XP and Levelling Thread

[Sardukhar]

XP and Levelling Thread

So many ways to become more powerful. Some like to do it quickly and violently, others by savouring all the exploration they can get. I prefer being made a moderator. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ah, me.

If you have an idea or mod that pertains to XP gain (or loss!) or another way to level, put it here.

 

[Rai_Hikari]

At the moment overlevelling is managed by CDPR via making you gain no experience if you're too high a level for a quest your doing. But a lot of us like to have as many points as we could have gotten by the time we're done with a run, so this makes us obsessive about making sure we do a quest before it's 6 levels below.

Pretty much I'm looking for a mod that amends this issue for me somehow. Perhaps by extending the range for the quests to count as grey to 10 levels below instead of 5.

Not being a modder, I don't know what's possible or reasonable, but pretty much that's my issue. Hopefully a mod exists/will exist to help me with it!

 

[RAMPAGE572]

At the moment overlevelling is managed by CDPR via making you gain no experience if you're too high a level for a quest your doing. But a lot of us like to have as many points as we could have gotten by the time we're done with a run, so this makes us obsessive about making sure we do a quest before it's 6 levels below.

Pretty much I'm looking for a mod that amends this issue for me somehow. Perhaps by extending the range for the quests to count as grey to 10 levels below instead of 5.

Not being a modder, I don't know what's possible or reasonable, but pretty much that's my issue. Hopefully a mod exists/will exist to help me with it!

Or earn next to nothing for completing side quests..

 

[AmonTheGod]

There is a mod that makes all quest level 68 http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/119/?
After completing everything you'll be 36-37 (no mods or exploits) and the leveling will become hard ( 20exp for monster nest destroyed, 2-3 exp for each monster killed, 25 exp for gwent win).

 

[warbaby2]

There is a mod that makes all quest level 68 http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/119/?
After completing everything you'll be 36-37 (no mods or exploits) and the leveling will become hard ( 20exp for monster nest destroyed, 2-3 exp for each monster killed, 25 exp for gwent win).

Agreed... that's why I think a) monster XP should be raised and b) their should be re-spwaning, randomized monster contracts scattered through the settlements of the world. Giving people more XP for playing qwent would also help. Let's face, if you do side quests, you will already be over leveled when t comes to the main quests, so why not go beyond that can give people more options to gain levels? Would especially help post game...

 

[jj284b]

There is a mod that makes all quest level 68 http://www.nexusmods.com/witcher3/mods/119/?
After completing everything you'll be 36-37 (no mods or exploits) and the leveling will become hard ( 20exp for monster nest destroyed, 2-3 exp for each monster killed, 25 exp for gwent win).

there is one small problem with this mod - you have no chance to tell which quest has low level requirements and which requires high level character... all is shown as L68... maybe author could adjust that and make all quests for L1-9 to be level 20, all quests for L10-19 to be level 30 and all quests L20 and higher to be L40 or something.. this way you would be still warned to not pick up late quest with low level character (like the missing brother quest which asks for L33, but you can accidentally take it immediately when arriving to Velen)

 

[BWB]

Get rid of experience points, levels and ability points altogether. Build up Geralt through better equipment and the crafting and consuming of mutagens.

 

[Rocquito]

I think it's one of those few things that were not broken in other RPGs and unfortunately CDPR have fixed it... the wrong way.

I mean, in every other RPG, low level quests/enemies/etc give little XP, while high levels give a lot. At the same time, raising your character from level 9 to 10 costs, for example, many more points than from level 1 to 2. That way easy quests will always give little XP reward, but that little XP is a gift at basic levels and nothing at higher ones.

Honestly, I don't know what improvement CDPR wanted to create with this system of '1000 XP for every level', but I know one hurting collateral damage: you feel urged to do all quests at your level or below as soon as possible so at least you take something from them. However... maybe that's actually what they intended to do? Is that a good thing in their opinion, for some reason?

 

[warbaby2]

It's pretty clear CDPR geared the level progression curve so that only doing the main quest would get you almost to lvl 30, which would have been totally fine in a liner game without many sidequests. With an open world, however, where almost all content is accassible to the player from the get go, it poses a problem. The only way to mitigate that, is either make the gaps between levels bigger, so that doing sidequests is neceserry to keep up with the demands of the main story (which most other RPGs do) AND distribute all side content evenly over the course of the game, OR make sidequest so unimpactful progression wise, that you could do 100 of them without gaining a level later down the game (which CDPR did).

Both approaches have their merits and their drawbacks...

What I don't get, though, is that stuff like gear i still level gated in places, quests however, are not... there are just so many inconsistancies in this game's systems.

