Oblivion Game Balance

[Kissimurra]

""and this is where we can see the mechanisms the team at Bethesda has in place to maintain game balance: the areas level with you. The fundamental philosophy the Oblivion team had was that the player should be able to go wherever they want whenever they want without having to tediously level up first""

 

From RPG Fans Oblivion Preview

 

Well, what do you guys think about this?

[Switch]

I don't like the sound of that! Are they seriously saying you could just go anywhere in the entire game, into the depths of the deepest dungeons right from the start? That sounds kind of silly to me. I hope I misunderstood. :P

 

Besides, I prefer some areas to be inaccessible at low levels... that's the point of leveling up, isn't it? But what's the point if everything stays the same level as you, same toughness, throughout your character development regardless?

 

o.O

[Dark0ne]

Indeed, it seems they may be taking Morrowind's idea of "levelled NPCs" to the next level, allowing you to venture anywhere and come up with the same challenge each time. While this will mean there will be more combat required, it also doesn't make logical sense..to me atleast.

[ThetaOrionis01]

I think I'm with Marvin on that one...

 

 

Sounds awful

[Kissimurra]

Besides, I prefer some areas to be inaccessible at low levels... that's the point of leveling up, isn't it?

 

I totally agree, I mean I really want to have some challenge when playing, and the reason of leveling up is to gain access to cooler and better creatures, areas, weapons and armor etc.

[Abramul]

It would likely be possible for some NPCs to be fixed-level...It seems to me that one problem MW had was weak NPCs, one you get to level 15 or so.

[Kissimurra]

Yeah, hopefully the games difficulty sliders will fix that in Oblivion, but it still sounds to easy, and then we also have the uber compass.

[Switch]

I'm not afraid of not having any challenge - I'm afraid of there being too much challenge, now that I've heard this. There will undoubtedly be some tough enemies or bosses to overcome. This makes it sound like no matter what you do to make yourself stronger, those enemies will still be just as powerful? Leaving you to die a lot and either fluke it, or work out some sort of strategy... sounds a bit too much like an action game to me.

 

Also, those traps sound somewhat irritating. I hope they're not 100% instakill like those damn things in the Clockwork City.

 

Still, there hasn't been any mention of this whole level balancing issue in any of the previews I've read on elderscrolls.com - where did you get this information from?

[Kissimurra]

RPG Fan Oblivion Preview

[Slaiv]

Well, for those of you concerned about the entire game being accessible at the start, don't worry - just use the MEMod as an example. Sure, you technically could go anywhere, but you'd be guaranteed death in the higher level zones that are normally locked until you're higher anyway. So it's not like it's changing anything...

 

I kind of like the idea for monsters as powerful as you... Morrowind is way too easy once you level a bit.