I think I'll be able to get a near perfect character once I get a strategy guide detailing where everything is, but I still wish I could level indefinitely so that I could get completely unnecessary amounts of perks.

The way I see it, it's not that you reach the cap too soon, it's what happens afterwords. That is, there can be a lot of game left with no new levels, perks, etc. My current character just reached 24. I've been in Freeside one time, and haven't set foot on the strip yet. I'm likely going to be level capped long before I get much done on the main quest. I would have done well having my EXP gains halved or quartered.

One of my favorite perks, primarily for the skill increases and just overall direct benefit, is Intense Training.
At the New Vegas Clinic you can pay to increase any SPECIAL by 1, and you can buy regenerating and dermal implants. I haven't even bought the dermal implants, and without any sort of armor, i can have a DT of 10 from the toughness perk and drinking whiskey with Cass as a companion.
There are already a million and one ways to basically make yourself indestructible, yet you can always still make it a challenge. Even at level 30 with very proficient weapons, i'm very hesitant to enter Deathclaw territory.
This is probably the best balance you can get in the game how it is.

The main problem with that I can see, is that if it was done over the entire game and would then discourage the more casual gamers who would feel like they were doing loads of stuff for what they feel is little or no return.

Personally I wouldn't be bothered much if the exp awards were 'nerfed' so to speak, but thought it worth playing devil's advocate yet again

Yes, and that's why I'll say again that I think an EXP control should be built into the next game.

What I was trying to say was, perhaps a game in which "leveling" isn't really the focus, isn't the best match for a person who seems to find "leveling" to be the most important thing. :shrug:

The best solution would be to add different level systems as choice like the difficulty settings. Arcade with no cap or soft cap and Explorer with a xp penalty. Everyone has a different view of balance and the rpgs changed over the years but many developers still trust in the ancient D&D rules.

I'm pretty sure I fall into that kid category, but I would hate to see an increase in a level cap. There should be less exp. No need to raise the level cap.

Couldn't have said it better myself. The only cap I want to see raised is on the bad guys. Even at 4 Int you can still max out about 5 stats and that's without the skill books or perks. As another poster said though I guess that's what the kids want today.

I played a game for years where the max hit was around 20 to 30 and I loved it. My (little) cousin didn't like it because there wasn't enough action for him. I watched him play a game one day and he was dealing constant 15000 hits against someone and it just kept flooding the screen and I couldn't see the fun in that at all. This new generation of gamers want to be the best, have the max scores and stats but they fail to see one very important thing. If everyone is maxed then everyone is equal, no one is the best.

I don't think there is too many Xps....FO3 on the otherhand have enemy, locks, computers all over the place.

I think there is just so many quest and we kinda forgot how many did we do.

Quest reward XP is sometimes pretty big. My first two playthroughs, there's a quest that gave me over a level of XP after I was level 20. This playthrough, there's a quest that gave me two levelups before level 10 along the main course.

um why not raise it to 40 . but when you hit 30 u get a tenth of the exp and make they enemies attacks more powerful as in less attacks to kill you and add more enemies .It sounds quite an easy solution to please both camps lol sounds like a homo fight both camps:)

So a deathclaw gives 5exp?
Wouldn't really mind it since it would take forever to level up even once
But it also seems pointless to even have an increase in cap then.

I don't particularly want a higher level cap; I wouldn't mind it, though. More levels means more perks, which means a more well rounded character. Hell, I wouldn't mind if Obsidian only allowed you to get 2 more perks, I would roll with that.

On the other hand, I also wouldn't mind just having more "free" perks; those that you gain for accomplishing a mission, challenge, etc.

yes 5xp i would also make the game harder which everyone seems to be gagging for.

As a 'kid' I'll try to give my explanation of why an increased cap appeals to me.

The main reason is striving to get to the next level (mainly the perk levels) and after you reach the top no more strife nor achievement or any additional perks. I feel the same way when I get the strongest weapon for my particular character build, as I've got the best now what?

This is all after having completed the game so the different story endings and pathways no longer feel like the rewards they were compared to the first time of defending the dam or anything etc.

That's my personal reasons, I do understand about balance, but this is something the developers should address (or if you have PC mod) if I didn't have the 360 version I'd have modded all the gripes I had away.

I wouldn't want to play this game if it took very long to level up and there was a short cap. Its a huge open-ended game, why stop at level 30 when you can just add more content with more challenges to go along with an increased cap. After I capped out in FO3 I sort of lost a little desire to play on when there's no benefit to uncovering new locations and defeating enemies.

I understand your perspective, therefore I conclude there is a difference in view of FO games from say the average RPG/Role-player and say the average player who enjoys Grinding -pardon the loose comparison - thus arriving at the point of complete opposites to this argument.

In lieu of what you have said, I am actually the opposite: a lot of people view SR or AMR as the best simply because it is high-end access but I think FO3 and F:NV bring an array at each top-end: Unarmed/Melee/ERG/Guns/Explosives but I must concede that weapons have taken a back-track to my focus in F:NV due to the major efficiency of most guns in normal combat experiences.

I foresee that in playing both F:NV and FO3 you will be one of the people who did not like the stop-track ending, since you say you do not feel any encouragement to replay the game differently, and this I think correlates to your liking of levelling/ranking/building up your character. Again, it is my understanding that the game is attempting to remove itself from the levelling principle as a major factor of its gameplay mechanics.

Reno

Now you've got the best. Use it, enjoy it.

What's the point of wanting to keep getting better stuff if you don't even really care about it once you get it?

I don't see why people feel the need for more levels to make a godly character. In my opinion. We should be able to become skilled in some things and terrible at others. If they DO raise the level cap by ten levels or something, anything after level 30 should award us 1 skill point per level and one perk every other level. That way they get their precious level cap and wont be god characters.

Um. Instead of raising the cap, they should be lowering the the XP gained. IMO you level WAY too [censored] fast.

I would say the level cap doesnt need to go any higher. Have only played on normal so far but once you get your chosen weapon skill up to a decent level and get a good gun the game is fairly easy. Having an extra 5 or 10 levels of SP and perks would make it stupidly easy.

So far im about level 25 with about 60 hours played. Not done most of the main quest yet and just been exploring and doing side quests. With my build I have 4 skills maxed out (guns, repair, sneak and energy weapons) and a lot of others are in the 40-60 range (could possibly max out another skill by 30).

I always wanted to go back and build a new character in FO3 but by the end of that with BS I already had pretty much every skill maxed out so there wasnt really any point. I like the fact that in FO:NV there is more of a reason to go back and make a different style of character (in addition to the reason of there being so many different ways to complete the game in FO:NV).

I do understand where people are coming from though. Its exciting when you level up and you get to add more skill points or pick a perk (even though most the perks don't do a whole lot). When that's finished with you lose some of the "reward" from the game which keeps you playing. I would prefer to see an option to limit the XP you gain though rather then raising the level cap.

As above I have 60 hours played and havent hit the level cap yet so depending on how you play it might not be a big issue. I assume though if you follow the main quests you get a fair amount of XP from rewards so might hit the level cap sooner.

I think 30 levels is enough, but I would like the perks to be during every advancement in level and not every other advancement.

I'd agree if it wasn't already too late for that change. Quest reward XP could stand to not have been as high at release. Unless there's a bug causing that, there's no chance of it being changed.

Couldnt a patch just go "Quest 1- instead of 5000 experience, it will give out 4000"?

What I mean is, couldnt an Obsidian dev just go into the master copy or whatever, snip the old exp award and write in a new value? Or does it not work that way?