Level scaling

[Ignis Imperia]

Hey, so, going through the first playthrough and I'm noticing something strange, my game seems to level scale the enemies up to my level DESPITE the fact I have the trial "Even Ground" disabled, I never meet any enemy below my level despite revisiting areas I know for a fact had level 8 enemies in them, they are now level 11, any way to fix this?

Kinda kills the sense of progression..

[barzai]

Most of the levels have multiple "tiers" of enemies. To use the simplest example, The Hinterlands has mostly enemies that are (what I call) Tier 1, levels 4-7. But if you go down to the southernmost camp and then on to the Bandit Hideout you will encounter Tier 2 enemies, levels 8-11. The southernmost rift--southeast of the cultist's tower--is also Tier 2.

Finally if you take on the two rifts in Hafter's Woods they are Tier 3, levels 12-15. The rift below the waterfall just east of Redcliffe Farms is also Tier 3: I suspect it's there to give you an easy way to see if you're really ready for Tier 3 enemies! :-)

I should note that the Tiers as I describe them represent hard decks and hard caps, but enemies will always scale to your level within those limits. All that "Even Ground" does is to remove the hard cap, e.g. if you encounter rebel mages or rogue Templars in or near the Crossroads, they will never be less than level 4 and never more than level 7--unless you're using the aforementioned Trial.

So if you're in an area that features Tier 2 enemies, it's quite normal to encounter them at Level 8 and later at Level 11, since those are in fact the lower and upper bounds they can be at.

FWIW I believe enemies spawn at a level that is the average for your party, so if your Inquisitor is level 11 and the other party members are still level 10 you should encounter enemies at level 10, not level 11.

Dunno if this helps but hopefully it should clear things up.

[Ignis Imperia]

Diposting pertama kali oleh barzai:

Most of the levels have multiple "tiers" of enemies. To use the simplest example, The Hinterlands has mostly enemies that are (what I call) Tier 1, levels 4-7. But if you go down to the southernmost camp and then on to the Bandit Hideout you will encounter Tier 2 enemies, levels 8-11. The southernmost rift--southeast of the cultist's tower--is also Tier 2.

Finally if you take on the two rifts in Hafter's Woods they are Tier 3, levels 12-15. The rift below the waterfall just east of Redcliffe Farms is also Tier 3: I suspect it's there to give you an easy way to see if you're really ready for Tier 3 enemies! :-)

I should note that the Tiers as I describe them represent hard decks and hard caps, but enemies will always scale to your level within those limits. All that "Even Ground" does is to remove the hard cap, e.g. if you encounter rebel mages or rogue Templars in or near the Crossroads, they will never be less than level 4 and never more than level 7--unless you're using the aforementioned Trial.

So if you're in an area that features Tier 2 enemies, it's quite normal to encounter them at Level 8 and later at Level 11, since those are in fact the lower and upper bounds they can be at.

FWIW I believe enemies spawn at a level that is the average for your party, so if your Inquisitor is level 11 and the other party members are still level 10 you should encounter enemies at level 10, not level 11.

Dunno if this helps but hopefully it should clear things up.

Oh I see, alright that makes sense I suppose. It was just confusing because I never seen anyone below my level except critters, so I thought it was broken. It is true I am trying to do areas in order on my first playthrough so currently I have 100% completion of Hinterlands and 100% completion of Storm Coast (at least outside the area closed off with door I can't interact with currently where I suspect a storm dragon I saw earlier is), which led me to always fight either above my level or at same then according to that formula, I suppose many people like to skip most of Hinterlands to focus on other areas as I heard most don't like it (I don't blame them), so in such scenario it is probably easier to see.

Anyway, thank you for clearing that up. One more question, if I kill an enemy without even grounds toggled on and they are below my level, do I still get full amount of experience they are worth, or do they have to be my level for that to happen?

[barzai]

Glad to have helped. The only time I've seen "real" enemies below my level was in a small side quest that you get from an elven widow. If you've done the whole place you know which one I mean. I encountered them when I was Level 4 and to my surprise they were only level 3!

Conversely I'm fairly sure all the brown bears are at least level 8 regardless of where encountered.

In answer to your XP question, I don't really know, as I don't spend much time micromanaging my XP. However if an enemy is three or more levels below you, you get zero XP for them.

The area behind the sealed door will become available to you to explore later in the game, after you reach level 16 (!). There will be a War Table op called IIRC "Red Water" that will unseal it.

