I make a mistake of opening a thread without logging in and what do i see... gah.. unfiltered, uncensored misunderstandings of my posts...
A clarification is necessary to debunk those ... accidental, unintentional strawman arguments.
The sentence: "Amount of xp doesnt play that big of a role anyway." - Does not mean xp does not play a role at all or that it is small.
That meaning is quite clear or should be... Especially since it is referring to and answering statements that only xp matters, which are wrong as absolutes they try to be.
Which are a part of a larger false idea or notion that having fixed enemy levels or specific difficulty areas - that are independent from players level - is wrong and that level scaling is somehow right. Which that poster stated and argued for repeatedly.
Which is just... nonsense.
Nor does the fact that you can "outlevel" one single smaller area have anything to do with the starting false assertion that you can "just gather enough xp and so overelevel enemies" as you see fit - in one whole area of the game, thus rendering it "easy".
Thats an example of upside down wrong thinking. In a proper RPG that is called character progression, overcoming the obstacles by strategic thinking and more importantly - improving your characters, making them stronger, faster, smarter, better.
- (the easiness of the Orc encounter actually comes from its setup not from specific xp gains or level of the player. It is easily doable at lvl 3 as is with lvl 5 or 8 - because of all those barrels and pools of water so nicely placed right next to the enemies, not to mention chests of arrows and other things)
Although the devs cannot control how much a player improves his character (i.e. how much xp he collects) and they should not know it or care, at all. They do know the exact amounts of it in some area and therefore can specifically adjust the area for it. Or parameters of each encounter as they see fit.
And you know what? Not every encounter should have the same bloody relevant difficulty specifically adjusted to the f... bloody player levels because ... THATS LEVEL SCALING!
...ahem... cough...
Some specific encounters will be specifically and intentionally left ...open in this sense.
Thats you know - non linearity. providing players with a clear and direct sense of character progression and improvement, etc. All completely missing in mass market devolved hybrid action rpgs.
They do not have any obligation to appease bad, incompetent or lazy players. Thats what easy mode is for. As devs of the old school Larian devs know their obligation is to make a good game first and foremost. And im quite comfortable to simply state that. (a lot of devs will say the same thing but thats just hype and PR bullshit)
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Additionally, as i previously said and now have to repeat again - xp is not all in the game.
Equipment matters, the build and exact stats matter, the spells and skills you choose matter.
As the player skill to tactically apply what he has.
Its another problem that the game seems intent to simply bury any player in tonnes of loot, easy extra scrolls to fill any gaps in magic skills, and conveniently put various exploding barrels right next to the enemies... even after latest adjustment of the loot system - which will be further adjusted.
However, it is a normal mode and those are relatively early areas of the whole game (not so early in this specific area itself), so all that being there doesnt really bother me.
Other areas of beta are tougher, Ai has been regularly improved with ever update, loot system is adjusted and later combat encounters are strengthened all together.
In any case, you cannot just rush into any enemy group without thinking what exactly you are doing and thats fine in my book.