The elder scrolls against leveling

[ABRIELLE]

Ok so the theme we always see repeating in the Ideas and suggestions for TES V is leveling, so this poll is supposed to show everybody including myself and possibly even Bethesda where exactly we gamers stand on this issue. If you want to vote other and only change a tiny little thing about one of the first 3 answers please don’t, the purpose of this is to see what kind of system the gamers want, not for you guys to express every single detail you want in the leveling system, so just try to pick one of the first three that is closest to what you want as a gamer.

[Logistical]

Static spawn points give you no decent challenge at higher levels, while scaled and leveled spawns tend to make the whole point of leveling moot. Regional placement as an overall design philosophy, with some static, some leveled, and a few specific leveled and scaled antagonists or friendly guild mates would keep the game "interesting" at all levels. The leveled opponents or friends could represent "the competition", who learn and improve like the PC as the game goes, and would be "special cases". The use of multiple mechanisms, used where they work best, seems like it would be far more effective than any one of them applied across the board.

[Jacinte]

That said, there should be static spawns, dynamic leveled spawns, and regions where spawns scale differently than normal. Example: near cities should be 100% unleveled, but the spawns themselves could be dynamic choose one creature from LL0SafeCitySolitude. Roads should likewise be generally safe: no Ogres on the road to kill NPCs unless story demands it. Once you get off the roads, to paths and trails, you should see stronger creatures and begin to see some scaling available. Distant places that have along walk time from civilization should be relatively static and high level. However, some enemies need to continue to gain some HP nothing like the 30 HP a Goblin Warlord does AND increase their stats a bit.

[Algonkin]

Compare the actual game data, and you'd see that Morrowind is 90%+ as reliant on leveled lists as Oblivion. The main difference is that the lists in Morrowind were very diverse, and in Oblivion, they looked more like "copies of a master list with stuff deleted" than "custom-built lists". I'll give Morrowind credit for having well-designed lists, but not for being "static", because it isn’t. And to n0d!, no, I don't want a well-tuned regional system, because such a system can't go far enough to suit me. It doesn't cover scripted changes in what spawns, nor do any of the options even begin to imply addressing the cookie-cutter creature problem. Nor do the options as stated address the massive HP enemies Bethesda seems addicted to adding for high level players.

[Edbert]

It's not so simple a question as to be boiled into 3 simple answers though. There's a lot of potential to stuff it up, and indeed, I have never played a game with a regional type leveling system that didn't stuff it up in some form or another. Sacred and Dungeon Siege stand as perfect examples of badly implemented regional leveling. Nothing worse than defeating massive, seemingly invincible stone elementals, only to face pixie sprites with more damage and hit points a few areas later.

[Gajendra1]

In response to everyone claiming the 3 basic options aren't enough, of course they're not. But for the love of simplicity and actually getting some results out of the poll I stated that voters should ideally pick one of the 3 basic options so that once we know what most of us want we can start building on it, also for all of you who are crying over how morrowind was way more complex in leveling and had leveling lists, spawn points all that stuff; I did not state a system exactly like the one in Morrowind I only used it for comparison for the voter to more easily imagine such a system and make the optimal choice when voting.