As always, Acadian hits the nail on the head. It seems a bit condescending to suggest that after five years of playing the game I may understand the mechanics of efficient leveling and still not know where the difficulty slider is.

While I recognize that the system is flawed, I play on the console so there’s nothing I can do about it. That said, it might seem strange to many of you that grinding character skills through levels is something that I have always enjoyed about TES games. I like having a character gain mastery of a skill through the time and effort spent in the practice of it. I think it only logical that a character who desires proficiency with a weapon, spell, or stealth technique delineates time each day to engage in the practice of those skills.

@Eye of Nocturnal – I am so glad that you clarified your earlier post because it did sound judgmental to me. The way that I play the game is not for everyone, but it suits me. Just because we don’t enjoy the game the same way doesn’t mean that we don’t enjoy it equally.

I don't think I've played more than a couple hours of Oblivion without Kubo's Character Advancement System. It was literally the first mod I ever found for Oblivion and not only have I used it ever since, it got me addicted to mod hunting in my quest to build the perfect game. Not sure I even remember how vanilla leveling works.

I completely agree with you, I'm a roleplayer like many others here. I enjoy my game hardcoe and realistic however the difficulty slider doesn't help at all :S

Goblins don't scale, no. They're always level 1 (Str 30, Agi 40, End 40, Health 15, etc, etc). However, Goblin Shamans do (from 5 levels below player level to player level).

Hmmmm...

The goblin types that you encounter will change as you level. So you'll be seeing Skirmishers at level 6, Berserkers at 10, etc. Also, the tribal goblins do in fact level.

Hahah, me too

I get around the broken leveling system by spending hours upon hours fighting conjured skeletons behind the safety of my inn room door.

Me: Hmmmm... I need more endurance this level.
*Equips shield and Heavy armour*
*Summon Skeleton*
*Whack Skeleton three times*
Skeleton: Raarrghh!!! *viciously attacks*
Player Character: *Hunkers down behind his shield to withstand a withering assault*

Two Hours Later

Me: Phew!! All done... Now lets see what else I need...Hmm... Strength is still pretty low.

*Unequips shield*
*Summon Skeleton*
*Punch Skeleton in the head repeatedly*
...
...
...

I would find that unbelievably boring to do. In my opinion, you could have spent those same two hours doing something interesting with your character.

I played a MMORPG for a while that was like that, with a lot of grinding. Hated it. I never understood the concept of leveling for the sake of getting to a still higher level. I watched people doing that, and you'd think that when they got to God Level 2000, they'd at least settle in and have some fun... But no, they just found another reason to grind...

On the other hand, it's your boat, so whatever floats it...

Personally, my strategy is to make sure most of the skill raises that result in leveling are in one primary skill, or maybe two. The higher level enemies aren't so bad if you've got the higher level skill powers, and/or the damage or resistance bonuses that come along with higher weapon/armor skills. Just about any skill has a strategy that goes along with getting it up higher than all your other skills, and it's fun to develop that strategy.

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In that you and I are in agreement... it is tedious. Thankfully with my short attention span I never really continue with it once Ive gained a few skill levels and they start to take more time. Though I did find that one house with 3 (or was it four) magically summoned, infinitely respawning imps was a great place to level armour and block skills. :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes: :yes:

Oh and it most certainly does not float my boat. I dont even have a boat. If i were in possession of a boat it would mean:

a) I am rather wealthy and thus can afford a nice computer that could run oblivion with leveling mods, thereby circumventing the problem.
B) A recently deceased wealthy relative left me a boat. Now I am in mourning and it is clearly not a time to concern myself with efficient leveling in a videogame.
c) I won some sort of lottery and now find myself in ownership of a boat. Woohhhooo!! I have a boat!! This is no time for videogamesImGoingSunabathingonTheDecckk!!!!!!!!

Therefore I find your "Boat" postulations both superfluous and erroneous!!

Jokes aside I'd better get back to Oblivion... those conjured skeletons wont whack themselves.. hahaha

It was threads like this one that altered my game play over time.

With Daggerfall, I was a serious power player. Even the Daggerfall manual suggested renting a room at an Inn and grinding for a month (game time) before starting to adventure. Then I read a series of posts in the Daggerfall usenet-newsgroup (there was no gamesas forum back then) about playing dead-is-dead. I angrily resisted for a while but then tried it. It changed everything.

Over and over, rants about "why does everyone insist you have to do duptydup" have made me think and sometimes changed how I play.

The level system for me has been profoundly satisfying. All of my characters have zapped up to high levels very rapidly. My last character, Angel, at level 39 and on default difficulty, could (and did) destroy armies of deadra with no weapon, no armor, no enchantments; just her spells and potions. My dead-is-dead rule applied to Angel although I quit playing while she was still alive.

If the dangers seem high at high level (and they are) the rewards are also high. That's kinda what I want from a game.