I never liked level scaling. It is so fake, so manufactured and makes me feel like I am incapable of playing the game with any responsibility. Not only that, but it makes no sense that every encounter is always "within reach" in terms of story and play. Why is everuything going to be doable? If everything is always doable, then it invalidates character progression. That is what was completely retarded about games like Oblivion. It didn't matter what level, skill, ability you were, why... everything in life will always meet you part way so it is "doable". If I wanted to play a game like that, I would play non-development based games (ie action/arcade/FPS) because every encounter will always be "doable" then.
The problem with your suggestion (and inherently scaling) is how are you going to balance that game to me? You aren't, you are going to generically balance the scaling to fit the lowest common denominator and then put in some generic scaling slider that will allow me to make it more difficult which will result in nothing but gimmick generated content that will likely still be ridiculously easy, or... stupidly difficult (ie HP bloat or defensive scaling). Now if you design static content, you can design the encounters more intelligently and designed for a specific level of character progression. That way, those who are terrible can come back once they are higher level to attempt the content and people who skilled in character development and tactics can attempt content higher than them. This way you don't destroy key cRPG content because people get bruised egos or suffer from major bouts of OCD when they can't have their way right at that moment (ie beat any content they come across).
I personally think that the constant demand for content that is always "matched and within capability of the payer" is due a type of crowd that is are better suited playing action/arcade games. I mean, it kind of explains why these ideas are always the result of appealing to the ADD console crowd. /shrug
You make a lot of assumptions. Instead you could read what I wrote.
No, not everything has to be within reach of your character(s) all the time. The game can be prebalanced like one without level scaling with some encounters being way too difficult at start (like in the Gothics or some side stuff in BG2), nobody is arguing against that. And the reason I don't wanna dismiss that tool is that I want to have stuff made more difficult for me, not more easy. The level scaling mechanism can be included after all the balancing is done, as a way to finetune things.
Wouldn't it have been great if orcs or human NPCs in Gothic 1 or 2 would become stronger over the course of the game (maybe from chapter to chapter just like the game added stronger filler enemies at places you already visited between chapters)? Would also have made sense, because why should only the PC learn, train and get stronger. And that part, the NPCs and selected enemies like orcs getting stronger could be tied to how fast the player is leveling up. Or not, I don't care.
I don't care because the games are already fine as they are. Difficulty isn't everything, the combat in the Gothics is fun even when it's easy, you can always improve your torero skillz.
And I don't care because I don't buy the "leveling the enemies depending on player level is defeating the purpose of leveling for the player" argument. If the only thing the leveling system has going for it is that it makes your char stronger than the enemies then that's a really pathetic RPG combat system. Good systems should open up new tactics and approaches or even gameplay mechanics for you with each new level you gain, not just make you stronger. In fact your char shouldn't even get that much "stronger", but more versatile and also loot progression should make up most of your power gain (and I never argued pro levelscaling for loot). The new tools you got when you come back to the before impossible encounters plus the new equipment should help you to finally overcome them, no matter if the enemy earned 5 levels in the meantime or got replaced with a more dangerous one.
I also wrote that I would prefer replacement enemies or enemies getting stronger to be explained by the game so the player doesn't feel cheated. If there's another, stronger orc chieftain where you met another one 2 chapters before then why don't you let me see a scene where the new one kills the old one or at least let me see him defile his corpse.
Sure, it still revolves around PC levelups in the end, but again, the basic balancing in every CRPG already does the same, so don't oversperg things plz.
Most people will only play a game of that length once, so why shouldn't designers care about if these people have a good time with the game?
Either add difficulty levels or the possibility of grinding (but don't make that too appealing or completionists like me will break their game using it) or add level scaling done right (read: not like Oblivion, and not lazy).
Different strokes for different folks, designers have to take care of everybody (who is willing to accept the basic standards of the genre). :incloosive:
The game gets too easy too fast? No problemo, here are stronger foes and here's the explanation where they are coming from.
The game is impossibly hard? Ok, we'll just give you the basic experience then, but I'm afraid we can't make it easier than that. Read the manual, replay the tutorials, try to understand the mechanics. Here are some additional hints, don't be afraid, you too will be able to pop some moles in this game eventually.