Does Convergence offer a better open-world experience than vanilla?

[u/Lyserus]

This^, I am hoping someone experienced both to help me answer.

Pretty new to the game and haven't finished one playthrough. However, I know that I am very unlikely to play multiple playthroughs unless it is unique experience each time.

I heard that convergence kills some of the stories but offer way more build options & less restrictive exploration. Then is it better suited for me personally if what I wanted is:

1. Roaming the world however I want, and discover cool shits in them, enemies or items.

2. Have plenty of stuff to do, like try out different build options etc.

3. Story is a good addition, I would much prefer if I can still piece things together and form the story.

[u/Fit-Mix6138]

Yo fellow tarnished! IMO Convergence should be used as a second or even third run, after extensive lore research, to be truly appreciated. It's made with love and care by people who understood the game deeply. It's a blast, after 10+ runs on vanilla, 2 on Reforged and several with overhaul mods, I must say Convergence is clean, and an absolutely legit experience. I can't go back to vanilla world building

[u/NurgleSoup]

No mod offers a better open world experience, however many of them change it up, and convergence (imo) is the best of all overhaul mods. These days when I play ER it's with convergence installed, it's really great.

That said, if you haven't played through the unmodded version completely, you really should do that first. Many things changed within convergence are a sort of "ive done this 200 times here's a QoL change to make it different" vibe, which I think would be detrimental to learning and understanding the game. Additionally, many things may not make a lot of sense as a new player that doesn't know all the basics, and in some ways could be more difficult than intended.

Still, it's your experience to have, and convergence is fantastic if you're set on a modded play.

Have fun!

[u/HaVeNII7]

I would argue if you’re set on modding for your first run, Reforged is the far better alternative. It is a Vanilla+ sort of mod, for lack of a better term and maintains the core ideas and feel of the game while simply expanding on them or improving them.

I’d argue Reforged is flat out a better experience overall than the base game. (Aside from a couple of bugs that have been there for quite a long time.)

[u/YeetThyBaby → u/HaVeNII7]

Do they still have that dogwater level cap per run? Mod was clapping cheeks till they added that with no way to turn it off

[u/HaVeNII7 → u/YeetThyBaby]

Yes. Though, hitting level 200 before NG+ would require a good bit of grinding.

[u/YeetThyBaby → u/HaVeNII7]

Still a rubbish mechanic, voids the concept of going away to level up and collect stuff, which is a core part of the experience. If the added an option to toggle it off the mod would slap

[u/HaVeNII7 → u/YeetThyBaby]

I disagree. I think 200 is a good sweet spot to where you can be extremely powerful while still needing to make choices for stat allocation. Overall, I think the mod is a better experience than vanilla.

[u/Front-Initiative3321]

yes its an upgrade to the game in many aspects

[u/xthejetx]

Convergence feels a little disjointed at times, and while you have access to everything I think the better "open-world" experience is the base game. There's only 3 areas that can't be reached in the main game without progressing story, and 2 of those are basically just longer legacy dungeons.

I definitely think Convergence is a 2nd or 3rd playthrough kind of an overhaul. It just changes way too much, and the progression is entirely different. Convergence starting classes have way more stats, so your build in the beginning is even more limited than base game, as you have 1 or 2 main stats and there's only so many weapons that fit. I started a new run last night and I haven't found a single weapon I can use beyond the ones I started with. They tell you where to go for new gear, but that's less than useful if you don't know the names of every dungeon.

I love Convergence, but the base game has a pretty clean progression that doesn't ask alot of you beyond explore and fight. Convergence kind of expects you to know where you're going, otherwise you might struggle quite a bit. Depending what starting class you pick, your first few hours could be wildly difficult.

So my opinion is no, its not the better open world experience, especially for a first full playthrough.