Level Cap

[vikke]

Developer meeting:

"Hey you know what would be a great idea, a level cap of 12"

"Yeah! That way we can punish people who like to explore and clear every nook and cranny. Guys implement that right now!"

 

 

I just only entered Elms and hit the "magic" 12. Anyone got a lvl cap remover?

[Voss]

How are you 'punished?'  Frankly I'm feeling seriously overpowered at level 6.

[AncientToaster]

How is it that you're punished for reaching the level cap?

 

I agree that it's low and it apparently it doesn't seem to be spread out quite as well as it should be for the amount of content, but punishment? Nah

[vikke]

The game for me is epic tactical battles which are rewarded with plot, exploration, items and XP. They take the XP part away if you explore too much.
 

Edited March 29, 2015 by vikke

[falchen]

Are there even abilities/spells etc beyond level 12 programmed in? If not removing the cap would be pointless.

[vikke]

Well there's the 50 feats I didn't pick yet and spell progression is quite easy to make up, no need to add more spell lvls. And there is always stats (hp,endurance...)

[RevBlue]

really? 12? I mean im already at 6 and i dont think im halfway through the game yet :-/

[Epsilon Rose]

It seems like PoE has a lot of weird balancing issues.

[jpbl1976]

It seems like PoE has a lot of weird balancing issues.

That's the be expected: in all these years of RPG gaming, I never quite encountered a game that didn't ship with some balancing issues. At least it's nowhere like BG where ranged was overwhelmingly the way the go. 

[Khrysophylax]

Are there even abilities/spells etc beyond level 12 programmed in? If not removing the cap would be pointless.

 

Yes. If you take a look at a Wizard's grimoire, you can see there are "spell levels" going all the way up to 10th level (epic spells?).

I'm assuming this is a hint that they will either add levels going up into the 'epic' range (20ish) in future expansion(s) or they will be using the PoE engine for a future sequel, possibly using the same character, very much a la Baldur's Gate 2.

[Epsilon Rose]

 

It seems like PoE has a lot of weird balancing issues.

That's the be expected: in all these years of RPG gaming, I never quite encountered a game that didn't ship with some balancing issues. At least it's nowhere like BG where ranged was overwhelmingly the way the go. 

 

While that is true, these seem like they should be fairly obvious errors and they're ones that have been known and, mostly, fixed in pen and paper games for a while.

[gkathellar]

Right, but are there actually 7th+ level spells in the game, or just in the GUI?

[DragonDai]

Even if there aren't 7th level spells in the game, increasing the level cap wouldn't really be that difficult. You don't even need to add content, just let the player pick more stuff from the previous levels. Wizard would be able to have a large selection of spells, fighters another passive, etc. There are certainly plenty of extras to go around. 

IMO, the only downside of increasing level cap would be that it would be quite easy to out level ALL the content in the game, making the difficulty SUPER trivial for those that got above level 12. And fixing that would require a TON of extra work. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the extra work is 100% worth is and I think that Obsidian should have already dealt with this issue in a much more positive way than they did ("lets just slap a level cap and call it a day" is a bad way to fix this problem), and I think that they had PLENTY of time to come up with a better solution, but it is what it is. Raising the level cap now would make the end of the game FAR too easy for some people. And while I am sure some people wouldn't mind, I think that'd piss off just as many people as it made happy.

[Hexo]

I'm soloing and thus getting the XP bonus for not having any party members. Since I also search every nook and cranny of this fantastic game I'm bound to hit max level before the end, which will make soloing even harder...  Anyone got a level cap remover?

[cane]

I don't get the level 12 cap. I don't think I have ever hit max level in any IE game but here it seems like you can hit the max level at 2/3rds completed.

 

Wouldn't a cap of 14 or 15 make more sense? Or heck even making it 20 knowing that no one will ever hit that since exp is limited anyway.

Having a cap in a game with limited exp for mobs is a weird decision as the devs have full control of the max obtainable exp throughout a playthrough

[brosephhstalin]

hoping the patch thats coming will not only fix a couple bugs but deal with balancing issues as well

[Epsilon Rose]

I'm soloing and thus getting the XP bonus for not having any party members. Since I also search every nook and cranny of this fantastic game I'm bound to hit max level before the end, which will make soloing even harder...  Anyone got a level cap remover?

