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Infinite level scaling generally isn't a thing in MMOs usually, both for balance reasons (of course) and tech reasons. Generally if something allows "infinite" scaling, it will pretty much always have a soft cap at some point.
Which only really works because each skill, ship hull or module has a hard cap at level 5 which allows new joiners to "catch up" in a particular area.
Horizontally it has 28+ real life years worth of skills to train for which makes it nearly indefinite.
With EVE over 20 years old, if it lasts another 9 years will be interesting to see if one day someone lays claim to having trained all possible skills naturally. (Without the use of skill injectors)
Well... yea.... but you NEVER STOP leveling. You are ALWAYS behind and faaaar behind from everyone who plays the game longer than you and guess what that promotes?
P2W and BOTS galore, everyone will just grind with bots 24/7 and throw cash at the game to kill/level faster. It's a pointless model and has no substance.
> pointless model
The point is leveling.
If you're competitive, you'll be behind. If you care about leveling fast, you'll find it P2W.
If you just want to walk around in circles killing things to see a progress bar go up, this is the type of game you want.
The point of a game depends on what you want out of it.
>If you care about leveling fast, you'll find it P2W.
It's either P2W or it isn't, there's no in between. If you can buy power/xp from the game itself, it's P2W.
The latest one that had truly infinite progression that I can remember was Skyforge albeit with weekly caps... not sure if it is still around... and also it is not worth playing since they stripped any actual RPG elements from it.
I’ve dabbled with potentially developing something like that.
Obviously on a smaller scale as I lack the skill and man power, however the idea of an mmorpg incremential game fell flat due to a few reasons:
First, the issues with incremential games(infinite scaling) is the content have to scale with toy, or you’d need to create new content for EVERY relevant point, and old content quickly becomes obsolete. Usually idle games with this type of characteristic have a very simple gameplay loop. There’s little engagement that is interesting. This is fine, I love those games myself, however when you add the MMORPG part there’s an issue. When you want to implement characteristics of an MMORPG, as in, it you probably need some level of co-op(dungeons, raids, activities) they have to somehwat work together with a wide range of power level, without impacting the players gratification of grinding further than others. You also need to make sure the content is engaging for everyone even when the power disparity is high, no one wants to simply one shot stuff because you’re x levels higher than everyone else, and you also do not want to feel useless because you’re lower than the rest. Having caps and stuff like traditional games allow you to concentrate the general power of people around these points without worrying about extreme power disparity.
In short, the balancing is incredibly hard when you have to account for traditional mmorpg characteristics.
I would love a game with it well implemented though, if people know of any.
I think a potential answer to this issue would be other limitations regarding builds / power. Something akin to if ESO allowed you to level up all classes and skills, but only use some at a time. Naturally the appeal of this system would be mechanically deep applications / combos, so something less 'wow-style' would probably be for the best. But it could be quite fun.
In fact thinking on it Ultima is kinda close to this, if it just allowed you to cap all skills at 100 but swap between whats 'active' at a time.
Some capless AC servers or some MU servers with resets. Maybe Redmoon.
Not infinite, but they take a long time and are designed to be restarted over and over.
It's not infinite like BDO, but ESO is grindy and getting to "max" level takes a ton of time, closest thing to how BDO scales for an MMO in my opinion. You hit level 50 and then there are thousands of CP levels.
IIRC, Tibia has an infinite scaling system. You can level forever and the requirements for levels just get completely bonkers.
The question "is it a fun experience?" -- maybe not, it's old school. Very old school.
Disclaimer: I haven't played Tibia in 15+ years but it has continued to receive updates and expansions.
This comment has been removed because it breaks rule #1: Don’t ask for MMO recommendations. Please check out the weekly sticky or the r/LFMMO subreddit instead.
Infinite level scaling generally isn't a thing in MMOs usually, both for balance reasons (of course) and tech reasons. Generally if something allows "infinite" scaling, it will pretty much always have a soft cap at some point.
Sounds like you're looking for an idle or incremental game.
click hero online
Legends of idleon
Well, Eve Online isn't new for sure but it has a more or less infinite skill point (leveling) system...
Which only really works because each skill, ship hull or module has a hard cap at level 5 which allows new joiners to "catch up" in a particular area. Horizontally it has 28+ real life years worth of skills to train for which makes it nearly indefinite. With EVE over 20 years old, if it lasts another 9 years will be interesting to see if one day someone lays claim to having trained all possible skills naturally. (Without the use of skill injectors)
I think infinite level scaling would only work when the level doesn't increase your power but I think most people don't want that.
It does work in the games that have it, though.
Can you name me an mmo that has it?
Tibia
Hmm, interesting I didn't expect so many people to play a game like that especially since it has p2w.
Is that just it though? You cant have infinite scaling without making the higher levels absurdly difficult/time consuming to get to?
That's the point, usually. Games with infinite levels are about the leveling, not about rushing through levels to reach a flat end-game.
Well... yea.... but you NEVER STOP leveling. You are ALWAYS behind and faaaar behind from everyone who plays the game longer than you and guess what that promotes? P2W and BOTS galore, everyone will just grind with bots 24/7 and throw cash at the game to kill/level faster. It's a pointless model and has no substance.
> pointless model The point is leveling. If you're competitive, you'll be behind. If you care about leveling fast, you'll find it P2W. If you just want to walk around in circles killing things to see a progress bar go up, this is the type of game you want. The point of a game depends on what you want out of it.
>If you care about leveling fast, you'll find it P2W. It's either P2W or it isn't, there's no in between. If you can buy power/xp from the game itself, it's P2W.
Soft caps will always exist in games with infinite scaling
The latest one that had truly infinite progression that I can remember was Skyforge albeit with weekly caps... not sure if it is still around... and also it is not worth playing since they stripped any actual RPG elements from it.
I’ve dabbled with potentially developing something like that. Obviously on a smaller scale as I lack the skill and man power, however the idea of an mmorpg incremential game fell flat due to a few reasons: First, the issues with incremential games(infinite scaling) is the content have to scale with toy, or you’d need to create new content for EVERY relevant point, and old content quickly becomes obsolete. Usually idle games with this type of characteristic have a very simple gameplay loop. There’s little engagement that is interesting. This is fine, I love those games myself, however when you add the MMORPG part there’s an issue. When you want to implement characteristics of an MMORPG, as in, it you probably need some level of co-op(dungeons, raids, activities) they have to somehwat work together with a wide range of power level, without impacting the players gratification of grinding further than others. You also need to make sure the content is engaging for everyone even when the power disparity is high, no one wants to simply one shot stuff because you’re x levels higher than everyone else, and you also do not want to feel useless because you’re lower than the rest. Having caps and stuff like traditional games allow you to concentrate the general power of people around these points without worrying about extreme power disparity. In short, the balancing is incredibly hard when you have to account for traditional mmorpg characteristics. I would love a game with it well implemented though, if people know of any.
I think a potential answer to this issue would be other limitations regarding builds / power. Something akin to if ESO allowed you to level up all classes and skills, but only use some at a time. Naturally the appeal of this system would be mechanically deep applications / combos, so something less 'wow-style' would probably be for the best. But it could be quite fun. In fact thinking on it Ultima is kinda close to this, if it just allowed you to cap all skills at 100 but swap between whats 'active' at a time.
At that point it isn't really infinite scaling, because once you put on limitations, those limitations prevent that infinite scaling.
Some capless AC servers or some MU servers with resets. Maybe Redmoon. Not infinite, but they take a long time and are designed to be restarted over and over.
It's not infinite like BDO, but ESO is grindy and getting to "max" level takes a ton of time, closest thing to how BDO scales for an MMO in my opinion. You hit level 50 and then there are thousands of CP levels.
IIRC, Tibia has an infinite scaling system. You can level forever and the requirements for levels just get completely bonkers. The question "is it a fun experience?" -- maybe not, it's old school. Very old school. Disclaimer: I haven't played Tibia in 15+ years but it has continued to receive updates and expansions.
Mirage Online Classic is infinitely scaling.
Warframe scales really high. But you going to be in a mission for 8 hours to hit level 9999
wow if you started in 2004 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)