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I recently learned (the hard way) that my previous impression of how the leveling up algorithm works was incorrect. Suppose, for example, that the Major Skills just after a LevUp had the values: "A" = 70, "B" = 61, "C" = 60. Suppose that the skill increase amoung the Primary Skills totalled 13. Skill Increases of 2 shared in any combnation among "A" and "B" will cause a LevUp; but a skill increase of 2 by "C" will not, even though at the time when "C" has increased, it - not "B" - is the second highest skill among the three. In short, in deciding which skill increases will count towards the next LevUp, the algorithm looks at their values after the last preceding LevUp, not at their current values. (I have not fully resolved what happens in case of ties.)

Has anyone else encountered this phenomenon? It has a direct effect on the strategy for maximizng level. In particular, in the example cited, if we increased "C" by a large amount, that large amount would not count towards a level increase, but it would decrease the available "countable" skill increases in subsequent rounds of leveling up.

Well, that certainly sounds quite logical, at least for how the game mechanic works, because otherwise how would the game be supposed to decide when to level up a character? The only way to reliably do that is to track values at each level-up.

That said, I should mention one thing from the manual (sorry, no direct quote here) when levelling up is discussed, where it says something along the lines of "don't bother with the level-up mechanics, let it be a natural process for your character". I think that the developers deliberately made this system work in a way that is more realistic than getting to level up after acquiring the necessary amount of "experience points". It makes sense from the "realism" point of view that one has to invest more effort into training an underdeveloped skill to gain more expertise (~ level up).

Hello all, as a new player in Daggerfall I desperately need one clarification of algorithm. What happens if you maxed one of your major/minor skills up to 100%? I suppose that leveling algorithm checks "increasement of highest minor skill" and therefore, because 100% minor skill cannot be increased more, game will consider second in rate minor skill as "highest". Am I right?

I have this situation because I'm playing as Ranger, and Running (one of my minor skills) was already 100% at level 12 of its own accord. Now I'm trying to make it out if any of my other minor skills (Blunt Weapons or Hand-to-Hand) will be counted by game for next levels - or not?