Disclaimer: This isn't a thread to say Skyrim is broken nor is it to bash Skyrim nor is to say Skyrim is a bad game. Do not assume negativity where it is not. This was more a thread based on curious observation.

There is something I realized in Skyrim as I was playing, where is the experience you get after you complete a quest?

I was recently playing Kingdoms of Amular and every time you complete a quest you get experience points.

Same thing in Fallout 3 and I also believe the same thing in Oblivion.

Levelling up in Elder Scrolls games has always been through building skills rather than accumalating experience.

You are wrong about Oblviion. That used the same system as Skyrim and Morrowind et al.

i realised this too. Pretty unique for an RPG game. I say the elder scrolls is unique after all.

It's certainly one of the few series to do something other than 'gain XP = level up'

edit: Off hand, I can't think of any other games that used a levelling in system that wasn't xp based.

Elder Scrolls has always had a unique leveling system. Which means increasing skills in order to level up. So .. yeah .. there is no Experience System in any of the Elder Scrolls. Fallout has it though.

At least they don't try to copy off others. *you know who i am talking about*

Yeah I know. It was just weird. I hadn't noticed it until now. lol.

That's one reason I've always loved the Elder Scrolls series. Your experience after the quest is "Yay I experienced that quest! Now I'm off to experience another quest!" Instead of "Meh I'ma go grind quests for xp bbl."

I always had the opposite. I nver saw it as a grind. I always saw it as your character adventures and explores his philosophy is ever so changing and he is becoming someone different than who he was.

Well yeah, but I don't want the game to make my character a different person for me. I want to RP that. The only thing I want the game to do is make me better at archery the more I shoot arrows into people's knees. Or better at two-handed the more I smash their skulls in with a warhammer. I can RP my own choices and make my character *who* I want him to be by myself thanks

The beauty of the Elder Scrolls games is that they have always been about the experience, rather than experience points.

Az

I prefer not getting experience after you complete a quest.

You get rewarded with items/gold or in some cases, the knowledge that you have made the world a better/worse place.

Elder Scrolls games have abandoned the experience point system for at least 12 years now and it's an aspect that makes the series very unique. It's actually a GOOD thing for me. Every other RPG is like 'hey, you completed my quest, here's some POINTS! for you". That always made my RPG character look like a spreadsheet. Skyrim (and other Elder Scrolls games like morrowind and oblivion) actually makes me feel like I accomplished something.... It just somehow feels more 'organic' to me. The only game that abandoned experience points in favor of a system more like Skyrim was Final Fantasy II.

Hmm Yeah, but I see a Powerful reward (other than EXP points) better than a LEVEL UP!

Great observation, I also never noticed until you mentioned it.

I don't really understand about quest complete =/= xp gain.

In Skyrim we train our skills. Each skill boost grant us xp points (gained xp points equals gained skill level, for example we have two-handed increased to 53 so we have gained 53 xp points too) and we level up after certain xp points quantity is reached.
As for straight quest complete =/= xp gain thing what can you say about certain quests that boosts your skills upon completion? Amrens sword, for example, Amren boosts our one-handed and block skills so we gain equal number of xp points. And again, once xp points fill required quantity, we level up.

As for unique thing we might look at EYE Divine Cybermancy game. Pretty nice RPG/FPS game made by really small team. They do not have locked classes, you can be anything you want to be. But there are no perks, instead they give you Skill points (and cyberimpants but that another story) upon filling required xp points quantity. Bit classical system, if I am correct. But this works only with manual levelup system, they also have autoxp mode. With autoxp mode you gain skill points to specific skills you used most. Well that still bit classical system.

I just love the experiance method in the Elder Scrolls. Makes everything much more immersive with plenty of realism. Even when failing it reflects the character learning from the mistake like with lockpicking. I still remember playing Tes 1 Arena and Tes 2 Daggerfall with its feeling of a dungeons and dragons boardgame magically coming to life in front of me on the screen because of the experiance method though Arena had a slightly different setup.

Its pretty impressive how they did Fallout 3's experiance gain without making it overkill. Excellent balance while keeping those levels coming at a slow enough pace.

When playing other rpgs like Might And Magic 6 thru 9 it felt odd not having a similar system in place when being in such a immersive setting.

I think the TES series is trying to go surrealistic with their rewards system.

Instead of exp for level ups, you need actual experience within a specific skill to level up.

While on the other hand, quests aren't bad. Like I said, they're surrealistic as well with the realistic rewarding system. Hence, instead of exp, it's money/armor/weaponry.

I guess everyone has a different opinion, but that's just how I see it

But that's exactly it. In The Elder Scrolls, your character evolves on his own as you exercise different skills, rather than collecting nebulous "experience points" to be arbitrarily distributed by the player himself. Overall, I think it works much better this way.

I too like the way leveling is handled in Skyrim, but I admit that it took me awhile to get used to it. I would take note of where I was in relation to the next level and reflexively, I would think that I would get enough points to level when I completed a quest.

I like either system. But, I agree with you here with regard to TES games. It helps in the area of role-playing where there isn't an XP carrot dangling after quests. You don't feel obligated to take them.

I don't mind the way TES does it. I just found it very odd that I never observed it till now.

the reward in TES quests is in the journey.. not the tacked on quest reward. 'enchanted sword of whatever' Big deal... you can be a god using iron weapons in any TES game.

Actually, ARENA had an experience point system where you gain experience from killing monsters and finishing quests. Mainly because there really wasn't a skill system in ARENA.

I actually love the leveling system in Skyrim and found it refreshing and unique. Not gaining experience points after completing a quest makes the process of building skills and leveling up feel more natural and organic as it is more about the skills you use and build than it is about gaining experience points as if it were gold.

Yea i couldnt stand doing that in the level up screen with Oblivion putting points into skills i may have not been using. Eventhough Skyrim has this to a certain degree its much more easier to believe and feels more toned down with just improving either health,magic or stamina (i also like how there are benefits to improving them as well).

Makes me wonder if the next Elder Scrolls chapter will do away with a level up screen completely and going whole hog with everything being experianced based with perhaps only a screen to choose perks. Whatever one does is what they improve at in gameplay without any level up screen. Then the player can look at a character menu to see what level skills are at the moment for individual skills eventhough they'll still get text telling them so and so individual skill just went up. Alot of skills could be interelated with one effecting the other like in Daggerfall and level caps may not even exist.