Enemies scale to -5/+5 character level

[LebowskiGrande]

I've searched high and low and have found several mods that alter the levels of spawns but all of them do so in convoluted ways.

To show that I've done some research, here are the mods that I have found that attempt to address level scaling:

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/6957/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/261/?

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/7580/?

As you can see, modders have approached this issue but in very different ways.

The G.E.C.K tells us that:

The Zone Level is a value calculated the first time the player loads any of the Encounter Zone's cells. It is stored permanently on the Encounter Zone and is never recalculated. If the player returns to the zone after gaining several levels, the zone's level remains the same as when he first visited.

Is is this exact mechanic that I'd like to see defeated. In vanilla, since you start in the upper left of the map (Sanctuary) that area and others around it are permanently pegged as being low level. To make matters worse, if you are a sneaky explorer type that wanted to roam further south and east while still low leveled, you are unintentionally permanently setting the levels of those areas at a very low level and that would impact your enjoyment of those areas later on.

Ideally, every time you enter an Encounter Zone cell it would check your level and readjust all the leveled lists to within -5/+5 of your level. This would not affect the min/max levels of the zones (as many of the other mods do) and it would only change levels based upon the player's level.

This would create a tremendous amount of replayability in the earlier zones since high level characters returning to, Concord for instance, would be faced with equally powered enemies and not level 10-20 enemies.

Thanks for reading.

Caveat: I'm not a modder and have no idea how to do any of these things.

 

[Genamine]

That, and a lot of other stuff too

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/4322/?

[LebowskiGrande]

Thanks. I noticed that you have:

 

 

Encounter Zones:

• Reworked all encounter zones to have a larger level range (Minimum levels unchanged, maximum levels increased)

 

This gives me hope that what I'm looking for can be done. Your rework is different than what I had in mind.

 

For instance, you start in Zone 1 therefore that zone will be locked at the 1-10 level permanently. The mod that I'm looking for will readjust this based on your level each and every time you return to zone 1. So if I return to Zone 1 when I'm level 50, then all the enemies in Zone 1 will now be Lvl 45-55.

 

Your mod is a far more extensive overhaul than what I'm looking for right now. Looks great though!

[Veliwine]

wait.... the game -locks- enemy levels based on yours when you go to an area?... that is... that's the most absurd thing I ever fricken heard of..

[Genamine]

Thanks. I noticed that you have:

 

 

Encounter Zones:

• Reworked all encounter zones to have a larger level range (Minimum levels unchanged, maximum levels increased)

 

This gives me hope that what I'm looking for can be done. Your rework is different than what I had in mind.

 

For instance, you start in Zone 1 therefore that zone will be locked at the 1-10 level permanently. The mod that I'm looking for will readjust this based on your level each and every time you return to zone 1. So if I return to Zone 1 when I'm level 50, then all the enemies in Zone 1 will now be Lvl 45-55.

 

Your mod is a far more extensive overhaul than what I'm looking for right now. Looks great though!

 

My mod only uses encounter zones as a cap on NPC min/max levels

As you play, the NPCs will scale to your level

For instance, if you level up while fighting a group of raiders, those very raiders will automatically scale to your level then and there

 

The only factor encounter zones have in this is that they prevent all NPCs from being below level X and above level Y

[LebowskiGrande]

 

 

I'm having trouble understanding these two concepts when they're put together. You say:

 

For instance, if you level up while fighting a group of raiders, those very raiders will automatically scale to your level then and there

but you also say:

 

The only factor encounter zones have in this is that they prevent all NPCs from being below level X and above level Y

My question is: What if I'm already "above level Y" when I encounter those raiders? Won't they be unable to scale up to me?

 

More specifically, (and I'm sure you are answering this question and I just don't know it) does your mod totally remove the zone level mechanic that I referenced above so that a player entering a zone does not permanently lock the level values?

 

If so, what do you mean by "My mod only uses encounter zones as a cap on NPC min/max levels"? If the NPCs are automatically scaling to your level, what is the cap even for?

[Genamine]

I'm having trouble understanding these two concepts when they're put together. You say:

 

For instance, if you level up while fighting a group of raiders, those very raiders will automatically scale to your level then and there

but you also say:

 

The only factor encounter zones have in this is that they prevent all NPCs from being below level X and above level Y

My question is: What if I'm already "above level Y" when I encounter those raiders? Won't they be unable to scale up to me?

 

More specifically, (and I'm sure you are answering this question and I just don't know it) does your mod totally remove the zone level mechanic that I referenced above so that a player entering a zone does not permanently lock the level values?

