Watchtower level progression seems to be nonexistent.

[Sabredog]

I understand that an enemies armor and equipment will be tied to the planet level you encounter them on. I have found that the Watchtower forces never change from a level one planet to a level 50 planet.
I know there is a problem because spacers on a level 50 planet will have weapons doing 1000+ damage whereas Watchtower troops have really low level weapons doing 100 damage at the most. I have set up situations where a spacer base is within 1000m of a watchtower base and the difference is huge.

 

[Geldric]

Hmmm, interesting. That has not been my experience; I play on extreme settings (+75%*) and have found that Watchtower forces are always stronger than other enemies on the planet. Is it possible you have a mod loaded that affects enemy levels?

BACKGROUND:
I'm on my 4th play thru starting with a new save each time. On one of the saves I have completed the Watchtowers' story line. Once you do, those enemies are infinitely stronger than anything you've previously encountered.

On my current save, I'm level 40 and spent nearly all day yesterday finding and clearing all the low level "linked" systems. These systems ranged from level 1 thru level 20 (I believe) with many at level 5 or 10. I was trying to clear them in order from the lowest level systems. I watched as the enemies gained levels overall and seemed quite normal to me(1) and once I got to the final "Major" array, it had a couple of level 38 Watchtower enemies. Again, seemed normal to me.

(1) Even the regular game POI's have a range of NPC enemies where there will be 1 or 2 at a lower level (say 8 for example) and 1 or 2 at a higher level (say 28 for example) and the bulk in the middle around level 18. <- those are completely made up numbers just to show a range of enemies.

*Okay, it's actually +71% because I've turned off environmental damage since it was just annoying to have to recharge my suit protection (there's a mod for that) while fighting Watchtower forces.

 

[Sabredog]

If that was the case then why is it that normal enemies on the same planet spacers, fleet etc. gain levels and difficulties and watchtower troops do not. If I had a mod that affected difficulty then surely it would affect everyone equally would it not?

 

[Geldric]

Indeed that makes sense

 

[twolargepepperoni]

If that was the case then why is it that normal enemies on the same planet spacers, fleet etc. gain levels and difficulties and watchtower troops do not. If I had a mod that affected difficulty then surely it would affect everyone equally would it not?

No, not necessarily - I was about to ask if you are using mods that alter things like levelled lists and weapon scaling. These will not necessarily affect Watchtower, depending on what it is they do and how they work under the hood.

 

[Sabredog]

Ascension and Darkstar total gameplay overhaul.

 

[Geldric]

Ascension and Darkstar total gameplay overhaul.

From the Creation page for Darkstar:
New Features Added With DarkStar

• Advanced Enemy Scaling

From the Ascension Creation page:
--- Leveling ---

In Ascension, the player character no longer becomes stronger with each level, but instead becomes more skilled. Health now increases slower when you level up, and the experience points required to level up are now more consistent.

The exponential leveling curve has been replaced with a linear one. Initially, you will need 500 EXP to level up, and this requirement will increase by 10 for each subsequent level.

I realize that's "player" leveling but Darkstar sure seems like it might have it's hand in enemy scaling

 

[Sabredog]

I understand where you are coming from and I agree that darkstar makes the game way harder but why is it that only watchtower forces are not scaling at all? Every other enemy faction, both surface and ships will level up with the exception of watchtower. Has Kinggath changed the way they level?

 

[Geldric]

I wish I could help more and please make backups of your files/load order.... I've broken Fallout 4 too many times

Have you tried changing the load order? Is Watchtower loading after Darkstar? Have you tried moving it before?

[Please, please correct me if my understanding is wrong]
From my (little) understanding; when you view your load order, it is from top to bottom. So if you want or need to load "x" before "y", you should move "x" above "y" in the list.

Continuing; a major mod like Watchtower or Darkstar for that matter, should be loaded last so that its changes/alterations won't be overwritten.

Oh and did you see there's an optional "patch" to help integrate Darkstar into Watchtower? It's not by the same mod author, which seems odd, but it looked like good stuff: https://creations.bethesda.net/en/s...94a1-1597055040f5/DarkStar___Watchtower_Patch

 

[twolargepepperoni]

Ascension and Darkstar total gameplay overhaul.

I believe someone has made a patch for Darkstar to allow for patching, so likely you'll want to download this.

Edit: Thank you @Geldric for providing a link

 

[Sabredog]

OK just passed through the unity once more and now they are kicking my proverbial butt once more. I think it may be that Watchtower came out mid-game so the game did not integrate them properly.

 

[Geldric]

@Sabredog - thank you for the update and have fun....

DUUUSSSSTEEEEEEEEE

 

[syberghost]

I believe someone has made a patch for Darkstar to allow for patching, so likely you'll want to download this.

Edit: Thank you @Geldric for providing a link

Someone sure has, and i'm glad folks are liking it!