Level Cap doesn't make sense

[Dan]

Played solo (one attacking team with one aim merc + one support team with 3 mercs that follows him) and enjoyed it a lot until I realized that the level is capped at 10. And I already planned out all the perks for the higher levels... )) So the game became boring and demotivating right away. And frustrating because I can't find a single reason why not let solo players like myself enjoy the OFFLINE game and allow to level up beyond lvl 10. Hope developers see this.

[SirHawk]

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

Originally posted by SirHawk:

When soloing you simply go for melee build and you wreck every possible sector without any issue or thought.

There is a new guide about solo Ivan with shotgun.

Ivan and HK21 is probably the other most viable alternative, but his salary is very high and you'll need to rush mines first. At level 7 he already costs 40k per two weeks. I'm not fond of shotguns, since they don't deal that much damage aside from AA12 and you also only get vanguard perk for grit, which means 15 shield per round, instead of even 100 per interrupt with melee gained grit.

So efficiency wise melee IMP is the king of the universe, alternatives are just exploring the game and having fun.

[sandman25dcsss]

Originally posted by SirHawk:

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

There is a new guide about solo Ivan with shotgun.

Ivan and HK21 is probably the other most viable alternative, but his salary is very high and you'll need to rush mines first. At level 7 he already costs 40k per two weeks. I'm not fond of shotguns, since they don't deal that much damage aside from AA12 and you also only get vanguard perk for grit, which means 15 shield per round, instead of even 100 per interrupt with melee gained grit.

So efficiency wise melee IMP is the king of the universe, alternatives are just exploring the game and having fun.

You should really check the guide, Ivan clears most maps in 1 turn. Up to 24 kills. Who needs grit then? ;)

[LuckyDude]

If you play as it’s should be you will barely get level 7 at the end of game. For solo you will level up too quickly that devs missed.
So, it’s was not intended to complete the game in solo, it just possible to complete as solo if you really want to do this

Originally posted by Triplefox:

There's literally an achievement for finishing solo. They have planned for and tested the gameplay as-is, the end.

Any game has silly achievement for completing game in weird way

[engager6]

Originally posted by SirHawk:

Originally posted by sandman25dcsss:

There is a new guide about solo Ivan with shotgun.

Ivan and HK21 is probably the other most viable alternative, but his salary is very high and you'll need to rush mines first.

Who needs Ivan, if you can get heavy weapon perk IMP, with Minimi LMG with short barrel and 10x scope, you will be obliterating everything by running arround and hip firing for 2AP per death, even endgame commandos pop like candy from 2 AP bursts with piercing ammo. So, so called "LMG" nerf, had not affected LMG running and gunning, and it's still as viable as it was before.

Melee IMP works well too. The major upside of IMP vs other mercs is that they do not have salary and you can ignore capturing/defending diamond mines, sparing you a lot of wasted time. And, btw, game is actually quite well ballanced for playing solo, it's just level cap that does not fit overall experience in solo play.

[Yuri Kossori]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by SirHawk:

Ivan and HK21 is probably the other most viable alternative, but his salary is very high and you'll need to rush mines first.

Who needs Ivan, if you can get heavy weapon perk IMP, with Minimi LMG with short barrel and 10x scope, you will be obliterating everything by running arround and hip firing for 2AP per death, even endgame commandos pop like candy from 2 AP bursts with piercing ammo. So, so called "LMG" nerf, had not affected LMG running and gunning, and it's still as viable as it was before.

Melee IMP works well too. The major upside of IMP vs other mercs is that they do not have salary and you can ignore capturing/defending diamond mines, sparing you a lot of wasted time. And, btw, game is actually quite well ballanced for playing solo, it's just level cap that does not fit overall experience in solo play.

Ivan's blue perk recovers 3AP per kill. i believe this is passive. my assumption is if you kill multiple enemies in a single action then each kill grants 3AP
like 3AP on LMG shooting through 2 or more enemies or grenading a group

[engager6]

Originally posted by Yuri Kossori:

Ivan's blue perk recovers 3AP per kill. i believe this is passive. my assumption is if you kill multiple enemies in a single action then each kill grants 3AP like 3AP on LMG shooting through 2 or more enemies or grenading a group

This is not really required, with max agility and proper level you will have 16 AP it's 8 bursts from Minimi, and where will be almost no situations in the game where you will need to attack so many targets at once (at least if you won't go into insane berserk mode rushing into the middle of huge crowd). If you are outnumbered, take cover, pop up when enemies come into proper range, shoot like 5-6 of them who are closest, take cover again, end turn, repeat.

Recoving 3AP for kill is nice, but it's not essential you see. Also you can get agility perk that gives you inspiration for 2 critical hits, so, counting how many bursts you do it fires almost garanteed, so you have not 16 AP budget but 20 instead...