 

If so, what do you mean by "My mod only uses encounter zones as a cap on NPC min/max levels"? If the NPCs are automatically scaling to your level, what is the cap even for?

It was probably a poor choice of words to say "all NPCs", let me expain it to the fullest

 

If the raider is set to scale to your level, it will ignore X and Y, which are set by the encounter zone

The minimum and maximum level will then depend on the values set for that specific NPC, the minimum levels depend on the "tier" the NPC is (e.g. a mythic deathclaw is a higher tier deathclaw than a chameleon deathclaw), and the maximum level Ive set to 1000 in my mod, so as to make sure the NPCs stats dont bug out by reaching an "impossible" level

Practically every NPC is set to scale to the player level, give or take a certain percentage, the encounter zones with minimum X and maximum Y are only there as a backup for any possible NPCs that are not set to scale to player level

 

To edit all NPCs to scale to player level in a balanced way is actually an incredible amount of work, so because of that I broadened the encounter zone ranges so that any NPCs that are not set to scale to player level will not feel out of place

By the time Ive processed all NPCs, the encounter zones will actually no longer be needed at all in terms of NPC leveling

[LebowskiGrande]

It was probably a poor choice of words to say "all NPCs", let me expain it to the fullest

 

If the raider is set to scale to your level, it will ignore X and Y, which are set by the encounter zone

The minimum and maximum level will then depend on the values set for that specific NPC, the minimum levels depend on the "tier" the NPC is (e.g. a mythic deathclaw is a higher tier deathclaw than a chameleon deathclaw), and the maximum level Ive set to 1000 in my mod, so as to make sure the NPCs stats dont bug out by reaching an "impossible" level

Practically every NPC is set to scale to the player level, give or take a certain percentage, the encounter zones with minimum X and maximum Y are only there as a backup for any possible NPCs that are not set to scale to player level

 

To edit all NPCs to scale to player level in a balanced way is actually an incredible amount of work, so because of that I broadened the encounter zone ranges so that any NPCs that are not set to scale to player level will not feel out of place

By the time Ive processed all NPCs, the encounter zones will actually no longer be needed at all in terms of NPC leveling

Genamine, I think you've done it. I believe this is the behavior that I'm looking for.

 

Do you think it's possible to pull this behavior out of your full game overhaul as a stand alone mod?

 

Principally:

 

• Scale NPC levels to the player level
• Fix unbalanced vanilla NPC difficulty curve

This would be a very, very popular game re-balance mod on it's own.

 

If you wanted to go a step further you can also add:

• Reworked all non-unique encounter NPCs
• Reworked a large variety of unique NPCs
• Added experience-based damage boost to player, every 10K experience is +1% damage

Which is basically all of the level/difficulty type of issues without touching any weapons or loot or any other aspect of vanilla.

 

 

 

[Genamine]

 

It was probably a poor choice of words to say "all NPCs", let me expain it to the fullest

 

If the raider is set to scale to your level, it will ignore X and Y, which are set by the encounter zone

The minimum and maximum level will then depend on the values set for that specific NPC, the minimum levels depend on the "tier" the NPC is (e.g. a mythic deathclaw is a higher tier deathclaw than a chameleon deathclaw), and the maximum level Ive set to 1000 in my mod, so as to make sure the NPCs stats dont bug out by reaching an "impossible" level

Practically every NPC is set to scale to the player level, give or take a certain percentage, the encounter zones with minimum X and maximum Y are only there as a backup for any possible NPCs that are not set to scale to player level

 

To edit all NPCs to scale to player level in a balanced way is actually an incredible amount of work, so because of that I broadened the encounter zone ranges so that any NPCs that are not set to scale to player level will not feel out of place

By the time Ive processed all NPCs, the encounter zones will actually no longer be needed at all in terms of NPC leveling

Genamine, I think you've done it. I believe this is the behavior that I'm looking for.

 

Do you think it's possible to pull this behavior out of your full game overhaul as a stand alone mod?

 

Principally:

 

• Scale NPC levels to the player level
• Fix unbalanced vanilla NPC difficulty curve

This would be a very, very popular game re-balance mod on it's own.

 

If you wanted to go a step further you can also add:

• Reworked all non-unique encounter NPCs
• Reworked a large variety of unique NPCs
• Added experience-based damage boost to player, every 10K experience is +1% damage

Which is basically all of the level/difficulty type of issues without touching any weapons or loot or any other aspect of vanilla.

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah that would be quite easy actually

[Genamine]

Ive uploaded it to the Nexus as a separate mod

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/15961/?