Didn’t mean to reply, then couldn’t delete the reply – ah wells…
I saw
this thread and realised someone else started a much more epic conversation on the stat issue.
The biggest problem imo? It’s the HP bars. If you think about it, whether it’s 10000 or 100, it doesn’t make any difference – because at the end of the day, it’s just a bar that gets depleted by X% when it’s hit.
The problem is that the game’s entertainment value hinges around how long it takes for that X% to become 0%. And it’s much easier to balance smaller numbers than colossal 10000+ numbers.
The designers are only making it harder on themselves by inflating stats to ridiculous levels.
The problems with shopping etc could all easily be fixed if they just followed the Assassin’s Creed Origins formula, and only increment stats by a fraction each time. I understand they’re trying to make people feel more godlike, but there are more creatively impressive ways of achieving that goal.
Personally, I think enemies of all levels should be able to put up a fight, but your higher level should just give you access to cooler abilities that make you more of a tactical powerhouse, rather just a bullet sponge tank.
Either way, it seems the modding community simply has much better ideas than Larian's in-house design team. I don't mean to sound 'scaldy' about the topic, but when hobbyists are doing a better job than your paid design team, there's some serious issues right there.
I hope Larian can put ego aside and will take note of the often brilliant improvements modders are making to the game. There's no shame in that. The game is a flawed masterpiece. It needs only a slight nudge towards a <cough> enhanced edition expansion pack </cough> to take the throne as the best entertainment a group of humans has ever honestly achieved.