 

[DreamyMeadow]

I finished the game merely 20 minutes ago and here are my biggest worries with XP/Leveling progress:

1) Through first fifth of the game - White Orchard and early Velen, I was XP starved, barely reaching recommended levels for anything, even main quests. But it felt good, I was riding around the world looking for appropriate witcher contracts, random monsters, secondary quests. Around the time when I was about to reach conclusion to Baron's/Velen's story I started to overlevel main quest a lot and with it around 60% of the quests I've picked up but I didn't have any grey ones yet.

2) After reaching Novigrad and focusing on its story and doing contracts, secondary quests around the city the gap became a void and I was around 8+ levels above main quests and again, more than half of my contracts/secondary quests were far below my level and most of them became grey. What worried me, too, was that a good chunk of quests that weren't 8 levels bellow me, were 8 levels above me! I was basically forced to do a few of the remaining (level appropriate) quests and then to travel around the whole world again just to look for more level appropriate quests.

3) When I arrived to 3/5 of the game, Skellige, I was already more than 10 levels above the main quests and Skellige just felt underwhelming to me due to this. Everything was "too easy" due to level advantage and many of Skellige's quests were too low right away as I picked them, again running into problem of being extremely above or under optimal level for given quests.

4) In the last two parts of the game, the game suddenly caught up to me. It is strangely very rich on XP.

Spoiler

Basically because it forced me to do only main quests and as it has been said, it awards far too much XP compared to secondary quests/witcher contracts/treasure hunts. And I indeed, understand that there is a whole open world awaiting me after the story's conclusion, but it feels weird to gain around 8 levels just like that, at the end of the game!

5) As for the system itself, indeed it feels a bit strange. You need 1k XP from level 1 to level 2 and 1k XP from level 9 to level 10. From my experience this system was more or less great in the "middle part" of the game. The first moments feel a bit weird (and weak) and from what I've gathered around the web, it is even harder to level after the game - I cannot say anything about this part, since as I mentioned, I just finished the game. Also, it is a bit foggy part of the game, who knows what level requirement will 2 big DLCs have and all. But through the main game itself, the system is a bit unbalanced.

6) All in all, I reached level 33 and found around, not exactly sure now, 15 places of power so I had approximately 45 skill points to spend and basically, for me, it meant focusing on a sole skill tree - I played as heavy armor warrior. Having only 45 points and dividing them between 3 full trees and one supportive, it felt really underwhelming and weak.

The game was my second most thrilling and hearty experience ever (to my heart and mind, only Final Fantasy IX was dearer). And even with few leveling progress difficulties, I enjoyed The Wild Hunt A LOT!

 

[tinchotin]

I hate when I do a quest overleveled, because it's very easy and unnecesary to do because of the low reward.

One solution is to increase the level requirements of the main quest (also maybe add money and equipments requirements, example: to advance you have to pay 3000 crowns, you need to have this or that sword or armor), so that you NEED to do secondary quests and contracts.

And make secondary quests and low level enemies catch up to your current level, or at least a couple of levels lower but not that easy so that we kill them with just one hit.

Also some rewards could be valuable and important items instead of XP. I would like a weapon and armor system like in the Soul games, with differents swords and armor scattered around the world and rewarded in some quests, but at base level, or autoleveled at your current level. Every weapon and armor with different properties, advantages and dissadvantages with every enemy. Then you can level up your swords and armor with special upgrading items. Maybe add enemies vulnerable only to special swords or oils, that you have to find before fighting them or it would be almost impossible.

For Example, at any point in the game you do a quest to get the Bear Silver Sword lv1 wich has a buff to Aard, and you can use this weapon the entrire game by leveling up the sword with special runes. THAT would be a F*CKING GOOD REWARD FOR COMPLETING A QUEST, not some random sword that you will end selling 5 minutes later.

 

[PrincessMassacre]

move to a new post: http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/49093-ZeroSkillz-2EZ?p=1781500#post1781500

 

[gen_Italia]

Get rid of experience points, levels and ability points altogether. Build up Geralt through better equipment and the crafting and consuming of mutagens.

This. Current leveling system simply sucks and game would be better without it.

 

[Wasteland_Ghost]

And make secondary quests and low level enemies catch up to your current level, or at least a couple of levels lower but not that easy so that we kill them with just one hit.

+1

I can understand how full auto-leveling can be frustrating to people (although, personally I'm OK with it) and I can also understand the need of high-level quests and monsters. But why not adjust low-level quest monsters? I have missed one or two contracts during my first playthrough (ones on the south-east) and when I finally got there late game I found those contracts are around level 10 when Geralt was about level 30. The story behind those contract was interesting and it was a shame they didn't provide any challenge at all.

 

[GW3NTLORD]

Nope there is no need to change level of quests as this xp distribution is totally wrong & there is no need of giving 5 or less xp where we are over leveled.

As they are not giving more xp if we complete a high level mission then why low xp for low level mission ??

Witcher 3 is a open world game so i want to enjoy it as a open world rather then playing it in tension that may be while roaming i am going to complete high level missions first & due to my high level going to miss the xp / rewards of early level quests.

