[Darlene Delk]

That's possible in the vanilla game; and the game generates new items each time. You could actually save the game right before opening and have different items each time. It comes down to luck. I haven't changed what items are possible, just the chances of getting items of higher levels than you.

[KIng James]

Oh, that's good to know. My test is irrelevant then. But, do Dragonscale items really spawn in vanilla Skyrim? Because that's totally ridiculous...

EDIT: Huh! Apparently it does. (looked it up) That's totally ridiculous.

[Adam Kriner]

That was done intentionally - had to be hand edited.

Glad it looks good! The picture at night looks a bit dark, but in my experience that's been caused by steam's high compression. Carrying a torch is good though. I know I can see at night reasonably well. Make sure the monitor's calibrated, and the brightness is set properly.

Actually I think it was that dark because my brightness is all the way down. I had a torch hot keyed at the time but I didnt use it because I liked the look of everything being dark except the camp. I now wil play with the brightness a little above the bottom. So on the color side of things can anything be done to saturate them more to a comparable look of fxaa? Man I cant wait till some good depth of field mods come out. At that point I will be playing skylife lol

[Ross]

No idea on the saturation.. I mean, it could be done, but I'm not going to be doing an option just for that. Too much extra work.

So, I've got a full map laid out on a table, pinned to a board, which I'm cross-checking, running the radials, and doing other mapping work. I got a bit bored with the item lists, and I've been spending a ton of time on Realistic Lighting (now that's pretty much finished), so I'm tackling this. It's quite interesting and fun. No more having the world scale down to you.

I'll still see about how the world scales up to you, but I'm hesitant to change that too much.. if I change it too much (and create a truly static world), when you hit level 30 most of the game will feel like a breeze and 60% of the game's content is just boring.

[My blood]

So, opinions; should I make it so encounter zones can 'reset' the level they have? So, areas you return to could be difficult later on?

[Benito Martinez]

I originally put yes, but thinking on it more, I'm going to go with no.

[Nitol Ahmed]

I've been putting a lot of thought into it, myself, but I can't decide. My gut feeling is a no, I think - however, I can selectively do it; so if there's areas that should reset the level, then I can definitely do that on an individual basis. My changes will prevent any area with being stamped with too low of a level for the type of area it is at the least though.

[djimi]

If it can be done selectively, then I'm all for it. Here's hoping the CK comes out soon so your work is made easier

[Jack]

I vote for the "Area Reset" on Non Quest's Related Locations only, and min lvls ajdusted

Major Quest Related Zone should not be "Reset", and perhaps tweak the min lvls a little more.

It can be done without CK..

I have looked at the encounter zone myself in fnvedit and thought they needed to be adjusted, even started changing them myself with fnvedit, but, god side tracked..I think I got the plugin still..

[Vahpie]

Well, there's the other problem.. even if I can do it selectively, which places should be able to reset?

That, too. Thanks. I've managed to get quite a lot more done than I had expected without the CK. DLL will be able to simplify my job enormously, too, towards creating a modular, nearly fully compatible (towards other mods), overhaul of the system for the variety the game needs - along with the balancing for leveling that goes with it.

Yep, Core, I'm doing all the minimum levels now, got a huge chart in my room right now with every location (based off GameBanshee's Skyrim map), I did some work on it in GIMP for a black and white version, and I've charted all the roads, the hold borders, and I've got a middle line drawn that passes through the midpoints of the distances between cities to give me a basis of how far out in the wilderness locations are from cities and roads.

I don't think FO3Edit can do it? If FNVEdit can, that'd be good.. except I don't have new vegas. Could maybe fake a folder. Skyrim adds in a location record over FO3.

[Je suis]

Well, there's the other problem.. even if I can do it selectively, which places should be able to reset?

If you do not have the prima guide then perhaps use these from uesp

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Caves

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Military_Forts

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Camps

fnvedit will edit encounter zones not sure how bad subrecords could out of order..

[Wayne Cole]

Yep, I have full lists of those.. All the quest stuff is tracked out.

Example;

Spoiler

Main Quest:
Helgen -> 1
Bleak Falls Barrow -> 5
Ustengrav -> 9
Thalmor Embassy -> 16
/Ratway / Ratway Warrens -> 10
Karthspire -> 24
Alftand -> 30
/Blackreach -> 32
/Tower of Mzark -> 34
//Skuldafn
//Sovngarde

Companions:
Dustman's Cairn -> 10
Gallow's Rock -> 16
Glenmoril Coven -> 24
Driftshade Refuge -> 32
Ysagromor's Tomb -> 40

Thieves Guild:
Snow Veil Sanctum -> 14
Riftweald Manor -> 20
Irkngthand -> 24
Twilight Sepulcher -> 28

College of Winterhold:
Saarthal -> 10
Fellglow Keep -> 18
The Midden -> 26
(keep levels close from here on)
Ruins of Mzulft -> 36
Labyrinthian -> 38

This was my quick reference notepad sheet for changing the guilds and main quest. The rest will be done on an individual basis depending on the distance in the wilderness and the type of area.

Still on the border for area resets, though.. I could always go back and change it if necessary. It doesn't prevent the cells from resetting; just allows the level to reset.

