ES:Oblivions crappy leveling system

[Saturos]

Ok, I know Oblivion is old news, I'm always one of the last, if not the last person to buy the once latest games but I just had the pleasure of finding out why so many people hate Oblivion's leveling system. I created a character and completed quite a few quests and got leveled up to lv.15. I took on one of the fighters guild quests that involves babysitting...err assiting the guildmasters son to some cavern to find some guy who is apparantly dead.God I hate quests/missions that involve protecting someone.I've never been good at "protecting" others in games to begin with, as they almost always get wasted by my own onslaught accidentally.Anyways, the cavern was full of Savage trolls and ogres with insane speed and strengh. Needless to say, it was ugly. The guy I was supposed to be protecting got knocked unconscious about three times(I was too busy trying to save my own ass).I had to stop and use the wait feature to restore health and Magicka at the end of every encounter. It wasn't but minutes earlier I was slashing through bandits and black bears like so much paper with my uber lv.15 character. I was so pissed I just quit the game without even saving. I do appreciate Oblivions attempt at the Old Skool pen-and-paper style, but I just don't like focusing so much on how to efficiently level my character.I should be more powerful than any creature below lv.15 like the more traditional turn-based RPG's and that's that.Oblivion has such a cool universe toh well.

 

[Dekstar]

That's what mods are for.
www.tessource.net

You're welcome.

 

[Cheomesh]

It's not old school pen and paper style at all.

Everything levels with you.

 

[Saturos]

That's what mods are for.
www.tessource.net

You're welcome.

Yeah, I already know about the mods that exists. I just wanted to try playing it without using any just to see if it's as bad as fans say it is without them. Call that blasphemy if you want. Guess it's time to re-consider however as my unbalanced character is really starting to piss me off.

It's not old school pen and paper style at all.

Everything levels with you.

I know how everything that levels up with you is unique to Oblivion, I just mean the sheer complexity of the whole setup compared to simpler systems employed by games like the PC version of Fable:The Lost Chapters, or the Final Fantasy series. I should have clarified that before.

 

[Cheomesh]

Yeah, I already know about the mods that exists. I just wanted to try playing it without using any just to see if it's as bad as fans say it is without them. Call that blasphemy if you want. Guess it's time to re-consider however as my unbalanced character is really starting to piss me off.


I know how everything that levels up with you is unique to Oblivion, I just mean the sheer complexity of the whole setup compared to simpler systems employed by games like the PC version of Fable:The Lost Chapters, or the Final Fantasy series. I should have clarified that before.

FF8 has that too.

 

[Jintor]

Yes, but at least FF8 was a degree of fun and had a decent story. (And by 'decent' I mean 'needlessly complex'. But the FMVs were cool... and so was Triple Triad.)

 

[Cheomesh]

FF8 is the only one I actually liked.

 

[Jintor]

It was the only one I really played to completion. Like, 100% completion. It took MONTHS.

 

[Saturos]

FF8 has that too.

It does? It's been quite a long time since I last played FF8, but from what I could remember, it didn't really have much of a leveling system at all. Or was that Crono Cross? God I don't even remember anymore, it's been so long. Anyways FF8 probably had the best graphics and story of the FF series on the PSX, but the real clincher for me was the "Draw System". "Borrowing" magic instead of permanently learning the individual spells and not having MP points was really stupid imo.:|Although I will say that FF8 had the best (and coolest) assortment of Blue Magic spells (Quistis' Limit Break)of any other Final Fantasy in the series.

 

[MRG]

FF8 is the only one I actually liked.

I rather enjoyed FF1 myself for the old NES console. God, I spent MONTHS playing that game on a hidden NES system I had back when I was in High School. I'd wake up @ 4:30am and play it until 7:00 when my dad got up. Then i'd hide the NES unit until the next morning and do it all over. Never did get caught...

As for Oblivion, I followed the games development from almost day one. Then I went and dropped $80 on the Collectors Edition. The saying "A fool and his money is soon parted" really applied to me that day. 2 weeks after buying the game, the DVD stopped working. So then I tried to reinstall the game. It would get to to 99% and then crash EVERY time. So I downloaded the ISO & had the original DVD in the drive after installing from the ISO and no problems.

The game itself sucked IMHO. The leveling system was horrible and the vanilla game world was just as dead & empty as was Morrowinds.

Thank god for the mods that were released. Turned a bleah game into a fun game.

-MRG

 

[Saturos]

You need Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, right now.

Thanks sea!:E From what the read-me files say, OOO is just what the doctor ordered! I'll have to go to my college library with my 2GB flash drive in hand and download the latest version ASAP. I can't do it at home on my shitty slow dial-up because a 400+MB file would take more time than I would bother for a mod. Thanks! In fact, I'll try to download every worthwhile mod and plug-in I can while I'm at it.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

These should make Oblivion funner.

 

[Asknoone]

The whole game was crappy.

 

[Deleted member 56031]

I never liked oblivion.

Also FF 8 was the best FF and the only I've bothered to finish.

 

[Unfocused]

I didn't like the leveling system either, but overall I really enjoyed Oblivion.

