I’m starting a pair of topics before we end up reading on the news about a forum poster who hunted down another forum poster and killed him dead for posting an achievement list in the Skyrim announcement topic.
This is the SPOILER-FREE topic for discussion. Do not talk about were-otters, Swords of Lust, or the surprise voiceover by Ruth Buzzi as the Queen of the Cheese Miners in the final segment here. Take that stuff to the Skyrim Spoiler Topic right here!
If you want to comment on something that might be a little spoilery, stick it in spoiler tags to be safe. But follow Wheaton’s Law and don’t include real significant spoilers at all, please – that’s what the other topic is for.
Well, honestly, I’d love to see some impressions from people who loved Fallout 3 but hated Oblivion. For example, did they fix the screwy way the character system / level-scaling encouraged you to choose things you didn’t want as your primary skills?
I’m quite interested in the levelling system as well, especially since reports are that its more a perk based system, where all the levels really do is allow you to select a new perk. Sounds very nice, actually.
Bethesda have said that level scaling is similar to what they had in Fallout 3, and not like Oblivion. And AFAIK, you don’t choose any “major” skills in Skyrim (you just get better at whatever you use), so there would be no reason to stay away from the skills that you want, anyway.
I don’t quite remember how level scaling worked in FO3. Wasn’t it that the level range of an area got set the first time you went there? Does that mean that if someone decides to thoroughly explore the lands of Skyrim early on they’ll be setting the whole place to be bog easy once they’re higher level? Or do I misrememememember?
It’s sort of like that, except that in addition, areas also have minimum and maximum levels. In Fallout 3, I think the range was generally about five levels. So dungeon A might be for levels 10-15, and if you went there at level 3, it would forevermore lock that dungeon to level 10. That would still be way too tough for a level 3 character, so you’d probably have to come back to that content later. When you did eventually come back, it would still be level 10, even if you had, in the meantime, leveled yourself up to 15.
So basically, Fallout’s level scaling provided some wiggle room for the game to adjust content to be more suitable for your level, but maintained the things that people like most about non-scaling content–the ability to find areas where you are out of your league, and the ability to come back later and destroy those areas like the fist of an angry god. It also eliminated the thing that people hated most about Oblivion’s scaling content–coming back to an area later and finding that it was still just as tough as it was the last time, because the area had leveled up with you. Also, no random townsfolk in Daedric armor, etc.
