Companions and missing out on XP while drinking in the boat

[Slapstick87]

How come my companions don't have the same XP, preferably the same XP as me, regardless of wether they're in the party or not?

 

I was "encouraged" to bring along Tekehu for a romp through The Gullet, and he changed places with Aloth. After going through that area and a few more side-quests, I wanted to switch back to Aloth - only to find him a couple of thousands of XP lower than my existing party and missing a level to boot. Why? I'm hard pressed to see any benefit to this, though I see a lot of con's.

 

Con's

- It discourages trying out companions you're not instantly loving

- It discourages switching out party members to try out new tactics

- It discourages switching out party members to get a feel for how different NPC's get along

- Being "encouraged" to bring certain characters for certain parts of the game feels like the game is intentionally shoving stones into my shoe to irk me.

- It's just plain annoying

- I really hate it

 

Pro's?

- Making me want to play with a locked in party from start to finish probaby increases the chance I'll play it twice. Wohoo I guess?

 

 

 

I simply fail to see any reason why it's like this... at all. It would be much much better if the entire party simply had the same XP and were at the same level at all times.

[Zeitzbach]

It's like this since PoE 1. Inactive party member only gains like 75% of the gained exp. It's not really a problem because doing every quests in the game gives excess amount of exp that even inactive member will hit level 20 at the end.

[Slapstick87]

It's like this since PoE 1. Inactive party member only gains like 75% of the gained exp. It's not really a problem because doing every quests in the game gives excess amount of exp that even inactive member will hit level 20 at the end.

So why make it 75% in the first place? It's just an annoyance until you cap the XP then.

[Zeitzbach]

 

It's like this since PoE 1. Inactive party member only gains like 75% of the gained exp. It's not really a problem because doing every quests in the game gives excess amount of exp that even inactive member will hit level 20 at the end.

So why make it 75% in the first place? It's just an annoyance until you cap the XP then.

 

 

Because from RPG perspective, the inactive members aren't really doing anything so they don't gain as much experience as the one going around traveling. This is just a toned down version because jRPG takes it to the next level of not giving them exp at all.

 

The only real flaw from not taking companions along is that they don't grow through special quest dialogue which affects the reputation point they have with you and your other companions.

Edited May 14, 2018 by Zeitzbach

[Slapstick87]

 

 

It's like this since PoE 1. Inactive party member only gains like 75% of the gained exp. It's not really a problem because doing every quests in the game gives excess amount of exp that even inactive member will hit level 20 at the end.

So why make it 75% in the first place? It's just an annoyance until you cap the XP then.

 

 

Because from RPG perspective, the inactive members aren't really doing anything so they don't gain as much experience as the one going around traveling. This is just a toned down version because jRPG takes it to the next level of not giving them exp at all.

 

The only real flaw from not taking companions along is that they don't grow through special quest dialogue which affects the reputation point they have with you and your other companions.

 

 

I take your point, but it's still not an argument in favor of this solution. a) If it's for the coveted 'immersion' then giving them a substantial part of the XP still breaks it. And b) I'm not really buying that it's important or even noteworthy immersion-wise. Levels are arbitrary distinctions in power that makes only a limited sense in the game world. And if I had picked Aloth back up again and found him to have similar XP as the others, I wouldn't have gone "well this is just totally unrealistic".

 

I'm not really trying to be difficult about it, I'm just surprised if it's not more commonly opposed. It can't possibly be that anyone will look back at Deadfire and think "one thing I really appreciated is how companions I didn't use for a bit didn't get as much XP as the rest of the team. That really did it for me".

[gerardbois]

I agree with slapstick, they should get full exp.

In hard difficulty or under, it's not really a problem, you can do with a weaker companion in your team but in PotD, it just limit your choice to a fixed team. Or you can "farm" exp before a given challenge to raise a companions exp but anyway your team will never have an homogenous level and the risk is to have the feeling that some companions are weak.

[Wormerine]

Doesn't that incourage you to swap companions around? Frankly the XP gap isn't that big to be impactful. I also tend to switch companions depending on quest I am doing (I won't be taking Pallegina when I am working with Principi for example). 

[Carnifexus]

I just found this out today when i was level thirteen and went to switch Serafen for Maia...she's level seven for some reason, which makes no sense. This a bug?

[Manveru123]

 

I'm not really trying to be difficult about it, I'm just surprised if it's not more commonly opposed. It can't possibly be that anyone will look back at Deadfire and think "one thing I really appreciated is how companions I didn't use for a bit didn't get as much XP as the rest of the team. That really did it for me".

 

That's because it's not a big deal. If this prevented you from getting max level on a character you don't use, then maybe it would be more annoying.

[Abel]

 I wouldn't have gone "well this is just totally unrealistic".

 

I would, for one. To the point that i used the console in Pillars 1 to lower the total XP of my companions, in order to not have them lvl up all at the same time. There was one lvl difference at least between my MC and the party member who had the lowest XP.

[Erik Dirk]

The fact all characters tend to level up at the same time is kinda unrealistic, and not great in terms of gameplay.

