I've played TES 3-5 countless times, and many thousands of hours. I love this series. If I did not, I would not be writing this manifesto.
While the series has changed significantly, the one part I felt no entry in the series has gotten correctly is leveling. I should preface this piece by saying I am not a game designer, and game design (including mod design) is very hard and time consuming. None of what I say here is intended as an attack on developers anywhere.
In my view, getting this piece right is crucial. Leveling up skills and their character overall is one of the key things every player will be doing - whether a conscious effort or in the background. It is a source of progression both intrinsically and extrinsically rewarding. Levels represent milestones of the player's journey. Levels are an opportunity for player choice, build diversity, exciting rewards and otherwise.
I must preface my arguments by saying this: The Elder Scrolls series is a fantasy game. Not a simulator. Realism should never be used as an argument for game development, outside of simulators. It can absolutely be used as a source of inspiration though - and just because something is realistic does not make it inherently bad game design. But at the end, game-play and game-feel should always be top priority.
What should be the goals of a good leveling system (for the TES series)?
1: Leveling the most efficient way should always be the most fun way
There is a famous saying which still holds true to this day: "Given the opportunity, players will optimize the fun out of a game"
Optimization is not inherently a bad thing. In some games, like Factorio, this can even be itself a rewarding goal. However, optimization is bad when it results in a boring, repetitive, otherwise unrewarding way of playing - one where little thinking or decision making needs to happen.
In order for the game to have any difficulty, some situations are going to require a more experienced character. That means there will always be motivation to get a little stronger - so they can defeat X enemy, complete Y quest, rank up in Z guild. Since the player is always going to have a reason to level up, that process should be enjoyable.
2: Leveling should encourage build diversity
If every build ends up gaining enough experience to be a master as a swordsmen, a thief, a mage and a diplomat all during the same play through...then every character and playthrough ends up feeling the same.
This may be unintuitive, but just like factions - there should be some barriers in place to prevent becoming perfect at everything.
Why?
Being bad at something encourages the player to come up with creative solutions to problems, instead of using the obvious solution. They can't pick the lock, but maybe they can convince the owner to hand the player the key? Maybe they can trick a guard into breaking in? Maybe they can fly up and look for an easier entrance? Maybe they can turn invisible and sneak in while the entrance is open? Or maybe become part of a guild favored by the owner?
It also adds additional areas for characterization and story. Failure, or overcoming adversity are key parts in any good story.
If a player is great at every melee weapon, then there's not a lot of excitement to any one in particular. But what if they can only use daggers? Suddenly they look at the world differently, thinking of every location and type of dagger there are, and how to maximize their effectiveness.
A limited set of skills also sets the player up for unique builds. A build with primarily Sneak, Alteration, and Alchemy is going to handle encounters far differently than one with Heavy Armor, Destruction and Acrobatics.
This also prevents skills from feeling 'stale'. If the player goes a full playthrough without being able to use skill X to solve problems, it's going to feel fresh when they finally don't have that restriction the next time.
One example might be Daggerfall's disadvantages system - which were key skills or situations that character would perform poorly at.
3: Leveling should offer interesting choices
Many players love to spend endless hours in character creators - designing something that is completely and wholly their own. A good leveling system can offer that same kind of creative expression, but repeatedly throughout the journey.
Players want to make choices and feel the consequences of those choices - both good and bad. This may be choices of what skills they will specialize in, this may be choices in perks, this may be choices in prioritizing what they can and cannot compensate for in the early game.
4: Leveling should be rewarding
While I've already talked about the intrinsic reasons why a player may want to level up - I believe unique extrinsic rewards hold a place as well. This can be useful as a discrete goals "I can't wait to get X to Y level so I unlock Z!" that feel more substantial than a single 1% progress towards level 100 in a given skill.
They also can be used as a further opportunity to make builds more diverse, offering abilities that can radically change what options are available to deal with a problem. This is effectively what 'perks' are from Oblivion and Skyrim. While the idea is good, this only works if the rewards are substantial and interesting. No player is going to care about being 10% better at lockpicking, or doing 2.5% more damage. While the effect may be real, it doesn't significantly impact how the player engages with challenges.
As well, this means that the player should feel substantially better at a skill at level 100 than they should at level 1. If they can open every lock just about as easily at the beginning of the game as at level 100...does it feel like progress at all?
5: And the Golden Rule
All of these should hold true from the beginning of the game until the end. If all the interesting choices, rewards, or fun are front-loaded, it can lead to restart-itis and a boring midgame/endgame. If all of those are back-loaded, it can lead to a boring start and a feeling of frustration while waiting for the game to 'get good'.
