Level Cap?

[JoeLaBrute2782]

Hi everyone

 

Here goes my first and so far big disappointment of the game.

 

I'm not even half done the game and i already reach the Cap level....

 

I mean why is 12 the cap level but i have so many quest left?

 

I don't want to be a god so fight still pretty hard but come on DEV

 

I don't feel like doing any side quest anymore because of it,

 

AND BTW Plz don't send me answer comparing this game and BG cause ITS NOT the same game THX  

[LadyLumyria]

I would have also liked to see a larger level cap, most RPGS at least let you have 20 levels (some have more) and raise it when the sequel comes up.  I agree that 12 levels was to small a cap on the game esp since we do not get stat points on level up or even get 1 for every 3 of 4 levels of advancement.  There are a lot of nice choices on level up but with only 12 levels we do not really get a good chance to customize the characters with them.  Hopefully if they do a sequel they will take these things into account.  One more thing I would like to see is better and more pictures for the females and better hairstyles....

[Aotrs Commander]

Balder's Gate had a lower level cap (level 10 if you had the expansions and you were a rogue or bard - less than that for everyone else), and IWD's was pretty low. PoE 2 - which I suspect from the initial success may be be A Thing will likely follow more like Baldur's 2 to Baldur's 1: one assumes that they've probably done it this way at least in part to make scaling in a sequel/expansion less difficult. (Especially as this is a new system and there are no benchmarks to work to.) Now that they have what is the equivilent of Baldur's Gate 1, with some luck they can expand it in the saem way IWD and BG 2 were able to build and improve on it.

 

(Noting you also got way less customisation in BG 1/2 and IWD, because it was AD&D (though WD's expansion moved it to more 2.75.0) IWD 2 was 3.x and thus you at least got things like feats, and Torment allowed you customisation, but only from the default dude.)

[kat7ra]

One can't really compare the direct level cap between games, as the level cap in BG was somewhere around 6-8 but took as long or longer to reach iirc, so stating "most games have 20" doesn't make sense.

I do get what you're saying though about losing some interest after the level cap. But as I stated in a previous thread, it's VERY hard to make sure you don't make a game where you FORCE the player to do OPTIONAL content. And if the level cap is higher then they would have to make sure the later parts of the game was harder, which then would force other players to do optional content or complain about the game being to difficult.

On the other side not changing the difficulty of the later parts of the game would make other players complain about it being too easy.

 

My best advice would be to turn off the level cap if you don't mind making the game too easy.

[anameforobsidian]

The level cap is higher than BG1, and there's still an expansion coming.  I would say its following the D&D tradition of a more gradual power curve, which is a good thing.  I've definitely felt it when my characters have leveled.

[Zwiebelchen]

It's not the level cap that is too low. The level cap is fine. It's just the XP curve that is unbalanced.

 

Higher level XP values should be increased. Imho, the total amount of XP required to get from level 1 to level 12 should be doubled.

 

If people skip most side content in the game, they should not be able to reach the level cap.

[Jayngo]

I really don't know where I'm at in the game as for as length. I am about 33 hrs in and halfway to Level 8 with my 6 character party. I've tried to pick up every side quest I have come across. I've gone through 4 of the 5 districts in Defiance Bay. Just arrived at Dyrwood Village last night and got the farmer/pig quest I've watched online 100 times during Beta Backer videos.

 

I've been taking my time reading the bestiary entries (although I haven't read too many of the world lore books I've picked up). I've cleared every map I've come across and done 5 lvls of the endless dungeon.

 

Do you think I still have a long ways to go story-wise? Will I tap out at 12 long before the ending of the main story if I keep picking up and completing all these side quests, tasks, and bounties??

[Zwiebelchen]

The amount of XP you get in the game varies slightly depending on your difficulty setting. Basicly, the higher difficulty settings have larger groups of monsters, usually also having some unique mobs that aren't there in the lower difficulties, front-loading you with some beastiary XP you would otherwise only get later in the game.

 

So playing the game on Hard will make you hit level cap faster than playing the game on Easy. It shouldn't make a big difference, though.

[Tigranes]

Level cap is fine. This isn't Diablo, what's the point of getting to level 20 if you don't get enough time to learn and use your new capabilities? Each level introduces a significant increase in each character's power, just the way it should be. What's the point of having 30 levels? Why is it important to go OMG IM LEVEL 50? What matters is what the levels mean.

 

I don't think you can be level 12 with a party of 6 unless you've done most of Act 2 & most/all of Od Nua on a harder difficulty - which would actually place you at 70, 80% of the full game while being very completionist. Meanwhile, someone who skips a lot of side content can get to the last boss at level 9 or so. I do still cry out for an XP mod to suit playing styles, though.

[Zwiebelchen]

I don't think you can be level 12 with a party of 6 unless you've done most of Act 2 & most/all of Od Nua on a harder difficulty - which would actually place you at 70, 80% of the full game while being very completionist. Meanwhile, someone who skips a lot of side content can get to the last boss at level 9 or so. I do still cry out for an XP mod to suit playing styles, though.

 

Have you actually played the game on a harder difficulty? It's possible to reach level 12 halfway through act 2. Clearly there is something wrong with that.

 

But yeah, a game option that cuts XP in half could indeed help with that. But imho the default leveling goes way too fast.

Edited April 7, 2015 by Zwiebelchen

[hazeez]

Do you think I still have a long ways to go story-wise? Will I tap out at 12 long before the ending of the main story if I keep picking up and completing all these side quests, tasks, and bounties??

 

I did every sidequest I could find and it took me about 70 hours to complete the game. And yes, by completing all the quests and Endless Paths of Od Nua you will ding level 12 well before the game ends. This, of course, makes most of the remaining fights rather trivial. Up to level 6 or 7 level scaling works well, after that xp requirements for leveling could use some fine-tuning.

[Caerdon]

The number of levels has nothing to do with how much you can customize your character.

 

This is simply a question of whether you want lots of relatively meaningless level-ups or a handful of more impactful level-ups. I prefer the latter. Those who are asking for 20+ levels clearly disagree.

[LatisARG]

I got capped at lvl 9 in my first run

 

66k

I'm the only one ?

[Tigranes]

 

I don't think you can be level 12 with a party of 6 unless you've done most of Act 2 & most/all of Od Nua on a harder difficulty - which would actually place you at 70, 80% of the full game while being very completionist. Meanwhile, someone who skips a lot of side content can get to the last boss at level 9 or so. I do still cry out for an XP mod to suit playing styles, though.

 

Have you actually played the game on a harder difficulty? It's possible to reach level 12 halfway through act 2. Clearly there is something wrong with that.

 

But yeah, a game option that cuts XP in half could indeed help with that. But imho the default leveling goes way too fast.

 

 

I played Hard. I'm playing on POTD now. But my experience is different because I played with 3-4 characters, increasing XP gain.

[Matt516]

One thing I haven't seen hardly anyone mention is the bounties. Are those of you who are reaching the cap halfway through act 2 doing a lot of bounties? Because from what I've heard, those give ludicrous amounts of experience. It would be very helpful if people would post that information when giving anecdotal evidence. Could be that it's just the bounties that are pushing people over the edge. If so, the solution is just to greatly reduce the XP from bounty quests. There, problem solved. No huge rebalance needed.

[Mortal]

i always enjoyed lower level RPGs more, so i'm not too concerned with the cap at level 12. many games have higher caps, but in those games you usually breeze through the levels quickly, which sort of trivializes the "level up" experience. and frankly, many games with high level caps would have been better with less but more meaningful levels. 

 

I hope they don't go overboard on the level cap with an expansion or sequel. i'm not a huge fan of high level gameplay in D&D style games. especially if the vanilla game or the first expansion takes you to the traditional max level of the game system and the next expansion introduces stupid "epic levels". the "epic" ruleset for NWN/NWN2 was horrible and in BG2 levels past 15 (or so) felt completely redundant. and don't even get me started on the atrocity that is fallout: new vegas. the base game up to level 20 was great, but the raised level caps from the DLCs made the game borderline unplayable (due to auto scaling of mobs, but no solid weapon upgrades - so some stupid mobs could survive half a dozen headshots with a high caliber sniper rifle etc).

 

so no, more levels isn't necessarily better. in my experience, it's the opposite - the higher the level cap, the less meaningful each level up feels and the more "artificial" stuff they have to make up so the high level traits/talents/whatever feel more powerful than the low level stuff.

[LadyLumyria]

When I said most RPGS I was not talking about BG or older ones, in the past five years the RPGs I have played and love have between 20-40 levels.  The issue of level cap will not make me lose interest in the game and I half way through chapter 2, haven't done a lot of Od Nua nor did all the quests main or side and I am level 6 with a party of 6. 

 

I do not base a game on how many levels a character can get, Like I said I figure there will be expansions and level will go up as we get them.

[Zwiebelchen]

One thing I haven't seen hardly anyone mention is the bounties. Are those of you who are reaching the cap halfway through act 2 doing a lot of bounties? Because from what I've heard, those give ludicrous amounts of experience. It would be very helpful if people would post that information when giving anecdotal evidence. Could be that it's just the bounties that are pushing people over the edge. If so, the solution is just to greatly reduce the XP from bounty quests. There, problem solved. No huge rebalance needed.

 

It's pretty much confirmed already that bounties are the worst offender XP-wise. If you do all bounties, you can get 29k XP per character on a six-member party. That is 43% of all XP needed to cap.

[Blovski]

Level cap is fine. This isn't Diablo, what's the point of getting to level 20 if you don't get enough time to learn and use your new capabilities? Each level introduces a significant increase in each character's power, just the way it should be. What's the point of having 30 levels? Why is it important to go OMG IM LEVEL 50? What matters is what the levels mean.

 

I don't think you can be level 12 with a party of 6 unless you've done most of Act 2 & most/all of Od Nua on a harder difficulty - which would actually place you at 70, 80% of the full game while being very completionist. Meanwhile, someone who skips a lot of side content can get to the last boss at level 9 or so. I do still cry out for an XP mod to suit playing styles, though.

I think the bounties throw this out of whack. I'm OK with that, because I like the idea that an experienced player can take a challenge to have an easier time later on but it is a bit ridiculous. If I ever get round to doing a perkmod Imma cut bounty experience a bit and add some bonuses for completing tiers of bounties instead, if possible.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Blovski

[Luckmann]

The experience doleout in the game is pretty broken.

 

It is known.

 

I got capped at lvl 9 in my first run

 

66k

I'm the only one ?

Probably. If you haven't got 50k by the end of Act 2, you're doing something wrong.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Luckmann

[Hiro Protagonist II]

One thing I haven't seen hardly anyone mention is the bounties. Are those of you who are reaching the cap halfway through act 2 doing a lot of bounties? Because from what I've heard, those give ludicrous amounts of experience. It would be very helpful if people would post that information when giving anecdotal evidence. Could be that it's just the bounties that are pushing people over the edge. If so, the solution is just to greatly reduce the XP from bounty quests. There, problem solved. No huge rebalance needed.

 

When I arrived at Twin Elms, I was shy of the level 12 cap and this is after doing a couple of bounties earlier in Act 2. I went back and did the rest after I hit the level cap. Playing on hard.