Level Scaling

Originally Posted by Maylander
I'm currently level 32 or so on my 2nd character, so I can explain a bit about the scaling.

- Loot and enemies are level scaled, though it seems to involve mainly renaming of enemies. Also, regions and dungeons seem to scale as well. Typically at low levels you bump into "Bandit" while at higher levels you bump into "Bandit Something" or "Something Bandit" which has more hitpoints, more damage and better gear.
- There are certain hand placed items in the game, mainly involved in major quest lines such as guild quests.
- Low level enemies still exist at higher levels. Wolves are a good example.

An example of hand placed items (mage loot):

Spoiler

During the final stages of the Mage Guild, you get access to a robe and helmet that are simply incredible. I think I managed to get them at level 15 or so, and they blow every other item I've seen completely out of the water - even stuff from Daedric quests, though I haven't completed them all yet.

Originally Posted by Thiraury

Spoiler

Could you please tell me which items you're talking about, I'm done with the mageguild(I think) and have gotten the archmage robe but nothing really awesome. Okey, the robe is pretty awesome but haven't found a helmet

Sure thing:

Well, I re-did a quest at level 30 that I picked up very early in the game and all the foes there had full suits of elven armor! They had the usual assortment of weapons except for their commander, though. I wonder if this was done on purpose as it makes sense given who they are. I wish I had gone there early to see if they would have had that armor back then or if this is some scaling effect.

Thank you maylander!

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
Well, I re-did a quest at level 30 that I picked up very early in the game and all the foes there had full suits of elven armor! They had the usual assortment of weapons except for their commander, though. I wonder if this was done on purpose as it makes sense given who they are. I wish I had gone there early to see if they would have had that armor back then or if this is some scaling effect.

I think I know what quest you're talking about, too bad i also got it at a low level and finished it now at 30 since it was pretty far away from civilisation . But I think they would have elven armor even at lowlevel because as you said it just makes sense for them to have it.

Almost lv50 now and the level scaling is pissing me off. Whenever I join a new faction its entry-level quests are level-scaled which means I can't really afford to use its untrained faction appropriate skills(ie spells in winterhold college quests are useless if you've already done companions and thieves/db ) or I'll get my ass kicked. Funnily enough your forced companions for these quests don't seem to be level-scaled so they die in one hit.

No bandits in fancy daedric outfits no, you just see them in lavish gold armor .

Another shitty aspect is that nearly every handplaced weapon in the gameworld seems be made of either steel or iron but random containers will spawn ebony goodies like it's kwanza. Never seen a shop or a person carry an item that was way above my power level and worth spending money on or stealing.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Sure thing:

Spoiler

It's called Morokei Mask, and you get it by defeating a guy called Morokei. He's the lich that has the Staff of Magnus. Pretty hard to beat, shoots chain lightning all over the place. Rather annoying fellow, hard to miss. It'll give you a whooping 100% increased mana regeneration. Small note: It's somewhat bugged, so sometimes your face will vanish when you equip it + Archmage Robe. Doing a fast save + load will fix it though, so it's only a graphical glitch.

Hmm I can't actually equip both at once, when I equip one the other de-equips, I figured the robe counts as headgear to?

Daniel.

Originally Posted by KapitanUnterhosen
Almost lv50 now and the level scaling is pissing me off. Whenever I join a new faction its entry-level quests are level-scaled which means I can't really afford to use its untrained faction appropriate skills(ie spells in winterhold college quests are useless if you've already done companions and thieves/db ) or I'll get my ass kicked.

Yeah, the faction quests are scaled heavily. I just almost finished the Thieves Guild quest (almost, because, eh, spoilers) and there were some quite interesting occurrences.
At level 32 and roughly in the middle of the questline, I went through a draugr dungeon with approx 10 draugh deathlords to fight.
Penultimate quest was full of trash mobs who were far more dangerous than the final boss.
On the other hand, around the beginning of the second half there was this bodyguard I was told how ridiculously tough he is, so I even went on an optional quest to get through him without combat (well, it was more because I wanted more gameplay variety), somehow that glitched or I did something I shouldn´t and I ended up in a fight with him … well, he went down in almost just one hit and could barely scratch me. After a while I realized it was most likely because he was located in the exterior city map and I entered that map briefly at much lower level .
Anyway, after that trash mob affair from the second example, I caved in and trained smithing from 45 to 70 to check what´ll happen and I have to say it made quite a difference (with the addition of blacksmith philter I was able to improve glass armor from 104 to 168, for example). I think that if one wants higher difficulties not to feel ridiculous at higher levels, smithing (and later probably also enchanting) is a must.


What´s pissing me off the most atm is that I wanted to advance my bard-y character towards dual wielding, but as far as I can tell it´s impossible to assign two weapons to hotkeys in a way that just pressing both will result in one weapon in right hand and the other in left. Since I also often switch between a shield (for resistances) and spells (alteration shield, flame attronach, heal) in the left hand and a bow as well, this is pretty much a deal breaker for me as I don´t want to go to favourites every time I want to dual wield. Or did I miss something?

