Anyone else think that Bethesda is pretty terrible when it comes to scaling NPCs in their games making the game sometimes impossible or too easy? I think a better system could have been implemented; here is my take on it.. First I would like to say I am not against level scaling if it is done well, as it would keep challenging you throughout the game keeping things interesting.

First there be a change to when enemy’s level, instead of the enemy’s levelling every time you level up the game should record what skills you raise and scale the enemies based on that. For example if the game records 10 skill increases in major combat skills then enemies would raise their level. Skill should be categorised at Combat, Support and Non-Combat. Combat skills cause enemies to level every time player increases them 10 times. Support skills cause enemies to level every time player increases them 20 times and Non combat skills have no effect on the enemy’s level.

I mentioned major skills, you are probably wondering what I meant by that. Well say someone is level 47 in one handed and 19 in two handed and happened to increase the two handed skill by accident it will not have an effect on level progression for enemies as it is so far behind the other skill. The game should identify what is your main skill e.g heavy armour/light; two hand/one and only use the highest one, unless the difference is say less than 20.

Now the last part is how much the enemy’s level. There should be a few classes of enemies inferior/ normal/ superior and boss. Inferior monsters will be skewers, bears, mud crabs and a few other weak enemies. These will level slower in comparison to the player and will be a challenge for the first few levels but later in the game as the player will pull further away they will become easy. Normal monster will work similar to inferior monster but the level gap would take longer to grow. Superior enemies will keep up with the player throughout the game. Boss enemies will always be a few levels above the player and the gap will not change throughout the game.

Here are some suggestions to which categories enemies should belong to:

Inferior: Skewers, Wolfs, Beggars, Bears, Honkers...
Normal: Bandits, Townsfolk, Merchants, Necromancers, Vampires...
Superior: Giants, Mammoths, maybe some variations of enemies above...
Boss: Final Dungeon Bosses, Dragons, Dragon priests...

Ideas to which categories skills belong in:

Combat: Heavy/Light armour, One/Two handed weapons, Block, Sneak (?), Destruction...
Support: Conjuration(?), Smiting, Alchemy, Enchanting, Alteration, Illusion...
Non-Combat: Lock picking, Speech...


Anyway these are all the skills/enemies I could think of on the spot if I missed one out let me know who and where they belong.

If you have a better idea let me know and I’ll throw it in.

This is a theoretical discussion as I don’t think Bethesda could patch this but maybe modders with a creation kit could possibly implement this in the future.

[Bump.]

dont you think its a little late to change it now?

http://cache.ohinternet.com/images/0/04/Tldrcat.jpg

It should just not have existed.

if you want a game with no level scaling you are in the wrong series, it has been in the games since daggerfall

just hit level 29 and the world got drastically hard out of nowhere.

WHAT IS IT WITH CAPS LOCK TITLES ON THIS FORUM

On a more serious note, level scaling svcks hard. But, if it didn't exist, people would complain that the game was too easy, so it's the best out of a bad situation really.

:shrug: hm could be worse

I agree with the original post actually. sounded good but would still need a little tweaking.. conjuration could be argued as a combat skill...

skills that you consider "support" could drastically break you're theory though. For example, If enemies arent able to level up while you spam your iron dagger for 10 levels, not only are you creating more powerful weapons and armor, but you're on the road to godmode yet again.. except this time with lower level enemies which will never recover from the scale gap.


for every action theres an equal and opposite reaction..

I'd prefer somewhat Morrowind style level scaling. With a few changes.

Usually there shouldnt be any level scaling at all. Depending on the dungeon enemies as well as loot should be high level, low level, somewhere in between or a mix. Now it feels stupid that suddenly ebony and deadric stuff start to appear and enemies get signifcantly stronger. Its also boring that I find an ebony or glass thing in every container. No sense of reward in finding loot. Fighting also gets too repetative with no changes in challenge.

Low level characters should feel more challenging and they shouldnt be able to clear many dungeons on their own. High level characters on the other hand should feel powerful and be able to dispatch most enemies with ease.

they did a much better job with scaling this time. also, all caps in a forum topic is sad.

hmmmm maybe, BUT, 100 in smithing and/or enchanting and/or alchemy can be just as/more powerful then actual combat skills, you can make game breaking armor with all 3 capped.

conjuration at 100... BEHOLD! My two ancient vampires who i let clear dungeons for me while i laugh maniacally and an afk! if they die, will resurrect them again...and again!

the rest i kinda agree with though, speech...lock picking = useless skills....

How about they just put a slider in the game that lets you set the enemy levels to be -10 to +10 of your current level. It still scales, but you can slide if you want enemies to be your level, 10 levels higher for more challenge or 10 levels lower for less. Put in an option to enable Elite enemy spawns and a slider for the possible number of spawns in an encounter.

Fixed.

Yeah I was not sure about these skills becouse they are preatty tame ealier on. Possibly vary how much the enemies are effected by how high the skill level is.

I think you are just looking at this the wrong way. If you only train your sword then when you do battle you only fight with your sword right ?

Now if you're for example good at pickpocketing and speech, then do you just charge in with your sword like you would with the former kind of character, or do you use your pickpocketing and speech skills to buy some potions, staffs and scrolls to give you an advantage in battle ? Many scrolls are crazy powerful and some of them I can imagine being a free I-win button, perhaps you should spend all of the extra gold you should be making on such things.

Or if you are a craftsman you obviously ply your craft to gain an advantage in combat in much so the same way only instead of buying the services from someone else you do it yourself, be it making better armor+weapons for yourself, enchanting your stuff to make you stronger or brewing potions to again, make you stronger.

I don't really see a single skill that can't be worked to help you in combat.