The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s Original Level Scaling System, Which Is Still in Oblivion Remastered, Was a ‘Mistake,’ Designer Admits

Amid the heightened interest in all things The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion brought on by Bethesda’s popular remaster, its original designer has admitted the game’s level scaling system was a “mistake.”

Oblivion’s level scaling system is perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of the 20-year-old open-world role-playing game. It means loot acquired is tied to the level of your character at the point you acquire it. So, if you complete a quest for a coveted sword at level one, you’ll get that sword locked at level one power. If you complete the same quest at level 25, you’ll get the sword at level 25. This, frustratingly, locks that cool sword you got at level one to level one power for your entire playthrough, no matter how much you level up. In effect players could, through no fault of their own, complete quests too early, renedering unique items useless later in the game.

Similarly, enemies will still spawn according to your level. While this allows the foes you face to always provide a challenge, it does present a problem if you aren’t focusing on certain skills.

Fast forward to 2025 and some fans were shocked to find that Oblivion’s original level scaling system reappeared in Oblivion Remastered, when other parts of the game’s mechanics were modernized.

“This is very disappointing, especially when they said they went out of their way to fix the leveling system, which, to be fair, they did fix for player attributes,” redditor minifat commented.

Original Oblivion designer Bruce Nesmith told VideoGamer the game’s level scaling, or “world scaling” system was a “mistake.” Bethesda ended up changing the level scaling for 2011’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which most fans believe was for the better.

“I had a very substantial hand and voice in both levelling systems,” Nesmith said. “The nuts and bolts work, the mathematical mechanics, that was my work and I’m intimately familiar with how both of those things work.

“I think the world leveling with you was a mistake and that’s proven out by the fact it did not happen the same way in Skryim. That we came up with a much, much better way to continue to provide the player challenge without making it feel like, ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter that I went up in levels, the dungeon went up in levels with me.’ “

One area Oblivion Remastered did improve on was leveling up your character. In Oblivion Remastered, increasing both Minor and Major Skills now all contributes towards your next level, instead of only Major Skills providing any progress (Major Skills increase at a much faster rate, giving them a larger impact).

Upon resting in bed to begin the Level-up Screen, you’re now presented with the list of Attributes and 12 Virtue Points. These points can be distributed among your Attributes (which cannot exceed 3, just like in the original), with a maximum of +5 points in any one Attribute (which was also the cap in the original).

Since the points can be allocated regardless of which skills you improved, you can now align your Attribute increases during each level up without fear of becoming underpowered by allocating points to Attributes that your character may not use as much. The only exception to this is Luck: It requires 4 Virtue Points for every point added to the Luck Attribute.

There have also been a few changes to how certain skills increase. Mercantile, for example, increases at rates that align with how expensive the item bought or sold is, and Magick Skills increase faster when using spells with a higher magick cost, making spamming low-level spells to increase skills faster a less effective method.

As you’d expect, modders have once again come to the rescue. Fresh from tackling PC performance issues in Oblivion Remastered, modders have also released balanced NPC level cap mods and balanced unleveled rewards mods.

We’ve got plenty more on Oblivion Remastered, including a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

We’ve also got a comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.