[Ignis Imperia]

Diposting pertama kali oleh barzai:

Glad to have helped. The only time I've seen "real" enemies below my level was in a small side quest that you get from an elven widow. If you've done the whole place you know which one I mean. I encountered them when I was Level 4 and to my surprise they were only level 3!

Conversely I'm fairly sure all the brown bears are at least level 8 regardless of where encountered.

In answer to your XP question, I don't really know, as I don't spend much time micromanaging my XP. However if an enemy is three or more levels below you, you get zero XP for them.

The area behind the sealed door will become available to you to explore later in the game, after you reach level 16 (!). There will be a War Table op called IIRC "Red Water" that will unseal it.

Alrighty, thank you, that cleared up a lot. I also FINALLY seen someone below my level yesterday doing a quest In Hushed Whispers where immediately after intro I got attacked by level 7 enemies so, glad to have witnessed the occurrence at last too. :D

I know which quest you mean, ironically I done it at level 6 I believe and it had level 8 patrols in the area, but the quest enemies might have been low level, issue was I didn't actually kill them because before I could reach them they got mauled to death by first level 8 bear I ever encountered. :D

As for the exploration of Storm Coast, I guessed it would be unlocked by progression, I'm not such a completionist that I feel like I need to do every single collectible especially since that's probably the weakest aspect of the game so far, I'm not a fan of it going open world, but thank you for info on that anyway.

I'm mostly following a reddit post that tells me the order of zones I should generally follow because I learnt already in past games that to trust BioWare to be indicative at all when I'm marching to my death in a much higher level quest in a low level zone is just not a good course to follow. (examples: DAO: start of the game - Morrigan suggests going straight to Denerim - terrible idea, Orzammar is listed as an option even early as well - also a terrible idea, DA2: <insert any revenant fight or the Fell Grimoire>, DAI: level 12 rift right next to stables in Hinterlands which is just close enough to trigger demons during the race quest too, Veilguard: Level 25 ogre in a quest you get upon your first visit to Treviso at around level 8)

[barzai]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Ignis Imperia:

Alrighty, thank you, that cleared up a lot. I also FINALLY seen someone below my level yesterday doing a quest In Hushed Whispers where immediately after intro I got attacked by level 7 enemies so, glad to have witnessed the occurrence at last too. :D

In Hushed Whispers is a Tier 1 (levels 4-7) quest: you actually see that made explicit at the War Table ("Recommended for levels 4-7") so I do not find that surprising.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Ignis Imperia:

I'm mostly following a reddit post that tells me the order of zones I should generally follow because I learnt already in past games that to trust BioWare to be indicative at all when I'm marching to my death in a much higher level quest in a low level zone is just not a good course to follow.

There's a chart over at Game-Maps that may be of use:

https://game-maps.com/DAI/Levels.asp

Of course the other maps are useful too but...spoilers! :-)

[Ignis Imperia]

Diposting pertama kali oleh barzai:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Ignis Imperia:

Alrighty, thank you, that cleared up a lot. I also FINALLY seen someone below my level yesterday doing a quest In Hushed Whispers where immediately after intro I got attacked by level 7 enemies so, glad to have witnessed the occurrence at last too. :D

In Hushed Whispers is a Tier 1 (levels 4-7) quest: you actually see that made explicit at the War Table ("Recommended for levels 4-7") so I do not find that surprising.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Ignis Imperia:

I'm mostly following a reddit post that tells me the order of zones I should generally follow because I learnt already in past games that to trust BioWare to be indicative at all when I'm marching to my death in a much higher level quest in a low level zone is just not a good course to follow.

There's a chart over at Game-Maps that may be of use:

https://game-maps.com/DAI/Levels.asp

Of course the other maps are useful too but...spoilers! :-)

Only thing I used maps for so far is collectibles (landmarks, mosaics) because that's just ubisoft tier filler garbage in my book and the rewards are kinda decent when you just do it checklist style when you're done with everything.

But thank you for all the help, Inquisition has so far been the most confusing experience of the Dragon Age games and I kind of expected the open world to be better despite I had my doubts regarding why it's there, but it seems to be getting better now, just a shame it took A LOT of technical tweaking behind the scenes and basically a guide on what order to do stuff in along with 30 hours of not great content, but I have good feelings about the quest I'm on at the moment and the fact atmosphere is starting to build.

So far I enjoyed every DA game (Even Veilguard, though not as an RPG), but Inquisition is so far unfortunately the weakest one in my book. Still enjoy it, but I feel DAO especially and DA2 as well were just better.

Anyway, once again, thank you for all the great advice. :)