Probably because they know how big the myth that LITERALLY every single enemy is leveled exactly to your level is in regards to Bethesda games.

I'm pretty sure that 'rubberbanding' refers to the level range of a given area stretching back and forth over time. While some want to assume that Todd was just sloppy in his language choices and called standard leveling 'rubberbanding' based on nothing more than whimsey, what Todd actually said was, "We call it rubberbanding; we'll have an area [where enemies scale from] level 5 to 10, and then this area will be level 30 and above,"

Clearly, he's not talking about two different areas, but one area at different times. The term rubberbanding actually makes sense with this interpretation.

The leveling system can be bad especially if you want to play a non combat character, i found myself in skyrim and obliv not leveling since when i did the enemies instantly got better, all the enemies, that was a bit of a bummer, Fallout did much better job with that, though f-3 albino scorps etc and the introduction of broken steel really messed things up.

What I took from it was just that at certain areas you might be running into enemies that are much higher level than you. I don't know for sure what the red text would mean, if anything, but my guess would be just to notify you that your enemy is much higher level - not that it would for some reasonable be invincible.

For example, in New Vegas there's nothing stopping me from starting the game and going straight out to attack a Deathclaw at level 1. I'd probably die straight out just because of the huge difference in stats - I'd barely be damaging him and I wouldn't have the HP or armor to absorb his attacks at all. But I could still, technically, get in a couple of lucky shots and if the mechanics landed the right way I could possibly kill one - it wouldn't be tagged as invincible until I reached a certain level or anything, it would just be really difficult to defeat.

My understanding is that Fallout 4 is going to follow pretty much along with what New Vegas and Skyrim did, for the most part. Probably tweak some things around, but I don't expect anything terribly drastic in this area, personally.

as long as they aren't, i'm cool with that, since it's just like it always has been actually

if it's some type of level indication anyhow, i hope it's a perk or vats feature or stg like this i can turn off...

(IF we get info displayed we shouldn't have from within the game world's logic at all, i'd rather have a name display. in skyrim, i sometimes found it pretty hard to tell if it was the bandit king or just kurt in a hide armor i was pointing my arrow at

Bethesda is tweaking the way auto-scaling works for Fallout 4 to create more challenge. "We call it rubberbanding; we'll have an area [where enemies scale from] level 5 to 10, and then this area will be level 30 and above," Howard says. "You'll run into stuff that will crush you, and you will have to run away."

According to this article http://www.gameinformer.com/games/fallout_4/b/playstation4/archive/2015/06/17/19-new-details-fans-need-to-know-about-fallout-4.aspx

What's a bet that 90%of you guys and the guy who made this topic saw Matty's video before replying to this topic.

What a joke.

Forget rubberbanding... the one thing I hope they have got rid of is INVISIBLEWALLING... There is nothing that will yank you through the fourth wall faster than running into something that isn't there. Oblivion made a freakin' TON of places where it looked like you could walk with ease but you just stopped dead from no other reason than "REASONZZZ!!!". Good map making would have put cars in the way or a cliff or some sort of debris.

In fact I got killed the one time because I ran into an invisible wall right in the middle of an open area. Whether it was an object without texture or just poor map making, polished was not something I would call it. In comparison I played Fallout 3 recently and cannot recall a single instance of an invisible wall. They are probably there but Bethesda always put something in the way if they didn't want you to go that way. Obsidian just couldn't be aaarrrsed it seems.

Sounds like you didn't get to D.C.

There were rubble piles in DC. Granted, not very high ones, but some possible reason why you were blocked.

I hated the invisible walls with a burning passion in FNV. Nothing in sight, not even grass, and two feet from the top of a small hill you had to stop. Not to mention all the times I got stuck *behind* the invisible walls if I tried to climb the rock walls to find an alternate route. I never used tcl more in my life.

""You'll run into stuff that will crush you, and you will have to run away.""

based Todd.

I don't even know what that is.

I was intrigued by the thread title. I was like: "rubber-banding system? Interesting." then I read the post and was disappointed.

I never heard of rubber-banding in reference to level requirements before. I was thinking they had a lag system in place which sounds way more interesting to be honest. (As I always throught rubber-banding was when your char moves forward then gets thrown back a few paces or more over and over due to lag and or poor performance) though that's usually an optimization issue in isometric ARPG's

But I don't listen to bad sources though.

To be fair, he gets his sources from the same places we do. He just has a -very- bad tendency to misinterpret the information, and creates sweeping statements that seem definitive.

Not sure if that's changed.

Whoa? Ah, man you guys are brutal. I feel like all gaming media should be as enthusiastic about Fallout as this kid is. I've seen so many podcasts where nobody on the panel has played more than an hour of Fallout 3.

Gaming media has always be enthusiast media, which is why it can be so apologetic for shady doings by developers/publishers or absolutely livid about them. But I've yet to see anyone from a gaming site being dismissive about Fallout 4.

As for whether or not they should be enthusiastic. I'd say not really. They should be covering developments in the game, but when people are going "OMG! Look a new Uncharted game!" I feel less like they're reporting and more like they're just an extension of the game's marketing department.

Not dismissive, but I think some games sort of get lost in the shuffle. Some games truly deserve more coverage and more excitement than others. It reminds me of KOTOR back in the day. How much coverage did that game get compared to Fable?

In the case of Uncharted you are right, but if it's truly an OMG moment like Fallout 4, No Man's Sky or Battlefront then I love that sort of reaction. People should get hype about the truly great games (or at least the ones that appear to be).

That's the job of marketers. Not journalists.

Never noticed invisible walls in Oblivion except at the edge of map. on the other hand you could not climb steep slopes even if you could probably climb them in real world. To make stuff more stupid you could ride them even if horses are not common tools in mountaineering.

Fallout 3 had plenty downtown and NV was filled with them. Both places they was pretty pointless as it was not major exploits if you managed to get pass them, the water purification facility was an exception and also an bug as it was an fence with an glitch.

Sorry if I was rude or impolite, I just didn't get what you said at first.

1) Not a Bethesda game

2) Its still possible to do, just more tricky

Uh....OP....That's not what rubberbanding is. Not at all.....

@PKMN- It's still possible to get to Vegas, just because the game provides what is known as a 'challenge' by making it difficult to just level 1 rush to Vegas from goodspring doesn't make it bad.

The thing is, they actively discourage exploration and straying from the proscribed path. New Vegas is barely more open-world than the first two Fallouts.