So, levelling in TES has had some… interesting… design choices over the years, from the weird counterintuitive attribute-maxing minigame of major and minor skills in Morrowind and Oblivion, to the much simpler but arguably less-interesting system in Skyrim. And then there’s the contentious issue of level scaling getting its oar in, too.
What would you personally like to see implemented? Where does modern game design stand on the issue? Is skill-based levelling still a sensible idea, or should we be looking in a different direction? (Generic XP? Something else?)
I always liked the “level this skill by using it” thing, and Skyrim is the best way of doing it in any ES. No mucking about with attribute points based on skill gains like Morrowind or Oblivion, making it pretty straightforward how to get stronger in the ways you want.
I would just want more skills, and I don’t want to remove attributes, I just don’t want to have to keep notes on how to level up so I optimize them with the multipliers like previous games. Have those level up just like skills, when they’re used, but slower because more things can level them than a single skill levels.
And also tone down the level scaling. I’m fine with some areas of the game being practically impossible at level 1. And I definitely want weak-ass things I can absolutely pulverize in a low level area when I am max level. That shows progression so much better and in a much more fun way than simply seeing slightly different goons with prefixes and suffixes attached to their generic name.
Level by using is great, sadly it falls apart when crafting comes into the mix.
The traditional systems work great for combat skills, but i hope they come up with either something else or greatly accelerate it for non combat skills. Needing to create 7 million iron daggers doesn’t exactly invoke the vision of a master blacksmith to me.
It’s not necessarily what you’re doing that makes it stupid; it’s that you can craft 100 daggers so much faster than you can swing a sword 100 times or cast 100 spells and gain roughly the same “XP” for it. It just needs to be balanced. Ultima Online, while not perfect, did handle this a bit better than Skyrim with caps and how much gain you got for any particular action. Although, it was also multiplayer.
Transmute iron to gold and craft rings instead. Pretend your character is a rock hound or amateur geologist while you grind.