Paradise Public Service Announcement: DLC 5 - Griefing & the Low Ego Arkhunter

[Overtkill21]

On Tuesday April 15 a new “DLC” or rather “Patch” will drop for the red-headed stepchild that is Defiance.

When this happens, there will be griefers that will be able to ratchet up the level of the enemies you are facing and then they will leave – leaving you at the mercy of “scaled” enemies.

These folks are going to be able to do this because of Trion’s infinite wisdom of adding a vertical progression to weapons and enemies without fully thinking it through (a very common theme for Defiance as you’ll see if you stick around).

The idea was that an EGO 5000 player, and EGO 2000 player, and an EGO 100 player could still play together because – though the enemies would scale up to the highest player’s EGO the lower EGO players would scale up to the average of the players around. (So in the case of the situation above – the EGO 100 & 2000 players would scale up to about 2367 EGO) Now, what if the EGO 5000 player leaves?

Well apparently you will lose your EGO Scaling and drop down to previous pitiful damage levels – but, get this – the enemies will stay scaled to that EGO 5000 player until they are defeated!

So good luck killing those beasts…

But it gets better –

Here’s a story for you:

Once upon a time there was an EGO 500 player at Mine 98 plugging away at 99ers when an EGO 5000 player drives by. Bolstered by the possibility of high EGO help the EGO 500 player dives into the fray as the threat level elevates, the enemies get harder, and they scale to roughly half of the high EGO player.

The EGO 500 player’s enthusiasm soon turns to dread though as the high EGO player continues driving past. The EGO 500 player goes down for the first time; his EGO scaling drops back to EGO 500 as does the threat level but the enemies stay at EGO 5000 until they are defeated. So he revives, in hopes he can put up some sort of defense, but that hope is immediately dashed as he goes back down again…then he extracts.

The End.

This will be the ultimate grief-fest on Tuesday, April 15 for ALL low EGO players out there…

I wish you all luck, for I know there are those players out there that will be intentionally griefing and then add to that all of us just driving around.

[N3gativeCr33p]

Here's a thread that is sticky worthy, if I've ever seen one.

[ConcreteSnake]

The one thing this game didn't really have that most other mmo type games have is griefing, and that's what I liked about it. Now I will be unintentionally doing to others? Awesome, way to make me feel bad about myself while playing this game. I stopped playing GTA V MP because of the griefers, so maybe its time for Defiance too. My guess is that it will take a month or 2 and then they will remove the scaling due to a lack of player base and to try to generate new players around the time of season 2.....because if someone new starts playing because they see the show, id give them about 20 minutes before they snap that $6 disc in half and take a few shots of vodka.

[Ironhide]

Thanks Overt.

Yeah I was just sitting here and thinking, and If a non-griefing helpful person can think of this, no telling what people being real tools will come up with.
All of you fresh level players beware as well when first entering the Mount Tam area from the tutorial section. You will have some griefers sitting there just to elevate the threat level and spawn uber enemies. They will sit an watch the slaughter or teleport away. You have been warned.

[Combo Breaker]

Well no more tapping a contract area and letting someone else finish it. You don't know that they can now.

[Lucent]

....But it's not JUST griefing...
I'm sorry but I am not going to go out of my way to NOT drive around the map so that I don't accidentally scale up the enemies for someone. If I fast travel somewhere and then drive by a place close enough to scale it up, I'm not being a jerk. I'm just traveling through the world. I'm not going to stop at everything to help because Trion broke the world and gave me the magical power to make enemies harder.

[Ironhide]

....But it's not JUST griefing...
I'm sorry but I am no going to go out of my way to NOT drive around the map so that I don't accidentally scale up the enemies for someone. If I fast travel somewhere and then drive by a place close enough to scale it up, I'm not being a jerk. I'm just traveling through the world. I'm not going to stop at everything to help because Trion broke the world and gave me the magical power to make enemies harder.

We know this and are not saying it is, but there will be some tools that will do it for fun, just for their kicks.

[N3gativeCr33p]

... but there will be some tools that will do it for fun, just for their kicks.

Indeed... griefing defined.

[wartitan]

Boy, if they didn't think about this scenario, it really could doom the game. I guess when I imagined enemy scaling, it would go both ways to avoid this. It wouldn't just calculate average EGO level ONCE during the course of a mission, but do so in a certain interval (say every 5 to 15 seconds). Even if a Volge Superior spawned, it's health and power could diminish the same way the players "buff" would go away.

Hopefully the player isn't the only object that would be receiving and losing this buff based on average EGO present...

[Overtkill21]

....But it's not JUST griefing...
I'm sorry but I am not going to go out of my way to NOT drive around the map so that I don't accidentally scale up the enemies for someone. If I fast travel somewhere and then drive by a place close enough to scale it up, I'm not being a jerk. I'm just traveling through the world. I'm not going to stop at everything to help because Trion broke the world and gave me the magical power to make enemies harder.

I completely agree Lucent - I will NOT be one of the intentional griefers but I travel the map like Marco Polo - there will be collateral damage to my globe trotting. I am NOT going to go out of my way to avoid causing it.

As such I will count myself as one of the unintentional griefers that will, with the help of the numerous intentional tools out there, slowly make this game unplayable for new players.

And the reason for all this...

...because grenades.