So we have had time to absorb this feature as it has had iterations in two TES games, Oblivion and Skyrim. I'm not sure but I dont think Morrowind had it, if someone could confirm that for me it would be appreciated. So this thread is simply to discuss the general opinion on this feature.

In my opinion maybe its time to do away with level scaling. First off it affecting store items and loot items is a bit lame to me. Shopkeeper barley keep a steel sword in stock then all of the sudden at level 40 you have ebony swords in stock. Yeah great where were these swords earlier? The same goes for loot. Basically it gives you a feeling of, the world revolves around you. No one gets stronger unless you do. Secondly, I mean I dont want to come right out and say it, but I guess I have to. It just seems sort of lazy. Now im not sure of all the technical aspects and such, but that is just the way it seems to me. I mean Im not sure how hard it would be to say "This type of enemy populates this dungeon at this level." But hey like I said if its harder than that, then feel free to flame away.

Not sure this has to do with scaling but enemy variety was weak as well, mostly in Skyrim. Bandits, Drauger, and Dragons. Honestly you could probably rename Skyrim that and still get a pretty accurate description of the game, eh?

So your opinions on level scaling in the series?

Morrowind has lots of scaling. But it also has a lot less scaling than OB or Skyrim.

In Morrowind almost all loot in containers (random loot) is scaled to your level, and many creature spawn points are leveled to you (especially for exteriors.)
But unlike OB and Skyrim, NPCs are never leveled and there's also a lot of hand-placed loot and creatures that are static. (not leveled)

There's always been a rumour that Morrowind has no scaling. But anyone who has played the game enough, or looked in the CS, knows that's not true.


Do I like scaling in TES?
When it works, yes. (see Morrowind)
But it can also go very wrong. (see Oblivion)
I think Skyrim hit the nice spot somewhere in the middle.

I don't like level scaling. I would prefer everything with fixed level and very powerful items you can find from the beginning that you cannot weild successfully until you have the knowledge/skill/attribute.

Ive never been much of a fan of skill locked items. They bugged me in DA: Origins. If I have it in my inventory I should be able to wield it, no?

I'd just prefer if they were guarded by powerful enemies.

Daggerfall had Oblivion style level scaling. That is every enemy and loot was dependent on your level. The only difference was that you had an small chance of running into high level enemies and loot at low level so it might be more of an mathematical thing than an leveled list.

Morrowind had lite level scaling, that is random monsters was leveled. Some loot was leveled, learned that some houses was better to loot late as they then gave lots of high end jewelry who was nice for enchanting.

NPC was not scaled and boss monsters was not, however the main issue in Morrowind was the lack of high level content.

Skyrim is more like Fallout 3 than either of them, less extreme level scaling than Oblivion while more high level content than Morrowind. It also have high and low level areas.

Face it without level scaling the game become far more linear as you has to do the low level areas first, you will probably also get an lack of high level areas. Most of the dungeons you would find would be to low level to be any challenge,

I wouldn't call that 'linear', rather 'natural'. When you are a weak thief you're given minor tasks from the guild, such as fetch quests or steal from poor houses (unguarded). When you're more powerful you're able to deal with stronger locks, stronger guards, etc. If the devs put more work into making the world responsive to player actions, the a.i. could provide opportunities (such as crowd control, disguise, distraction, incremental levels of alert) to access 'high level' areas when you're low level and sometimes bypass the odds using imagination and creative combination of tools, world design and player skill. It's their job to make sure there are enough missions, repeatable encounters and dungeons across all player levels.

One word: Gothic. Gothic is awesome in this respect.

First, we need to define what we mean by the term "level scaling." The term is virtually meaningless without some definitions. "Level scaling" can refer to as many as four separate game play mechanisms:

Enemy Leveling - controls when enemies appear.
Enemy Scaling - controls the strength of enemies once they have appeared.
Loot Leveling - controls when loot appears.
Loot Scaling - controls the strength of loot once it has appeared.

When we speak of a Nix-Hound replacing a Rat at level 5 in Morrowind or a Minotaur replacing a wolf at level 6 in Oblivion we are speaking of enemy leveling. When we speak of a Goblin Shaman continuing to gain levels as the player gains levels in Oblivion we are speaking of enemy scaling. When we speak of Mithril replacing Chainmail at level 10 and Chainmail replacing Leather at level 5 in Oblivion we are speaking of Loot leveling. When we speak of putting off the Hard Answers quest until level 46 in Skyrim in order to get the most powerful version of the Nightingale Blade we are speaking of loot scaling.

I like enemy scaling and enemy leveling. It provides a modicum of challenge as my character levels. I am less fond of loot scaling and loot leveling. I particularly did not like the way these things were handled in Oblivion. They were handled crudely in that game.

I thought Morrowind handled loot nicely, with a combination of hand-placed and leveled loot. Skyrim handled this fairly well too. It toned down Oblivion's oppressive loot leveling considerably.

Scaling was better in Skyrim than in Oblivion, IMO. In Skyrim, scaling is restriced so that e,g, bandits only scale between certain types of armour (IIRC fur, leather, hide), so you don't see simple bandits wearing glass armour, or marauders in daedric armour, like in Oblivion. And e.g. the Elven armour seems to be more restriced to the Aldmeri Dominion, not so often worn by humans. It also kinda bugged me in Morrowind, where some of the first vendors you encountered, sold some of the highest-quality armours, so theoretically you could console hack yourself a lot of money and leave Seyda Need clad in some of the best in-game armour... IMO there should be certain restrictions, on either strength, level, or both, to purchase and wear the higher-quality armours.

Why would you console hack yourself a lot of money, and what does this have to do with vanilla game design? I can console hack me some gear in Skyrim too but I don't.