Mass Effect...scaling weapons/enemies??

joe123

Well I finished mass effect the last day. Have to say its an excellent games although some of the side quests are very dull especially seeing as every interior looks exactly the same in all the side quests.

Besides that im just wondering what people think of the Weapons/loot and enemies levelling up as you level up??

To me this just defeats the purpose of an rpg. I Like the thought of knowing that there is a powerfull shotgun or armour on some planet but the enemies there are say level 50 so you need to wait a while till you venture out their sort of thing?

In mass effect it doesnt matter what level you are, say if your level 20 youll get a gun in the V category. Would it not be much more of an rpg style if there were certain places you knew you just couldnt go or youd get absolutely mauled? Yet theirs some powerfull weapon out there? Thus needing to level up and go back to that planet later in the game? Can anyone tell me if KOTR is like mass effect leveling up or more like final fantasy?

whitetrash

Do normal enemies in Mass Effect level up with you? I thought it was just bosses. I played on normal difficulty and for the last 3rd or so found it way too easy (so long as I kept an eye on my shield and used a boost when needed) I could kill geth in a few shots.

It's a difficult one to call, if the enemies don't level up there's a greater sense of your char getting stronger but the game gets too easy quickly. If they do there's no sense of progression with your char really. If you set minimum levels for doing quests then you're just going to introduce grinding to a single player game, which should never happen.

Probably should be the main group of baddies you fight (your bog-standard geth in ME's case) should level with the player but not as quickly, but there should be way tougher baddies that are really hard to beat earlier on but can be beaten later. In ME it would be the big walker geth with 3 legs than you first fight in the mako (so you can actually beat them) but later have to fight on foot.

Kur4mA

Yep, I totally agree. That's one of the things I didn't like about Mass Effect was that no matter where I was the loot drops were leveling with me. :S Still a brilliant game though!

Azza

Yeah annoying feature in RPG's. Oblivion suffered from that too.

Kiith

The enemies dont level up with you. As a soldier, i was killing the enemies in very short bursts after the middle of the game. They dont level up with you, but there are tougher enemies later in the game. And of course the loot levels up with you...otherwise you'd never get any new loot.

On Insane difficulty, you can start with your same character (level 42 Soldier in my case) and play against tougher enemies from the start. I was against rocket Geth on Eden Prime. And god help me when i have to fight the Walker thing on foot (which was in my opinion the toughest fight in the game)

koneko

They do, enemies scale with you as you level, their level is dependant on yours, there are specific metrics per difficulty level and enemy type (minion, elite, sub-boss, boss).

Your weapons, upgrades and armour would be much better the higher level you are, and of course scale with you so you pick up loot that's relevant to your level.

I'll dig out the chart for it later and post it here, but for instance on Hardcore, minions are (IIRC) 75% of your level, Elites are player level+2, sub-bosses are player level+6bosses are player level+10.

koneko

Here we go, for your convenience

Casual
All enemies scale more slowly than the player. The player and henchmen also take half damage.
Minion - 10% of player level
Elite - 20% of player level
Sub-Boss - 30% of player level, +1 additional level
Boss - 40% of player level, +2 additional levels

Normal
Only bosses scale as quickly as the player.
Minion - 33% of player level
Elite - 50% of player level, +1 additional level
Sub-Boss - 75% of player level, +2 additional levels
Boss - Player level, +4 additional levels

Veteran
Bosses and sub-bosses scale as quickly as the player.
Minion - 50% of player level
Elite - 75% of player level, +2 additional levels
Sub-Bos - Player level, +2 additional levels
Boss - Player level, +6 additional levels

Hardcore
Only Minions scale more slowly than the player.
Minion - 75% of player level, +2 additionals
Elite - Player level, +2 additional levels
Sub-Bos - Player level, +6 additional levels
Boss - Player level, +10 additional levels

Insane
All enemies scale as quickly as the player.
Minion - Player level
Elite - Player level, +6 additional levels
Sub-Bos - Player level, +10 additional levels
Boss - Player level, +15 additional levels

For what it's worth, I'm happy with the scaling, it means I'm not stuck doing things in a certain order, and can use the newgame + option with already levelled characters.

joe123

Would mass effect not of benifted from proper levelling rather than this scaling business?

Personally I think this loot/enemy scaling is due to developers trying to make their games appeal more to the casual gamer making them easier in the end.

Do you not think it would be cool to say for example hear someone talk about some sort of legendary armour or gun that was hidden on lets say mars. But that an elite mercenary force held these treasures. So you as level 10 wander on out to mars but get your arse totally handed to you. So you go away and level up. Now your level 25 and you head back and now you can manage to take on these guys thus gaining this armour.

Or finding some powerfull weapon thats above your level. And killing loads of level 5 enemies but starts to become an ordinary gun as you progress into higher level areas?


I dunno I feel that this new scaling were seeing in the likes of mass effect and oblivion are basically eliminating the whole point of an rpg.

Oblivion really suffered I think. I personally cant stand the game. Yes I own it but that game is pointless in regards to levelling up. You can complete the main quest on level 1 if you want to prove a point about the uselessness of leveling in that game:(

Zillah

The mods that removed levelling from Oblivion were a great improvement. Not a fan of scaling at all.

Kiith

My bad, didn't realise they levelled with you. I found the 2nd half of the game very easy, so maybe thats why i didnt notice. As for Oblivion, i wont touch the game without a large selection of user mods installed. They improve the game in so many ways.

ShaneU

I found that the higher your level, the better the loot you find. so it's not like you can start the game again and go to the same place and get a mark VIII assault rifle.

rizzla

I'm not a fan scalling. I like the grind of leveling up your character to defeat some crazy hard bad guy, if the game is good enough the grind doesn't matter i feel.

joe123

ShaneU wrote: »

I found that the higher your level, the better the loot you find. so it's not like you can start the game again and go to the same place and get a mark VIII assault rifle.

You can actually. When you complete the game and start with the same character you can pick up Ix weapons or whatever level your at with your character.

If it was right youd be picking up ****ty guns on that first level...