All those ";)" and overuse of "..." - please stop.
So, OK, when you--at lvl 10, say--go to the hall of heroes and buy a Lvl 1, character...he'll most likely lvl up to lvl 10 before you hit lvl 12 or lvl13, because it takes a lot fewer points to level up from 1 to 2 than from 9 to 10, etc.
But...since you are no longer in the beginning of the game...and, yes, the game doesn't have you repeatedly killing everything you have killed before--over and over again just to mindlessly rack up experience points--you will be fighting very tough foes from whom your characters will receive *many* experience points when they win the battles--and in the process your LvL 1 character will get lvl 10 *much faster* than he would if you did the tedious respawning thing.
First of all - check how much experience points you ACTUALLY need to get from 1 to 10.
All of this while he/she will make rest of possible companions falling back and usuable later, due to missed experience points and while being completely useless for whole time by lacking levels for equipment or skills. Brilliant idea indeed.
BUT...the catch is, of course, you have to keep him *alive* in order to level him up quickly. That is more difficult to do than the respawning thing, by design.
Do you have some kind of fetish for "difficulty", which is just being "bad design" and not actual obstacles?
Mercenaries are meant to be *bought* and brought on board--this is *not* "character creation* as happens only once in the game--when you begin the game! So...buying the mercenaries as they are is done exactly right--the "Character Creation* aspect to that was evidently the bug--which has now been fixed. Buying Mercenaries is not to be confused with character creation...Lol...;) Entirely different thing.
In other words, when there existed possibility to design your own team by yourself - option desired by many players, expressed over various internet boards and in form of mods, like "4 player creation" or "Fourplay" - and devs for some reason disabled it, calling it "bug" for no reason, you eat it up for no reason as well and right away call it good decision? Perfect.
Actually, creation might happen once - but respec is possible, for rather low price, considering usefulness. Yet, it is limited to main characters, who usually dont need respec at all, unless it was your very first play and had no idea that, for example, "My Precious" is worthless talent.
Just because a game has different rules than those you think it *should have* is certainly no reason to call it "broken"...Lol,,,:D Just learn how to play it according to its *rules* and I guarantee you'll get a lot more from it.
In short - "Bend over and stop complaining". Maybe you dont remember or never tried it - but when I started playing, bending rules and using your imagination was pros, not a con.
I understand your frustration--you were exploiting a bug that has now been fixed and you don't like not being able to do that anymore.
"Bug" only because you got told to think about it like that. I call it "good game design" and somehow, devs of various other games with similar setting shared that.
That's entirely understandable. But...I think it is wrong headed. The Hall of Heroes is not meant to help a player correct the wrong character development decisions he's made--it's for buying *pre-configured mercenaries* just as you would buy them in real life. If you want to wholly correct poor character-development decisions in the game--that's what the New Game button is for, imo. Heck, I've already started over three times and I am considering a forth...;)
Sure, playing over again 40+ hours is great solution. Let me correct you - it is not about "fixing" party - it is about "enchanting" it. About making balanced party where members complement each other. A great joy in basically any team-based RPG.
It's part of the fun for me--sorry you can't see it because it isn't nearly as bad as you think--you just have to adjust your thinking a bit, that's all.
I never said that game overall is "bad" - maybe another sign of modern times, where point out something bad in game is equal to bashing it or people think that games should have binary scores - either 0/1 or 1/1 - only that it have certain bad elements. Or rather - had way to deal with them, now removing it.
