I did say that, yes - but I didn't see anyone try to take on a dragon. As far as I'm aware there were no dragons in the build I played, or at least we didn't have time to find any. People that died in normal combat with bandits or the like were generally really uncoordinated. The guy I saw get flattened by a giant could have been the best or the worst player in the world though; either way he got squashed in one hit.

There was 1 dragon in the Alpha Build you played. It was in

Exactly. I don't understand why we can't just have dangerous monsters in certain places (more than just 5-10 levels above you). You walk in one time and die and then you think "right, I'd better not go in there until i'm stronger". It's not that complicated, it's been happening since the dawn of the rpg. Instead it all has to be made really easy and the challenges all within limitation so little jimmy doesn't have a breakdown, because he's an idiot that thinks he should be able to go into the claws of hell as a level one with a rusty iron sword.

There are two reasons why they do it like that:

• They are trying to create an open world. However, how open is it really if there are impassable obstacles in the form of enemies way too tough to even attempt? People ran into this issue in New Vegas - they felt as if they were guided through an invisible corridor of areas they can handle... and they didn't like it.
  
• Replay value - it's that much less repetitive if you don't know upfront what you will encounter in the dungeon. Radiant story adds to this as well.

Because traditional RPGs aren't open world, and you have to try and cater for, well, it being open. You used to be controlled by how deep you went, but that's no longer the case.

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So, the way I read it is that dungeons are "preset" to be within a certain lelel range, say lvl 10-15, and if you enter that when you are lvl 3, it will be a level 10. If you enter it at 18, the dungeon will be maxed at 15. If you enter it at 13, it matches your level?

Also, does anyone know... are the dungeons preset before you enter them, so dungeon "XX" is always a level 10-15 dungeon, or are the preset ranges themselves randomly calculated when you enter the dungeon?

The preset ranges are fixed, but not for the whole dungeons. Rather, it is fixed for the type of enemies you will encounter in the dungeon.
When you enter a dungeon the dungeon remembers what level you entered as. It applies that level to the level range of every hostile within the dungeon, which is dependent on the type of hostile.
So you can encounter draugr that scale differently from the bandits within the same cave, but all the draugr will be scaled the same within that one cave, regardless how many times you enter and leave it and how many times they respawn (same for the bandits).

they're preset
Think of it as
You enter a high level forest area
Most if not all of the dungeons there will be high level
They dont randomly calculate though
So maybe in the future it will actually get reptitive
Who knows :shrug:

Edit: if u want to know if items are preset as well
I remember they have this thing called "epic loot" so yes u can be rewarded for exploring higher level dungeons mainly becuase of the high level treasure...
Also enemies like bandits no longer have scaled armor
Bandits will always remain with iron and leather and fur
Maybe bandit bosses will have something better every now and then but it will be lower level
Same deal with orc mauraders
They always have steel/iron heavy armor

I accept what you're saying. And for the most part I honestly like this system. However, I still feel that 1/10 dungeons should not have this system placed upon them, and just have set, high level enemies.

Thanks for the replys y'all, I think I understand. So enemies in a specified dungeon will always have the same "preset" difficulty level, but different "types" of enemies may have a different preset level applied to them ie one group by 5-10 and another be 10-15, and that dungeon will always have those difficulty levels applied to them from the start of the game?



It would be good if certain quest dungeons were this way, but then there would be the invariable litany of complaints from speed-gamers who would complain they have to level up before finishing the game in 7 hours.



Edit: I'm not being real clear. Say I start the game. I go left, and I find a dungeon with bandits levelled 5-10. If I start the game anew, go back to the same dungeon, will they still be 5-10 level bandits? Does anyone know?