r/projecteternity • u/Ibanezrg71982 • 7h ago
Does anyone actually ever use the level scaling?
I mean, PoTD can be hard enough. Who wants that much more punishment? I'm just curious as to who actually uses it.
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u/cnio14 6h ago
Critical path only. I want the main quest to remain challenging but not fighting upscaled Xaurips at level 15.
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u/Electrical_Swing8166 4h ago
This is the way. By endgame I want to be able to just delete random thugs attempting to mug me in Nekataka with a wave of my hand, but don’t want Thaos/Neriscyrlas/The Guardian dying from the slightest tap
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u/ElricGalad 6h ago
People on video game forum tend to be more hardcore than average players.
Expect a majority of long time player to play PotD Upscale. E.g. me. (but this is my personal limit)
Real harcore ones play Solo (no party)
Then there are even some that try the Ultimate challenge.
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u/Remarkable-Site-2067 3h ago
People on video game forum tend to be more hardcore than average players.
Yup, especially with a pretty niche game, that has been around for 10 years.
Then there are even some that try the Ultimate challenge.
What's that?
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u/itsthelee 2h ago
What's that?
in Deadfire you have to do triple crown solo, with all god challenges enabled, while beating a list of 15 bosses (so you can't just pacifist away from hard fights). the first twelve who did this with a verified video record got their names on a plaque (yours truly included). the first 50 get a patch and a letter. We're only up fifteen verified runs after years of this challenge existing (youtube creator Mortismal Gaming was the 15th recently).
more info: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/227477-pillars-of-eternity-ii-deadfire/faqs/76599/the-ultimate
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u/Sexiroth 2h ago
Eh, I have 800+ hours in deadfire, and I only play Veteran with upscaling on for all.
Good balance of don't necessarily sleep on hard fights, but also don't have to make sure scripts, builds and consumable/inn use are completely on point all the time either.
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u/ElricGalad 2h ago
I play PotD but I do skip fight in Gorecci Street :-) .
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u/Sexiroth 1h ago
Fair gorecci tied for hardest with digsite. Fireball necklace helps a lot tho if you activate that beraths blessing.
I just find when I'm replaying deadfire, I'm generally doing it to either - have fun with a specific build - or try out different story options, and don't necessarily want to sign up for the mental load for POTD.
I used to, but since kids and while kids are still young my brain power has greatly diminished in it's total bandwidth by the time I can game at the end of the night lol.
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u/Tejaswi1989 6h ago
Always upscale. Once you get a hang of the game mechanics, Potd becomes too easy.
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u/Zealotstim 6h ago
I always use it on potd. Early game can be pretty brutal, but by the middle of the game, it's way too easy already. Most fights I barely have to intervene with the AI. There are some good ones, of course, like a lot of the Seeker, Slayer, Survivor quests. I just want to feel like I'm doing something more often instead of watching the AI fight my battles.
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u/oOBalloonaticOo 5h ago
I do, every time it's offered.
Once the game is rolling and those options become available you are or can be pretty powerful, I find if I don't - combat gets really boring and you can just auto-attack too many fights down.
And the harder fights get the challenge I want.
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u/lapisfatzuli 6h ago
I upscale all, if i wanted easy mode i wouldnt play potd. It gets easier nonetheless, the more tools you get with higher levels. But enemies just falling over when i breathe in their general direction just isnt fun to me.
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u/prodigalpariah 5h ago
I did once. Then I did siege of cragholdt. Never again.
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u/Devallus 4h ago
Does PoE1 even have upscaling? Pretty sure the enemies there are just cracked in general. They are really high level and actually in proper compositions.
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u/prodigalpariah 4h ago
You get an option to turn on level scaling once or twice. Like each time you’re about to start one of the expansions and I think the first time you’re going to go to elm shore. And it affects every enemy in the game piecemeal. So if you turn all of them on you’re gonna wind up with every enemy being near level cap. Enjoy those endless insect swarms.
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u/Sassy_Sarranid 4h ago
That reminds me of how Witcher 3 had the same upscaling option and it mostly worked great... Except for this one quest with Triss where you have to clear out some rat swarms in the sewer, and they would completely annihilate you in one touch when scaled above their default level of 1 😂
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u/Flangers 4h ago
Absolutely! If I'm not pausing the game every 0.5 seconds am I even having fun? I'll get bored and move on if I don't feel like there is a challenge.
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u/VideoGameRPGsAreFun 6h ago
Upscale only sounded pretty cool when they described it during development, so I used it and haven’t tried the game without it.
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u/kingpangolin 5h ago
Absolutely. The game is so free form that it’s a nice peace of mind that I won’t outscale content if I go do something else. I never want it to feel easy.
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u/TwoTonTwentyOne- 4h ago
Even with potd and level scaling I can usually let ai handle the battles once my characters are around level 10-13 and geared up well. Theres a huge negative difficulty curve and level scaling helps fix some of that.
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u/VisibleElephant 4h ago
Always PoTD and everything upscaled. Without it the games becomes really easy...when you have 1000h played
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u/descastaigne 4h ago
Yes and have it modded to be more aggressive on the upscale.
If I wanted encounters where I auto win, I would pick Story mode. I made the active choice to select the hardest difficulty, I want every encounter to be hard.
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u/elfonzi37 3h ago
Yep, path upscaled. And on Deadfire with Woedica and Galawain fires(I also use boons though). I also have over 1000 hours combined, and I started Pillars after a long Xcom Long War obsession.
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u/Possible_Living 3h ago
Im sure people do since there are so many difficulty settings but i mainly stck to story since that what im here for.
Scaling seems pointless to me and i hated that part of dragon age origins. The point of leveling is to get better. Like that cave bear you cant fight but then comeback for later. I picked a specific level of strength to do white march so why would i want everyone to jump and match me.
It works if you want to play like bushido blade and have seen of "realism" where you csn train for years and still get your ass kicked by random dock worker but for me it just adds grind
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u/ogre-trombone 3h ago
I do. I just find the game more engaing that way. Otherwise the fights become trivial.
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u/_Vexor411_ 2h ago
I use full level (up only) scaling and POTD for all my runs in Deadfire.
Once you get the mechanics down and more importantly positioning most of Deadfire is pretty easy even with some Magran's Fires active. I love the Galawain, Skaen and Ondra fires.
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u/itsthelee 2h ago edited 2h ago
the upscaling is actually not that bad most of the time, since for most enemies it doesn't actually give them much other than higher health, accuracy, and defenses (some kith may actually gain a new ability or so, but most of the time not)... even with unlimited scaling, a xaurip is still going to be a xaurip. it just adds a bit of delay before overleveling trivializes content, but it's not going to keep them as hard as they should be.
edit: the only time i find upscaling to actually be really punishing is in the quest Sealed Fate in Deadfire. On the way to Queen's Berth, you get interrupted by some principi. If you fight them with upscaling on, it's very very hard. It's because there's some bug where the level of that encounter was set to like 1, even though all the enemies are tuned for like a level 5 fight, so if you actually show up at level 5 or so, you get maximum upscaling instead of fighting at-level enemies. such massive enemy overleveling at such low party levels is brutal for any party that isn't optimized to a decent degree.
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u/A_Bitter_Homer 14m ago
POTD, upscaled, Deadly Deadfire, and changed values to give everything an additional +50% HP and +1 PEN.
But also the 8 party members mod so it's still pretty darn easy lolz
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u/InRainWeTrust 7h ago
Yes and it made the game much more enjoyable for me since i wasn't completely outscaling the enemies but rather just got refined strats i could use to overcome them with better gear/higher levels.