Strazdas said:
So you think it is in-character to go slay dragons at level 1 but die from a crap at level 30.
How do you die from a crab at level 30? Are you a mage who is super slow and just stands there waiting for it to hit you?
When I hit level 30:
As a mage: Oh look, a Cave bear. *Kills it in 2 ice spikes before it reaches me. If it surprises me, I just run, get some distance or FUSRODAH and then Ice spike to death*
As a Warrior: Oh look, a cave bear. *doesn't even bother moving, as I'm able to tank the hits with my armor with minimal damage, as I kill the bear in like 3 or 4 hits*
As a Warrior: Oh look, a modified dragon from Diverse Dragons who is even stronger then usual and can kill me in one hit with the Ice Storm Breath it has *dodge, dodge, wait for it to land, quaff Buff Two-Handed potion I brewed myself SMASH SMASH killed it*
Again, By level 30, the only thing that kills me (unless I'm levelling REALLY stupid or totally neglect my armor and weapons) are huge mobs of enemies, or Elites like BriarHearts.
Now I will TOTALLY concede the dragon point, as I think it's silly you can slay dragons from the very start of the game. But given how unlocking Shouts works, it's a needed gameplay concession. :s
ANd you think its not in character to be killed by a strong enemy inside enemy camp if you are too low level? I think level scaling destroys any kind of in-character roleplaying when it comes to relative power levels.
And may I ask you how it would sense for bandits in Whiterun, a highly populated area that's ripe for robbing people, to be for some reason weaker than bandits in the middle of nowhere along the road to Morthal, which is in a swamp that no one goes to?
Also, how is it in-character for my selfish thief character (for whom I would not start up the main quest EVER) to have to stay in Whiterun and do a lot of quests for people in order to be strong enough to handle a few enemies on the way to Riften to actually BECOME a damn thief? No, he'd just wanna join the thieves guild right away and tell everyone else to go screw themselves.
No, every playtrough would not be the same because you can choose many different paths to advance your character and also (while this is less applicable to skyrim because AI is awful) many different tactics to defeat your opponents. For example on my first playtrough i may be able to defeat level 10 bandit only when im level 10 but on my second one i know how they fight and can defeat them at level 5.
Mechanic-wise, yeah, there are a few ways to play which makes things different.
But I'd still have to go to the same places in relatively the same order.
Whiterun -> greybeards -> Morthal -> solitude -> Riften -> Markarth -> Winterhold
OR, with the level scaling, I can choose to start in Winterhold because I want to do the Mage guild questline first this time because it makes sense for my character to go there, instead of going to that area late in the game.
Ah yes, because its completely realistic roleplay approach for "just a miner" to kill dragons on sight as soon as he leaves his shipwreck.
Which is why I only started the main quest with her when she was level 10, and had some experience finally getting into fights. And, of course, you fight the first Dragon with a whole platoon of soldiers. After which, I had my character go "If there are dragons out there, and I need to fight them...I'll need training", and she then immediately joined the Companions and went on most missions with a follower of some kind (in case), and got a lot of training from them so she could survive a dragon fight on her own, while also trying her best to RUN from dragons early on instead of fight them (unless they hit a town, in which case, yay for guards helping.
Also your complaint about things being the same makes no sense. with level scaling every playtrough is the same because enemies are always the same based on your level. with no level scaling different location exploring would pose different challenges and would actually create more diversity in gameplay.
This is not that bad a point.
But still, if the point of the game is exploration, having one area be the "Easy zone" and other areas get harder, it actually detracts from the exploration.
For example: I did a low-level run of Xenoblade 1 the first time I played it. It was fun. Then I overexplored the Marsh and did all the quests because I loved the place so much and got hugely overlevelled. Suddenly, the next place (The Jungle) was so EASY that I lost all interest in exploring it because literally nothing posed a challenge to me. Now, given that it's a Character Driven RPG/Drama with a linear story, I'm fine with it and fine with exploring areas in a linear order.
With skyrim on the other hand, it's open world, and the point is to explore how you see fit. In that way, making sure things are always moderately challenging and no area is "too hard" or "too boringly easy" is essential, otherwise the player would be barred from some areas early on, and find coming back to others to be tedious and dull.
Anyway, I prefer being able to make each playthrough different by approaching the world in whatever new ways I like. Whether that's joining the mage's guild first, or whether I start with Markarth first, whether I save the civil war for first or for last.
You're free to disagree, I just think that, for me, an open world RPG like Skyrim needs some form of enemy scaling to remain fun all the way through.