Skyrim Producer Revealed How He Single-Handedly Fixed Combat Balance Just Before Release

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim fans have never been satisfied with the combat system. But as it turned out 13 years later, the balance in the game could have become even worse if not for the intervention of the producer literally two weeks before the release.

As former Bethesda producer Jeff Gardiner recently said, the design team decided to rely on AI for testing, which he absolutely disagreed with. The algorithm did not act like a person, and during battles simply attacked the NPC, without even trying to use a strategy. At the same time, if in half of 10 cases the “player” defeated the creature, the battle was considered balanced.

Jeff Gardiner was not satisfied with this approach, and he decided to personally play the game to make adjustments:

It was recently revealed that the stock werewolves were almost cut from Skyrim due to their terrible design. Then one of the artists secretly tweaked them, and they made it into the final game.