Smack my hand my good man!

I use such a "versatile" build in Skyrim that I always keep 2-3 perk points spare, just in case I need to immediately spec further into combat skills or trade etc because one of them is kicking my butt.

Is there at least an estimated soft cap?

This is like....won't everyone just be the same? It's like FarCry 5 or something?

I'd say somewhere between 50 and 100 level soft cap.

Say over 300 levels needed to max perks and Special Stats.

Say with books, cyberware, and skill and stat bobbleheads that covers between 50 to 100 ways to increase perks or Special stat without leveling.

That gives between 100 to 200 stat and perks increases.

So you by the time you finish the main quests, your Sole Survivor will have between 1/3 to 1/2 of the available perks and maxed stats.

This has all been play tested and they are really trying to max replay value.

I figure that with some perk overlap (Like Hacking and Lockpicking), it will take at least three play throughs to try out all the perks and different play styles.

Or since there is no level cap, you could grind to level 250 or so.

The concept of "balance" in a single player game is questionable to begin with. Explain why it is needed and someone will explain to you why your mistaking "game difficulty" for "balance". Balance is only needed in a multiplayer situation.

To be honest, I think what Mr. Hinds called "rubberbanding" (A HORRIBLE term to use) in terms of enemy leveling in the game should take care of any "balance" issues. If you want a challenge at higher levels, I'm guessing you are going to need some MODS (or maybe the higher difficulties won't just make all harder foes bullet sponges...**shrug**).

I don't think you can have balance in this type of format. We just have to hope that it's not going to be all HP bloat type enemies at the end.

Once again It's going to come down to self control which that does work but it is annoying.

"Balance" of classes (or in this case "play-styles") makes for a hideously boring game with very little replay value. Different play-styles SHOULD require different approaches (that may present difficulty differences) to complete objectives.

I agree.

Different play-style need to be viable and playable but may be more difficult.

Shooting someone with a gun is usually easier and faster than running up and cutting off their heads or sneaking up on them and cutting their throats.

But sneaking past someone and lifting what you need is much less risky than fighting everyone.

Different situations with different difficulty levels based on the approach used.

The sign of a great game, is making the different approaches viable.

I agree, if I have leveled high and have advanced weaponry, why wouldn't I feel powerful?

Not quite.

Balance is required for playstyles in order to ensure that they hold up to the same standards of other playstyles. Pure destruction playthroughs (In skyrim) are hideously underpowered in the late game because the scaling is poor. The only way to keep up is to keep enchanting on par with your main skills and use fortify destruction to reduce mana costs. But, and this is a big but, It's a band aid fix because it just artificially inflates your mana pool. Magic in the late game is akin to slapping the enemy with a pool noodle, the only difference is you have more stamina to keep slapping them.

Good points.

Pretty much, back in Skyrim people smithed like crazy then complained that the game was too easy and started screaming "NERF SMITHING!" when they were the ones that made it easy.

I personally don't care about balance in a single player game, of course if I pick to use pistols it's going to work differently than if I pick to use heavy weapon, it will be silly to expect both to do the same amount of damage in the same amount of time.

Exactly, I remember people complaining about the 100% chameleon enchanting in Oblivion, calling it an exploit.

I don't think exploits in singleplayer games matter, because you're not competing, if you lack restraint it's your own fault. If you don't want 100% chameleon, don't make a set of armor that gives you 100% chameleon.

I like Beths open system with no level cap so I can create any character I want with or without limits. It's the open ended nature of the system I like more options equates to more role play value and several unique character builds.

I'm hoping Bethesda has it set up to stay challenging all the way through.

They know they have a problem with the game getting too easy for the last third or so.

I think they are going to have no level with a increasing Exp cost to level up.

Fast at first, medium for mid game, and then slow for end game.

They will balance it with a soft cap around 50 to 100 for the end game.

If you want a MOAT you will be able to do it, but you will have to work at it.

Smart,

They keep it challenging the whole game, have a high replay value, but don't close out those that want to keep playing and have a 200 or 300 level MOAT.

Keep both camps happy.

Who knows, they might even have a build in difficulty setting that changes how fast you level up.

I think they should make it a feat as well to get everything. If you want the option is there. I think that there should be a way to not level as was the case in Skyrim. I had several characters dome very powerful when others were average and I also had a few weak characters. It was about choice I want more options and I don't want to be limited. I want to make my characters how I choose.

Again, this isn't really a BALANCE issue but a SCALING issue. I doubt anyone will argue with your statement that vanilla Skryim did a HORRIFIC job of SCALING Destruction Magic as a play-style. Early on, Destruction works fine and is "balanced" against the foes you face (for the most part). It just SCALES badly as levels increase. On the other hand, CONJURATION SCALES rather baldly the other direction. I think there should be some additional consequences / rewards to using different play styles at all levels, but this is a very difficult thing to do and maintain any type of difficulty "balance" between those playstyles. Would anyone argue that a sneaky archer is 10x easier to play than a 2-handed Barbarian type? The idea that the game should make those 2 equally difficult or easy to complete the game with kind of removes one of the main reasons to play one over the other (whether you are looking to skate thru the game, or present yourself with a challenge).

As a single player game, you cannot divorce the method you choose to play thru the game from how hard or easy certain encounters will be to complete with your choice of play style. Since there is no true "competition", there is no "fairness" stipulation to require any type of "balance" to one playstyle over the other, but I will agree that when a play style presents a level of difficulty that is extreme (whether ridiculously easy or insurmountably hard) the reason needs to be looked into and possibly corrected in the game design. Again, saying that one playstyle is less or more difficult than another in any given situation results in a comparison between the play styles that is not really relevant since each case is isolated from the other and in NO direct competition with each other, only with the game environment itself.

I actually hope you don't rank up perks with perk points. I hope that there will be other requirements to level up the perks, such as bobbleheads, books, and quests.

See, it is a balancing issue. When you put destruction and one handed on a scale, one handed will outperform destruction thereby unbalancing the scale. Poor scaling leads to poor balance, they're not mutually exclusive.

The point of balance in single player is to ensure that progression is kept in check and that all stages of the game maintain difficulty for the respective tier the player is in (early, mid, late). It's also equally important to ensure that all play styles offer a unique experience by presenting apparent strengths and weaknesses. This is pretty tough to do properly in Skyrim because classes are super dynamic. You can have warriors that don't use armor, mages that use heavy armor, rogues that their use bare hands (lmao good luck with that unless you use PerMa), etc.

Just because something isn't in direct competition with another player doesn't dictate that "no balance" is ok across playstyles. Sneak archers, from start to finish, are the most grossly overpowered class in the game. You come out of the Helgen cave steamrolling. I don't think that's ok and that is an issue which can be resolved by increasing the awareness of NPCs and giving them the ability to dodge, parry, and block arrows when they're in a hyper aware state.