Now that those goals are covered, how does Morrowind's leveling system fail?
1: Leveling is boring
Spam 1 point telekinesis for 1 second. Spam 1 point of drain fatigue on self. Jump up stairs over and over. Sneak into a corner/circles near some NPCs. Spam 'admire' over and over. Make a mountain full of potions that only need basic buyable ingredients. Or - worst of all of these - just pay gold to get it over with altogether.
None of these are interesting. Some skills avoid this problem more than others (like melee skills) - but overall leveling in Morrowind often feels tedious.
It's easy to say "No one needs to power level! Just let it grow naturally!" - but this only works for some skills. Skills where the player needs to perform the action many times, like hand-to-hand or short blade, generally level quickly. Skills where the player may use actions (click) less frequently like Axe or Blunt will level much more slowly. Some skills need some amount of power leveling in vanilla in order to keep up with the rest of the build's 'natural' pace.
2: It's easy to be a god at everything
The only reason most players don't become level 100 in everything is because it would be tedious and boring to do so with little benefit. If the player has mountains of gold, 100 mercantile and the will to do so - it's not very hard to get level 100 in almost every skill in a short time.
3: Leveling offers limited and boring choices
In vanilla, the only choice afforded to the player is where to distribute their attribute points. While this is a choice, it's a boring one. Each level provides small, percentage buffs to whatever skills they use. While it adds up over time, there's nothing surprising here or any tradeoff to be made. Distributing the points to whatever is appropriate (Strength/endurance for melee builds, Int/Will for Mages, Speed/Agility for Thieves) is almost always the right call - so there's very little to think about or decide.
4: Leveling is only somewhat rewarding
While leveling up is of course useful in Morrowind, it's undermined by a few key problems. The player generally needs nowhere near 100 to deal with most problems - partially due to the effects of gear and tools. The player may only be level 50 security, but with a master lockpick and some patience a level 100 door falls easily enough.
The same is true of melee skills. Once the player gets to the point of hitting enemies reliably, levels end up amounting to small % changes in damage - which is simply not interesting.
How could it be fixed?
In short - it can't be 'fixed'. The only solution I see is ripping it out completely and starting fresh. While many leveling mods try to smooth off the rough edges (GCD, MADD, Skill Evolution + NCG) - ultimately all of them run into the same root problems.
So long as experience is gained on using a skill, there will be a 'most efficient' way to train it - which will be repetitive and tedious.
So long as there's no system for it, players won't be choosing anything - other than what to level at all.
I propose a mod like the following:
Inspired by mods like Experience and Kirbonated Character Progression - Experience should be gained by experiencing the content of Morrowind - quests, exploring new locations, clearing dungeons, defeating bosses, ranking up in guilds, etc. Upon level up, points would be awarded that the player could distribute to skills of their choice.
Inspired by mods like Requiem and Ordinator - Offer a the player multiple perks at key level thresholds. These perks should be both powerful and interesting to use. A playthrough where the player chooses perk X for skill Y at level 100 should have them thinking constantly about how cool it would have been to take perk Z instead or tried getting another skill to 100 entirely. Perfect balance would not be the goal - but instead to make perks that are interesting and exciting to earn. Unlike those examples, I believe they should be exclusive rather than being able to take them all at once.
A system for limiting the number of skills which can reach higher levels. While the exact values could be configurable - an example might be up to three skills can get to level 100, five to 75, nine to 50, etc. This forces the player to make a choice about what skills they want to use. This could easily be done on-the-fly rather than frontloaded at Character Creation. This sort of system would create unique builds and challenges, without being arbitrary about which skills a player can choose to use together.
An overhaul to attributes. I propose allowing the player to choose attributes as in vanilla, but with a fixed set of points awarded per level up - with passives upon reaching set thresholds in a given attribute.
Limit or even remove training altogether. Training is not an interesting way to level up. It could remain for emergencies, but I would propose a strong limit per level, like later games in the series.
Ensure there is not a 'meta' path or must-have skill. For example - in vanilla leveling Mercantile to 100 will make training very cheap, so there's a perverse incentive to level it even if you have no interest in the skill itself.
Now as for whether such a mod will ever be made, who is to say. I'm in-between programming jobs at the moment, and the idea is appealing - but I know full-well I personally lack the experience for something of this size.
I hope you've enjoyed my thoughts. Let me know what you think.
