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Slimebeast on 19 April 2011
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rocketpig said:
Slimebeast said:
rocketpig said:

I understand level scaling but there should be limitations and creatures should have a ceiling and floor to their abilities (eg. wolves are level 1-5, cat-things are 10-15, giant rats are 7-12, etc). That way you can heavily dissuade people from entering certain areas but you don't make it impossible if they're REALLY adventurous. You also avoid letting high level characters get their ass kicked by a pack of wolves when they're not a full strength.

Some areas should be easier than others. It doesn't make sense for it to be otherwise and I found Oblivion's "regress to the mean" approach to creatures to be VERY off-putting. It took a lot away from the game and adventuring.

Actually that's exactly how Oblivion's level scaling worked but when simple bandits wore elite gear like glass and daedra armor on top of that people felt like the primitive enemies were too powerful anyway.

But if you're putting elite gear on bandits, they're didn't really use the system I just explained. Bandits shouldn't be a challenge at all once you're a few levels into the game and they should only wear/drop the most basic of gear.

Because they're, well, bandits.

I agree with you 100%. Thats the mistake I think Bethesda made with Oblivion, they made bandits and other creatures appear even more leveled than they actually were by equipping them with elite gear. Actually the bandits didn't get that much stronger with daedra, ebony and glass armor but they appeared ridiculously overpowered and unrealistic. Because fact is that almost no creature in Oblivion did level just as fast as the player character, they always lagged behind you more or less (except for a couple of important bosses that they tried to keep very hard regardless of your level).

Their basic level scaling was smart and well balanced, since it was exactly balanced like your example. So conclusion is, which many people now don't want to realize is that level scaling is still a good and in fact essential thing for overall game balance in an open world, it was just a bit poorly managed (and presented) in Oblivion.