BG did do this better with different classes requiring different values.

The POE system means you 500xp could easily be the difference between epic struggle and face stoping an encounter.

[Mr Wockip]

I think something like this could be an easy to implement toggle option on game settings. Personally would prefer it if my companions stayed the same level as the player character for the same reasons as the OP.

[house2fly]

It's trivial to just open up the game files and change it yourself. Marginally more involved than a toggle in the game menu

[InsaneCommander]

Doesn't that incourage you to swap companions around? Frankly the XP gap isn't that big to be impactful. I also tend to switch companions depending on quest I am doing (I won't be taking Pallegina when I am working with Principi for example). 

 

Swap companions and never level up the Watcher above their level. An easy way to "reduce xp gain".

 

As for their gaining less xp on the ship, well, I can't say that the most experiencing moments of my live were when I was completely drunk. In fact, memory loss doesn't exactly helps...

[Guest Psychovampiric Shield]

Doesn't that incourage you to swap companions around? Frankly the XP gap isn't that big to be impactful. I also tend to switch companions depending on quest I am doing (I won't be taking Pallegina when I am working with Principi for example).

 

Quite on the contrary, it discourages me from swapping companions around. Swapping has inherent overhead, I have to plan build for every companion, perhaps even more builds for the same companion, depending on party composition, level up or respec everyone each time, reallocate gear, and if I do all that, I will still be pissed off by uneven experience, and the more frequently I swap companions around to even out experience, the more of the overhead and the more uneven companions's experience is relative to the watcher's, who can not be swapped.

Thit is very stupid design decision unless it indeed is supposed to be punishment for swapping companions around, in which case it is fairly effective, albeit the goal is questionable, to say the least.

 

Ironically, quite a few players would be totally okay if on duty companions got 75% XP as well, but no, for that, we have to resort to mods.

 

 

Doesn't that incourage you to swap companions around? Frankly the XP gap isn't that big to be impactful. I also tend to switch companions depending on quest I am doing (I won't be taking Pallegina when I am working with Principi for example).

 

Swap companions and never level up the Watcher above their level. An easy way to "reduce xp gain".

 

As for their gaining less xp on the ship, well, I can't say that the most experiencing moments of my live were when I was completely drunk. In fact, memory loss doesn't exactly helps...

 

But then I would be constantly nagged by level up audio/video effect + accidentally opened level up window when clicking on portrait.

[house2fly]

You shouldn't freak out so much about swapping companions. You don't actually have to optimise every equipment choice and ability for every possible combination of party members

Edited December 28, 2018 by house2fly

[Guest Psychovampiric Shield]

I certainly do not have to optimize equipment and abilities for every possible combination of party members, because I will not play every possible combination. But the combinations I will play have to be somewhat functional, and simply stripping companion X, who is going, of gear, giving it to Y, who is coming, will not do, unless it is story mode, which it is not, sorry.

[InsaneCommander]

You shouldn't freak out so much about swapping companions. You don't actually have to optimise every equipment choice and ability for every possible combination of party members

 

Once I left some companions without any equipment because I didn't plan on having them on my party soon. Then I found myself in a ship battle with them naked.

[protopersona]

 

You shouldn't freak out so much about swapping companions. You don't actually have to optimise every equipment choice and ability for every possible combination of party members

 

Once I left some companions without any equipment because I didn't plan on having them on my party soon. Then I found myself in a ship battle with them naked.

 

Wait you don't go into ship battles with your current party?

[InsaneCommander]

You shouldn't freak out so much about swapping companions. You don't actually have to optimise every equipment choice and ability for every possible combination of party members

 

Once I left some companions without any equipment because I didn't plan on having them on my party soon. Then I found myself in a ship battle with them naked.

Wait you don't go into ship battles with your current party?

 

I cleaned the sea early in the game and left only a few ships for later. Then I forgot that the companions that are not in my party can appear in ship battles. Later, when I fought a ship battle again, they were there naked...

[Guest Blutwurstritter]

I also dislike this. It does add a psychological barrier to swapping party members since you have to switch in a "weaker" character. For most parts of the game it does not matter but if you like optimizing your group it is a hindrance since you have to "lower" your over-all  power level given a level difference of the switching party members.

Immersion does also not work for me personally i mean why are sidekicks always exactly the level of my main character upon recruiting them for the first time, even if they are just standing around somewhere, but sitting in my boat and traveling with me decreases their passive experience gain ?   

[asnjas]

Agreed. Seems like a relic mechanic that is no longer appreciated in addition to all of the above mentioned points.

[Frak]

It's a minor issue. The companions staying behind is (i'm almost certain) never more than a level behind.

 

And once you bring them along they will gain relative more XP while lower leveled, if you shift-click on XP distribution for quests.

IE, they will soon catch up to your level.

[Guest Jamila]

Apparently off duty XP gain can be adjusted by changing value of StoredExperiencePercent in global.gamedatabundle.

[David Carter]

@Frak "more than a level behind" this isn't correct I've had companions on the boat be 3 levels behind. At that point they are useless to bring along on anything playing PoTD.