Scaling

My favorite part of the entire system! No joke. Skirmishes can be scaled to the group size and level of the group playing them, as well as having a difficulty toggle which will increase the rewards from the Skirmish. If this sounds great, it's because it is! However, allow me to fill in some of the details.

First, each scaling axis (level, size, difficulty) is set only when the Skirmish is created. They will not change during playthrough. For groups, the leader of the fellowship will decide what values to select.

Second, in the interests of balance we have only implemented solo, small fellowship, fellowship, and 12 man raid  sizes for Skirmishes. This means when you select size, you can only select 1, 3, 6 or 12. At launch, all skirmishes can be played as 1, 3 and 6 man versions. Roughly half of them can also be run as 12-man raids. We will be unlocking the remaining 12-man versions in the future.

Third, a combination of the two above limitations means that if you set up a small fellowship (3 player) Skirmish and try to invite a 4th member, they will be unable to join. Simply exit the Skirmish, and re-create a fellowship (6 player) Skirmish. Playing with less than the maximum number of players is possible, though a bit more difficult.

So there are some restrictions, but we allow a significant amount of customization to create the kind of experience you want. My favorite part of all this is the difficulty scale. If a particular Skirmish seems too easy, simply step up the difficulty and you will find yourself challenged again, and receive more rewards!

Summary

I think that covers scaling and randomization. It's our hope that we have created story instances with a number of randomized factors to keep replays fun and interesting. On top of that, we allow you to play those instances with as many, or as few, other players as you'd like and at whatever level you'd like. To top it off we even let you adjust the difficulty of the instances up if you are in the mood for a challenge.

Next time, we will talk about Soldiers. As a refresher, they are recruits from the free peoples you will be able to personally train and customize to assist you in Skirmishes. See you then!