Best way to make Oblivion harder without adjusting the difficulty slider?

[Grogrokl]

When adjusting the difficulty slider in order to make the game harder I think the game becomes harder in a very boring way because it will take hours to kill a monster which just isn't fun. Another problem with using the difficulty slider is that it won't affect your summoned monsters and your companions which will make them overpowered.

So I wonder what your best solution is to make the game harder without touching the difficulty slider?

So far the best idea I've come up with is to install Level Based Health which will make my player have much lower health.

 

Another fix I've been thinking of is to get rid of All +5 Attribute Modifiers that I'm currently using. But at the same time I refuse to use the original system where my attributes are increasing based on skill points because then I might end up weaker or stronger than intended because I'm not gonna micromanage my leveling! So I'm wondering if anyone knows if there is an All +3 Attribute Modifiers mod out there somewhere that I can use instead?

Or if you have an entirely different idea that will make the game harder without adjusting the difficulty slider I would be glad to hear it.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Grogrokl

[Surilindur]

You could try Realistic Leveling by Donovan Baarda. It completely removes the need for micromanagement, and it can be extensively customised using the mod's .ini file. And if not using the OMOD version, it actually should be customised, as I think some important variables are not already defined in the .ini when downloading the mod. I use Realistic Leveling myself, and I would definitely recommend it, as I have had absolutely no issues with it - at least not any that I would have noticed.

 

Maskar's Oblivion Overhaul has a damage multiplier option that might also be of interest to you, although I think it only modifies combat damage. The way I understood it is that, unlike the game's own difficulty slider, it scales everyone's damage equally. If I recall correctly, the game's own difficulty slider modifies player and NPC damage in a rather ridicilous way (lower difficulty means less damage to player and more damage to NPCs, higher difficulty means the opposite). So the option in MOO is quite handy. I have set my difficulty to 50 (player and NPCs do the same amount of damage) and set a suitable damage multiplier in MOO. But I am not sure if it makes any sense to download an overhaul just to get a damage multiplier... :D But then again, Maskar's overhaul has so many features that it might not make any sense not to download it. I think it also has some settings to control leveled creatures' levels (at least some of them) those might make it possible to try to achieve a game world that would be closer to deleveled (like Requiem for Skyrim) than the vanilla one, but I have not had the patience to tweak all the settings.

 

I actually changed from OOO to MOO and I do not regret it at all. They are different kind of overhauls, though, so everyone will probably have a different opinion on the matter.

 

Those are just my suggestions, though, and only the ones I remember right now. And I would not recommend mods that achieve "damage multipliers" by modifying the stats of weapons' and spells' base records by changing them in, for example, the Construction Set or TES4Edit. They are usually quite incompatible with all other mods, and they will never cover all weapons in Oblivion - especially not in a modded one.

Edited February 19, 2015 by PhilippePetain

[Striker879]

Basic Primary Needs plus Enhanced Economy make it tougher to start the game (especially if you use an alternate start mod so your character doesn't hit the world with a dungeon full of loot in his/her pockets). Basic Physical Activities plus Realistic Fatigue will make your level 1 character feel like a level 1 character in fights.

 

The combination has changed my play style to a more considered approach. Gold is hard to come by, and just keeping your character fed is a challenge in the beginning (and with BPN you need to keep fed and rested). I use Packdonkeys to help offset the carrying limitations imposed by the BPA + RF combo (but it takes quite a while to amass the gold for your first packdonkey).

 

You pretty well need HUD Status Bars to help stay on top of your character's liabilities.

[Grogrokl]

Thanks for the advice.

These are the difficulty tweaks I ended up with:

* Backwards running speed reduced by 50% (Basic Physical Activities). No longer possible to kill everything by just running backwards shooting arrows.

 

* No longer possible to focus on the best attributes (Realistic Leveling). In vanilla it's possible to focus on the best attributes and ignore the worst ones like personality. This isn't possible in Realistic Leveling making the game harder.

 

* Instead of gaining 15 attribute points/level up I will just gain around 8 or so on average (Realistic Leveling). This means PC attribute levels will be much more in line with NPC attribute levels since they only gain between 6.8 to 9.2 attribute points/level up.

 

* No longer possible to raise minor skills very high while still being low level (Realistic Leveling). This is because every skill increase contributes to levelling up in Realistic Leveling. This means PC skill levels will be much more in line with NPC skill levels which will make the game harder.

 

* In vanilla oblivion NPC health are basically only 50% of PC health even though both are the same level and have equally high endurance. Thanks to a default setting in MOO which increases NPC health and a tweak I did in Realistic Leveling which decreases how much health the PC gains for every levelup NPC health and PC health will now be much more in line with each other which will make the game much harder.

* All combat damage in the game is doubled (a tweak in MOO). This will make all combat faster and deadlier which will probably make it harder for the player (less time to drink potions and so on).

* Most NPCs and creatures I face will be a few levels higher than me (advanced difficulty level in MOO). Sadly this will seldom affect content from other mods and thats the reason I didn't pick expert difficulty level in MOO. Instead I have tried to make it harder by using other tweaks so that the game will be universally harder and not just harder for some content.

* Creatures with a level offset will do 33% more damage (a default setting in MOO). This tweak I don't really understand the purpose of but since its default in both MOO and OOO I guess it must be a good reason for it.

* Increased the difficulty slider by 3 steps which means all damage against PC is increased to 130% and all damage done by PC against enemies is reduced to 77%. Didn't want to touch the slider to much since it doesn't affect my companions and summons which would make them overpowered if changed to much.

* All equipment has a minimum level (MOO). I'm now forced to wield weak equipment at low levels.

* Harder to get rich (Enhanced Economy, hard settings)

* Must eat, drink and sleep in order to survive (Basic Primary Needs)

 

* Every companion I will eventually use I will nerf by 10 levels or so by editing the mod in the ConstructionSet

 

* My own rule: deaths cost 1000 gold. For each time I load because I die (or if I fail with something else that makes me want to load) I must throw away 1000 gold.

Edited March 16, 2015 by Grogrokl

[Striker879]

Well thought out Grogrokl.

 

If you add Realistic Fatigue into the mix you will also have a chance of tripping when running, side stepping and going backwards (configurable in the INI ... higher probability when going backwards or side stepping). The only part of it that is annoying in my opinion is it isn't possible to eliminate the trip chance when mounted on a horse (I don't find it particularly realistic or game enhancing to trip while on horseback).

 

With Enhanced Economy you'll be into the negative for gold amount (or at zero) a lot with a new character. Using an alternate start mod where you start the game with a rusty iron dagger, a couple of Septims and a bit of food in your room you can steal before leaving makes getting through those first few days tough, and even tougher to get the gold for my first Packdonkey (they're 2000 each if I remember correctly).

 

The alt start I'm using now lets you go back to Anvil and use your cabin in the ship as a home of sorts (just the jewelry box is available for "storage", but I know lots of wilderness chests and barrels that can be safely used). My next new character will use Arthmoor's alt start with the shipwreck at sea option, so beds and storage will all be "roughing it".