Fallout 4 - Play Forever Without Level Cap

[HiddenX]

Bethesda Game Studios tweeted this:

To our fans who’ve asked: Fallout 4 doesn’t end when the main story is over and there is no level cap. You can keep playing and leveling.

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

Bethesda always favored sandbox style exploration.

 

[JDR13]

What's the point though? Will enemies continue to scale with the player indefinitely? I doubt it.

Bethesda's games are already a joke in terms of challenge.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

They got their Skyrim lesson: useless to implement a feature that players reject on the face look.

Since they are in defining characters, seeing how they manage it in these conditions is going to be interesting. Levelling might be bypassed in some sort, the definition of the character will come from other reference points.

 

[Ivanwah]

Could it be, for better or worse, that this is to make Fallout 4 even more mod-friendly? There are tons of mods for their previous games that change how leveling works. This would remove a constraint for such mods.

 

[zahratustra]

What's the point though? Will enemies continue to scale with the player indefinitely? I doubt it.

Yeah. SPG with MMO problem - end of the game contents...

 

[SonOfCapiz]

wasn't this a simple mod tweak in previous Bethesda games?

 

[Drithius]

If you give it some thought, this is in line with no numerical skills: a game that plays the same throughout - why would there be a point to levels?

 

[rjshae]

If most players never finish a game, I suppose it makes a certain amount of sense to create a game that you can never really finish.

Perhaps some modders will build high-level add-ons that provide a challenge to players who reach that point? It could be entertaining to challenge some uber death trap sewer systems with power armored intelligent deathclaws firing mini-nukes.

 

[BoboTheMighty]

Call me cynic, but this doesn't make me optimistic for a main story with strong impact on the world.
In my opinion, CDPR made a mistake of caving in, to the demands of fan base who wanted this in Wild Hunt.

 

[DArtagnan]

I don't really care about post main quest stuff like this, as I always quit at that point. I do care about strong progression and challenging gameplay, but that doesn't happen in vanilla Bethsoft games anyway.

 

[Brumbek]

This is great news to me. I hated easy quickly you reached level cap in Fallout 3. I only explored about half the world and suddenly could never get more perks or level up again. It was sad.

They did a great job adding Legendary resets to Skyrim skills, making it possible to always level up. And this Fallout 4 system sounds very promising! So insanely hyped. I've adored Bethesda Game Studios since Morrowind and Fallout 4 looks to be the best yet!

 

[Darkheart]

The problem with all Beth games always wasn't level cap, but too fast leveling and Skyrim was king at that. Anybody remember leveling up from forging a few daggers? It was just silly and a clear reference to console players/no attention-span kids. Some of the first mods I always install are slower leveling mods and mods changing the way you level up. Check out Elys for Skyrim.

 

[ChienAboyeur]

Not an issue, a required designed feature that worked as intended.

Bethesda wanted to bring definition to the PC. As they also maintain the connection between action and consequences (the PC is what they do, contrary to some other products PCs are disconnected from what they do, distribution of points over a list with no connection of past action), the fast levelling feature provided what was expected.

The defining in PCs would lead to PC extremelly proficient in stuff while inept at other stuff.

Fast levelling acts as hinderance: players who want extremelly proficient characters must avoid dabbling in other stuff as every single level put in other stuff was taken out of the other levels.

Behind all this, there're of course higher stakes as defined characters would enable de PC centrization of a gameworld and introduce a new array of reliance over the gameworld.
Like a totally inept in stuff PC must rely on the gameworld to produce what is required, the PC unable to centralize everyting.

Bethesda's problem is not providing functional systems. It is providing functional systems serving purposes players do not like.

Players do not want definition. Players want to be anything they want with no other constraints that the constraints they impose. No constraint must come from the game.
Removing the cap limit (that gave meaning to the defining act) was one of the first demand.

Hence Fall Out4's measures: Bethesda do not start with a feature they know players reject.

It remains though that they keep talking definition of characters so if they are on that, the defining must come from other means.