13 replies to this topic

[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 by Zeitzbach, 14 May 2018 - 12:40 AM.

[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...