You mean while, right? Because unless you power-play like crazy you're not going to be really powerful until around level 15. Even at level 30, there are some things that can kill you if they get lucky.

I'd prefer a mix of systems:

Perk every 2-4 levels (avoids making you overpowered).

Have a cap of around 20-25, but make it harder to gain a level. Make, say, making it to level 17 mean something instead of it just being treated like a number.

What I mean, is that the game should be scaled so that layer by layer I reach the goal. That, if I'm playing like a noob the game clearly indicates that I'm may not be powerful enough, so that in order to advance I'll really have to get better but so that it isn't impossible to achieve the goal, so that the sidequests bear some significance.

Unless you're using the console or other methods that aren't in the game per se, lowering your skills in oblivion isn't cheating. Drain/damage spells or going to prison for example isn't cheating. They're not bugs. They were there in morrowind (and they were much worse because of the unlimited training), beth knew about it and did nothing to change it not just for morrowind, but for a new game as well. As far as I'm concerned that makes it a feature, not an exploit.

And I find complaints about level caps useless. Level caps on their own are meaningless. It all depends on the level-up system used and I've seen nothing that indicates NV will use the same one as fallout 3. Even if it does, I'd much rather see them integrate stuff like active ability type perks than worry about a number that in and of itself adds nothing to my character. Neck snapping stealth kills would be a nice start.

Thanks to all who replied and voted. I'd have to agree with what posts have been saying though, Fallout 3's leveling system was far too easy. By level 15 I was near 100 in skills already.

As long as its higher then lvl 20.... Ill be more happy then I already am =)

Please, god yes!

When I hit 20, and found out I couldn't get any higher (without mods), I was SO pissed.

I'd like the ability to swap out perks. Like when your level gets passed 30 you can swap/mix perks.

I would like a Skill Cap according to your specials.

Because if your char has the Charisma of a pig then there is no was he could complete speech challenges.

If there is no level cap

Then I want a cap on skill points that can be distributed to skills

Just as a thought, why not add cheat codes for the people not on PC. like A+B+Y+X+RT+LT= 1 Level up. I personally would like this because it gives us more when we want it.

For example: I spent a good couple months leveling to 30 without playing any quests so that I could be God like and not have to worry about dying or running out of ammo.

Yeah 1 and 2 had the best leveling system, period. The 20-30 svcks ass. Haha. And I'm not [censored]ing because I want to max all my skills, I basically did that in fallout 3 with no cheating whatsoever. It's just the pacing of it all seemed much funner in the originals.

You have to be joking right? Maybe like level cap from 30-50 but no cap? What about all those perks? All those Power ups? All those skills? use your mind...

Oblivions only cap to leveling is once you got your primary 7 skills to 100. So depending on how you leveled, it was about 45-55. But it wasnt technically a 'cap' where you just stopped gaining experience for things. (Unless you consider the 100 on each skill a cap which it kinda was)

if theres a high level cap, or no level cap, i think there should be less powerful perks, or you only unlock a perk like every 3 or 5 levels. In fallout 3 once i even reached level 20, i felt like i was way too 'overpowered'

Definitely.

I say the level cap should be 42.

I don't care what the cap is, just make sure I don't reach it halfway through the game (as in Fallout 3) and make sure the perks are well-balanced and interesting. I'd prefer if there were more choices and more mutually exclusive perks to choose from so that not every character ends up the same.

Voted for No. The progression should just needs to be balanced better, IMO, it really doesn't matter if the cap is 20 or 40 or 10.

I think they should rework the experience system.
Once you reach lvl 3 you don't gain any experience from radroaches, at 7 you don't gain any from molerats, at 9 none from vicious dogs and so forth.
And if you meet and kill a super mutant overlord at lvl 10 you only get 20 exp cuz you're not supposed to meet that kind of enemy at that lvl.
(Like in Dekaron, if you go with a high lvl player to a high lvl place in his party, you won't gain an enormous amount of exp.)
Once you reach lvl 40 or something you don't gain experience for anything but the toughest enemies.
But that doesn't mean if you go to a super mutant camp there will only be overlords there, no no no.
There might be one or two overlords there which means exp will be gained at a really~~~~ slow pace.
Once you reach 60 you still gain exp but it's like 5 or 10exp per toughest enemy..
So you can still lvl up and frankly become ace of all trades but the required exp and the amount given from enemies means you won't be leveling up any time soon.

Ahyea. They should totally not have +10HP per lvl either or 20HP/END.

i dont want the level cap to be ulimited just have it like 1000 and they get progressivly harder to level up

There are two polls on level capping, I think we should continue the discussion in http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1075682