I’m sure the devs will probably get this right with Reborn and the end of Orbus’s current world but I wanted to provide feedback that I think differs from most people’s point of view on this.
I enjoy the current process of leveling, and I like leveled zones. Moreover I think in some aspect getting rid of this entirely could be detrimental to gameplay.
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Accomplishment
Until you reach endgame (currently lvl. 20), there isn’t a whole lot to show for gaining a level and I think there would be even less with level scaling. Right now you gain the ability to go back to a zone and bypass mobs that used to be a nightmare to deal with. You get to look at that kelpie that used to kill you every time you passed the bridge and one-shot (or at least very easily deal with it) instead. Also helping out a new player and then later showing that you can aggro 10 mobs at once and still keep yourself alive can be quite entertaining as well. You also gain the ability to grind dram (covered in section 3).
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Skipping content
I leveled healer as my main. I pretty much skipped the jungle entirely (during the intended lvls) on my first playthrough and chose to level in the desert instead with groups. After leveling archer as well, I think that this is much more efficient leveling path. (Really only the boars are solid for leveling in the Jungle) Currently with tank, I’ve been doing the same, going for the red star cactuar in the desert rather than deal with most jungle mobs. This somewhat factors into quest design as well. If there was a zone or quest that didn’t particularly interest me or make me want to put a group together, I could just power-level in another zone and then blow my way through the annoying area. Scaling the entire world could remove this.
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Grinding Dram
People who are not hardcore participating in the economy get their dram from mass farming low-level mobs either in a dungeon or in parts of the overworld. Then they vendor everything to the smith and maybe try to sell the runemage reagents to a stall owner. Level-scaling would need to take into account that this is main money farming method for anyone who isn’t fishing or grinding an insane amount of mats. Another way for players to grind dram would be needed if this was removed.
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Hidden high level mob packs
Some of my favorite leveling experiences have been getting completely owned by the mobs behind the stairs of bandit camp or the ones under the class statues in the guild city zone. I encountered both of these at the wrong level first and was like “whoa, there’s something cool here, I need to know what it is” It was a big incentive to keep going and grind and I’d come back to them every couple of levels to test if I was “worthy” yet.
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Grinding Spots
This probably sounds silly as well, but discovering which location is the best to grind in and grinding itself is rather social and fun in Orbus. Yes, we joke about killing worms all the time for lvl 19-20 but some of my more lighthearted sessions have involved forming a party with some people and killing those worms for 90 minutes while we chat about life. I’ve also enjoyed scouting out secret locations with other players that turned out to be very efficient for leveling. That was pretty fun too.
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Size of the world
While orbus doesn’t prevent you from walking across the map at low-levels, there’s a good chance that if you’re lvl 4 and wander into a lvl 8 zone, mobs are going to kill you. This added a huge amount of mystery and intrigue to early part of the game. There aren’t any keys or quests keeping you out of a zone, everything is really just kind guard-railed by the fact that higher level mobs will kill you if you go there and don’t know what you’re doing. This was even fun for all the times I’d jump though random portals between lvl 1 and lvl 8 and then being like “Oh no. I’m in the desert now.” killed by mob.
Anyway, just some random thoughts. I know there are a lot of advantages in making it easier for high-level players and low-level players to play the game together. So I wanted to provide some feedback on what I consider enjoyable about the current leveling process.