I'm not a huge fan of level scaling, but see where it can be desired by some. Personally I'd love to see it excluded from the game. Having to evaluate each fight your about to enter adds greatly in my opinion. You must carefully pick your fights and tactics.
Also think it makes it much more personal for the player when after being humiliated and run away with your tail tucked between your legs, to come back when your stonger and defeat a enemy you now have a very personal grudge against.

They say that tehy will use a scaling similar to FO3. That was actually very good since you felt rather powerfull at the end and not so much in the start. But thats just my opinion though.

I prefer no scaling but we already know it is going to be in the game. Hopefully, there will still be really high level enemies (Like Deathclaws).

None of the above. Level Scaling has its uses, but excessive use causes as many, or more, problems than it solves.

I'd prefer regionally adjusted levelled lists with some randomizations, in addition to some static opponents in key places, so there's usually a slim slim of running into something too hard to deal with, or a certainty in a few "scary" locations,or guarding specific items, yet you'll still see frequent "lower level" opponents, even at higher levels. A hybrid system seems far better than any single "simple" answer which ends up being right in one case and wrong in the next.

I was about to propose adjustable scaling in the other levelscaling thread when I saw this poll. Way to go!

Oblivion has some hundreds of global variables and gamesettings. It shouldn't be too hard to add a new variable, let's call it fLevelScalingMult. Every reference to a leveled critter should be assigned a static level x (which must equal the level of one critter on the list). If fLevelScalingMult = 0, then it always spawns a creature with level x. If it's n, then it spawns any creature out of the list which has level between 8-n and 8+n. The fLevelScalingMult variable should best be modifiable by a slider, like game difficulty.

As long as weapons and armor aren't leveled, I don't care.

Harder enemies = better loot. NO SCALING

Sorry missed that one. :facepalm:

If scaling only affected the # of enemies, I'd be in great favor of that.

None of the above. Randomly generated content should be the only scaled content, and even then it should be like this:

• You go to a quest giver. She tells you to fetch a rare ingredient in a cave. This random assignment is generated from the 'easy' pool. The game then looks at your stats and populates a random dungeon with creatures that are below your level and tells you that the ingredient is there.
  
• You go to a different quest giver. He tells you that his brother has been kidnapped and some bandits in a local cave are demanding a ransom. This random assignment is generated from the 'hard' pool. The game looks at your level and makes the bandits the same level as the player except for the leader, who is above the player's level. This quest's difficulty comes from the fact that the bandits are in close proximity to each other so you'll have to fight a few at least.
  
• You go to the town elder. He tells you that a great bear has been harassing the locals. The is generated from the 'hard' pool as well, and because you're facing a single enemy this enemy is several - if not more - levels above you.

Like that. Random content should be level scaled, but only when given its own generated quest. Mobs, faction quests and the MQ should all be set in stone.

And NO EQUIPMENT SCALING.

This thread always seems to keep popping back up. We already know Skyrim will make use of Fallout 3's level scaling for the most part. There will probably be some improvements as BGS likes to innovate in each game they create. Ultimately, you want to feel challenged and see the enemies get tougher as well as yourself. But at the same time, this can't scale everything to the point where the player never feels like he/she is progressing. Players will eventually want to feel powerful and truly have that feeling of being a real hero. Fallout 3's level scaling will work well for Skyrim and definitely will be a huge improvement over Oblivion since scaling will be based a lot on location. The only real obvious NPC level scaling will probably be from the main quest line and radiant storytelling to keep the player challenged. Everywhere else will depend partially on your level and what that area was pre-set at before your character went there. Every RPG has level scaling and it would be a mistake to completely remove it. Balance and fairness would almost be impossible if you come straight out of a prison as a level one and due to no level scaling, the first quest you do forces you to fight against level 30s. That just wouldn't make any sense, so there needs to be some control and guidance in that regard. However, it needs to be placed in the game seamlessly as to not affect and hamper the experience of the player.

Level scaling is just stupid. When I was younger (10, maybe) I played Tibia and I loved how exciting and dangerous it was to venture down into the depths of the caverns... In Oblivion, you're never worried at all. Get rid of the abomination!

excessive leveling makes the world less believeable. it was the one real fail from what was a superb game in terms of Oblivion and the development.

An RPG with major level scaling gets too close to a FPS for my liking. Finishing moves, dynamic snow, great graphics etc are lovely, but I want a believable world like Morrowind.

I just keep wondering if this is a price for the commercial success Bethesda have had. Admitteddly, Morrowind was unforgiving during early play, but I sort of loved that.

Morrowind was a nightmare initially, especially if you didn't know what you were doing. When they said you were a lowly prisoner, you really were a lowly prisoner. I didn't mind that as much as I eventually progressed to the point of being a god killer, but it was definitely frustrating early on.

No scaling at all. If you're too weak to enter a certain area then so be it. Stop pandering to the children.

I'm not looking forward to all the modding I'm gonna have to do to get rid of the leveling; I just hope it's not gonna be too complex to change :brokencomputer:

Just a quick rain check on that - you know that the vaunted Morrowind had level scaling right? Just not nearly to Oblivion's level and (I think) no equipment scaling.

The problem of OB lvl scaling wasn't that it made things easier, it was that it made things harder, jesus christ didn't you people play OB past lvl 10? The whole reason why lvl scaling is in, is to make encounters tougher.

I like challenges, it′s more rewarding when I win a fight. But I also like to feel more powerful as I progress, so...

Yeah I know, I used to mod it. It was almost as annoying then as it is now.

Is that a troll? Oblivion was incredibly easy, and once you got passed level 20 it was like "Ok, so I'm completely invincible now and the challenges are all gone?"

I got fed up of walking through Oblivion gates like it was just another easy dungeon.

The problem with no scaling at all is exactly opposite of this. It is very much possible that a game becomes too easy because of no level scaling, e.g. your character advances much further than game designers anticipated and enemies become too easy. In a free form game that is very likely to happen, only in more linear games can they do away without level scaling. Of course OBs level scaling was ridiculous, but some of it should exist in the game to keep the challenge at all times.

If Bethesda can take a hint from Obsidian and play it like New Vegas.

That is solved by having a properly implemented difficulty slider (Oblivions was terrible and game breaking). If everything feels too weak, turn up the difficulty.

RPG's shouldn't be about having every fight be tailored to you, it should be about tailoring your character to the fight.

Assuming you want most of the NPCs to survive, Kvatch gets much harder at higher levels. I always do Kvatch in the first five levels since, in my experience, non-essential soldiers die real quickly at high levels.