I read an article, and I admit I don't know how accurate it is, that in Skyrim the player will level faster and I can only assume they mean faster than Oblivion. I really wouldn't like that. I think you level way too fast in Oblivion and most modern RPGs, it takes a lot of the fun out of it for me. In my opinion it should be something you have to work at a bit, not grind, but work at. It should be a special occasion, not something that happens every day.

But in just about every RPG I can think of in the last nine years or so you level up very quickly and I have to ask who likes it like that? It seems like one of the very first mods that comes out for any game is often a level slow mod, so who are they catering for? Do they imagine the casual console gamers will just get bored if they have to work too hard to level up and earn gold (that's a whole different subject)? If that's the case why couldn't they have an option in the game preferences so you could set it yourself, something like Normal, Slow, and Very Slow levelling?

But everyone's different of course so tell me what you think, and let me know what your platform is so hopefully someone will take note. I'm on the 360 myself and I would set it to Very Slow Levelling and Very Low Loot.

Many thanks.

The 'faster' option is slightly biased - not voting until you change that.

Fair enough.

I think it was just right in Oblivion.

Right, thanks - I'll vote now.

Some of the skills in Oblivon fell right (the weapon skills, well maybe not so much marksman, that takes ages to level) but others felt more like grinding (self-targeted spells).

And I hate the fact that you should wield a dagger rather than a claymore if you want to boost your Blade skill. Why can't you just level up in the skill depending on damage dealt as opposed to "times you have struck your enemy"??? If skills worked that way you wouldn't have to be punished for using a long-time Detect Life spell instead of using a short-time one every 10 seconds.
The Mercantile skill comes to mind as well. Without a mod like Living Economy, you're going to have to sell one item at a time if you want the most out of it (since this is an RPG, you probably want the most out of anything - that way you get better, and that's what's progressions is about).

In general, I don't think the leveling pace is bad - but the way you level in your skills are.

If they changed this, you would still "get better at what you do", just as Todd likes it to be. It would just be a lot less repetive grinding and weird choices just to level your skills the quickest way.

To me, leveling was just right in Oblivion.

I'm sure it will feel very good in Skyrim. I'm thinking you would need about 100 hours of game time to get all 50 perks.

I remember from oblivion that 100 hours was about when I started a new character.

GCD.

/thread.

Honestly, It'sn ot su much about the speed of leveling, as much as the difference it makes in the game.
Hell, some games I played, you were barely any different from lvl 5 to lvl 10.
I just want the levels to make a big change, and want to feel like I need to level up.
That's all. I don't even care if I gain 2 levels while fighting a single enemy.

From what I understand it was through balancing that they came to the conclusion that you needed to lvl faster. I think it comes with the fact that there's greater emphesis on the fact that you specialize and personalize through upgrades, and so in the beginning you need to lvl faster in order quickly go down a certain path, I think leveling is probably only quick at the beginning, and probably only if you specialize in a few skills, given that the higher some skills are, the more they contribute to the overall level, so if someone doesn't specialize, they actually level slowly. I don't know how it's gonna function in game, but I'm not too worried, if leveling up has become part of customization ,than I'll be fine with it going quickly at the beginning.

Naturally, it's gonna level slower the higher you get in level regardless.

It's so long since I played with the vanilla levellng system in Oblivion that I can't really remember what it was like

Didn't they already said that you level much faster at the beginning and slower at higher levels?
Its faster at the beginning so you can built up your character.
Since there are no classes, you define your character by 'quickly' getting the first perks at the first few levels.
Then, when you reach higher levels it is slowed down.

I think it was said that you advance very fast up to level 10 or so, then it slows down. But I can't remember it that well.
So I think you can't compare the leveling system to Oblivion or any other rpg.
Its different and I think its a very good idea to get rid of classes and level up fast at the beginning.

PS: Because of this I haven't voted because I just don't know what to vote.

Todd said we'd level faster ecause there are more levels, well I LEVELED FAST AS HELL IN OBLIVION!!!

There is no way of comparing it. Exactly one part of your character actually changed when you leveled up: your attributes. Otherwise a level 1 character was no different from a level 100 character if the latter had the same skill levels.
Faster leveling simply means that you won't have to raise 10 skills to get to the next level, but only 5 or something like that (speaking in Oblivion terms now).
Now imagine this: Oblivion where you level up after 5 skill raises, but the maximum modifier for attributes isn't +5, but +2. That's faster leveling, but in the end, it takes longer for your character to get stronger.

So, yeah, not comparable.

In Skyrim, of course, leveling is much more important because each new level gives you a new perk that helps define your character.

Well, given the reason of "WHY" its faster, it doesn't bother me. Fearrabbit does a better job at explaining what I'm trying to convey right now. I'm currently pretty sleep deprived and cannot go into too good of detail.

How you play can also effect how fast you level,you will have some control over it.
And besides,the higher your skill gets in a certain skill,the longer it will take each time.

Oblivion had a good rate for the amount of content in it

EDIT: In Skyrim you dont have a class, I hope this doesn't mean a Fallout-esque 'kill creatures for xp' system

I recall how it seemed to take days of playing at first to level in MW, but by the time you hit level 15 or so, you kept getting more and more levels every time you cleared a dungeon or did a quest. That "sweet spot" between L5 and L15 just didn't seem to last long enough, somehow. Of course, you could level MUCH faster with paid training, so the rate was controllable to a degree, in one direction.

Can we get a "Man, I don't care!" option?


It's not like we can really make any decent comparisons anyway, what with the Bethesda Way? of "scrap everything and start over every game" in action. Totally overhauled leveling method, perks, revamped skills...and IIRC one of the Game Informer articles outlined how they've adjusted to the "overall scale" of leveling so that level 50 is more or less equal to level 20 (or did they say 30?) in Oblivion. So basically, until the game comes out hoping we're not too far "apples to oranges" is the best comparison we can pull. :shrug:

Agreed

You level faster because they increased the level range for what the game was built around. In Oblivion it was roughly 1-25, now its 1-50.

Effectively, it should end up feeling the same. The reason they did this was so that you could get perks faster and diversify yourself more (you get 50 perks instead of 25).

I appreciate the people who explained why the levelling is faster and the difference between the new system and Oblivion. It doesn't sound so bad now. Especially if it really slows down at highter levels.

I assumed people who didn't care simply wouldn't vote or reply. Voting is not compulsory.

Honestly I like faster leveling.
Perks, skills and working out other Skinner-ist "challenges", by repeatedly performing the same acts for XP or other boosts bores me.
The pleasure release of such gameplay is just more and more annoying to me nowdays.
So I'd rather have leveling quick and full of choices, that way I can get on with the story and characters which give me much greater pleasure.

I like levelling up really fast, especially at low levels, makes me feel like I've done something in the game. And seeing myself at high levels makes me :celebration: