In order to max out everything, you would have to level AT LEAST 270 times. I don't know of anyone who would actually progress a character for that long in the first place. Even if you can potentially max out a character, the time required to level up all perks and stats would make it pointless and tedious.

I think if you look at it from an "end game" perspective, the above is not an unreasonable line of thought, but in terms of REACHING this, "all 10s and all Perks", demi-god status it will take a LONG time and how you develop your character over the course of the game DOES make them SPECIAL....along the journey, but maybe not at what many MIN MAX players will aspire as a "final build".

Also, I think players that think in terms of playing only one character over the course of their gameplay look at this as being harmful over the long run of that single character development, while players that make dozens of characters and develop them in different ways will see this method as a good thing.

Actually you won't be able to use many perks to their maximum potential as some are level locked as high as lvl 49.

I would have to say no....

That way the fun and the challenge never stops

Plus I don't want to get to level 40 and find out that I only needed 2 more PP do get that awesome perk ability

Even if you only ever play a single character, I think you will run out of content long before your character reaches level 276.

Do you not think you will have min/max-ers that will kill anything that respawns in a horrific grind just to achieve the "perfect" PC? Obviously, not how a sane person would play the game, but I'm sure there are those already thinking of how to plan and achieve this.

In the end, it all depends on how well the game is balanced around the leveling system. A lv10 cap can be good, a lv50 cap can be good, no cap can be good.... if the game works well with it.

We'll have to see how FO4 goes. All these "it'll take forever to max out" guesses are just that... guesses.

(I thought FO3 was good with the lv20 cap, but the rate of level gain could have been slower, particularly from lv11-20. Get a good start, then settle in for the long haul. Increasing the cap to 30 was a poor decision, since it blew a bit of the balance in the original "high level" perks. And the lv21+ enemies weren't well balanced, either.)

I never got passed 55 in Skyrim, and even though I want to get all the perks and SPECIAL in FO4, unless there is a reason to continue I just don't see it happening.

I think it's a good idea. They know people will ask for a level increase with every dlc so it's best to get it out the way now. Also if you don't want a max out character just don't make one. I stop around 50 or 60 in Skyrim.

I trust there is well over 300 hours of content. Particularly with settlements.

I remember how AWESOME it was playing FO3 for the first time and then when I hit the level cap of 30, whew. Huge disappointment. I'm definitely 1000% thrilled with the no level cap! Makes you feel the sense of accomplishment throughout. I since have modded FO3 with no level cap and what a difference that made.

No its a great idea, where I have hit a level cap if I want to continue playing I often feel I'm playing for no benefit as I'm getting no experience - it becomes less of an RPG/develop yourself style game and more akin to a standard FPS (or 3rd person if you prefer) where you do not develop.

I'm sure there are some who will try, but I think it will take an exceedingly long time.

They've said that the leveling rate will be similar to Skyrim. I think I put about 230 hours into my main character, and I don't think I quite reached level 50 (It's been a while since I've played, so I'm not totally sure what level I got up to). Now granted, leveling slowed down for me once I maxed the skills that I most actively used. The Fallout system doesn't rely on use-based skill increases to bump general XP, so the rate may be a little smoother, but it still gives us an idea what we can expect.

Early levels may come quickly, say 30 - 45 minutes of gameplay per level. That will probably slow to 1 or 2 hours per level once you get past some point (let's say level 10). As we progress to higher levels, I expect that it'll take longer and longer to gain the next level.

As a rough guess, I'll suggest 25 hours to reach level 20, 50 hours to get to 30, 100 hours to get to 40, 200 hours for 50, etc. I would expect that to get up into maxed-character territory, you're looking at thousands of hours of play. Leveling may slow down even more once you run out of quests to do, since Fallout 3 gave a lot of XP for completing quests versus what you could get from combat.

I loathe level caps. So I'm very happy to hear that there isn't one in Fallout 4.

We know that Bethesda claims the leveling curve is comparable to Skyrim, which means it'll start getting really slow after level 50 and prohibitively slow after level 100 (or probably earlier). I can't imagine the endgame going much further past level 100, honestly.

Hell, let's be generous and assume it takes about an hour for each level. That's generous because I can guarantee you it will take well over an hour after like the first dozen levels - but that would still be about 270 hours on one character. Or 50-100 hours to reach the "endgame".

where have they said the curve is comparable to skyrim...not saying your wrong...would just like to read the article:)

No cap is a great thing why limit freedom??

No worries. It's in this article http://bethesda.net/#en/events/game/fallout-4s-character-system/2015/09/24/31: "Levelling is experience point (XP) based like Fallout 3, not skill-based like Skyrim. But levelling speed is closer to Skyrim, and not as slow as Fallout 3."

cool I personally enjoy faster levelling, feels like I'm accomplishing something. I can not stand slow leveling....yea I'm looking at you..DRAGON AGE 55 hours into a game and only 22 level...you go to hell >

its also possible that higher difficulty levels will reward less xp. A system limke that could make it practically impossible to max everything.

Only if your on a console, and only if said mod is ported to it. In a week or two of the kits release we will see mods that up the number of monsters. All of which yield experience.

It may sound negative to say this, but Beth has a track record of going very easy on the number of enemy, and their idea of difficulty tends to shade into turning those few enemies into bullet sponges. Personally, I hate that approach. I want more enemies trying to kill me, not have to unload an entire magazine into a critters head to kill it. - So to get back on track, I can easily see more monster mods being created very fast

On a side note, I wonder how many folks are going to get in the habit of recording their characters level and stats for when they restart the game? With the sort of time you can put into a character with this system, abandoning it because you want to try a new quest path.. would be annoying.

Better potential game balance, better character creation paths/decisions, more opportunities to play multiple alts (worst thing about Diablo 3's removal of talent trees + infinite at-will respec.. there's no reason to ever make a second character of any class. ), etc.

Not saying that you can't make a good & balanced game without a cap, just that I think it's easier with one.

odds are low. Previous Beth games have all given better XP for higher diff - after all, you're fighting "harder" enemies, so you get more reward from them.

Lots of ppl don't want alot of different characters tho...with a level cap you limit everyone, with no level cap you limit no one..obviously your personal preference can never be "wrong" but for the masses freedom triumphs over being limited

I hit 30 way too fast in 3 and 50 way before doing a lot of things in NV. At that point it svcked cuz what was the point of going on? I just restarted and did the stuff I missed in a different playthrough, doing the stuff I had done before differently or not at all.

People will mod in their own version of level scaling - some will make it faster, some slower, and some may even put in level caps. Personally, I love that there is no level cap. Everyone can be accommodated, especially now that consoles will have access to mods. Don't like no level cap? Put one in. Leveling too fast? Too slow? Change it. Bethesda made the game the way they thought was best - and I like the concept (we'll see if I like the implementation when it comes out).

Based on other people's math, it is estimated that it will take over 1 year, 7 months to max out your Character (at 4 hours per day, every single day - assuming no restarts and staying with the same character). And at 10 hours a day, every day, it would be over 7 months, I believe. That's a LONG time in my view. And with all the mods coming out just 2-4 months after release, I don't see most people maxing out a character (without cheats) in the first year, if they ever do. Maybe I'm wrong, but we will certainly see.