With my first character that was supposed to be a Battlemage but ended up relying mostly on magic, at some point I created spells that kinda bypassed the whole system, cause they simply killed most mobs in one hit (at least humans) or multiple mobs around me in 1-2 casts. Drained most my magicka, but that's when I slashed 'em with my sword, that drained my magicka, so I was able to cast another spell quickly.

 

[Naph]

You really have to play/enjoy the earlier games to enjoy Oblivion.
Same goes with Hellgate. Most of the reviewers hadn't played Diablo 2 and denounced the game as repetitive etc...

I love Oblivion however, the leveling up system is quite nice. The fact that you have to stick to the several main skills you picked in the jail halls in order to level increases the amount of gameplay. You can't expect to be some expert in alchemy as a warrior or something and still level respectively. And I cant really comprehend your argument with my views of the game to be seriously honest. If you noticed, at any level, everything is attuned to your same level: at level 1, Bandits wear fur; level 25, Bandits wear Glass; level 70, Bandits wear shiny epic shit... The only reason you're "failing" in said quests is because the difficulty level is significantly raised. If you find the game to become hard and arduous, turn down the difficulty just to the point of your liking. The balancing of the difficulty is also monitored as to say. If it's completely down, everything is at the same level. Any harder, the enemies will take on higher levels in quest regions. The hardest also however effects your attire, de-buff effects and durability rates. Oblivion is a vacation from the others, in comparison of the leveling the enemies in ratio to your own. Item effects, as said before, can also help with progression (obviously) in the harder difficulties.

And for levels, they just progress in quest play, you shouldn't have to worry about your level at all or even kill things souly for leveling up; this game pretty much didn't need the system. Oblivion was made purely for the story and side quests.

and that's my two cents.

 

[Unfocused]

You really have to play/enjoy the earlier games to enjoy Oblivion.

Strangely then, I didn't enjoy Morrowind.

 

[Shadow-warrior]

You really have to play/enjoy the earlier games to enjoy Oblivion.

Morrowind is my favourite game ever, I could create a new character right now and dedicate another 200-300 hours on him.

But Oblivion makes me want to fist my own face off the minute that stupid Emperor appears. It just felt wrong and uncomfortable, basicaly the same feeling you get when your boxer shorts ride up your ass crack.

 

[StardogChampion]

You better get used to it since I think they're using a similar system in Fallout 3. The max level in that is 20 too.

Bethesda are one of those companies that are guilty of making their games "accessible", which is industry speak for "making it easy for idiots to play". Bioshock is another example. Fable 2 will probably be the next major example, and maybe Deus Ex 3.

 

[Unfocused]

You better get used to it since I think they're using a similar system in Fallout 3. The max level in that is 20 too.

...****.

 

[Krynn72]

I just adjusted the difficulty slider throughout the game. It basically counteracts it.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Mass Effect has the creatures-level-with-you formula as well. Works great, especially if you start over with your same level character and equipment.

 

[Jintor]

You better get used to it since I think they're using a similar system in Fallout 3. The max level in that is 20 too.

Bethesda are one of those companies that are guilty of making their games "accessible", which is industry speak for "making it easy for idiots to play". Bioshock is another example. Fable 2 will probably be the next major example, and maybe Deus Ex 3.

Jesus **** no. Don't happen to Fallout 3, please.

 

[Cheomesh]

You better get used to it since I think they're using a similar system in Fallout 3. The max level in that is 20 too.

Bethesda are one of those companies that are guilty of making their games "accessible", which is industry speak for "making it easy for idiots to play". Bioshock is another example. Fable 2 will probably be the next major example, and maybe Deus Ex 3.

Man, Beth soft is ****ing stupid. Did they learn nothing?

Well, I'm not buying Fallout 3.

 

[[Matt]]

Never got into oblivion. Whats the point in levelling if everything levels with you? :/

 

[Mutley]

I've tried getting into this game so many times but just can't lol.

 

[Cheomesh]

Never got into oblivion. Whats the point in levelling if everything levels with you? :/

Agreed. The only thing it has going for it is that proportionally they get weaker IIRC. That is, a Level 1 Goblin is more dangerous when you're at level 1 than a Level 10 Goblin when you're at Level 10.

 

[Saturos]

You need Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul, right now.

Thanks sea!!! Your awesome! I took your advice and loaded up OOO's full version and gameplay in Oblivion has improved dramatically! It's not even the same game anymore. Really, I don't know why I just didn't download OOO in the first place? That'll teach me for being ignorant. To bad for the 360 version owners though. *Tsk Tsk* :naughty: Score one for the PC ports!

 

[KagePrototype]

You better get used to it since I think they're using a similar system in Fallout 3. The max level in that is 20 too.

Bethesda are one of those companies that are guilty of making their games "accessible", which is industry speak for "making it easy for idiots to play". Bioshock is another example. Fable 2 will probably be the next major example, and maybe Deus Ex 3.

They're actually changing it a bit, seems more like the level scaling in FF8:

On Difficulty Ramping - In certain areas the level of the creatures and challenges within with be fixed as soon as the character enters, giving players the chance to go back after they've leveled up and basically feel like Billy badass, as opposed to the game leveling with the character to provide constant challenge.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/the-more-you-know/facts-from-the-fallout-3-demo-274035.php

I think the rest of the areas will have fixed difficulty.