33
Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion's level scaling was a "mistake", says designer, so why is it in the remaster?
(www.rockpapershotgun.com)
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
33 points (92.3% liked)
Gaming
3597 readers
472 users here now
The Lemmy.zip Gaming Community
For news, discussions and memes!
Community Rules
This community follows the Lemmy.zip Instance rules, with the inclusion of the following rule:
- No NSFW content
You can see Lemmy.zip's rules by going to our Code of Conduct.
What to Expect in Our Code of Conduct:
- Respectful Communication: We strive for positive, constructive dialogue and encourage all members to engage with one another in a courteous and understanding manner.
- Inclusivity: Embracing diversity is at the core of our community. We welcome members from all walks of life and expect interactions to be conducted without discrimination.
- Privacy: Your privacy is paramount. Please respect the privacy of others just as you expect yours to be treated. Personal information should never be shared without consent.
- Integrity: We believe in the integrity of speech and action. As such, honesty is expected, and deceptive practices are strictly prohibited.
- Collaboration: Whether you're here to learn, teach, or simply engage in discussion, collaboration is key. Support your fellow members and contribute positively to shared learning and growth.
If you enjoy reading legal stuff, you can check it all out at legal.lemmy.zip.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
This is why rock paper shotguns sucks ass and I never take their articles seriously.
Bethesda DID fix the leveling system in the remasters. The problem was not the level scaling, it was the fact you had to train every single major skill perfectly or else you would miss out on points and become underpowered compared to the enemies which have leveled with you. So if you leveled wrongly you would have anywhere between 5? To 10 points ti spend and if you did correctly you had more... the remaster fixes this by always giving you the max amounts of points to spend each level you gain.
I can spend an entire paragraph explaining why but this article Probably does it better
No, the problem was the scaling. Even if you leveled perfectly you'd be out matched eventually.
I usually went Arena first in the OG oblivion, leveled up my character as much as possible (as perfect as possible) and then started doing quests. It was a nice controlled environment to level combat skills in. I was high level but never encountered any major problems at that point. I mean sure.. if i only focused on blade (and maxed it to 100) and suddenly started using bow and arrow (which is at 15 or 20) then i'd have a bad time but thats how Morrowind did it too. Arguably even worse in Morrowind lol, god i hated that you could miss swings (but at the time i guess a lot of RPG's worked that way). But if i went into the world immediately and just started doing quests i was screwed since its almost impossible to level perfectly in an uncontrolled environment.
What i really like about the remaster is that i can just start doing quests immediately without having to worry about ruining my character. I feel I have much more control of how I want to build my character now, in the original i felt i had to play by a playbook for leveling and when i was high lvl enough i could finally start enjoying the game.
Oblivion without mods is traight up unplayable without an unhealthy amount of metagaming because of this.
But to be fair the metagaming couldn't help with the crashes either way...
Because it's a visual remaster with a few minor tweaks, not a remake.
so why is it in the remaster?
Because Bethesda doesn't care how shit their games are. Every skyrim release has come packaged with the same bugs and errors that the original 360 disk has when they first released it, all they do is step up the graphics for nicer TVs. If they were a company that cared about their product, they'd fix the problems at the root for each re-release or add more to the game. Imagine how many more hours we'd all get to look at the gorgeous textures if they put fo4's crafting management into it after they "rebuilt the game from the ground up to test our new engine" imagine how much more quest you could have if they added 15min more story every time they made a new release.
We could've had gold and instead we get dragon shit.
I'm aware they do patches, that doesn't change the fact that after 14 years of them actively releasing and supporting it, there are still a bethesda level of bugs to it. At this point there's no reason the community patch should be a mandatory install. They don't fix it, they don't add to it, they just port the patches over with it and charge $10 more than the last.
- send textures through upscaling algos to make higher res
- update animations
- copy/paste everything else
- release remaster
- profit
I disagree, I don’t like when they alter the game away from the original, just make a new game then. Some of us want the remasters to have as much original content as possible, flaws and all. I like that this is essentially the same game I fell in love. I can always mod it to be what I prefer later.