As many of you already are aware, all items are scaled in Skyrim. I think the only exceptions are the dragon priest masks/daedric artifacts (Correct me if I am wrong). I am curious why Bethesda chose this approach when it was HEAVILY rejected in its first installment - Oblivion. In Fallout 3 & Fallout New Vegas there was some item scaling. However, all the unique items were not scaled. Their damage was only effected by your weapon proficiency and perks. The level in which you acquired said weapons had no impact on their quality. Now it seems we are to repeat the same unwanted loot system that plagued Oblivion. Players have to wait until level 46+ in order to acquire unique items unless they want them to be completely nerfed.

Not only does this discourage exploration but it also discourages the player from getting involved in the factions within the game. Why enter a dungeon when there is no risk/reward? Why climb a faction questline to receive a item that will be inferior in 5 levels? As shallow as it seems, players need incentive to do things. Its a basic concept that has been around in the RPG world for decades.

To complicate things further, we have a crafting system which allows the player to create items that are infinitely better than anything that exists in Skyrim (Including weapons forged by the gods) Speaking of which, why are the daedric artifacts so terrible? Its as if they were aimed towards players levels 5-10. Bethesda said they expected the general population to complete the game around 30-50 so why then are these "artifacts" no where near end-game quality?

Players say "Don't use this/that", "The game is not about min/max, its about roleplaying", well my response to that is, how can I immerse myself in a world that contradicts itself everywhere I turn? Players crafting better weapons than gods? Items that have different stats when the player acquires them? Skill trees that I have to completely avoid so that I don't completely break the game?

I feel exsactly the same....and nearly as soon as I realised there was this level of scaling, I suddenlly lost interest in the game and havent picked it up since.

i agree, i hate people saying this game is not about min/max. it is pretty much saying "hey, don't use whatever provided within game to it's full potential, and further more you should force yourself to go for something useless like lockpicking perks."

why is the game's challenge is not to be provided by the game itself. why is the game's challenge is to nerf myself. it is like i end up being the game designing and design my own game and challenge, instead of i am able to role play adventure and face unknown challenge provided in game.

and also the leveled item svck, i hate that as well. it made me feel like i have punishment on myself if i finish something earlier like Thieve Guild even my char was at first role play thieve

Yeah I got dawnstar at an early level, and it BLOWS.

I made a sword that was TWICE as good as it.

And this is some artifact level item?!?

Daedric Artifacts dont scale.

I guess im the one that has to point out the obvious here?

Oblivion is most certainly NOT the first installment, there were three game out before oblivion, 2 of them being superior games to oblivion..

Correct, so why then are their stats equivalent to items that are found naturally around level 5-10? Artifacts should blow away mortal craftsmanship. Their damage/armor should be the best in the game or equivalent to anything you can find at level 50+.

There was item scaling in Morrowind? Not that I recall. I could find Goldbrand a level 1 & it would have the same stats as if I found it at level 30+. Oblivion is the first TES game to base items stats directly proportional to your level.

Morrowind had generic loot scaling up to lvl 11 (after which you got the best random loot) and some creature scaling up to around lvl 15.

You dont notice it since by the time you are powerful, you have all the strongest stuff spawning in the game already. It also only effect random spawns and random loot and all the static items make up for it.

You folks are misunderstanding each other. When the OP speaks of "installment" he's really saying that Oblivion was the first time that item scaling was used in the Elder Scrolls series.

I use the enchanting/alchem loop to get them up to their proper levels. Not ideal, but it works for all the ones that can be upgraded. Dump the level scaling on unique items I say. Bunch of massive BS.

Oh, and OP, neither FO had level scaling on unique items, IIRC.

Edit: The only problem I see with this is that, given the recent and numerous threads on being 'overpowered', we'll end up with the front page of "I picked up XYZ item, and now I'm invincible, Bethesda, y u do this?" threads.

But .. but people will always complain because they dont seem to see how complicated this is.

If daedric artefacts are super powerful they will complain that they've acquired one and now the game is too easy.
If it is super hard to get a super powerful Daedric artefact, they will complain that the game is too hard and unfair.
If the game tells you: "you cant start this quest until level 25" they will complain that that is immersion breaking.
If smithing is fixed and it is impossible to get to high levels by smithing leather and iron gear, they will complain that it takes too long to level.
If item scaling is removed completely, people will complain about the game being a chaotic and unpredictable mess.
If there are too many powerful items in fixed positions in the game, they will complain that the game has no replay value, as powerful items are always in the same place.
If item scaling for unique items is removed, they will complain because they got too powerful items too early or weak items late in the game.
If enemies in dungeons are scaled along with your level, they will complain that every dungeon can be completed at any level.
If enemies in dungeons are not scaled along with your level, they will complain that finding a challenging dungeon is a thing of trial and error.

and so on ...

It was reported by http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/1407/article/bethesda-reveals-new-skyrim-facts/ that a French edition of Playstation Magazine reported that "Unique weapons will possess hidden effects that you will only discover upon using the weapon." I'm not making any claims myself, but maybe the Daedric artifacts aren't as terrible as you think.

This is a list of the leveled items http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Leveled_Items in Skyrim. It doesn't seem nearly as bad as Oblivion's list but still still anoys the heck out of me. :flame:

I have no idea why they thought it would be a good idea to implement this again after the crap storm they created for themselves with it in Oblivion. :facepalm:

I'd like to point out that not only did they make the same mistake of making these unique artifacts scale, because why should someone who manages to do x quest at level one be congratulated with a standard version of the armor, no going here have this instead so you can outgrow it and regret not doing quests in this certain path only. But even along single quest lines some items you get max out at a higher level then the later scaled items. A certain sword half way though one chain of quest maxing out at 46 yet an armor at the end of the chain maxing out at 32. What planet does that make the slightest bit of sense on? Did they use or any of the members have any common sense when doing these things or did they just feel like wasting time to make different versions of unique items (and sadly no unenchanted versions so you can get the look with the enchant you want) instead of fleshing out the quests, dialogue, action scripts? Oh and of course with scaled level loot just like oblivion it comes with the bug where it may not recognise your level properly giving you an inferior version, surpised I've not noticed any yet where the highest level ones aren't actually the best, you get them at level 5 only.

None of that would be an issue if it was just a set unique item.