Level Up Imbalance

[Thashed]

Has anyone else noticed this, or am I imagining things...

I have noticed with several play throughs, with different groups on easy through hard settings that it seems like the characters and monsters level up significantly unequally. What I seem to have experienced is that I will be in an area where I am handling the baddies pretty easily, then I level up and all the sudden the same enemy yours in the same area are thrashing me. I have seen this in reverse as well. I was thinking its just bad luck, or perception, but it seems to repeat between changes/groups.

Am I crazy?

Awesome game by the way!

[Cory Trese]

Based on difficulty, the enemies you face will be stronger, or weaker, depending on the area and the current party's level.

At least that is how I'd say it works, someone who knows more may respond with some additional details to help.

[matrim]

Imo the levelling imbalance will hit different groups at different times. Certainly on the higher difficulties, the tuning is very fine and you will find that some builds lag at certain levels before talents, gear, and skills flesh out. Some areas and levels also lend themselves to being harder as well. For instance I find that level 10-11 are very difficult. It is a mix of a strong beast group (Ratkin), lack of talents for 2 levels, and missing some key level 12 skills to my build (Flanking Unity). After hitting 12, getting the talent, the characters catch up and hit a strong stride for about 10 levels and then start to lag at Underforge. Different builds may hit their stride sooner or later (lightning spear groups hit their at level 8 and don't let up till 26ish). Every build and playthrough though has generally hit a plateau at 35ish and almost all my groups perform well at that point. The most nail biting moments for me are late 20s with strong enemies (episode 2 Krete scale very harshly, although it has been dialled back a bit with a recent update).

[Cory Trese]

From a statistical standpoint, the rate of death spikes on maps, not levels. It is interesting you detect a difficulty spike, the numbers don't show it.

Maybe it overall doesn't increase the actual statistical difficulty or risk of defeat, but increases the tactical load / mental tax the player is paying.

[matrim]

That could be the case. I am usually taxed through the Underforge and I think I recently counted the number of fights there at 112. I often lose ironman games right after at the swamp or Sea Road.

[fallen]

matrim - yeah, its an interesting side effect of ordering. As a lot of players choose to go into the Underforge last in E2, the enemies there are topping out on their levels. When you come back up out of the Underforge, higher level than you entered and used to fighting monsters that aren't curving up against your new level, and then you step into an area that has adjusted and has a higher level cap -- bam. Surprise and splat. From all the different stories I have heard, it is often simply the unexpected difficulty of the enemies that causes the death, when you're so tuned to fighting cultists for 112 fights.

[amongstshadows]

Mar 31, 2017 13:35:20 GMT -5 fallen said:

matrim - yeah, its an interesting side effect of ordering. As a lot of players choose to go into the Underforge last in E2, the enemies there are topping out on their levels. When you come back up out of the Underforge, higher level than you entered and used to fighting monsters that aren't curving up against your new level, and then you step into an area that has adjusted and has a higher level cap -- bam. Surprise and splat. From all the different stories I have heard, it is often simply the unexpected difficulty of the enemies that causes the death, when you're so tuned to fighting cultists for 112 fights.

The Krete at the start of episode 2 were driving me crazy. After fighting waves of the Baron's troops in episode 1, the change in tactics almost made me cry, but I wasn't going to give Cory Trese the satisfaction lol

[wascalwywabbit]

Apr 1, 2017 0:17:22 GMT -5 amongstshadows said:

Mar 31, 2017 13:35:20 GMT -5 fallen said:

matrim - yeah, its an interesting side effect of ordering. As a lot of players choose to go into the Underforge last in E2, the enemies there are topping out on their levels. When you come back up out of the Underforge, higher level than you entered and used to fighting monsters that aren't curving up against your new level, and then you step into an area that has adjusted and has a higher level cap -- bam. Surprise and splat. From all the different stories I have heard, it is often simply the unexpected difficulty of the enemies that causes the death, when you're so tuned to fighting cultists for 112 fights.

The Krete at the start of episode 2 were driving me crazy. After fighting waves of the Baron's troops in episode 1, the change in tactics almost made me cry, but I wasn't going to give Cory Trese the satisfaction lol

But the tears keep him young! Don't let him age! :-p

[gamerindisguise]

While we're leveling up here,
My Tamilin and Vincent have Talent points that are showing up when they leveled up but when I go to spend the point, they aren't there to spend. Hard to screenshot because, It takes two screens to show the error. One that says +1 Talent and one to say 0 talents to spend. They share no common images so it would be easy to fake.

I'm at the current end of episode 4. They're something like level 52 or 51...

[fallen]

Fixed in 4.4.5, so soon!