[Yuri Kossori]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by Yuri Kossori:

Ivan's blue perk recovers 3AP per kill. i believe this is passive. my assumption is if you kill multiple enemies in a single action then each kill grants 3AP like 3AP on LMG shooting through 2 or more enemies or grenading a group

This is not really required, with max agility and proper level you will have 16 AP it's 8 bursts from Minimi, and where will be almost no situations in the game where you will need to attack so many targets at once. If you are outnumbered, take cover, pop up when enemies come into proper range, shoot like 5-6 of them who are closest, take cover again, end turn, repeat. Recoving 3AP for kill is nice, but it's not essential you see. Also you can get agility perk that gives you inspiration for 2 critical hits, so, counting how many bursts you do it fires almost garanteed, so you have not 16 AP budget but 20 instead...

it is not required. but some crazy people wants to finish an entire sector with the least amount of turns as possible and probably solo.

and no im not one of them.

[Bozzemoggel]

level cap is fine, there is no need in collecting perk after perk, just to feel even more op...
instead, some builds need to be looked at... No merc should rush through a battle, like Neo in the Matrix ^^

Of course, you can use that kind of magic,... i just don´t think it is any fun to be even more op than you are anyway

[engager6]

Originally posted by Bozzemoggel:

Of course, you can use that kind of magic,... i just don´t think it is any fun to be even more op than you are anyway

I think you actually do not get it. The reason to have cap above 10 is to allow solo/duo players level further, this is required part to keep the sense of progression and, also, allows you to change your gameplay using new perks, because otherwise game comes extremely repetetive and boring. For example you may start leveling a character as a sniper, get bored with that and switch to melee for example. The more diversity in the gameplay is the central element in keeping you interested when playing solo/duo. So, higher cap is not about becomming more OP, but about changing things and keeping play fresh.

[Bozzemoggel]

Originally posted by engager6:

Originally posted by Bozzemoggel:

Of course, you can use that kind of magic,... i just don´t think it is any fun to be even more op than you are anyway

I think you actually do not get it. The reason to have cap above 10 is to allow solo/duo players level further, this is required part to keep the sense of progression and, also, allows you to change your gameplay using new perks, because otherwise game comes extremely repetetive and boring. For example you may start leveling a character as a sniper, get bored with that and switch to melee for example. The more diversity in the gameplay is the central element in keeping you interested when playing solo/duo. So, higher cap is not about becomming more OP, but about changing things and keeping play fresh.

well,... okay then there is a simple fix to that for the devs.
Just make it that players can select "Solo/Duo" before game start and then are not allowed to hire more mercs, therefore they are allowed to level up higher than usual (20 maybe?)

If you don´t select "Solo/Duo" you are in the normal settings with lvl cap at 10 and everything should be fine for everyone

[sono]

Just because there's only 1 guy on the team, doesn't mean he suddenly becomes death, destroyer of worlds. He's still just a merc, with the same limitations.

I get that the lack of progressions sucks, but you're playing a niche challenge that isn't intended to be fair, balanced or even particularly fun for anyone except dedicated weirdos. And that's ok. Plenty of games have stuff like that for people who want a specific challenge. Besides the issues that would pop up if you removed the level cap for solo mercs (can you level a full team, then send them out alone to break the intended level cap, then group them back up for challenges?) affecting regular play, it would break the spirit of the challenge.

The point is that you're doing something difficult and meaningless because you enjoy it. Removing said difficulty would ruin the point. It'd be like playing a pokemon nuzlocke, then grinding every pokemon to max level to remove the challenge.

[engager6]

Originally posted by sono:

The point is that you're doing something difficult and meaningless because you enjoy it. Removing said difficulty would ruin the point. It'd be like playing a pokemon nuzlocke, then grinding every pokemon to max level to remove the challenge.

Well, that is why i use mod to raise tha cap and do not demand changing the base game. I had already completed solo challenge for achievement twice without any mods, but i still like playing solo/dulo team, so where is no reason for me to keep myself restrained and bored in another playthroughs. For example, now i'm playing duo merc team vs 3x number of enemies. Having the option to raise the level limit if one wants will still be good though, and helpful for some weirdos as you call them.

[Dan]

Using a mod feels unnatural (cheating?) to me personally. Also, not sure about JA3 but they typically disable achievements if you use mods.

The level cap adjustment has zero risks from UX standpoint, easy to implement from the tech perspective, and, even based on the replies to this post, brings significant value to the users. So the time-to-value ratio here is quite high here. I hope they'll consider for one of the updates.

[Yuran]

I'm finished my solo run, with mod for level cap, I putted at 15, but cleared up whole map did al the quests except one there you need at least 3 mercs en got level 14, there is just not enough exp for higher level, got 59k from 150k for level 15

[lx]

Originally posted by Dan:

...The level cap adjustment has zero risks ... consider for one of the updates.

this will further progress this barely-jagged alliance, to not-at-all-jagged alliance