quote Alicia n John

They attempted to design the game to suit non-rpg regulars. Thier attempt was only partially sucessfull as is evident by the holes and problems which many have discovered in the leveling system. Your statement (as is much of what you write) was based on an incorrect assumption. You assumed that I considerd thier design a sucess.

I think it sucks. You think it rules. I think it takes away from the immersion of the game to have to plan levels or fiddle with some stupid slider.

quote ahagglun

The only bad thing about the leveling system (besides the fact that you seldom are able to kill stuff in one hit) is that you can't level too heavily from non-combat skills. I think this is what everyone's been saying. What this means is that you can't level for the sake of leveling. You shouldn't pump alchemy 7 times just to get a level-up and you shouldn't cast night-eye 100 times to level illusion. That's when you'll get into trouble.

But this is a small tradeoff for a game that more adequately balances the good guys vs. the bad. If you mix combat skills with non-combat skills and level them all naturally, the game will not be too hard. In fact, it'll be just about right. If you meticulously plan your leveling, you'll find yourself a god once again.

Incidently, I don't think the leveling system has anything to do with encouraging non RPGers to play it. I think it had more to do with how easy Morrowind became after you reached a certain level. Their remedy for this problem isn't perfect, but I would humbly ask that anyone who doesn't like it suggest a better alternative.

Someone is a bit touchy.

No you can't exactly be a lvl 2 and accidently run into a room full of lvl 12 enemies, but there are plenty of places you can go to that can be too much for your lowly character to handle (painted trolls anyone?). As far as the complexity of the leveling system itself, I have seen games with much more complex and much less complex leveling systems. In Morrowind the levels of the enemies were pretty much fixed. In Oblivion the level of the enemies is dynamic being roughly around your level. Yes that means you can go just about anywhere in Oblivion, but even at level 36 I still encounter some pretty tough fights. No its not perfect, but as far as I'm concerned it is better than Morrowind.

Final note, the stupid slider was in Morrowind too.