Enemy Scaling For Teams

[Ilseroth]

Ahoy,

I have recently taken to this game and found it to be quite an experience. The right blend of Action/Shooter/RPG elements with that extra bit of flash for fun. I played it in two player for sevral hours and the game felt just right, Really it was amazing, challenging and fun. It had moments easy enough to be flashy and just faff about, but occasionally things turned for the serious and we had to improvise and be a bit more strategic.

My friend logged off and then I played some of the missions I had just played solo. Man, it was a slap in the face. It was the same amount of enemies I faced in two player, I stuck it out and got some victories but not without a few failures and a whole lot of close calls. Despite that it ws engaging, challenging me to be at my very best.

I got annoyed with seeing the "failure" screen, so I decided "All right, I'll play wth a pick up group." and then the game just felt straight up broken. It was the same amount of enemies as in two player. With four players walking about the enemies were so distracted that I didnt even have to try on any of the missions, and worse still; since it was so unbelievably easy and the game has a end "Kill Count" screen, everyone plows through using nothing but melee and smashing through every mission as quickly as possible. If you use guns, you dont even have time to reload; just an enedless forward march of death.

Honestly, it genuinely feels as though two players is balanced perfectly,. Challenging, but not absolutely soul crushing, just enough easiness you can be a lil flashy here and there. But if you try to pull that too often you will get knocked back into place. At first I thought this was just PuG syndrome, but I arranged a 3 player game witha couple friends and we came to the same conclusion. When the enemies have 3-4 enemies their AI just can't do anything about it. The enemies fire is simply too spread out between 4 targets and is just destroyed.

I am unsure as to how this could be rectified, and to be fair I am only level 15, so for all I know the game could be completely different at higher levels requiring 4 players to be truely challenged. But from what I have heard/read that doesnt appear to be true.

I considered simply upping the number of enemies, but that could have issues with performance on a lot of systems given that the game already frequently sends a good number of enemies your way. Increasing the health unfortunately would be a even worse idea as the current kill speed in gameplay feels about right. (pelleting away at someones chest kills at about the right speed and headshots kill approprietly fast. Melee feels powerful, but dangerous if there are too many enemies (and less then 3 people on the team) ) So the other option is making them more deadly but that has a even worse issue that right now even dying feels pretty about right. You can take a bit of a beating, but reckless abandon will cause you a serious case of a deadsies (again, when not in 3-4 player)

I enjoy the game thoroughly, so much so that I actually dropped some money even though the game is not even out of closed beta yet (which says a lot for me (had to get a 2nd frame) ) , but I would hate to be restricted to always trying to limit myself to two player matches to keep the balance in check.

I am curious to hear from other players based on their experiences, good hunting out there.

[Silenterr]

well the game is maily focused on co-op and if you solo you have to be less like a ninja and more like a tactical spec ops kinda guy. Also guns will become much more easier and powerful compared to melee weps to the point you can one hit everything so don't worry about it just try your best and get into the game and eventually you will find your flow.

[-Basic-]

I agree, the game does need at least some sort of scailing for solo players at least. Many bosses are only manageable in multiplayer because of revives against the one hit KO's everywhere, and insanely high bulllet sponge hit point levels.

Van Hek for example is nearly impossible solo because his shield regenerates everytime you need to reload. (Unless you want to melee him to death, but god what a soul crushing task that is solo.)

More difficulty with four people would also be nice, but to compensate either increase the number of boss drops for the added difficulty or increase the reward at the end of the mission.

[Sealgaire]

Almost all the complaints have been along the lines of solo being about right in difficulty, except maybe in the very beginning with level 0 frames and weapons. I think most people agree it's the coop that is far too easy at the moment. With more than one player, pretty much any map but Xini or the like can be rushed through without much caution, clowning enemies left and right.

[Ilseroth]

Almost all the complaints have been along the lines of solo being about right in difficulty, except maybe in the very beginning with level 0 frames and weapons. I think most people agree it's the coop that is far too easy at the moment. With more than one player, pretty much any map but Xini or the like can be rushed through without much caution, clowning enemies left and right.

well I am level 15ish and Ican tell you most of the time solo feels good, but occasionally it just spawns a massive wave of enemies in front of and behind me who swarm too fast for me really to do anything (though since I have gotten my frames 4th ability getting surrounded is a little less deadly). I mean I'll agree with you that solo usually feels about right, but about once or twice a mission a spawn ocurrs that is absolutely overwhelming and not faceplanting at that given time is usually 30% skill, 60% luck, 10% potatoes.

That bieng said, one of the issues is enemies simply bieng too receptive to charge attacks. Sure they knock ou back occasionally, but when there are other players on your team frequently they are just too damn distracted to bother with stopping you from bieng gutting them like a kipper.

[Dreed]

sorry i dont read all but:

Many mission - especialy new one - is harder for solo.. good for 2 sometimes for 3 .. pice of cace for 4..

[Siilk]

I only play solo and I feel that the difficulty is perfect for me. The game is hard, but in a right way. It's more about being tactical than having a twitch aim or flawless melee combos. Almost any situation can be dealt with and when it's not, it's most often because of your own mistakes. The amount of enemies, their strength and intelligence is perfect.

As far as I can figure out from the OP, in players we are facing the same amount of enemies of the same level. I think it is ridiculous, enemy strength must be scaled up when playing coop, otherwise there is no challenge in playing. The game becomes a cakewalk, a mindles grindfest with nothing posing real threat to the players.

[Dreed]

harder dont mean .. impossible.. difcult for me - solo play - is ok.. but same mission with 2 - 3 or 4 is more and more easier to do.. there should be something like skalling..

all new missions have dificult 5.. but they are much shorter than other mission in older region and easier..

[NDroid]

From what I've seen, the scaling currently implemented is enemy levels increasing with the number of players. Their number seems to remain the same though, so I suppose some tweaking could help. Such a system works well enough for bosses but not as well for regular enemies. Still, the game is ultimately supposed to support both playstyles and both are supposed to feel challenging but not punishingly so. I'm guessing the dev team will tweak it further.