I do.
It would make me run and hide. It would make me fear dragons. It would feel like a huge accomplishment when I slay that dragon later on. Most importantly, it would make me feel as though the world evolved according to its own rules.
Good zone /plot design would ensure that you didn't get whacked by a level 50 dragon right out of the turorial. But an early meeting with a high-level dragon, with the choice to fight it or run away, and one of these options obviously wrong, would be amazing.
I really don't get people's need to be able to kill anything at any level / equipment / skillset. What's the point of having enemies at all if there is no danger (other than the danger of forgetting to block once every couple of seconds)?
Enemies should make you consider your options, not just as a player ("how good am I at kiting this guy while throwing fireballs") but as a character in the game ("Should my thief/assassin make a frontal attack on this group of well-armed bandits?"). Fleeing should occasionally be the option that makes most sense, especially if you get in over your head. At the same time, the game world should make enough sense that the more cautious player can work out the probability of getting in over his head, and for the most part avoid this.
At the same time, why is it a problem that, at a high level, some enemies are easy to kill? A lot could be done with low-level enemies to avoid them being boring. Maybe they flee a few times if encountered alone, then gang up on you ten-to-one. Maybe they yield and offer you gold to spare their lives, making them a lot more believable - bandits prey on the weak, right?
Just to be clear: I don't want an easy endgame where you steamroll everything. I want a sense of progression, a believable world, a mortal fear of certain enemies for a large portion of the game, and the freedom to make a mistake. In Oblivion, it was almost impossible to make a bad decision. So, all decisions were meaningless / cosmetic.
The levelling in Fallout 3 was much improved, and the 'intelligent quest system' that they are hinting at (quest dungeon is chosen and populated depending on your level and exploration pattern) sounds worlds better than the Oblivion system, so I'm hopeful. But I would still prefer a game with as little levelling as possible.
The fact that people are calling the Oblivion level scaling 'ok' really bemuses me. It was a huge, huge flaw, and one that negatively effected many other aspects of the game (believable world, character identity, an otherwise reasonably good combat system, thrill of exploration).
You know, something I've noticed between the two sides is the anti-scaled-leveling people are all about "Feeling". Feeling afraid, feeling awestruck at their power, at first, and then at the end feeling bad ass and feeling god like. This game isn't a normal escape to them, its a second life, and they want it to be as horrible as real life, both in how sometimes its too difficult and sometimes its pointlessly easy. They want reality at the cost of gameplay (NOT to say that gameplay takes much of a hit by concentrating on reality, just pointing out that reality comes first and gameplay second)
Pro-S-L people are about the consistency of the game, it should always feel just about the right difficulty, so its never boring. Yeah its unrealistic that the last 10,000 bandits you killed had glass armor, but Pro people are more concerned with having enemies armored enough to survive against them and be a challenge, and also so that these foes will have equally appealing loot after its all over.
I dunno. I guess it just depends which way your coming from. Personally, i tend to remember that ITS JUST A GAME. Its like Mario Bros. Has ANYTHING, EVER made even the slightest bit of sense in those games? no, but thats because they broke reality because gameplay always came first.
Likewise I'd like to say 2 things about TES gameplay. Todd Howard, among others have clearly stated on multiple occasions that the 2 key gameplay elements of TES is sandbox exploration, getting to go and start your quest from whatever starting point you wish and built up from there, and advancement based on what actions you take, rather than on a dumbed down XP system. Thats why my biggest tirade this WHOLE TIME has been that its NOT scaled leveling thats the problems, its the combat, or the way the character levels. These should be tailored around the scaled leveling aspect, because scaled leveling is key to allowing the first key element of TES, freeform, sandbox exploration.
» Mon Jul 26, 2010 6:10 am 
