Do the enemies get tougher in a way that eventually makes leveling weaken you instead of strengthen you?

[dunbaratu]

I hear the game includes a leveling-up of some enemies such that they get tougher when you get higher level. (I find that an annoying game mechanic, by the way. It makes "this is too tough, come back later after I'm higher" into an impossible strategy in some cases.)

I hadn't noticed this before besides several play-throughs, but it would explain a huge problem I'm having. In my current replay I'm in the middle of Old World Blues and I'm quite high level. Several of my skills have been capped at 100 for quite a few levels now, so when I level I don't actually get any better at them. I don't do any more damage per hit than I did before.

But it feels as if the enemy's leveling up doesn't realize this, and is based on the false notion that my combat survivability scales with my level, when it just doesn't once I've hit those skill caps and I have to take my levelling elsewhere in things that don't improve combat survivability at all.

At this point, the roboscorpions are ridiculously impossible to fight, with way too much DR, way too many hit points, and here I am with max 100 guns, max 100 energy weapons, using anti-material rifle with the guns skill, or the LAER with the energy weapons skill, and I still only seem to be able to barely manage one "tick" of their hit point bar per hit, maybe 2 on a critical or a sneak attack.

It feels as if They don't have a cap and get to keep getting tougher as I level, even though *I* do have a cap and don't.

Which puts me in the ridiculous position of wishing I could deny experience points and NOT level, which is annoying, as I like the access to the other stuff levelling gives, like perks and social skills, etc, but if it causes me to be unable to complete content because it makes the enemies tougher without the game allowing me a way to scale up with them, that seems really unfair and ridiculous.

Am I correct that enemies keep getting better when I level even if I'm capped so I can't?

[dunbaratu]

And of course, the cheating spawning thing that Old World Blues does with the roboscorpions utterly destroys my ability to fight at a distance and be the sniper/sneaker that I tried to build. (I keep a careful watch for enemies as I approach an area, and enemies that emphatically do NOT EXIST at a distance and therefore cannot be fought with distance tactics, suddenly start to exist only when I'm among them, because the game waits to spawn them until after I'm inside their spawning area.)

[Finger]

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

And of course, the cheating spawning thing that Old World Blues does with the roboscorpions utterly destroys my ability to fight at a distance and be the sniper/sneaker that I tried to build. (I keep a careful watch for enemies as I approach an area, and enemies that emphatically do NOT EXIST at a distance and therefore cannot be fought with distance tactics, suddenly start to exist only when I'm among them, because the game waits to spawn them until after I'm inside their spawning area.)

Those robo scorpions are the biggest pain in the ass with project navda. I had NCP's in the 10's fighting them in mk 1 armor and med/high teir ♥♥♥♥ getting massacred.

[Vita, Mortis, Careo]

No. Robo-scorpions are simply resistant to most forms of damage.

[Curious Incubus]

Robo-scorpions are equipped with a saturnite chassis, and I believe their blasters are miniature LAERs. Considering Mobius' ramblings about his idea for Robo-scorpions, it kinda makes sense that they'd be some of the toughest enemies in the game.

[dunbaratu]

Originally posted by The Adversary:

Robo-scorpions are equipped with a saturnite chassis, and I believe their blasters are miniature LAERs. Considering Mobius' ramblings about his idea for Robo-scorpions, it kinda makes sense that they'd be some of the toughest enemies in the game.

Completely missing the point of the question.
I know they're hard. The question is whether they are hardER at higher levels than at lower or is their hit points, DR, damage, etc all completely fixed regardless of your level.

In previous run-throughs, I could defeat them at level 20 and I could actually damage them without having to burn through 50 Microfusion cells worth of ammo to take down just one. Now I run through when I'm level 35 and I can't. In both cases my relevant skills were capped at 100.

[Finger]

They do in a way. There names change when they level with you from like blaster mk 1 to blaster mk4

[dunbaratu]

Originally posted by dank meme scrub lord (18 now):

They do in a way. There names change when they level with you from like blaster mk 1 to blaster mk4

I don't think that's the same thing as what I'm talking about. That's just getting harder as you progress the PLOT, not as you progress your LEVEL. What I'm talking about would be where in one play through, a mk3 is harder than the mk3's were in a previous play through because I started OWB at a higher level on the second play through.

[Astral Fates]

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

Originally posted by dank meme scrub lord (18 now):

They do in a way. There names change when they level with you from like blaster mk 1 to blaster mk4

I don't think that's the same thing as what I'm talking about. That's just getting harder as you progress the PLOT, not as you progress your LEVEL. What I'm talking about would be where in one play through, a mk3 is harder than the mk3's were in a previous play through because I started OWB at a higher level on the second play through.