I was told that using the shift key when clicking on a favorite would allow you to select other than the default hand, but my experience is that this does not always work. Maybe there's another step required?

Maylander, I'm psyched to read about your spoiler since the mage guild (college, whatever) is the first place I went after starting my game!

Originally Posted by KapitanUnterhosen
Almost lv50 now and the level scaling is pissing me off. Whenever I join a new faction its entry-level quests are level-scaled which means I can't really afford to use its untrained faction appropriate skills(ie spells in winterhold college quests are useless if you've already done companions and thieves/db ) or I'll get my ass kicked. Funnily enough your forced companions for these quests don't seem to be level-scaled so they die in one hit.

No bandits in fancy daedric outfits no, you just see them in lavish gold armor .

Another shitty aspect is that nearly every handplaced weapon in the gameworld seems be made of either steel or iron but random containers will spawn ebony goodies like it's kwanza. Never seen a shop or a person carry an item that was way above my power level and worth spending money on or stealing.

That's pretty lame Bethesda! At least they included some hand-placed stuff. They're getting better about it. We'll probably have to wait for a pretty substantial mod to fix those problems.

Originally Posted by darklord
Hmm I can't actually equip both at once, when I equip one the other de-equips, I figured the robe counts as headgear to?

Daniel.

After checking again, you CAN equip the mask, but you cannot equip a helm. Interesting.

Daniel.

Yes, you can equip masks and circlets while wearing that particular armor, but not helmets. Mildly annoying, but the armor is well worth it. Still the best item I've found for mages, and I've cleared most of the map by now. I have a few Daedric quests left though, and I suppose it could be possible (theoretically) to enchant some armor with 100 enchanting to craft a better item, but my enchanting is not good enough to try.

Regarding level scaling:
Yes, I've noticed the same problem. Weird thing though: Getting Dragonbone armor is pretty easy by levelling smithing on iron daggers and hide bracers, so why bother with Daedric stuff? Daedric stuff doesn't seem to drop until level 40ish, and requires 90 smithing to craft. Might as well get smithing to 100 then and make the best armor available.

@rossrjensen
The quests can be quite hard near the end of the guild, but overall the rewards are well worth it. These items actually remind me of Morrowind - by doing something challenging early on, you can obtain some fantastic rewards. I like that. Risk vs reward.

@Thiraury
No problem!

There's a certain bunch of people that always wear elven armor. I assume you did a quest related to them. It's a rather easy way to get it actually.

Originally Posted by KapitanUnterhosen
random containers will spawn ebony goodies like it's kwanza.

Almost spit out my drink when I read that …

the level scaling is terrible…
I never felt powerful in the game… I hate it that I'm a master at stealth and my weapon is glass +double enchanted I do *6 weapon damage but still I'm not able to one shot a lot of enemies… WTF?
it was nice at the start where I got better armor fast from Blacksmithing I had elven armor before everybody had elven and then I had glass armor before they had it… but now… everybody I meet has an ebony sword or a daedric weapon , and every dungeon has a slew of glass /ebony items just waiting for the taking, heck I don't even bother picking them up anymore

Yeah, I have to say the more I play the game the more the same old Oblivion scaling issues pop up their heads. It's not AS bad, but it's certainly there. My ideal RPG has ebony around right from the start but hidden behind super powerful enemies. If you can beat them, you can get the sword early. I like that kind of stuff. Fallout 3 had that, which is what I thought they said Skyrim would be like.

I'm sure a mod will address it, like Francesco's mod did in Oblivion.

There are some super good things hidden about. So far I found a glass sword in one of the towns and an orcish dagger. These were NOT on foes nor in containers.

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
There are some super good things hidden about. So far I found a glass sword in one of the towns and an orcish dagger. These were NOT on foes nor in containers.

Yeah I got an ebony sword super early somehow, maybe I found it. Still it's rare.

Originally Posted by DoctorNarrative
Yeah I got an ebony sword super early somehow, maybe I found it. Still it's rare.

It SHOULD be rare! One of the silly things in Morrowind was you could get a full suit of glass armor by stealing it from this one shop…

I found a couple more today including an Orcish Battleaxe.

In regards to rewards possible to obtain via mages guild quests, for my character, who isn´t a dedicated spellcaster, by far the best reward was from a (fairly tedious) side quest:

Originally Posted by BillSeurer
It SHOULD be rare! One of the silly things in Morrowind was you could get a full suit of glass armor by stealing it from this one shop…

I found a couple more today including an Orcish Battleaxe.

Oh I agree, I was more saying it's rare to see something not tailored to your level. They're hidden away, you won't just pull one out of a chest somewhere.