Balor said:
They are undoubtely stupid... they CAN be a good thing, but stupid nonetheless.
And you know why? It stems from the stupidity of general stat systems in RPG.
I mean - begin as power equivalent of potplant, end as Godzilla.
Also, at first you get rusty swords you cannot kill yourself with, and end with magical artefacts that seem to rip apart space and time.
As long is such (also, undoubtely, rather stupid) systems exist - they will require levelled loot and monsters to provide most fun the player.
I think this is the problem, if single humans can become demi-gods like the player from fighting rats I think elite army divisions would have equal strength and more numbers then the player.
In Fallout you could still die from a critical hit from a mini gun, and skill didn't make guns magically do more damage. If HP was balanced and didn't go so super-high, firearms would still pose some threat the whole way through.
If you look at JA2, a lvl 1 can kill an elite if he is lucky enough and gets the drop on him.
If the game isn't going to limit player's power then the game needs to use natural means to reach balance.
Take a Goblin cave.
If the player is weak the goblin guards can attack him, providing a challenge.
If the player is medium strength and the guards notice they aren't hurting him, they will retreat and from into bigger groups, providing a challenge.
If the player is high strength the goblins can try and escape, maybe being forced to run into the nearby town where they can take hostages where the 'fighter approach' will probably get some townsfolk killed, which they will blame on the player, providing a challenge beyond combat of having to plan things out.
If the player is maxed out in combat and can solo dragons, making different color dragons is stupid. Adjust the challenges away from straight combat, in movies the villain doesn't have a straight fight after having all his elite troops killed he adjusts the odds by taking hostages, planting bombs, or just distracts him until he can flee.
The player can be challenged by low level enemies if he knows that they are meant to slow him down while the rest flee and take all their loot with them.
The enemy should also attempt surrender if they know they can't beat the guy. Game designers treat everyone in the game like mindless zombies that rush to their death, except they don't even have the intelligence of zombies to form into large enough groups.
The game world should react. Like in VD's game that weapon skill can be used to intimate people, if you have the skills to kill a dragon you would think pickpockets would think twice.
Oblivion: Enemies are challenging and act intelligently in battle. As in Daggerfall (but not Morrowind), creatures and items you encounter are automatically balanced to your level. So, for instance, you can't just grab an overpowered Daedric sword by sneaking into a high-level dungeon.
It would be cool to run to the end game and have him say, "Sorry I don't have anything that can threaten the world, you aren't high enough level yet." I guess all the townsfolk can blame the player for starting an arms race with all the monsters after they made an agreement not to build up past a certain point.