Hi Dalghryn,
Rikti scale to become The Lost if brought into an arc under level 30. For your topic then, it's a logical absolute limit.
For other critters, scaling back from 40 to 30, you need to test that thoroughly for playability (and to make sure everything comes out level-reduced). They will have more powers than usual encounters at 30; the players will also have less powers, and lower bonuses, than before. It could become unplayable.
Cheers, airhead
Edit: having played the arc in question, I know that story-wise (coming to the aid of a supergroup initially in a small way during the Rikti War) this could potentially involve slightly lower levels. Probably not level 1. In this case, MA behaviour is the constraint, as The Lost do not make sense as the primary invasion force.
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The level range should be what the story requires. If it doesn't make sense if the player is under or over level X, then X it is.
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I'll second what Venture said, the story should be the determining factor.
Keep in mind too that nothing prevents a level 1 from playing an arc set to minimum level 35, it's just risky for them. I've certainly taken teens level characters into arcs that kick me up to 30 or 40 just because it seemed like an interesting story. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't and I come back when I'm higher level.
Keep your arc set to 30 or 35 because that's the power scale of your mobs and it makes sense. Allowing something to be 1-54 doesn't inherently make it lowbie friendly!
I have a high-level arc as well. While it's not designed to be epic in scope, "The Portal Bandits" is set to be levels 40-54 (originally 35-54) for two major reasons.
1) Story: You're working for Portal Corp, which only happens after level 40 in the regular game and it also sends you to the RWZ in the finale which implies being over 35.
2) Balance: There are a lot of custom critters that you fight (15 in total) who are designed to be challenging and it makes it way easier to balance them if I can focus on a small level range rather than a large one. So I assume that the player is at least level 40, all SO'ed, and has at least all their non-epic powers when they go to play it and labeled the arc to warn the player that it's not a good idea to attempt it before then.
So yeah, a level 1 could start the arc but they'd get their [censored] handed to them seconds into the first battle.
Thank you, everyone, for your replies. I feel better about leaving it the way it is, then... though now I need to make sure to run it through with a level 30 to see how it acts. I guess the test will be when Venture, who was kind enough to comment here, runs it himself, huh?
Thanks again.
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Personally, as a player, I don't like arcs that span the whole 1-54 range. They always show up when you click the "my level" button, even though they are usually too difficult for lower-level characters.
From a purely technical standpoint, it's nearly impossible to balance an arc to be an appropriate challenge for all levels, especially if it contains customs.
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I have a couple missions that have only custom characters, so default to level 1-54. But with I15 features I raised the min level to 25 or 30 for them, partly to match other missions in the same arc, and partly because I didn't want to give players the wrong idea that they would be perfectly okay running through this on a level 5 toon.
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I was hoping for some thoughts, mostly from the story-preferring crowd, about level scalability versus believablility in an arc.
A quick explanation: My arcs are set toward the end of the Rikti War during the heat of battle at the time the hero bases are attacked. A primary premise is the veteran heroes are exhausted and the less experienced heroes are simply not up to the task. You - as a veteran yourself - are stepping in to help support the tiring experienced heroes. One mission addressed that issue very specifically, with younger heroes falling to the might of the far superior Rikti. You'd just have to run the arc to get the exact context, but suffice it to say - you really have to be playing an experienced character.
With that in mind, I've scaled it to run levels 30 - 54. Prior to the addition of the scaling feature, critter levels had it at 35 - 54 with the AV missions running 40 - 54. Now, I understand that I can scale it from 1 - 54 if I wish, and I know there are a lot of people clamoring for more content for lower-level characters. So, my question is twofold.
First, in your opinion (and I am open to every opinion here, folks) - should I leave it as I have it, or scale it down?
Second - I've not scaled critters that are typically reserved for the higher levels down before and have never created MA arcs beyond the two Rikti arcs I've mentioned - would scaling Rikti to level one even work correctly?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I'm always looking for ways to make my stuff better.
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