You can change the XP reward in the option menu.

To develop the party is part of the RPG element.
I've played normal complete (all gold stars) without grinding, but I didn't even try to beat direct the extrem star on the maps.

If you want a classic TD without RPG, try defense grid.

Yes, I've had it at 300% for a long time. I sometimes contemplate just how miserable the game (or at least NG+) would be at normal exp gain. Also, this is a constructive suggestion; if you want to be condescending about your retort, then don't bother replying.

I didn't see that post as condescending at all.

Well, perhaps "condescending" wasn't the best choice of wording, but "Hur hur, it's an RPG" isn't an excuse to leave a broken mechanic in a game. This isn't an MMO, so needless padding by requiring the player to grind for extremely long periods of time before they can actually attempt anything doesn't benefit them. Meanwhile, making the game less tedious DOES benefit them.

Edit: Actually, condescending does work, as the main thing that came-off as arrogant about his reply was the assumption that I wasn't aware of the game being an RPG, and the dismissive way that he wanted to shoo me away to some other game rather than admit that there might be a fault with this one. Well... maybe condescending does or doesn't work for what I meant, but the bottom line is that we aren't gonna get anywhere by just looking the other way and trying to ignore the problems.

If you are using the +300% XP bonus, you can get through both game modes without much grinding and be close to at least lvl 50 for most of your characters before you decide to do the harder extreme battles.

Originally posted by Shiro:

Well, perhaps "condescending" wasn't the best choice of wording, but "Hur hur, it's an RPG" isn't an excuse to leave a broken mechanic in a game. ...

I think you are yust in a bad mood and searching for an valve, you are excused.

But complaining about leveling chars in a RPG is like complaining about being wet when you go swimming.
Why shoot in a FPS or why steer in a racing simulation?

Allow me to put it this way -

This game is designed and balanced with leveling in mind. It's an RPG/TD hybrid; I get that. The problem arises when it comes to training new recruits later in the game after all (or nearly all) of the experience bonuses from level completions have been awarded, and enemies themselves give relatively minimal experience. This leaves the player in a situation where he is unable to tackle many of the late-game challenges until he has done several hours worth of grinding in order to get the new recruits caught-up.

The only alternative to doing this grind would be to start a whole new game and try to get the recruits at an earlier point in the game so that they can get more of the bonus exp from first-time clears of a level on various difficulties. However, that just puts us back to the same problem: The only solution is to grind. Whether you're grinding on the first save to slowly slog your way to get the units to a higher level or grinding a whole new save file to get caught-up to the first one, the problem remains the same.

The solution, as I propose, is that players should be given a means to earn the levels that the developers assume that the characters are going to have for the content they are attempting.

Originally posted by Marbur:

Originally posted by Shiro:

Well, perhaps "condescending" wasn't the best choice of wording, but "Hur hur, it's an RPG" isn't an excuse to leave a broken mechanic in a game. ...

I think you are yust in a bad mood and searching for an valve, you are excused.

But complaining about leveling chars in a RPG is like complaining about being wet when you go swimming.
Why shoot in a FPS or why steer in a racing simulation?:misterx:

Because the leveling isn't what I'm complaining about.

But leveling is what you are complaining about.

I honestly didn't find training any recruits I could afford late in the game, they level up pretty fast to the higher level characters it felt like.

I assume you choosen a path for maximum achivements, played without recruits for the hero achivements.
Now after you reached the 180 golden stars, you need more recruits for the last extrem stars.

Under this circumstances you are right, you have to grind. But you are wrong with your complains about game balancing.

The hero mode is an idea of the cummunity for people who already earned all golden stars.
The developers only added the achivements for the community, but never balanced the game for it.

Hm... Nope. It actually isn't. Coming to terms with that would be the first step towards offering constructive criticism.

Originally posted by Shiro:

Hm... Nope. It actually isn't. Coming to terms with that would be the first step towards offering constructive criticism.

Learning to not be condescending is a step towards accepting other points of view.