[matt]

So, opinions; should I make it so encounter zones can 'reset' the level they have? So, areas you return to could be difficult later on?

how about a 15% chance?

[leigh stewart]

That could be possible with a script, I think.. I'm not sure. The geck information is odd and a bit incomplete. For example, most of the fallout cells and the skyrim cells are marked never reset.. but the GECK wiki says that prevents the cells themselves from resetting, and thus no creatures will respawn.

http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/Encounter_Zone
http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/SetZoneRespawns

But Skyrim/Fallout cells do reset, of course, after a period of time, so obviously that's wrong. So either the command information is wrong (and doesn't change the never resets flag) or the encounter zone information is wrong. Once I figure that one out, I'll be able to tell ya whether I can do that.

At the moment it'll be a 100% only chance, though, that'd occur on cell respawn.

[Wanda Maximoff]

So, opinions; should I make it so encounter zones can 'reset' the level they have? So, areas you return to could be difficult later on?

I'd like this.

[Fam Mughal]

I vote no then. I don't want any oblivion style level scaling silliness.

[loste juliana]

I vote yes, although some might say it is not realistic, that the difficulty of an area changes over time (but who said, fantasy rpgs are realistic?). I prefer to have challenges in higher levels and encounter new and harder enemies instead of hacking through low-level mobs like a superhero.

[JR Cash]

I vote no then. I don't want any oblivion style level scaling silliness.

I didn't play Oblivion so I kindly request an explanation of this silliness you reference

I vote yes, although some might say it is not realistic, that the difficulty of an area changes over time (but who said, fantasy rpgs are realistic?). I prefer to have challenges in higher levels and encounter new and harder enemies instead of hacking through low-level mobs like a superhero.

I don't see how it isn't realistic for an area to get harder. You go in at first to clear an area such as a cave, and wipe out those that were there. Eventually it gets resettled by another, stronger group of people, somewhat more capable of trying to handle a wandering Dragonborn.

[Kayla Keizer]

In Oblivion you would find a bandit outpost with level 50 bandits who all had daedric/glass gear and it made fights unreasonably long. It also didn't really make sense, if you've got such nice gear why are you holding me up for 10 septims!!!! Though I have seen some of this in Skyrim too so I'm not sure if resetting encounter zones would make that big of a difference.

[yermom]

how about the chance to be resettled either by the same, weaker or stronger spawns? a cleared bear den can be resettled by wolves, other bears or maybe trolls. Or maybe, to keep the challenge up, weaker spawns will have higher numbers to even it out a bit.

[Gavin Roberts]

I didn't play Oblivion so I kindly request an explanation of this silliness you reference

I don't see how it isn't realistic for an area to get harder. You go in at first to clear an area such as a cave, and wipe out those that were there. Eventually it gets resettled by another, stronger group of people, somewhat more capable of trying to handle a wandering Dragonborn.

Oblivion basically had this, on the rational that enemies "practiced and leveled up just like you"...

Except instead the result was that bandit spawn near the imperial city would end up being super uber and have glass armor and stuff everytime they spawned if you'd go back a higher level.

And the whole world felt very very unbelivable and "unimportant" because every place basically played the same - there wasn't a huge sense of progression from a gameplay stanpoint because you'd always be meeting enemies that level matched you. Locations as such never felt unique. Skyrim still does this to a degree- but certain areas DO spawn slightly harder enemies depending on your level, and certain areas will only spawn certain types of enemies too compaired to the standard type. And of course level locking, so an area still keeps the level that it was when you first went, which helps a little in making it so the player feels like they are progressing.

But yeah, for Oblivion it basically turned the act of playing into a grind no matter where you went. Skyrim does soemthing similar except instead of with the gameplay, the quests are the big grind this time


So I vote no.

[Jade Barnes-Mackey]

Ohhh okay! Well putting it like that, I can see where you're coming from. Perhaps not letting them level-lock again to similar level, but maybe +/- 1 or 2 difficulty notces from their original level-lock each time they spawn? That way it still seems dynamic but won't necessarily mean you'll get similar leveled stuff.

For example: Revisiting an originally lvl 10-locked zone at a higher level would have it spawn all its mobs as--

• level 1s, level 5s, level 15s, or level 20s [+/- 10 levels, where 5 levels is 1 difficulty notch]
  
  • with like 5% / 30% / 45% / 20% [-2 notches / -1 notch / +1 notch / +2 notches; respectively] percentage chances for level modifier

Seems a bit more complicated, but it could be a potential solution if it could be made to work. You could make the very first level-lock a non-adjustable value when set, and make every respawn from then onwards +/- 2 notches based on that level-lock. This would also allow the player to still feel like they're progressing as the enemies would only change their levels based on the ORIGINAL level-lock. Additionally it would allow the dynamic feel of different groups of enemies as well.

I realize that I didn't include the +0 difficulty notch, which isn't really much of an issue in my opinion anywho. Just throw in an appropriate percentage and work with it in there too.

But otherwise, if that's way too complicated, then I'd just change my answer to a no.

