Seems like XP balance is out of whack

[Atheosis]

TF are people doing to get EXP? I've never passed level 9. :C

 

The better question is what didn't you do?  Level 9 happens just doing the main storyline I believe, so I have to wonder if you did any side quests at all.

[Stun]

 

No. There's quite a lot of locks in the game requiring keys that can't be picked. Fact.

 

This makes me wonder if you know what a fact is.  I could just as easily say "There are a few locks that can't be picked." See the problem?  A FACTUAL statement would be along the lines of 5/48 locks in the game cannot be picked.

 

No, that would be a statistic. A fact is simply any statement that can be demonstrated as true

 

 

Also you are wrong, the vast majority of locks can be picked.

He did not claim otherwise. His statement deals specifically with locks in this game that have Keys. Edited April 12, 2015 by Stun

[deekin]

Hi, i just wanted to share my experience about this matter:

 

I'm playing in a full party and i have done most of the quests at the point i'm now in hard dificulty. Including quests in my castle (bounties - 8 in total). AND, i'm about to start Twin Elms area with cap level. I am really dissapointed about this to be honest. And i believe they will fix this in future patchs because it can't be complex.

 

So yes, i'm finishing the game but the experience for me will not be the same since the rogression is already gone.

Edited April 12, 2015 by deekin

[Matt516]

Hi, i just wanted to share my experience about this matter:

 

I'm playing in a full party and i have done most of the quests at the point i'm now in hard dificulty. Including quests in my castle (bounties - 8 in total). AND, i'm about to start Twin Elms area with cap level. I am really dissapointed about this to be honest. And i believe they will fix this in future patchs because it can't be complex.

 

So yes, i'm finishing the game but the experience for me will not be the same since the rogression is already gone.

 

For future games, you might want to avoid bounties entirely. From the numbers I've seen, those can literally take you from 9->12 (or nearly so) by themselves. Waaaay overtuned.

[Rosveen]

No, that would be a statistic. A fact is simply any statement that can be demonstrated as true

 

How are you going to demonstrate "quite a lot" as true if we have no idea how many "quite a lot" is?

[GreyFox]

Even with the new patches on 1.06 i've hit max level before act III....wtf

[Insolentius]

Even with the new patches on 1.06 i've hit max level before act III....wtf

 

I don't think that's even possible. On a new 1.05 playthrough, I explored areas thoroughly and completed every available quest (including bounties), and it resulted in my characters being between 10-11 after completing Act II.

 

Are you sure you didn't encounter a bug or something?

[Gfted1]

They should add in Enchanting xp for the expansion to illustrate character growth.

[GreyFox]

 

Even with the new patches on 1.06 i've hit max level before act III....wtf

 

I don't think that's even possible. On a new 1.05 playthrough, I explored areas thoroughly and completed every available quest (including bounties), and it resulted in my characters being between 10-11 after completing Act II.

 

Are you sure you didn't encounter a bug or something?

 

 

It's obsidian...could be...but I have no idea why but i used a cheat to put it on POTD and it seems a bit more enjoyable now.

 

Mobs don't just instantly explode when I lift a finger to point at them funny.

 

So I can continue playing on POTD for now.

 

If anyone runs into issues late in the game where you get bored because it's too easy or you just hit the level cap...

 

Use: SwitchPOTD

 

I was playing on Hard and you can't manually up the difficulty from there but the above works.

Edited June 12, 2015 by GreyFox

[Nakia]

I doubt that the developers could ever get the XP balanced so that it makes everyone happy.   I like getting to level 7 as soon as I can.  There is a side quest in Act 2 that is very hard for me.   It is easily missed.  I missed it the first time through.  Lucky me.   I do think the Bounty quests do add XP which I think is fine.  They are completely optional.  Do not in my opinion affect the story in any way. I like XP the way it is.

[GreyFox]

What hard act2 quest did you miss?

[Nakia]

What hard act2 quest did you miss?

This is the "No Spoiler" forum and it doesn't matter.  Some people might have had no problem with it but I did.     My point is that we  each have our own play style and that in itself affects XP.  It is impossible to make 100% of the people happy 100% of the time.  I believe the XP for bounties was dropped.  Those  could be dropped more I suppose if really needed.  There are I believe 12 possible bounties I haven't done them all but that is what I understand.

[GreyFox]

Oh I was just curious to see if I did it since I like a challenge.

 

I don't think just saying the name of the quest is a Spoiler....the quests stay in your log and are grayed out if you complete it...wasj ust gonna look and see ifit was in there.

[Drath]

 

Even with the new patches on 1.06 i've hit max level before act III....wtf

 

I don't think that's even possible. On a new 1.05 playthrough, I explored areas thoroughly and completed every available quest (including bounties), and it resulted in my characters being between 10-11 after completing Act II.

 

Are you sure you didn't encounter a bug or something?

 

Greyfox, I'm quite curious how this came to be as well as Insolentius's character levels match my own fairly well. Do you have earlier saves which show what levels your characters were, say right after killing Maerwald? Were you soloing for the better part of the game? At what point did you get a full party? 

 

As for XP bugs, I've noticed upon reentering Teir Evron to turn in quests you receive XP again for exploring it, although you've already received it previously. This can be abused infinitely by leaving and reentering if so desired. Of course that's in Act III. Haven't noticed any XP bugs in Act II or earlier but if I was given XP covertly and it didn't pop up in some message in the text box, I wouldn't have noticed as I don't check my characters for XP every few minutes.

[Gromnir]

have played through poe multiple times now.  in all such cases we do all available bounties (which ain't actual that many as one tier 1 bounty can only be reached in act 3) and descend to at least 12th floor of the endless paths before initiating the act 2 conclusion.  our first game were previous to the bounties being trimmed o' xp by obsidian, but even so, we were not quite level 11 at the end of act 2.  took us about ten minutes o' act 3 to reach level 11 before bounties were trimmed. regardless, level 10 is where we always end act 2.  

 

we feel over-level'd even so.  

 

it goes against our nature, but am gonna try and play a critical path poe run and see what levels we reach.  am suspecting that poe is much more difficult  at critical path levels, even for a player who has invested many hours into the game.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[GreyFox]

Drath had a good idea I loaded up a save before I went east from Defiance Bay and I'm level 10 there.

 

So somehow between leaving defiance bay after doing the second "pick your faction" quest and landing in Dyrford Village I gained 2 levels? wut

 

Doesn't matter that content is quick and easy I loaded up the other save and put my IE mod to 50% experience earned. Like Grom said it still feels too easy at level 10 anyway...but now that i switched up to POTD maybe it will be fine or tolerable.

 

Or I could de-level myself at my current save and just go up to level 9 or 10 from 1.  Not really a big deal I just found this thread while searching to see if anyone else was lvl 12 without beating the game, I have some solutions either way.

 

I'm not sure how to even get into act3 I just keep on going and doing new things...I feel I have to be close though....it's been a while.

[Gromnir]

back in march and april, more than a few folks observed that they had reached level 12 before finishing act 2.  even as a die-hard completionist we did not quite manage that feat.  nevertheless, obsidian made a few post release xp adjustments, including reductions in bounty xp awards, and so we has not seen anybody claim to reach level 12 before the end o' act in over a month.   am suspecting greyfox experienced some kinda bug and his exploring of saves seems to support this notion.  

 

nevertheless, in our opinion, there is a problem with poe xp.  the developers, pre-release, observed that they would be surprised if any player hit level 12 before being at the extreme end o' the game.  12th level were s'posed to be requiring an obsessive completionist to achieve.  unfortunately, we believe the game were balanced with the obsidian misapprehension 'bout level gains in mind.  assume that the typical player finishing the game is level 10 or 9 and suddenly the difficulty o' the game strikes us as much more appropriate.  end act 2 at level 8 or 7? levels confer a considerable 'mount o' power in poe and the levels we reached through completionst play were not what the developers expected.  a mistake were made.

 

that being said, the completionist is always gonna have a relative easier time with games such as these.  is axiomatic that the more optional content you provide in a crpg, the more power you is giving to the completionist.  even if you remove any and all xp awards from non-critical path questing, you is still gonna have additional gold, gear and crafting resources from a completionist playthrough.  am not certain how much effort the developers needs/should put forth to save us completionists from our selves.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Nakia]

  Gromnir, I think I fall into the completionist category and I don't want to be saved.  However after playing Oblivion and Skyrim I admit I have been desensitized.  

[Gromnir]

  Gromnir, I think I fall into the completionist category and I don't want to be saved.  However after playing Oblivion and Skyrim I admit I have been desensitized.  

you don't need saving.  and even if you were saved, another player need be damned as a consequence.

 

we were told by a few developers that the two most common complaints of every ie game were identical.

 

the game was too hard

 

and

 

the game was too easy

 

no doubt many games have the same top 2 complaints.

 

attempting to get crpg difficulty balanced is a sisyphean endeavour.  the problem is magnified in games that offer more optional side-quests for reasons we noted earlier.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Drath]

have played through poe multiple times now.  in all such cases we do all available bounties (which ain't actual that many as one tier 1 bounty can only be reached in act 3) and descend to at least 12th floor of the endless paths before initiating the act 2 conclusion.  our first game were previous to the bounties being trimmed o' xp by obsidian, but even so, we were not quite level 11 at the end of act 2.  took us about ten minutes o' act 3 to reach level 11 before bounties were trimmed. regardless, level 10 is where we always end act 2.  

 

we feel over-level'd even so.  

 

That sounds quite similar to my first playthrough as well, in terms of XP gain. Did all Act II quests/tasks I could find, except the bounties and 4+ levels of Od Nua and ended up 2/3rds of the way through level 9. 

If I had done an additional 3 bounties, Seal of Endless Paths and Kana's personal quest as you had, plus exploration and bestiary XP for Od Nua levels 5-12, I do believe I would have ended up at roughly level 10 as well, as you have described.

 

And yes I also agree that doing Act III at levels 9-11+ feels a little overleveled somewhat. 

 

 

back in march and april, more than a few folks observed that they had reached level 12 before finishing act 2.  even as a die-hard completionist we did not quite manage that feat.  nevertheless, obsidian made a few post release xp adjustments, including reductions in bounty xp awards, and so we has not seen anybody claim to reach level 12 before the end o' act in over a month.   am suspecting greyfox experienced some kinda bug and his exploring of saves seems to support this notion.  

 

nevertheless, in our opinion, there is a problem with poe xp.  the developers, pre-release, observed that they would be surprised if any player hit level 12 before being at the extreme end o' the game.  12th level were s'posed to be requiring an obsessive completionist to achieve.  unfortunately, we believe the game were balanced with the obsidian misapprehension 'bout level gains in mind.  assume that the typical player finishing the game is level 10 or 9 and suddenly the difficulty o' the game strikes us as much more appropriate.  end act 2 at level 8 or 7? levels confer a considerable 'mount o' power in poe and the levels we reached through completionst play were not what the developers expected.  a mistake were made.

 

that being said, the completionist is always gonna have a relative easier time with games such as these.  is axiomatic that the more optional content you provide in a crpg, the more power you is giving to the completionist.  even if you remove any and all xp awards from non-critical path questing, you is still gonna have additional gold, gear and crafting resources from a completionist playthrough.  am not certain how much effort the developers needs/should put forth to save us completionists from our selves.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

I suspect some of these players may have been soloing or picked up companions really late. As soloing gives 50% added XP, that could account for the disparity. 

 

Devs, especially the artists and writers (or so I'm told  ) like people to see their work, so I'm pretty sure they do value the completionists at some level and would try to cater to this group as well.   And if they had miscalculated level gains, I don't think that should be so, as PoE XP gains are fairly easy to gauge since you have no random encounters and XP from quests is fixed and finite, assuming a 6-man party.

 

 

Drath had a good idea I loaded up a save before I went east from Defiance Bay and I'm level 10 there.

 

So somehow between leaving defiance bay after doing the second "pick your faction" quest and landing in Dyrford Village I gained 2 levels? wut

 

There are not a whole lot of quests or even bestiary xp to gain in Woodend Plains and Stormwall Gorge so I'm not sure how another 2 levels came about there. If you had done everything before then, bounties, full Od Nua, L10 doesn't sound too farfetched or terribly overlevelled.

[tdphys]

K,  Just piping up in this thread too,   the XP problems are due to the growth in the XP differences per level being too slow:
 
http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79514-difficulty-a-graph-of-my-potd-playthrough/?p=1702383

[GreyFox]

Yea I just beat the Dyrford area and Act 2 and stuff and its way too easy even back leveled.

 

I even don't use food or rest buffs on purpose and gave myself a -2 to all stats penalty just cuz.  I don't see how this late in the game it's so easy.

 

Also the end of act 2 is lulz who came up with that ....yuck.

[Gromnir]

dyrford can be relative early in chapter 2, and it typical is for Gromnir.  in fact, after cad nua, we head to dyrford, though admittedly on initial runs we were racing to acquire companions at the earliest possible opportunity.  the companion level-up feature added to the game makes such metagame nonsense unnecessary, but in any event, that is one o' the dangers o' a game that ain't on rails, yes? is very easy to do areas in a less than ideal order. 

 

dyrford were the lion's share o' the beta, and we were level 4-8 in beta-- hit level 5 within a half hour o' gameplay. do dyrford at level 10?  am not surprised that you would be dismayed by the ease. next time do it at level 5... or go crazy and do it at level 6.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Luzeryn]

If they want to make it so that people that skip virtually 70% of the game can still finish it, they could increase the exp rewards from main quests and highly reduce exp from side quests. Better solution to what we have and it wouldn't be that hard to do.

[Luckmann]

K,  Just piping up in this thread too,   the XP problems are due to the growth in the XP differences per level being too slow:

 

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/79514-difficulty-a-graph-of-my-potd-playthrough/?p=1702383

 

My own solution may be less elegant, but the conclusion we reached is the same - the experience growth out of whack.