Level Up-Scaling - The Pros and Cons
Level scaling is a topic which seems to come up a fair deal when discussing The Witcher 3. Because of that, I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to further the discussion on this topic, going in depth about what the game would benefit from having level scaling, and the adverse effects that it could suffer from its implementation as well. However, what I'll be talking about here won't be complete level scaling, which would destroy the sense of progression the developers clearly wished to have in the game. The level scaling I wish to discuss here is level upscaling. For those not in the know, level upscaling raises the levels of the enemies below the player's level to match their's. That means a ghoul which would normally be level ten, would be raised to be level twenty if that is the player's level, but if the player was level five the ghoul would still be the level ten. The purpose of this would be to provide a consistent challenge throughout the game. However, for the sake of this discussion, the level upscaling would only be applied to quests, and not the monsters in the overworld.
Pros:
-A Consistent Challenge- As I said earlier, this kind of level scaling would allow the game to have a consistent challenge throughout the entire game. But why is that important? Some players probably like being able to mow their way through the game. Be that as it may, there are difficulty settings for a reason, and I'm going to assume that even with level upscaling the easy difficulty setting would still forgiving enough for players not interested in a challenge. The challenge of combat makes the game more satisfying to play, but it also helps reinforce the realism of the setting. When we're told that the witcher's profession is dangerous, the reason we believe it is because of how lethal a single pack of drowners can be. As it is, however, the lack of level upscaling can lead to certain encounters being hilariously easy. For instance, there are monster contracts throughout the game that provide no challenge if the player is one or two levels above the recommended one. With level upscaling on quests, every contract will really sell the idea that the people need a witcher, and will also help place us more in Geralt's shoes when he gets ripped off or cheated by certain individuals.
-Late Game Progression Will Actually Exist- I've now beaten The Witcher 3 three times, and each time through the higher the level I reached, the more the game content started to collapse into itself, leaving me with only one or two quests within my level range. This defeats the purpose of an open world as level ranges shepherd the players through certain quests, and on repeat playthroughs I was doing the same group of quests in a pretty similar order. One of the benefits of being an open world game is having a high replayability, but being unable to complete quests you may have missed forty odd hours ago can be frustrating, especially since the world is set up in a such a way that there is no easy way to know which areas are for low level players and which are for high level players. With level upscaling, I'd be able to complete quests that I didn't stumble across when I "should" have, and believe me, there are all sorts of quests hidden away in obscure parts of the world, which is great, but I would like to be able to do them and actually get experience for it. As it is, I had to grind out one level in order to be able to equip my mastercrafted cat school armor, and was right at the end of the game, with no quests my level to get me up to level thirty four.
Cons:
-Level Scaling Is Game-y and Artificial- Many people would argue that level scaling in any form breaks immersion because it doesn't make any sense. This certainly isn't wrong as level scaling is inherently artificial, and in other games with level scaling, this really does kill immersion. The go to example of completely artificial level scaling would The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, where late game the player would encounter lowly bandits donning the most effective armor in the world. This certainly is a valid complaint, and something to be wary of.
-Level Scaling Could Be A Hassle to Implement- If I'm being honest, I have no idea how hard level upscaling would be to implement, but I imagine it can't be easy, especially in a game as complicated as The Witcher 3, so this makes sense as it could be enormous burden on the extremely talented folks at CD Projekt RED.
If it isn't obvious by now, I'm in favor of level upscaling for the reasons listed above, and I believe the Pros cancel out the cons for a variety of reasons. The first one is that I think level upscaling really isn't more game-y than beating a pack of wolves to death with your fists simply because you're higher level. The level upscaling in question, however, wouldn't stop that from happening, but it ensure it doesn't happen in quests.
Those are my thoughts on the matter, but I'm very interested to hear what everyone else has to say. With New Game Plus on the horizon, level upscaling could be implemented in that mode, allowing the original experience CD Projekt RED created to remain intact, but also providing a more open experience for the next playthrough. Mods, if you think my post is in the wrong category, I'm sorry about it, my rationale is that this is a discussion on what level upscaling would bring to table, and what it would take away, but this is kind of a suggestion I guess, but I just wasn't sure where to put this, and this category seems like a catch all. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize again, I don't wish to waste your time.
Cheers, and thank you to all the hard working people at CD Projekt RED for creating such a wonderful game to begin with, and the dedication you have to making it the best experience it can be!