Edit: Here's an example script in PHP-formatting (since I know like nothing else as far as coding)--

 // $original_lock is the level-lock value that the game must already save as a variable for each cell (or so I assume), just having the value copied into a variable that won't change.function spawn() {   $number = rand(1,100);   if ($number <= 5) {	  $level_modifier = -10;   } elseif ($number > 5 && $number <= 35) {	  $level_modifier = -5;   } elseif ($number > 35 && $number <= 80) {	  $level_modifier = 5;   } elseif ($number > 80) {	  $level_modifier = 10;   }   // I'm going to randomly call the level that the spawns are going to be assigned '$level', just as something I'm pulling out of my rear.   // I'm also going to randomly call the player's currently stored level variable '$player_current_level'.   if ($original_lock) {	  // This if() and elseif() statement covers not having to try and spawn level 0 enemies.	  if ($original_lock <=10 && $level_modifier == -10)		 $level = 1;	  } elseif ($original_lock <=5 && $level_modifier == -5) {		 $level = 1;	  } else {		 $level = $original_lock + $level_modifier;	  }   } else {	  $original_lock = $player_current_level;	  $level = $player_current_level;   }}

And then just call that spawn() function when entering a cell that needs to be respawned or even spawned for the first time... Assuming I coded it right, it should (you know, if the game worked like that in PHP) work. But I know next-to-nothing about Skyrim code, so... Yearg.

[~Sylvia~]

I've been putting a lot of thought into it, myself, but I can't decide. My gut feeling is a no, I think

Assuming infinite resources and time, the best answer is yes but within a range. Say there is a fort right off a main road. It would be reaonsable to expect that this could get populated by low level bandits or the like, say levels 1-10. They'd have a leader several levels higher than the riff-raf, and perhaps a 2nd in command slightly smaller than the leader. Ideally the location would random what was there every time it reset (including the first time), so you could avoid OOO's totally static world where you knew fort X had L1 bandits 100% of the time, yet you'd still know that it's a "low level area" because it's next to the road.

Some cave deep in the middle of nowhere on the other hand, may always spawn 40-50, but could be vampires, daedra, undead, or whatever. If you could pull off random ranges like this it would add a lot of re-playability to the game, as the world would still be semi-static (you could outlevel areas and go kick their butts to feel powerful) yet would still vary with every playthrough to make each game unique. I'd still nail major quests to a specific level as you outlined. I think i'd have less gap between the last few mages guild quests though as once the sphere activates RP wise you're really supposed to go do all the stuff ASAP.

Of course this is going to require scripting, whether it be CK or something like Script Dragon.

EDIT: This will require scripting too, but I'd like to see how the AI handles stealth be a lot better. The whole "my friend died 2 min ago but I'll come out of alert cause obviously whatever did this is gone" thing gets very silly very quickly. I'd like to see a bigger alert radius, a much larger search radius, and much, much longer alert time.

[Lexy Corpsey]

I've played with your mod for quite some time now and I like it a lot, so first of all thanks!

Since you introduced AI adjustments I figured it might be a good idea to come here and ask for some changes. The biggest problem I have with the AI is that it is the typical 'smart computer game AI'. Usually game journalists complain when enemies run towards the player like mindless drones so typically the AI department of a developer tries to introduce 'smart' behavior where enemies take cover and advance carefully.

Unfortunately this doesn't work in Skyrim...at all. My mage has not problem killing even the highest level enemies because they do exactly this. Enemies, especially ranged enemies, almost never pursue my character. So I have all the time in the world to hide around the next corner, let my magicka regenerate, drink a few health potions, cast a new summon and attack again. Enemies on the other hand don't benefit much from waiting - sure, they regenerate some magicka and health, but not enough to make a difference. So hard enemies take longer to kill, but eventually I always kill them.

The few occasions where the game is really hard is when enemies relentlessly pursue my mage and try to kill him. That happened once in a Dwemer ruin with a Falmer mage (?) for example and it was really fun. I had to use the sprinting feature to avoid his spells, drink a lot of potions (health, magicka and stamina) and quickly turn around to cast a spell (or cast a summon for distraction), only to start running again afterwards. EDIT: I assume the reason why he pursued me is that his main weapon was a sword and magic was only secondary (although he only used spells since I kept my distance). So I guess it's his combat style settings that made him act that way.

But usually (mostly ranged) enemies don't do this, they just fidget around at the other end of the room and wait for me to leave my cover. But even melee enemies often act like retards and do the 'shield bash taunt' or similar stupid actions that would only be appropriate when facing a melee fighter when I'm about to kill them with ranged spells.

I didn't look at all the AI settings yet and I guess it will be far easier to mod the combat styles and all that once the CK is released. I'd just like to get rid of the pseudo smart AI behavior so maybe you have ideas how to 'fix' this.

[Chris Ellis]

I vote yes, although some might say it is not realistic, that the difficulty of an area changes over time (but who said, fantasy rpgs are realistic?). I prefer to have challenges in higher levels and encounter new and harder enemies instead of hacking through low-level mobs like a superhero.

I'm sorry but fantasy and difficulty have no relation.

To pluto, I'm not too savvy on some of the language. Therefore I would like you to explain what this dilemma is in layman terms. thanks