Is Zan supposed to start with less XP than Jen?

[Cedarcomb]

Just wondering if I did something wrong in the early missions. The first time upgrades became available I could only upgrade Jen where Zan had 100/110 XP, and I thought you could upgrade them both at that point in the demo, and the second time I could upgrade he had 90XP to her 96.

[Hand Of Vecna]

I don't think you did. You don't pick him up until the second room, I'm betting that's the difference.

[DJ Catmom]

Same deal in release version. After police station mission, Jen has a skill point and Zan is 10 exp short. The hint said "spend points on each of your characters", so I'd assume he is supposed to get a point too, and I'm actually pretty sure I had 1 point for each in the demo.

[SIUnit]

Weird, because it seemed like the data from the demo shouldn't have carried over to the main game. I started the main game with all of act 1 finished, same as with the demo, and both Zan/Jen had the perks I picked in the demo.

[StuAlmighty]

I had the same. Definitely had both level up at the same moment in the demo. got to pick one perk per character at the same point. I restarted my game because i thought I'd somehow overused Jen and so Zan did less

[Forblaze]

Is XP actually even real? Every character for me levelled up to "max rank" at exactly the same time. If you replay an old level, the game will also tell you exactly how many perks each character should have unlocked. It doesn't seem like the challenge dreams give XP either, and skipping the anxiety dreams gives you the XP you would've gained.

[10ebbor10]

It's not.

XP are fake numbers that are fixed by level, always following the same path, and calibrated so that you reach certain targets at certain points.

[Summersong]

That's normal. Jen tends to be very slightly ahead of Zan, skill points wise, but he'll be very well levelled by the end of the game.

[tostito675]

Yeah there's no real XP in this game. It's all scripted progression. Basically certain characters get a perk point after certain missions, the XP is meaningless since the amount can't be changed or increased. Would've been cool if the dream training let you max out all perks.

[Heegu]

Originally posted by tostito675:

Yeah there's no real XP in this game. It's all scripted progression. Basically certain characters get a perk point after certain missions, the XP is meaningless since the amount can't be changed or increased. Would've been cool if the dream training let you max out all perks.

Yep this is one thing I feel the game shouldn't hide. Almost everything during each mission is predetermined in one way or another. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to just state that you'll unlock another perk after completing story mission X.

[Summersong]

Originally posted by Heegu:

Originally posted by tostito675:

Yeah there's no real XP in this game. It's all scripted progression. Basically certain characters get a perk point after certain missions, the XP is meaningless since the amount can't be changed or increased. Would've been cool if the dream training let you max out all perks.

Yep this is one thing I feel the game shouldn't hide. Almost everything during each mission is predetermined in one way or another. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to just state that you'll unlock another perk after completing story mission X.

Yeah, but it's fun watching the XP bar increment.

[Emdashes]

Originally posted by Summersong:

Originally posted by Heegu:

Yeah, but it's fun watching the XP bar increment.

It's way less fun if it's all just bs.

[Truth]

I kinda clocked that when everyone just-so-happened to hit final level before the final set of missions, no sooner and despite them all being at different XP values while having the same rough mission-time.

It's whatever. There wouldn't really be a way to implement XP as a proper mechanic in the game as it is now, unless you wanna count Dream missions as providing some but taht might futz with the balance.

[Summersong]

Originally posted by Emdashes:

Originally posted by Summersong:

It's way less fun if it's all just bs.

You want to have a pacing system in the game, so incrementing levels is fine. Games don't have to have the same progression system, after all. And as the game is a variable level of XP would be way more bother than it's worth giving that the game is wholy lineal.