Level scaling is a topic which seems to come up a fair deal when discussing The Witcher 3. Because of that, I think it is a worthwhile endeavor to further the discussion on this topic, going in depth about what the game would benefit from having level scaling, and the adverse effects that it could suffer from its implementation as well. However, what I'll be talking about here won't be complete level scaling, which would destroy the sense of progression the developers clearly wished to have in the game. The level scaling I wish to discuss here is level upscaling. For those not in the know, level upscaling raises the levels of the enemies below the player's level to match their's. That means a ghoul which would normally be level ten, would be raised to be level twenty if that is the player's level, but if the player was level five the ghoul would still be the level ten. The purpose of this would be to provide a consistent challenge throughout the game. However, for the sake of this discussion, the level upscaling would only be applied to quests, and not the monsters in the overworld.
Pros:
-A Consistent Challenge- As I said earlier, this kind of level scaling would allow the game to have a consistent challenge throughout the entire game. But why is that important? Some players probably like being able to mow their way through the game. Be that as it may, there are difficulty settings for a reason, and I'm going to assume that even with level upscaling the easy difficulty setting would still forgiving enough for players not interested in a challenge. The challenge of combat makes the game more satisfying to play, but it also helps reinforce the realism of the setting. When we're told that the witcher's profession is dangerous, the reason we believe it is because of how lethal a single pack of drowners can be. As it is, however, the lack of level upscaling can lead to certain encounters being hilariously easy. For instance, there are monster contracts throughout the game that provide no challenge if the player is one or two levels above the recommended one. With level upscaling on quests, every contract will really sell the idea that the people need a witcher, and will also help place us more in Geralt's shoes when he gets ripped off or cheated by certain individuals.
-Late Game Progression Will Actually Exist- I've now beaten The Witcher 3 three times, and each time through the higher the level I reached, the more the game content started to collapse into itself, leaving me with only one or two quests within my level range. This defeats the purpose of an open world as level ranges shepherd the players through certain quests, and on repeat playthroughs I was doing the same group of quests in a pretty similar order. One of the benefits of being an open world game is having a high replayability, but being unable to complete quests you may have missed forty odd hours ago can be frustrating, especially since the world is set up in a such a way that there is no easy way to know which areas are for low level players and which are for high level players. With level upscaling, I'd be able to complete quests that I didn't stumble across when I "should" have, and believe me, there are all sorts of quests hidden away in obscure parts of the world, which is great, but I would like to be able to do them and actually get experience for it. As it is, I had to grind out one level in order to be able to equip my mastercrafted cat school armor, and was right at the end of the game, with no quests my level to get me up to level thirty four.
Cons:
-Level Scaling Is Game-y and Artificial- Many people would argue that level scaling in any form breaks immersion because it doesn't make any sense. This certainly isn't wrong as level scaling is inherently artificial, and in other games with level scaling, this really does kill immersion. The go to example of completely artificial level scaling would The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, where late game the player would encounter lowly bandits donning the most effective armor in the world. This certainly is a valid complaint, and something to be wary of.
-Level Scaling Could Be A Hassle to Implement- If I'm being honest, I have no idea how hard level upscaling would be to implement, but I imagine it can't be easy, especially in a game as complicated as The Witcher 3, so this makes sense as it could be enormous burden on the extremely talented folks at CD Projekt RED.
If it isn't obvious by now, I'm in favor of level upscaling for the reasons listed above, and I believe the Pros cancel out the cons for a variety of reasons. The first one is that I think level upscaling really isn't more game-y than beating a pack of wolves to death with your fists simply because you're higher level. The level upscaling in question, however, wouldn't stop that from happening, but it ensure it doesn't happen in quests.
Those are my thoughts on the matter, but I'm very interested to hear what everyone else has to say. With New Game Plus on the horizon, level upscaling could be implemented in that mode, allowing the original experience CD Projekt RED created to remain intact, but also providing a more open experience for the next playthrough. Mods, if you think my post is in the wrong category, I'm sorry about it, my rationale is that this is a discussion on what level upscaling would bring to table, and what it would take away, but this is kind of a suggestion I guess, but I just wasn't sure where to put this, and this category seems like a catch all. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize again, I don't wish to waste your time.
Cheers, and thank you to all the hard working people at CD Projekt RED for creating such a wonderful game to begin with, and the dedication you have to making it the best experience it can be!