That's how it works though. When enimies "scale" in this game, they upgrade to a new name/type with gear and stats to match. It doesn't adjust the enimies so much on a level by level basis.

[dunbaratu]

Originally posted by Outkin -TPF-:

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

I don't think that's the same thing as what I'm talking about. That's just getting harder as you progress the PLOT, not as you progress your LEVEL. What I'm talking about would be where in one play through, a mk3 is harder than the mk3's were in a previous play through because I started OWB at a higher level on the second play through.

That's how it works though. When enimies "scale" in this game, they upgrade to a new name/type with gear and stats to match. It doesn't adjust the enimies so much on a level by level basis.

That doesn't explain it being harder on the second play through the plot. That would imply it's the same regardless of what level I was when I encountered that part of the plot. It appears that the PLOT advances the Mk number, not my progression, i.e. the first time I encounter them near the signal tower, they are Mk1's. By the end of the DLC when I'm at the "forbidden dome", the ones located there are Mk4's.

When I play the game through a second time, it still starts the DLC with Mk1's, and ends it with Mk4's, but they seem a lot harder than they did the first time, even though I'm supposedly higher level than I was the first time.

[Finger]

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

Originally posted by dank meme scrub lord (18 now):

They do in a way. There names change when they level with you from like blaster mk 1 to blaster mk4

I don't think that's the same thing as what I'm talking about. That's just getting harder as you progress the PLOT, not as you progress your LEVEL. What I'm talking about would be where in one play through, a mk3 is harder than the mk3's were in a previous play through because I started OWB at a higher level on the second play through.

No they don't level off plot

[dunbaratu]

Originally posted by dank meme scrub lord (18 now):

No they don't level off plot

I'm getting contradictory answers from different people here.
Leveling off plot would mean "these are harder than those because they occur later in the storyline", which is what the claim that the Mk number is all that affects stats would imply, since the ones encountered in the early quests are Mk1's no matter how high level you are and the ones encountered in the later quests are always Mk4's no matter how low level you are. The Mk numbers scale with PLOT, not with YOU, as far as I can tell. They don't account for why things are much harder on this later play through the same DLC plot, with the same quests, than they were the first time through this DLC.

[Finger]

Originally posted by dunbaratu:

Originally posted by dank meme scrub lord (18 now):

No they don't level off plot

I'm getting contradictory answers from different people here.
Leveling off plot would mean "these are harder than those because they occur later in the storyline", which is what the claim that the Mk number is all that affects stats would imply, since the ones encountered in the early quests are Mk1's no matter how high level you are and the ones encountered in the later quests are always Mk4's no matter how low level you are. The Mk numbers scale with PLOT, not with YOU, as far as I can tell. They don't account for why things are much harder on this later play through the same DLC plot, with the same quests, than they were the first time through this DLC.

I shoot things most of the time I don't care what.

[Oblivious]

Play with the DUST mod... much much more difficult

[ZliZlac]

I believe robo scorps are a case of both leveling of plot + leveling with PC.
As in later in storyline you encounter stronger robo scorps than the ones in the beggining. The stronger and the weaker both also level along with the player.

And I had something of a issue as well with them being resistant to everything, so I used the X-2 antenna which was pretty effective.

[talgaby]

Enemy leveling is tied to tiers and there are about 5 of them. In most cases this means slightly more HP and way better gear for humans as you progress.
For critters it's generally nothing but HP increase.

The leveling highly favours the player. Both your HP and your combat stats (assuming roughly 25-33% of skill points spent on combat skills) increase in a much higher rate than the enemies. Essentially you are usually an unkillable demigod around level 22 with below average play, but better players can be nearly indestructible by as low as level 12 with vanilla game mechanics. (This is why most game rebalance mods add difficulty… and lots of it, because the game is too damn easy after your first play through.)

The robo-scorpions are tough enemies, but also a form of making you think a little. The final, largest version of them will be straight-up a puzzle.
By plot, they are meant to be really tough enemies, but the game gives you a mean to combat them effectively, and later in an optional quest even hints you the best strategy.
The bulky sonic emitter you got at the start? It has insane damage bonus against robots and by default it can stun them. Later you can find upgrades for it that can further increase your efficiency against the scorpions.
In the stealth suit training your last task is to disable robots. This is a subtle hint on the Robotx expert perk. The scorpions have average perception– although they are scripted to be in alert status at certain points. Still, you can just sneak upon them and disable them.