Bethesda's current thing may be level scaling, but I think it kind of eats at the scope of the game. In Oblivion I found myself having very little wonder or awe at the mysterious unknown. The chances were that I could go anywhere if I just felt like it. Sure it would always be kind of challenging, but it would never make me run away or give me second thoughts on traveling there (even with the difficulty slider).

I cannot expect too much because Beth seems to love level scaling, but I would like a smidgen of static leveling based on the specific environment. Basically in Skyrim random caves and ruins could be leveled, but the Ruins of Torment located in the Chasm of Despair adjacent to the Peaks of No Return should probably have something that could hand my level 2 butt back to me on a silver platter. The same could apply to the deepest parts of the ocean or the most remote wilderness areas.

Who would like to see a little static leveling in this fashion to have things to work forward to/ marvel at the the thought of going to in the near future?

Just about everyone wants this, the TES version of the Deathclaw sanctuary.

agreed. said this a hundred times already

and it's already confirmed to have fallout style level scaling, so I think we're all good

I like the way you think.

I want it sort of like Fallout: New Vegas but better. I was actually afraid to go to certain places in that game for awhile. Sneaking around Sloan and Black Mountain was scary as hell because I knew I could die at any moment.

This has been covered a lot and yes almost everyone agrees with you

How was level scaling done in Fallout 3?

At the very simplest, some enemies level to you, some don't, and there are no go areas at lower levels.

Thanks.

New Vegas got it about right. A kind of level scaling, but very area-based. There were lots of places you were scared of at low levels.

FO3 was better than Oblivion in that department, sure, but especially the 'outdoor' sections seemed much too aggressively scaled. For a while there were mole rats everywhere, later there were deathclaws everywhere... made no sense.

Almost exactly like Morrowind's system.

New Vegas style level scaling is what I would want to see.

I dont want to walk through and only see stuff my level I want to be able to run into something above my ability, it makes it feel real. Because otherwise its goes, oh you hit level 12, a bunch of trolls just decided to move in.

Are you sure? I remember playing a little bit of Fallout 3 and it was dead easy as a level 1.

Fallout 3 was a mixture of locked level for locations, creature type scaling for areas and better weapons/condition armor for bandits... I think that sums it up.

The first problem was waking up one day to find all the creatures in a certain area had changed. FoNV tried to fix this by always spawning the same creatures in the same areas, it would have been nice to have 2 or more types of creatures spawning per area just for variation.

The big problem I found was the result of what I guess to be the limited ranges used for locked level locations, creating in effect a levelled to PC experience. I cleared a station to call home, messed around near Megaton and went to Rivet City - two or three challenging moments but no major problems. After Rivet I went for a walk all the way around the map and that... was the end of the game. Over, done. Sure there was Old Orly(?) and perhaps I got lucky there? I never did clear out The Sanctuary, nothing there I wanted .

Fo3 scaling improves on Ob. but still results in an obviously levelled experience. Once you realise there is nothing you cannot handle, you say goodbye to tension and the game becomes a linear cakewalk.

I think we can do one better than Fallout's static leveled areas. Namely we can make dangerous areas more obvious. In post apocalyptic fallout, there isn't a real pattern to dangerous to not so dangerous areas. In Skyrim, with an actual civilization, we could probably have higher danger the further you go out of public areas and into the wilderness. This would give it a very realistic "We don't travel up the east mountain trail because there is not a town or fortress for miles." attitude to the game.

yes because in NV i would try to go to New Vegas and i loved having to try to avoid death claws and being scared; and or having fear for something.

Yes please.

I think that would also make static worlds acceptable to even the most casual of gamers, who possibly get frustrated by random high-level encounters in caves... if there's enough in-game info, it's really just common sense that you don't go to Painful Death Forest without getting good at some skill that will help you avoid painful death.

The OOO mod for Oblivion did this a bit - roads and areas around cities were safe-ish, remote locations were dangerous.

statics levels doesn't belong in a open world game.

Would you care to elaborate on your opinion?

96% of people disagree. I want to wander into the fiery chasm of death at lv 1 and get one shotted.

Morrowind would like a word with you.

Daedric Shrines in Vivec sewers, anyone?

Wandering into a vampire base as well in the Ash lands

When I first played Oblivion I had to mod it as I did not like the scaling, I thought MW static approach was much better. But after playing Fallout 3, I realized that scaling was good if used properly. OB overdid. In MW after level 20 something the challenge ended.

These are my main reasons for liking some scaling:

-Surprise factor during replay, if all chest are static you learn whats in them and you lose a lot of the fun factor in finding them.

-better challenge curve, things don't become lame when you reach x level.

-better loot curve, as you get better you get better stuff, long ago when I was a console player I was really into the Final Fantasy games, and it was great the steady progression of better and better stuff. This was lost in MW, great more crap, oh whats this, more crap,etc

Now with that said I also like hand placed items and more static enemy's also. For these reasons:

-Sense of getting more powerful, its always a lot of fun squashing some beast that a few hours earlier you had to run for you life from.

-It adds a great dynamic of risk/reward, you take a risk and get reward appropriately. Like in MW were you manage to sneak past tons of powerful beast, then found a cool new sword for all your trouble.

-Realism/immersion makes me feel more like this is a living world that would function whether I am there or not.

So I think a mix of both is best, Fallout 3's balance was a little bit too much towards scaling, but was overall a good way of showing how scaling/static can be used together for best results.

I would like in a game say 2/3 scale containers, 1/3 static/hand placed

Npcs/beast in a similar ratio but with a bit more use of range scales i.e x thing can be level 6-11, if you level 1 its still 6 and will be quite hard, if you 8, its 8 and if you 19 its 11. FO3 made use of this a lot. So perhaps it would feel more like 2/3 static, 1/3 scaled. When you replace one creature type for another stronger type would be a good example of scaling were the scaling is not so noticeable were it 'feels' more static.

And no scaled unique items!! If it suppose to be a cool rare artifact, make it be guarded by high level static(or high scale range ie 38-55) npc.

The worst thing in Oblivion, imho, worse than the scaling and the broken 5/5/5 levelling.

What do you think about the rest of my post?