Well for my archer/warrior build I took up a single crafting path - smithing.
The game was fun and provided massive challenge on master up to level 20-25.
From then on it have become ridiculously easy, except for notable exceptions.
Am I really exploiting the game? Personally I don't think so - I'm gaming the game.

So I'm at 50+, where is my challenge on the highest difficulty?
If I wanted easy I could lower it any time I want.
I want difficult, but only option is to not play the game? Are you for real?

In dice games, even power players get a hard bargain from the GM.

try playing a mage... IMPOSSIbrU i tell you! but what about armor cap for alteration mages? and i wish you didnt have to have a offensive warrior or defensive.. well i woulda had both! and for mage.. everything?

MAGE.. god dammit i equip a random sword, and i do alot more damage i guess but my fireballs and stuff... mmm... the conjuration does kinda svck it needs moar monsters

But what's the alternative? By that, I mean why did you decide to improve your character at all, if not to make your job easier? Isn't that the point of levelling? We all know what increasing challenge means - level scaling, which is almost universally reviled. Perhaps the solution is more diversity in difficulty for non-main quest locations. Some locations are ridiculously difficult (until higher levels are reached) while some are more normal?

You say "notable exceptions", such as?

try playing a mage... IMPOSSIbrU i tell you! but what about armor cap for alteration mages? and i wish you didnt have to have a offensive warrior or defensive.. well i woulda had both! and for mage.. everything?

MAGE.. god dammit i equip a random sword, and i do alot more damage i guess but my fireballs and stuff... mmm... the conjuration does kinda svck it needs moar monsters

just try it

didnt mean to double post.. didnt know i double posted lol

Genuine question - how do you know this? Particularly that enemies stop scaling. Is there some way to see their HP or whatever? I keep reading stuff about the math and wondered how they know.

Cool story.

The first thing I did was turn on god mode and guess what? Nobody can kill me. Totally ruined Skyrim. It's way too easy for me. Waste of $60.

I think it was Todd Howard that mentioned this during the run up to the game. Don't have a link to the quote though. Just from memory.

Install PISE + Master Difficulty. Then come back and say it's easy. One shotted in the ass by bandits Good luck.

The enemy HP doesn't scale like Oblivion. There's different varieties. Bandit, Bandit Outlaw, Bandit marauder, Bandit Chief. If you meet a chief at lv 30, and then at lv 40, the one you met at lv 40 isn't going to be any stronger. That's what made Oblivion's scaling [censored]. There was no limit. But in Oblivion your character couldn't become as powerful as you can in Skyrim.

It seems by trying to balance one thing they unbalance another.

Actually I just checked and it seems there is more than 1 type of each enemy. Like some Bandit Chiefs ARE stronger than others, but there is a limit to how strong they get.

My sources are limited though.

You abused crafting and are 14 levels higher than most NPC's scale in this game. Awesome thread and point.

Meanwhile I got Double McCheeseburger'd by 2 conjurers..I almost friggin died. Stamina killing ice spells are deadier than actual direct-damage spells -.-.

I wonder how that feels? Smells like cancer.

Yep I see that some Bandit Chiefs are stronger than others through just playing the game, but me question was - how do these guys know the maths behind the scaling - I mean where are they getting their info from?

Sure, I try leveling up to get things easier, but only at the start where I have to run away from like 80% of my fights (and I still enjoy that immensely). At some point, I continue leveling like crazy without even trying, and I can't stop it. I was level 30 by the time I did my first quest, and let loose the dragons quickly thereafter. I'm grinding skills, except I'm not trying to - doing anything will advance skills and thus progress me further in level. FONV didn't have this problem, as I could continue to explore and just travel around as much as I preferred - to get the real progress you actually had to play the game (do quests). That way, my progress was felt throughout the whole game, not just during the initial exploration phase which lasted 150-200 hours.

Notable exceptions are ancient dragons and high powered mages, since a certain shield is the only protection I have against magic, and I don't get those bonuses while using a bow (afaik, I could be wrong). So in order to have some "gotcha moments" in the game, I'm forced to not play the game in full, which would overpower me.

Do you play a certain milsim btw?

Here you go:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-20-tesv-skyrim-level-cap-explained

Thanks for the link!