Juturna said:
What's the 'level scaling' system and why is it so bad?
Did you play Morrowind? If not this will make no sense, if so, then good, get ready to hate something a lot. Ok, here's leveling in a nut shell.
1) Every single creature in the game gains levels as you do. Bandits will also gain levels, and on top of that, will gain better armor as you progress, so you will see bandits wearing Daedric armor, worth 100,000 gold easily, shaking people down for 100 gold and living in a cave. Real immersive, isn't it? At it's core, this makes it so that you will never REALLY level up, because you remain at the same relative strength to everything else that you've always been at, you are as capable of clearing a dungeon at level 1 as you are at level 100. You will never be able to really just walk out and explore the wilderness, because you'll never reach that level where you're no longer that worried about any enemies, so you can just start exploring and finding whatever you find, because animals will be as deadly as ever, no matter what you do. But it gets worse than that.
2) Let's say I use alchemy and sneak a lot. I level up based on that. I am now level 2, with the fighting skills I had at level 1, and am better at making potions and picking locks. Every enemy in the game is now level 2, and is better at killing things. If you play a thief or mage, or even a warrior in a lot of cases, you can quickly find yourself completly outclassed by EVERYTHING. And top of that, there is no way to recover. As you gain fighting skills, you gain levels, and so does everything else.
3) Let's take Kvatch, where you lead about 3-4 guards to fight some daedra. Now, at level 3 or so, this is fun, because the guards are capable of fighting the scamps at such. But at level 12, because all of the enemies are as strong as you, they quickly kill the guards, and leave you fighting several enemies at once that are as strong or stronger than you are. If you don't finish the main quest by level 20, it is literally broken without cheats - there is pretty much no way to get past some of it's fights.
4) Loot is leveled as well. So, let's say at level 1, I work hard, I pray a little, and I do the impossible and I open a chest with lock level "very hard". In Morrowind, Daggerfall, and Arena, and any other RPG, my reward would be just that - a reward, something worth my effort and time. In Oblivion, since you are level 1, you will receive only level 1 loot. That means you just got a pair of shoes, worth 1 gold. Later in the game, you will find 100,000 septim weapons just laying on a table somewhere. Also, it leaves no motivation to enter dungeons. Not only is there no variance in difficulty, leaving you with no sense of foreboding with a dungeon (you know you can take whatever is in there without even checking first), but the loot is scaled as well too, so you can safely pass any dungeon you see and know that there is not a single thing in there significantly better than anything you currently have.
There are more problems with it, but I don't feel like typing anymore. Google it.
so don't wear yourself out on KH with KH1...
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