingly "safe" area exploring and killing low level mobs when suddenly...

 

OH GOD OH GOD I'M SO DEAD. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

 

I'm weird like that.

 

Its still there, but not in story path in first act. You still can wander into locations where you will just die, just not on main story path in first act (also as pointed out, on harder diff you will die on wolfs no problem) I am not fan of level scaling but in Pathfinder being lvl 2 or lvl 3 is huge difference, later in game its much more managable

[Tale]

You can still run into Viscount Smoulderburn in a story area, can't you?

[Chilloutman]

You can still run into Viscount Smoulderburn in a story area, can't you?

 

yeah but its not on critical story part (eg. that treant bear fight)

[Epaminondas]

The treant bear fight was pretty tough for my party on challenging. I died my first attempt and then won the second attempt and was punished enough that I got ganked when my rest was interrupted afterwards. On the third one I'd figured out the trick well enough and tightened up my tactics that a couple lucky rolls meant I was in much better shape after the fight.

 

Yes, Oblivion's scaling was terrible. I believe someone did a vid where he used a rusty dagger and never leveled up the whole game and did the whole thing that way. At least I seem to remember watching it.

 

Scaling random encounters within a range in specific areas makes perfect sense. If you're in a starting area and you face wolves, that make sense. If you randomly face an ancient red with your level one party, that's just brainless. Sure, give the freedom to go into more dangerous areas and getting punished because the level range of the encounters is higher makes for a lot of fun as long as there's enough in-game warning (and not even overstate4) that you're going to die because you're too green if you, say, go into *these* areas of the map. Writ large, the concept of scaling is a no brainer. It's impossible to play a game that doesn't scale encounters in a larger sense. Scaling is terrible when it either coddles or straightjackets the player.

 

...And, to be clear, in game warning needn't beat the player over the head. Just make sure a player could reasonably get the message if he or she is paying attention.

[Tale]

My main problem with Oblivion (and Fallout 3's level scaling) is they get ridiculous at points. Not that it can be abused. You'd eventually end up with enemies who could survive multiple X18 armor ignoring sneak attacks. Wasn't fun.

 

Or how in high level Fallout 3, you could no longer go for a stroll without running into Albino Radscorpions and Deathclaws. Or Super Mutant Overlords who have armor ignoring attacks.

[Keyrock]

To clarify, the level scaling doesn't put Pathfinder: Kingmaker into the never ever buy category for me, rather it takes it from the mildly eager to play category to the maybe some day in the future category.

Edited October 12, 2018 by Keyrock

[Gfted1]

^Im going to wait a few years for Shady to slowly build up a stash of activation codes and then Ill strike like a viper.

[Manveru123]

^ Yes. I explicitly want there to be a possibility of running into enemies I have no business fighting and have to run away or die a horrible gruesome death. Clear enough?

 

Edit: It's part of what I love about Elex so much. I love that I can be in a seemingly "safe" area exploring and killing low level mobs when suddenly...

 

OH GOD OH GOD I'M SO DEAD. RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

 

I'm weird like that.

You can't run away in this game. When you start a random battle, the game autosaves, and if you can't win, you better have a different recent save or you're screwed.

 

Also there's a Lich on the map with Kobolds. And Enraged Owlbears on a map with Wolves.

[Keyrock]

^Im going to wait a few years for Shady to slowly build up a stash of activation codes and then Ill strike like a viper.

That's some next level thinking. :thumbs_up:

[mkreku]

Ok, I might have spoken too soon in regards to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game is growing on me. It's still too obvious and there are wayyyy too many alternate routes into/out of everything (every apartment seems to have one lock and a thousand vents/windows/cracked walls/etc.). But I'm further into the game now and some of the things I've been finding haven't been completely obvious. There are some kind of cool world building going on here..

 

At least I'm having fun poking around everywhere!

 

I also had a weird "out of memory" crash bug, but that was easily solved by increasing the lower threshold of Windows page file. Weird fix but it worked.

[ShadySands]

LOTRO, just got my Runekeeper to 120

[Tale]

I've probably put over 10 hours into Assassin's Creed Odyssey and I can firmly say I don't care. Like, about anything.

 

The game is just full of stuff to do and absolutely no reason to do any of it other than to get a checkmark. Leveling up? All the enemies level with you! Story? A complete snooze fest with bare minimum motivation! Loot? There's so much junk I'm already sick of going into the menu to compare it. Characters? Left them back on the first island, probably dead now, game does not care. Combat? It's been the same since I started. The war between Athens and Sparta? There's literally no reason to do it other than XP. Kick the spartans out of an area, the athenans take over. And then you can kick them out to bring the others back. Nothing changes except the color of your enemy's uniforms.

[IndiraLightfoot]

I've played Assassin's Creed Odyssey for just shy of 50 hours, and my view on it differs a bit from Tale's.

 

First of all, it must be said that I have only Skyrim and Kingdoms of Amalur as a reference point, since these are the only SP games that remind me of this. Also, I almost love grinding, and I have a high tolerance for same-same in games like Diablo or Grim Dawn. And yeah, there's a lot of scaling going on, but in certain cases, the scaling stops, or the scaled enemies get placed one or two levels below yours (than when you first encountered them).

 

And not to forget, I absolutely love the setting, and already have a tonne of knowledge of Athens, Sparta, Korinth, etc, during this time period in Greece, and I also know quite a bit about most historical or mythological individuals, gods and monsters that appear in the game. So, rose-tinted glasses? Yeah, you can say that again. One big reason for me to play the game is to experience this stuff, lovely rendered into a computer game.

 

I still really like the game. The story is full of Greek tragedy and soap opera plot twists, and even cooler, measly side quests and the choices you made, sometimes just a dialogue choice, will come back and bite you in the ass later. And the side quests can be either grim dark or very lighthearted and naughty nudge-nudge. Very cool! The story takes off after Chapter 2, and you're in for a few surprises, and some weird baddies as well, some of myths and legends.

There are plenty of secret places, and the landscapes are stunning (and very useful - I've garnered crafting resources pretty hard. They are hard to come by, while gold is never really an issue). I prefer to walk around on land, and only use my Phobos occasionally. And I rarely use my boat (while still fun). Instead, I use the fast travel points I've unlocked to cross the seas. I only take on the quests I like to do, and I pretty often just say no to NPCs asking for my help, if what they're asking doesn't sound like fun (ship battles, for instance), or if it doesn't fit my character ("Kill my husband, he has been cheating."). Also, I'm something of a Mercenary hunter.

 

For some bizarre reason, I stumbled on a staff already on the first island, tried it out, and really liked the fighting style with it. It felt like the monk using staff in Diablo 3 or like a few characters in Avatar: the Last Airbender, wielding staffs. Quite a bit into the game, I had 20 orichalcum, went to a certain Sargon (Oikos merchant), and opted for a secret gift, and whammy! I got some weird legendary fire staff, so I started building my character around that. Otherwise, my character is a hunter, using her bow from afar, I played very sneakily (takes time), almost as if I was in Dishonored. You can vary your combat style a great deal using your abilities, and when you reach level 16, you get even more oomph, since cooler abilities gets unlocked, and one level before that, you can have another weapon in your loadout as well.

 

As for the factions, I view them as part of the atmosphere. There are Spartans fighting Athenians everywhere, and I am a mercenary, so I play the game as my character, and use and abuse the factions I see fit in each and every context, but my character is reasonably kind and always on the weaker party's side, but she doesn't hesitate to kill to pursue her goals.

A funny story: Since I'm not very used to using a controller, when in an important fight versus a strong character in Phokis, I finally pounded him so he fell into a river, and then I accidentally pushed some button that recruited him instead of killing him. And it turned that it was a legendary lieutenant for my boat, enhancing fire damage!!! I mean, what are the odds?

I also had some flirting going on for a long time with a chick, but in the end I turned down the option of anything more intimate. Still, the game let me recruit her on my ship, and she turned out to be an epic lieutenant.

Edited October 14, 2018 by IndiraLightfoot

[Skazz]

I kind of bought a random game on a whim while searching for stuff on Steam. It's called Peace, Death!, and one could argue that it's just a small Papers, Please derivative, but...

 

 

...as soon as one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse gave this sagely piece of advice, I was sold.

 

Maybe I'm easy to amuse, but so far I've been having a blast.

Edited October 14, 2018 by Skazz

[Majek]

BLOPS 4. Having a blast with friends in Blackout.

[Malcador]

Rome TW2. Like the civil wars I have now, even if these Senate loyalists took half my territory.

[SonicMage117]

Since Shadow Of The Tomb Raider did the Mayan theme, I'd like to see AssASSins Creed's take on the Mayan mythos, history and lore.

 

I don't care for Greek Mythos much anymore since it's always been a bit boring and in gaming it's used far too often. I think that's why God Of War switched to Norse mythos.

 

Mayan seems to be the new, Greek and Norse feel very last year in comparison but I still want AC Oddysee though to see how it feels, you see.

[Epaminondas]

Hell, the Greek angle of this Assassins Creed might be the reason I play one for the first time. I know a little bit about ancient Greek culture, religion, and history. The setting is a major draw for me personally.

[melkathi]

With the choice of name and signature we would not have guessed

[213374U]

Rome TW2. Like the civil wars I have now, even if these Senate loyalists took half my territory.

 

Is the AI improved any? Last time I played about a year ago, my friend who was playing as Rome (I was playing as Seleucid master race) had the Senate take everything east of Illyria. Didn't matter because stupid AI would raise legions in the ass-end of nowhere and the concept of reinforcing cities seemed completely alien to it. That and the doomstacking approach to taking cities basically ruined the game for me.

Edited October 15, 2018 by 213374U

[Malcador]

 

Rome TW2. Like the civil wars I have now, even if these Senate loyalists took half my territory.

 

Is the AI improved any? Last time I played about a year ago, my friend who was playing as Rome (I was playing as Seleucid master race) had the Senate take everything east of Illyria. Didn't matter because stupid AI would raise legions in the ass-end of nowhere and the concept of reinforcing cities seemed completely alien to it. That and the doomstacking approach to taking cities basically ruined the game for me.

 

 

On the strategic level, no not really noticing much clever play on their part.  Nothing outright idiotic either though.  On the battle level, it seems less foolish than I recall it to be - at a river crossing they smartly linked up their two armies then crossed and tried to blunt my cavalry with their own.   Unfortunately they spent their time running their men around so...exhausted troops broke on my line.