If witcher is not scaling his level as per enemy level then why you want enemies to scale as par wither level ?? I mean how come 500xp ghoul going to become a 2000xp ghoul just because witcher level is high ?? & if you want tough enemies then play on hardest difficulty. It makes no sense scaling enemies on particular game difficulty.

So please I don't want to play game in fear that may be I am going to complete wrong missions while roaming as I don't want to check my quest list every time as I hate robotic game play where we have to play game as par developers want & specially it makes no sense in open world game like Wither 3

CDPR should fix this & set fix xp for all quests.

 

[MacCrusher]

*** As a serial bloviator, I might as well quote my own bloviations, regarding Levels (XP is a relative mechanic, not really zero-order structure):

quote thus... the inherent flaw in Level Based Game design. (nothing personal CDPR, just not the best choice for 'durable' gameplay)

There should be one level of difficulty higher than Death March -- Skill Based -- Example: If you're asked to fetch some poison/acid from an Arch Griffin, this should not be a fetch quest, to kill that griffin should take a lot of time and preparation, but most importantly -- lots of tactical and strategic skill -- Skill Based. (this assumes that AI uses skill as well -- good AI -- and mob are not just Hit-Point-Pinatas) How long does it take you to kill that Arch Griffin...? Five minutes, three minutes? Took me one minute on DM, on first play-thru because I had already leveled way passed said content simply by doing the primary Story and only the Story. (no mods installed). What should have been a challenge, had expired; would have been a challenge if my pc and mob were -- equally matched, stat-wise

Skill-Based Gameplay requires one very important foundational, structural mechanic -- Level Scaling (or no traditional levels at all -- just talent points per level). Level Scaling simply means: you will never level past a difficult encounter, or a difficulty setting (or that there is no 'vertical' progression, only horizontal). Guild Wars Original did this well (hard mode), Star Citizen will do this eventually (dynamic difficulty scaling), plenty of other examples -- the founder of RPG pen/paper has stated, to paraphrase: were he given another chance he would have never used numbers (stat growth) as the functional foundation for RPG -- it was a mistake. Heroics by Number was the wrong path.

You see, much of the RPG industry is tragically stuck in a cycle of collective stupidity. Following the flawed path of predecessors who got a few things right -- the journey, the quest, the adventure. But seeded a need for pathing as control of content access called -- progress. Progress is simply the stupidest word ever conceived by sentient beings. Progress in Sandbox, in the traditional sense, is impossible. (in other words, progress in real life is an absurd concept) It is why so many games begin to malfunction, mid to late game, and why the WoW swarm consumes, but is never satisfied. (societies and civilizations do the same thing -- thinking progress is something you can control, nope).

So, if you're not willing to gimp yourself, and just stay in starter gear -- or spend no talent points -- or under play the many encounters -- in other words, not play the game the way it was designed. Then yes, eventually you'll run out of stuff to do.

edit, I've about 160 hours into W3 (2nd play-thru), but I play only on DM, and have turned all the hud-crutches completely off, using only witcher senses. I'm gimping myself in a more --immersive-- way. Just landed on Skellige, still tones of content, because I'm playing for fun, not for progress, not for 'completion'.

 

[Wasteland_Ghost]

Well, I couldn't care less about XP and rewards. The story and the beauty of the world of the Witcher are things that made this game the best for me. But I'd also like a smoother difficulty curve. Those gray quests are still good storywise, but when you can kill a horrible monster that terrorizes the whole village with just one swing of the sword, it's definitely not good for immersion.

Auto-leveling can be bad for games with lots of social skills to develop, but in TW3 there are none. With each level Geralt just becomes stronger as a warrior. Thus, no reasons for me to fear auto-leveling. Geralt just gained a new skill and wants to test it on an appropriate opponent, but when the fight starts opponent immediately dies. This doesn't look better than auto-leveling to me.

 

[tinchotin]

I would like a mod that takes away all XP points and autolevel everything to the same level. Difficulty based only on monster type an quantity, not level based. All weapons and armor same level improve them with runes. And the progression of Geralt would be in the abilities points gained per level. Maybe add more abilities unlocked per level.

 

[warbaby2]

I would like a mod that takes away all XP points and autolevel everything to the same level. Difficulty based only on monster type an quantity, not level based. All weapons and armor same level improve them with runes. And the progression of Geralt would be in the abilities points gained per level. Maybe add more abilities unlocked per level.

I agree partially... gear should not be level restricted, and skill points should be awarded by certain quests (main story/side quests and Witcher contracts). Monsters should not have levels, but should have different difficulty ratings, based on their type. That way, Geralt would become stronger much more naturally, by finding new gear and defeating stronger opponents.

 

[Wasteland_Ghost]

Since the game already has different types of damage and resistance, making all the enemies differ not by level but by skill/type looks doable. Can't wait for modding tools to be released.