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

[Agent Freeman]

Scaled up characters dont lose their boosted levels - even if they die or leave and come back. Thats how I've seen it work so far.

Its actually quite beneficial for a low level character to get boosted. It is only a little more challenging but you get more experience and you level weapons quicker since you are doing more damage but the requirements for weapon mastery and skill levels are not changed.

[Rokea]

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.

Then the Ego 500 player realized that the 5000 player just coast him a crap ton of scrip because he died and had to revive and pay the death tax.

[Overtkill21]

Hi guys, I just wanted to drop you guys a line after reading this thread and talking with Trick himself about how the boosting works.

Encounters and events scale up their threat rating based on the number of players that show up to take them on: it's the increased threat rating itself that boosts up low-level players and enemies alike.

If a high level player leaves the encounter, it doesn't actually reduce the threat rating, and so the amount of boost that a low-level player has isn't reduced either.

Well that is all well & good - however - since the scaling of the lower EGO player is average and not to the actual EGO of the higher player - a single EGO 5000 player showing up on the scene for a single EGO 500 player and leaving will have the EXACT effect I described.

So it would seem griefing, that is still absolutely going to happen, is more of a solitary activity.

[wartitan]

I guess the morale of the story here is....if you're new to the game, make friends quickly and never play alone...

[Deunan]

Hi guys, I just wanted to drop you guys a line after reading this thread and talking with Trick himself about how the boosting works.

Encounters and events scale up their threat rating based on the number of players that show up to take them on: it's the increased threat rating itself that boosts up low-level players and enemies alike.

If a high level player leaves the encounter, it doesn't actually reduce the threat rating, and so the amount of boost that a low-level player has isn't reduced either.

That doesn't really resolve the issue. Mobs scale up when players with higher EGO rating show up but they don't scale down when those players leave and new arrivals don't get the Threat Level buff to EGO rating and weapon and shield power rating afterwards. This is why players with low EGO rating on the test server are not getting EGO rating and power boosts and are getting slaughtered by Veteran, Hardened and Formidable Mutants at conflict sites and by random patrols with no players with high EGO rating in sight.

Further, it's not clear what constitutes "showing up" and the game obviously can't read the players minds to know if they've "shown up" to fight the mobs or are just there to grab a data recorder or just passing by in general. It also doesn't explain why when high tier mobs despawn, the ones that spawn in their place are sometimes still higher tier mobs when my EGO rating <500 character is the only one around within radar distance.

I sent a PM days ago to Trick and Scapes asking for specifics about how the mechanics of open world scaling work and haven't heard back from either of them. What you've posted doesn't shed any light on very specific questions I asked about open world scaling mechancs in my PM. We can't help you fix it if we don't even know if it's broken. Nevertheless I've filed feedback as to what is so obviously bad about open world scaling mechancis as they exist on the test server.

Mt. Tam is basically the beginner area of the map. If this is how the game greets new players it will suffer much higher attrition rates for new players once DLC 5 goes live. There is nothing in the training session that explains open world scaling to them and other MMO games generally don't put high end mobs into newb territory so they'll simply think the game is stupidly hard and leave the game after barely starting it.

[Noble_One]

wait a second i thought the game only scaled to YOUR ego (so if im with some one lower it doesnt matter since it scales to them not me). so you are telling me if a 5000 ego person goes back to the stating area they make the mobs 2500 in ego strength? that seems odd and broken.

[Bonehead]

wait a second i thought the game only scaled to YOUR ego (so if im with some one lower it doesnt matter since it scales to them not me). so you are telling me if a 5000 ego person goes back to the stating area they make the mobs 2500 in ego strength? that seems odd and broken.

Nobody knows for sure how it works. We just know that If you are a low to medium ego player, You will be slaughtered in Mt Tam or other open world places by top tier mobs due to how the creative team has engineered the new scaling mechanics.
Quite possibly "working as intended" sad to say.

[Overwatch]

Yet, you can purchase enough Ark Forge in the Store to instantly level your character to EGO 5000.
This is the main point you are missing.
1000 Ark Forge for 40$ U.S.
What is the rate of climb ? 100 ego for 1000 ark forge ? ( just a guess )
Or am I wrong here. Can you only raise your weapons ego rating ?
Why raise your weapon EGO when all you need to do is find another one or purchase from a Vendor ?
What does this have to do with scaling ?
People that do not spend money will eventually quit due to the LONGER chase.
The fun will be non existent for the average or below average player.

[ConcreteSnake]

Yet, you can purchase enough Ark Forge in the Store to instantly level your character to EGO 5000.
This is the main point you are missing.
1000 Ark Forge for 40$ U.S.
What is the rate of climb ? 100 ego for 1000 ark forge ? ( just a guess )
Or am I wrong here. Can you only raise your weapons ego rating ?
Why raise your weapon EGO when all you need to do is find another one or purchase from a Vendor ?
What does this have to do with scaling ?
People that do not spend money will eventually quit due to the LONGER chase.
The fun will be non existent for the average or below average player.

well its 50 arkforge to gain 100 ego rating on a single item. You can't level you character with arkforge, only weapons and shields.

[Xaat Xuun]

I didn't read the last 2 pages, so if this comment was mentioned already . . Opps

contracts in Mount Tam ,will be a large problem with starting Ego's and Higher EGO's, and possibly other zones too.
Road side emergencies possibly not so much , since the higher EGO will most likely be pulling all the Aggro anyways.
where now the problem lies with the Low ego never getting a kill, but only assist, this making it tougher for there Achievements completions , so one is pretty much needs to take that moment to send a group invite

Not sure what the range of "Nearby" would be, sending a invite to someone, that is actually not engaged may be a issue too .
I don't think every-time someone goes near someone, they want to hit 'ctrl' just to see what that players ego is. Maybe some do that anyways , I dunno

I would guess, to avoid any unintentional griefing, you just need to group up