Level scaling OR Don't play RPGs then girlie man. - by SubJeff
fett on 10/1/2011 at 19:54
When I went to the Arena, I did pretty well for about 4 rounds, then I started getting my ass kicked until I leveled up a bit. You must be awesome.
Nameless Voice on 10/1/2011 at 20:50
When I went to the arena, the ridiculousness of having them all be fights to the death made me despair as to the idiots who designed that world. No wonder the towns are so sparsely populated when the majority of the population either die in stupid arena fights, or become bandits.
Another case where we should look to Gothic/Risen, which had arena-style fights stop with the enemy getting knocked down at 1hp instead of dying.
Renault on 10/1/2011 at 21:08
Quote Posted by fett
The AI
always seemed about perfect for my skill levels, and it never got too easy.
Damn, that's just really funny.
Kuuso on 10/1/2011 at 21:29
My fondest memories about Oblivion are about me standing on a rock against melee enemies who can't reach me and then spending the next 15 minutes chipping away their health in frustratingly slow pace.
Chade on 10/1/2011 at 21:33
Quote Posted by Phatose
Then you take the stat gain mechanic into play. Enemies get stronger by the same amount now matter how many stats points you gain per level. You gain stats from using minor abilities as well as major ones, but only major ones cause level ups. So, a player who sticks to their class gain more levels, but less stat points versus one who doesn't. Again, a thief who sneaks first and foremost ends up with less stats then one who fights instead.
I'm not disagreeing with you, and I can see that would be a problem if you were primarily concerned about being as powerful as possible. On the other hand, all open ended games I know of have enough loopholes, so that if all you care about is winning, then you can find some stupid way to do so. I have absolutely no problems with requiring good faith on the part of the player, which is why I don't think this is a big deal.
If you actually faithfully role play (a bit of a foreign concept in role playing games, I admit!), the levelling system does a fine job of encouraging a thief character to solve problems through stealth, which I think is a good thing.
steo on 10/1/2011 at 21:58
fett makes a damn good point...
gunsmoke on 11/1/2011 at 00:23
Quote Posted by Brethren
Damn, that's just really funny.
:) I know. It's great, isn't it!
Jason Moyer on 11/1/2011 at 01:44
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
When I went to the arena, the ridiculousness of having them all be fights to the death made me despair as to the idiots who designed that world.
Yeah, whoever designed that earth place where people dueled to the death in arenas was totally ridiculous, too.
Re: Oblivion, you can do things like creating a stealth character who doesn't have sneak as a primary attribute so you'd stay at level 1 forever, but it would take forever to increase your sneak skill to the point where it's useful. Playing as a thief or assassin, the world will scale to your level as your sneak skill increases, but your sneak skill increases so quickly that it doesn't really matter how tough the enemies are.
The levelling system in TES4 was broken, I don't want to sound like I'm defending it. On the other hand, I found it encouraged role playing through reliance on your class skills much more than previous ES games, where every character typically ends up as a hybrid who is overpowered in almost everything.
Phatose on 11/1/2011 at 03:35
You mean you didn't end up as a hybrid who was good at everything?
It wasn't quite as abusable as potion-godhood in Morrowind, but it pretty heavily favored generalists.
Nameless Voice on 11/1/2011 at 03:58
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
Yeah, whoever designed that earth place where people dueled to the death in arenas was totally ridiculous, too.
The Roman gladiators? They didn't
always fight to the death, plus I don't think people were lining up to fight and die, unlike in Oblivion.