Alright, fine. Here's a protip: I'm not complaining about the fact that I need to level. I'm complaining about the lack of options TO level. Again, this isn't an MMO where the developers need to feel inclined to drag-out my reward as long as possible in order to ensure that I'm still paying that monthly fee. It's in the developer's best interest for this game to be as fun as possible from beginning to end; otherwise players might give it a bad write-up that can cost sales when they tell their friends that the game isn't that great. And ending the game with a bad taste in your mouth because you had to leave things undone because you were obligated into a really long grindfest is just the kind of thing that can cause that.

Originally posted by Marbur:

I assume you choosen a path for maximum achivements, played without recruits for the hero achivements.
Now after you reached the 180 golden stars, you need more recruits for the last extrem stars. :bakal:

Under this circumstances you are right, you have to grind. But you are wrong with your complains about game balancing.

The hero mode is an idea of the cummunity for people who already earned all golden stars.
The developers only added the achivements for the community, but never balanced the game for it.

Which is fair enough, but doesn't disuade my point. Firstly, it should certainly be accounted for that new players might skim the achievements before starting the game. They might then decide to try a Hero Mode run, not knowing that it was an extra thing that was tossed-in later, figuring that they can start buying generic recruits after unlocking the three Hero achievements (or heck, maybe the generic recruits won't be needed at all; what does he know? He hasn't even started the game yet). Except at that point they've Gold-Starred 90% of the game (180/201); and they may have Blue-Starred (which unlocks the one-time exp bonus) other levels on top of that. These players are then stuck with the options I mentioned above; neither of which is going to be an attractive feature for a player who started the game not knowing that Hero Mode was meant as something to do as an exclusive playthrough with the game's current balancing.

Then there's the second group; maybe they got to the end of NG+ with a generic recruit or two because up until now it's been perfectly fine; perhaps more than fine, and why waste money on recruits when they know they need 500k Junk to buy that Evni? So now the player is stuck at the end of the game and learning that 2 or 3 of each class isn't quite enough to gold star some of the later content, but now they're stuck. They, just like the players in the last paragraph, are stuck with two grind-heavy options, neither of which they really feels they should be obligated into.

Which again, is why I feel that there should be some bonus level that you can unlock which gives good experience, but nothing else. In fact, maybe it can not only not give any Junk or gear, but maybe it can cost Junk every time you play the level. Though the cost would have be balanced to account for the fact that having to grind an obscene amount of Junk in order to unlock the exp level again would defeat the purpose, but I'm just spitballing ideas here.

Try the bonus mission endless I in + and speed up the fight. In combination with 3x XP switch from the option menu it should help.
You can cash out when you want on this map.

Originally posted by Shiro:

...
Firstly, it should certainly be accounted for that new players might skim the achievements before starting the game. They might then decide to try a Hero Mode run, not knowing that it was an extra thing that was tossed-in later, figuring that they can start buying generic recruits after unlocking the three Hero achievements (or heck, maybe the generic recruits won't be needed at all; what does he know? He hasn't even started the game yet).
...

You are right they should add a warning/description to the tips about the hero mode.

Originally posted by Marbur:

Try the bonus mission endless I in + and speed up the fight. In combination with 3x XP switch from the option menu it should help.
You can cash out when you want on this map.

I'll have to try that.

Originally posted by Shiro:

...
Firstly, it should certainly be accounted for that new players might skim the achievements before starting the game. They might then decide to try a Hero Mode run, not knowing that it was an extra thing that was tossed-in later, figuring that they can start buying generic recruits after unlocking the three Hero achievements (or heck, maybe the generic recruits won't be needed at all; what does he know? He hasn't even started the game yet).
...

You are right they should add a warning/description to the tips about the hero mode. :dgjug:

That'd be fair enough (maybe a warning on the achievement description), but it still wouldn't account for my second scenario. This isn't necessarily a problem exclusive to people who might be attempting Hero Mode and then hiring recruits later.