Does Monster Difficulty Scale with # of Players?

I've been wondering about how the Path of Exile handles muti-player party difficulty.

In Diablo II, when another player joined the game, monsters would get tougher and the rarity of item drops improved as well.

In fact, there was a console setting so that a solo player could (for example) simulate four players in the game and face the monster strength / item rarity drops that the game deemed appropriate for a party of four players.

In MMORPGs monster toughness tends to be static, with designated areas created for parties to attempt to content designed for them.

I much preferred the toughness scaling to number of players approach - I could solo all the content in the game, and I liked to test myself in solo play against tougher monsters, for (a chance at) greater rewards.

How will this be handled in Path of Exile? Will it be possible, for example, to create a league where monsters are twice as tough, but players receive a static bonus to item rarity?

I was watching Starcraft42's stream last night. And they were talking about a zone being much tougher with 2 people playing. They were also complaining about drops and exp not appearing to scale properly. Making off handed remarks like, I was getting more exp faster doing this alone. Granted this is still closed beta so you cannot expect the game to be like this.

But the one thing you can pull out is that there is a scaling difficulty mechanic. And with the model of the game as it is, I would expect to see a lot that can be done with this.

There is a certain amount of scaling, yes, and a similar style to that of Diablo II's - monster health and drop rate (not quality-per-drop) increases.

Naturally, this being closed beta, the kind(s) and amount of scaling may change based on feedback.

Yeah afaik there is scaling - and good - would be way too easy in party and sometimes too much for a solo challenge. With scaling the game allows everyone to play their own style - either party fun or lone wolf.

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With scaling the game allows everyone to play their own style - either party fun or lone wolf.

I agree, scaling is the best method. I'm strictly a solo player and it bugs me to no end (in other games) that there's content that I can't experience.

So I'm very happy to see scaling in PoE. It's a much fairer system for everyone.

Scaling difficulty is something what i have liked always but i would like to have option, lets say in certain areas you could choose (when entering) to have extra difficulty.

I can see good / bad views on this..

Good:
-You can always go back to fun areas you have been to before, but on the difficulty you are on now.

-Loot will be on your level as well

Bad:
- Some people like to go back to old fun areas with low level mobs for a relax play. (if all mobs are your level you cant)

- Low level loot will be unobtainable if there are no low level mobs.

- Technically I see this as a challenge as all the loot all mobs drop would have to level up as well. Thats a LOT of loot!

- If you like a challenge and go for hard mobs, maybe you want to try solo something really hard, you cant as the mobs level with you.


Edit: feel free to add to this list, this is just what i could think of at the time :P

I don't think they mean the monster levels scale in multiplayer, just the stats of the monsters. Low level enemies would still be there, just tougher and with better drops.

I like how Torchlight 2 scales things: when you're within a certain radius of other players the enemies will be tougher, but if you have to go off on your own they will be the same difficulty as with a single player. This might not work for players looking for a challenge but since the maps are so large it doesn't punish a player for moving away from the party to finish a quest, for example.

Bizzuh is right, I was referring to the monster's getting tougher to match the number of players in an area, not the monsters scaling to match the level of the player.

I too would hate it if the monster's level scaled to match the player's. It would defeat the purpose of leveling and going back to kill monsters that gave you a hard time before :)

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Tiptoe wrote:

Bizzuh is right, I was referring to the monster's getting tougher to match the number of players in an area, not the monsters scaling to match the level of the player.

I too would hate it if the monster's level scaled to match the player's. It would defeat the purpose of leveling and going back to kill monsters that gave you a hard time before :)

I misunderstood you then, but yes, i think scaling of the number of players in a zone would be great. However I think it would be difficult to make it so it would work properly as obviously there will be some classes stronger than other classes. So therefore 5 players of the stronger class will have a much easier time than 5 players of the weaker class.