Some Chris Avellone shenanigans on twatter

[Korin]

When was the last time you played? Because rather recently they added a literal Oblivion scale to the game, meaning all zones now scale with the player's level.

The levels scale but the zones themselves are still different difficulties. So if you're level 1 and wander into an end-game area things will likely be level 50 or so. If you're level 50 and go there they'd be like 80-100 or something. Having played before and after that patch I can say the level scaling actually makes a lot more sense functionally in the game given the size of the map and it being open world. For a long time places like The Forest were pointless to go to if you were high level because everything would be level 5. It also balanced out some of the lower level progression by making sure the zones were the correct relative challenge.

I wouldn't compare the level scaling to Oblivion because as far as I'm aware Oblivion scales pretty much indefinitely while FO76 I think only scales up to 100-120 or so (weapons in game don't go beyond level 50 and neither do perks - there are no additional stats/hp/damage gains after 50). You can still be an invincible killing machine and things won't scale up to a point where all your perk/equipment purchases feel like you're level 5.

 

[Korin]

Earlier this year. I think I stopped around... March? It was right after the camp update when they decided to nuke their forum for fucking discord servers out of all things. Which me and many other suspect is just a way to brush off genuine criticism as if you want to critique the game then it'll just get pushed back by all the other chit chat which is why a fucking chat server is an awful replacement for a forum.

I was skeptical about the Discord server as well but having been a regular there for the past few months I can say I've seen 1000% more engagement from the devs than there ever was in the entire lifespan of the forum and the sub-reddit. Have had a lot of candid conversations about why they have done certain things or an explanation of how something works in the engine/server. Have also seen plenty of genuine criticism in the Discord and it isn't removed or anything. The only downside of course is that chat scrolls and forum threads linger for a while but I didn't find there was really that many people reading or posting on the forum anyway.

 

[Norzan]

One Wasteland adds dynamic level scaling to Fallout 76, so every creature you meet will be an appropriate challenge. This means that high-level players can find a challenge around previously explored parts of the map, and low-level players can explore a little more without being overwhelmed. If multiple players are in the same party, each creature they encounter will scale for each player, so a newbie and a veteran can play together and each face an appropriate difficulty.

That's not what i'm getting from this explanation. It seems literally everywhere everything scales to you, which is trash.

 

[Korin]

That's not what i'm getting from this explanation. It seems literally everywhere everything scales to you, which is trash.

"low-level players can explore a little more without being overwhelmed"

Emphasis on a little. I get that you hate the game and possibly have never/will never play it... but I've been playing it for 3 years with different level characters so I am just telling you how it functionally works.

 

[Lexx]

The levels scale but the zones themselves are still different difficulties. So if you're level 1 and wander into an end-game area things will likely be level 50 or so. If you're level 50 and go there they'd be like 80-100 or something.

Always hated that shit. What's the point of leveling up if the difficulty remains the same?

 

[Korin]

Always hated that shit. What's the point of leveling up if the difficulty remains the same?

The difficulty doesn't remain the same, that's what I'm trying to explain. It only scales somewhat. I'm almost level 400 and the highest enemy I've ever seen is level 120. I steam roll everything because I have some of the best equipment in the game. But it's more satisfying to kill something that's level 120 than to kill something that's level 50. If I went to The Forest (the beginner zone) they'd probably be about level 50-60. If I went to the end-game zone they'd be about 100-110. A place like the The Forest was a huge and unused part of the map if everything remained level 5. Keep in mind that FO76 is not World of Warcraft, everything must happen inside a map that's only a little bigger than Skyrim.

Also to note again, you functionally stop leveling at level 50 and the highest level of any equipment is either 45 or 50. Every level after that adds a perk point so you can buy different perks. By level 300 you can max a legendary perk but they don't add huge bonuses or anything. The scaling cannot be compared to Oblivion because in Oblivion you don't feel powerful and if you chose poorly would continue to feel weaker and weaker until the game was unplayable.

 

[Iprovidelittlepianos]

The level scaling seems to be more similar to Skyrim than it is to Oblivion’s universal level scaling, based off Korin’s description.