I dont think its a huge deal, but I hope that you arent forced to level up as soon as you gain enough XP. One thing I preffered in Oblivion to Fallout 3 was being able to level up when I chose. Not only is it annoying to have the level up screen pop up when you level up (which is supposed to happen much more frequently in Skyrim) but sometimes I made a bad choice of perk or something and wished I hadnt been forced to choose so hastily. However, I want to level up option from the menu, not by sleeping in a bed.



Anyone else?

you only enjoy it in Oblivion because leveling was broken it will be a lot better in skyrim, becuase they have had more experience with it, and you get 50 perks so if one is a bad mistake what is the big deal

I agree. I really liked how you weren't forced to level up in Oblivion.

I want to level up when I want to, I don't want to face Alduin at lv 1 bliviongate:

Part of me wants the "Meditate to level" thing, and part of me thinks it's pointless.

The only real reason is for nostalgia's sake, the main gameplay related reason that it's going to be pointless in Skyrim, is because there's no longer the whole governing-attribute thing, that weighed unnecessarily down on the player. The whole "Meditate" Thing seemed like a way to deliberately forestall the act of leveling, to max your modifiers.

I know the leveling in OB wasnt great, but I liked that you could choose when to level up. Maybe I would just want to challenge myself and play without leveling up at all?

Acheivement, anyone?

It's another non issue for me. I already know what type of character Im going to create. And even though we don't know everything about the new perk system, i'm lead to believe that even if I make a few bad choices I wont ruin my character.

More the thing that concerns me about leveling in Skyrim, at least from our current information, is that there appears to be no viable way to alter the speed of it. One could slow it or stop it entirely in Oblivion with a most-used-skills as minors build, but without majors and minors and with all skills contributing to leveling, from what they've said, the only way to even slow it will be to metagame into using as broad a range of skills as possible. I would rather there was some way, much like a most-used-skills as minors build, to simply set the character up and play the game and level relatively slowly, simply because I prefer to take my time and drink in every bit of the game I can along the way, rather than rushing headlong through it. Nothing that I've seen yet has indicated that there's going to be any way to do that.

I have a feeling that no matter what I will learn to cope with their decision. At the same time I hated traveling a long ways just to sleep and level up..

Yeah.. I wish they would have a slider for level rate, with default being "Max". That was one of my main complaints with Fallout 3. Even if you go from Vault 101 through the proper points to get to GNR ASAP, you wind up being like level 12, halfway through the character development part of the game 4 hours in. Absurd.

Yeah, i really hope im not level 15 after just a few hours.Uless, the levelling really starts to decline at mid to higher levels. Like after level 15 you really start slowing down.. we'll see i guess

I alway like having to sleep, I never even considered the modifier thing. It just feels right. Unlike the I am in the middle of a dungeon and bam I how have more hp, a new perk,etc. That feels off.

Mods are a very viable way. The creation kit has been know for a while.

The only reason I liked the way leveling up by sleeping was done in Oblivion was because of the broken level scaling system. What's the point in going above Level 30. Skyrim fixed that problem so it won't be as big of an issue leveling above 30.

I think we will be. but who knows. its only a problem if the new system for character design svcks or not. but I have no doubt bgs would say in response that they worked out all the problems that made people need to wait when leveling.

I usually controlled what time I leveled up so that I had more controll over the environment for RP purposes.

I'd say it's a GOOD thing that you can't do the (Have your most used skills as minors.) thing, because that was a way to exploit flaws in the system that made no role-playing sense (Your major skills are supposed to be the skills you focus the most on, not the ones you rarely use at all, and it certainly doesn't make sense to repeatedly use other skills, then suddenly start using them only when it's time to level up.) though maybe the rate at which you level might be faster than you want, but that I suspect can be fixed easily with mods (Not helpful if you're playing on a console, of course, but since I expect to play the game on PC, I'm speaking from a PC players' perspective on the matter.)

But I wouldn't object to having a way to control when I level up, it doesn't need to be sleeping, just having a notifier that you've gained a level and having a button you can click in the menu to level up would be fine with me, I fully expect to level as soon as I'm able, but it's just nice to not have the level up screen come up as soon as I finish a battle and forcing me to decide which stat I want to increase and which perk to choose immediately.

Anyways, the ONLY thing about leveling that I don't want, and I know Bethesda won't do it, is a sudden regeneration at level up.
You know, like in some games when you're in the middle of a fight with you having only 1HP left, and then you level up and are full again? I totally HATE that, it doesn't make sense, hell, even a genetically-modified superhuman couldn't physically do that (to suddenly regenerate)

I loved that I had to "sleep and meditate on what I had learned" to lvl up in OB so I hope it stays that way.

I'd argue that making a most-used-skills as minors build IS metagaming.

Anyway, Todd says that you can go through the entire game without ever looking at the skill screen, which means to me that you will level in the background, but you can choose the H/M/S bonus and perk whenever you feel like it. I think the only thing that will happen automatically is the automatic health boost.

Sure it is, but it gets all the metagaming out of the way right at the beginning, before I even start actually playing the character, and saves me from having to pay even the least attention to any of that from that point on. With the right build (which, with the warped leveling system in Oblivion, is rarely if ever most-used-skills as majors), I can already do what's promised for this game - just play the game and ignore the numbers and just let all that sort itself out. No grinding, no counting, no spreadsheeting - just playing the game.


Todd says lots of things.

I remain concerned that the game will level too fast and that there will be no comfortable way to counter that - that, contrary to Beth's PR, I'll end up forced into playing the game the way they want rather than playing it the way that I want. I can only wait and see, but, for now, that's one of my concerns.

I'd be a little more worried about having to meditate to level in this game, just because of the increased levelling rate. It'll be at least twice as fast unless they've significantly slowed down levelling from Oblivion, but Todd has implied the opposite. And if I'm out in the middle of the woods and I level up killing a rat, I don't want to have to run back to town, sleep, then run back out to be able to move up to killing wolves. Especially if that happens twice per hour.

Oblivion's system has role-playing flaws the way it is presented. The way it is presented, you pick a set of skills that define your profession, and those professional skills are the ones you do best. We all know, however, that in real life, being a professional in something doesn't mean that that is what you do best. People can change careers too.

It makes more role-playing sense to ignore the class titles. There are 21 skills. Some you have a knack for doing (the ones you select as Majors) and some you don't. You first select where your character's natural talents lie, and then you select the skills your character actually uses the most. He might use them the most because that is where his professional interests are. He might use them the most because those things happen to bring him the most enjoyment and satisfaction.