Why would hitting the cap  make things harder, other than you just not growing stronger?

[Tartantyco]

Switch out your party when your guys are level capped.You can have 8 companions and 8 adventurers, plenty of room for all that extra XP. They'll bump the level cap up for the expansion.

[LastSoloer]

 

I'm soloing and thus getting the XP bonus for not having any party members. Since I also search every nook and cranny of this fantastic game I'm bound to hit max level before the end, which will make soloing even harder...  Anyone got a level cap remover?

Why would hitting the cap  make things harder, other than you just not growing stronger?

 

Pretty obvious if there is a lvl cap that means when you get endgame you are supossed to beat guys that are meant to be difficult for a high lvl 6man party. And you are only one.

[Ryan Smith]

Didn't they say they planned to make this into a series? The level cap makes sense in that case, as otherwise you'd be overleveled for the next installment (nevermind not having a chance to pick from the new higher level spells). Also, for those of us who've been here and done that, all the old games had xp caps as well.

[Hexo]

 

I'm soloing and thus getting the XP bonus for not having any party members. Since I also search every nook and cranny of this fantastic game I'm bound to hit max level before the end, which will make soloing even harder...  Anyone got a level cap remover?

Why would hitting the cap  make things harder, other than you just not growing stronger?

 

 

Say I hit the level cap half-way through the game (a guess) after that I do not grow stronger through level ups as a normal party would. Since the fights you face at the end of the game must be harder than the ones half-way through, the difficulty will increase more for a solo character than a party - the party would have increased their strength at the end, while I would remain as strong as say 20 hours earlier.

 

While I like a good challenge, I could prob. do with the extra endurance near the end of the game. In case anyone finds a level cap remover, please do post

Edited April 1, 2015 by Hexo

[taviow]

Level cap will be raised as the expansions/sequels come along. It is what it is for a reason. Baldur's Gate's level cap (XP cap, to be more accurate) was lower.

Edited April 1, 2015 by taviow

[LadyCrimson]

Pretty obvious if there is a lvl cap that means when you get endgame you are supossed to beat guys that are meant to be difficult for a high lvl 6man party. And you are only one.

They said it would be possible to solo the game. They didn't say the game would be fairly balanced for it.

[LastSoloer]

 

Pretty obvious if there is a lvl cap that means when you get endgame you are supossed to beat guys that are meant to be difficult for a high lvl 6man party. And you are only one.

They said it would be possible to solo the game. They didn't say the game would be fairly balanced for it.

 

Im not saying I like it or dislike it im just throwing facts there.

 

I dont really care about balance, balance is ****in boring. Nowadays it seems all games must be balanced. **** that. If something is op let the people that want the easy stuff play it and be gone with it. Others players will prefer to play with negative handicap if that fits better with his idea of videogames.

 

Idk why a rpg should be balanced. Now THATS an opinion see the difference?

 

Kisses.

[Epsilon Rose]

 

 

Pretty obvious if there is a lvl cap that means when you get endgame you are supossed to beat guys that are meant to be difficult for a high lvl 6man party. And you are only one.

They said it would be possible to solo the game. They didn't say the game would be fairly balanced for it.

 

Im not saying I like it or dislike it im just throwing facts there.

 

I dont really care about balance, balance is ****in boring. Nowadays it seems all games must be balanced. **** that. If something is op let the people that want the easy stuff play it and be gone with it. Others players will prefer to play with negative handicap if that fits better with his idea of videogames.

 

Idk why a rpg should be balanced. Now THATS an opinion see the difference?

 

Kisses.

 

I don't think you really understand what the word balanced means in the context of a game. It doesn't mean that everything needs to be equal or that it can't be hard. In fact, a well balanced game has the potential to be much harder than a poorly balanced game. All it means is that certain things won't break the game, either making it trivial or unwinnable, and that difficulty functions in a predictable way that the developers were able to tune.