Is there a way to make low-levels more useful?

[@nt]

Franky once told me that there was this system in Monster Mash where the monsters' level scaled with the players' levels. If you had a lot of low levels, monsters would do less damage and be easier to kill, and if you had a lot of high levels, monsters would be tougher. But when low level players die, the monster levels jump and scale with the higher levels, sometimes to the point where you can't even globe with energy weapons.

I don't know if this system is already in ME, but if it isn't, why not put it in? It would encourage teamwork by making the protection of lower levels a priority, and make players more apt to help low-levels instead of just leaving them in the dust. I'm not asking for a drastic change in the monsters' difficulty when a low level dies, but at least to a noticeable point. Having a a paladin constantly babysitting low level all game probably won't be fun, you could make it so that players get more threat through healing/resupplying a rank 1 then healing/resupplying a rank 4.

This is just my 2 cents on making an already team-oriented game even more teamwork heavy, and making it so that low levels can be more useful.

[DW_WailofSuicide]

I can't speak for Ant but one of the design goals that I wanted out of Monster Evolution was that the difficulty could range from easy to hard, based on the features of the map/scenario like what weapons players have and what monsters they are facing. Monster Mash doesn't have this because the monsters and the difficulty is controlled by the game rules (namely, the Monster Level) rather than by the decisions the mapper has made.

I do agree low level players could be more useful to the team, but honestly I think this is just an overall design mistake in the power differential between high and low level characters -- Way too hard to change that now.

[DW_Ant]

In MM, the monster level is equal to the lowest level player alive. It's not a bad system, but that system wasn't introduced in Monster Evolution for various reasons. One was that it was too easy to simply bring a rank I player and have them hide at the spawn or stay far behind the danger.

Instead the piercing factor was introduced to encourage players to keep their team alive (instead only the lowest player alive). Ultimately, the game difficulty is determined based on the mapper's choice. A bunch of rank I players shouldn't be able to beat a rank III map because the monsters scaled down significantly.

However, it is possible to scale the monsters based on the player level. With the new (upcoming) monster spawner, the mappers will have the choice to have the monsters scale with the player level (lowest, average, or highest player level).

[Thwart]

However, it is possible to scale the monsters based on the player level. With the new (upcoming) monster spawner, the mappers will have the choice to have the monsters scale with the player level (lowest, average, or highest player level).

That would be neat to see implemented if the map is able to detect the average player level and determine the monster scale from there before the matches start? wait.... that doesn't sound right....
Would it then have to be triggered within the map?

[DW_Ant]

That would be neat to see implemented if the map is able to detect the average player level and determine the monster scale from there before the matches start? wait.... that doesn't sound right....
Would it then have to be triggered within the map?

The monsters are scaled when the spawner is triggered for the first time.

[MMA_T1mesh1fter]

Does this system have a max level on the Monster Mash servers?
As a lvl 560+ there are moments where I'm the only one left, and even piercing weapons don't do much anymore. Vampirism turns out to be quite useless when even 1 queen projectile does the full 1k damage:P

[So_GewD]

as a low level myself i think leveling is quite hard not in a way that takes longer to level each level but how big the diference is between the ppl levels, i mean im lvl 50 for example, the rest are lvl 250 and cant really help us leveling up faster, ofc they aren't obligated to help. ofc this is on the monster mash server 2

[VIP3R]

However, it is possible to scale the monsters based on the player level. With the new (upcoming) monster spawner, the mappers will have the choice to have the monsters scale with the player level (lowest, average, or highest player level).

Awesome :D. Think I'm going to use that on my map, cause of the way i have my map built, It's a bit difficult to say which rank this map would be best for. My original thoughts were to make it a rank 1 - 2 map, but I'm more thinking it would be better to have it rank 2 - 3. But with the new monster spawner, will be easier to figure out what I'm going to do.

[DW_Wine_Flu]

However, it is possible to scale the monsters based on the player level. With the new (upcoming) monster spawner, the mappers will have the choice to have the monsters scale with the player level (lowest, average, or highest player level).

Awesome :D. Think I'm going to use that on my map, cause of the way i have my map built, It's a bit difficult to say which rank this map would be best for. My original thoughts were to make it a rank 1 - 2 map, but I'm more thinking it would be better to have it rank 2 - 3. But with the new monster spawner, will be easier to figure out what I'm going to do.

I am hoping the idea of a 'map rank' can mostly go out the window with the new spawner. Make an appropriate map and let the monster scaling adjust based upon who's currently playing. My current map is in limbo waiting for these changes.

[@nt]

If there really is no way to make low-levels more useful, then is there a way to implement a damage reduction for low levels on high rank maps, similar to low-level player monster protection?