want good mods but keep level scaling

[Oneiros1]

Brand spanking new Oblivion player here, picked up the game in a bargain bin. Since the game's got such a ridiculous quantity of quality mods, I thought I'd just chuck in the best ones and give it a go. FCOM (yes I installed the whole thing right and got it working), Better Cities, Unique Landscapes, etc. The game worked fantastically well... until I started actual quests. Then I got smacked down hard. And again. And again.

 

So for my first few playthroughs, I'd like to keep level scaling intact so that I can just enjoy myself and play through the quests, without having to leave a quest undone for a dozen levels until I'm strong enough to actually do it. However, I still want to enjoy the extras that people have worked so long at, that make the game so much more enjoyable. Is it possible to have mods like MMM and Francesco's creatures and items, but retain vanilla levelling? If not, what other mods add extra goodies to the game without unbalancing it?

 

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one on this forum who actually wants to keep level scaling. I understand why everyone else has it removed, and I'm sure I'll remove it later when I want a challenge, but for now I just want to have fun. :)

[documn]

Well I can't think of any mods that add level scaling, which makes sense cause the vanilla already has it. I guess all you need to do to restore level scaling would be to remove FCOM and any other mods that specifically change level scaling (OOO, Frans, TIE, etc.). I think MMM doesn't change level scaling if you install it separate from FCOM. There might be a way to install Frans without level scaling, though I'm not sure. You'd have to check out various ESPs that come with it. I don't think there's any way to get most of the OOO content without level scaling, but OOO does include many mods that were not originally part of the mod, such as drop lit torches and harvest containers.

[Pittcrew]

You know if the game is too difficult for you, you can always turn the difficulty down a bit.

[Megatarius]

One of FCOM's biggest selling points is that removes level scaling. Both OOO and War Cry do this. I don't recommend losing it. The game is boring without it. OOO won an award in 2007 or so, I think in Game Pro magazine, but it might be something else. Oscuro now works for Bethesda, and was on the development team for Fallout New Vegas. There's a reason FCOM is so celebrated. It spanks the vanilla game to next week.

 

 

You can always "cheat" your character's level up in the console at the start. It's kind of a process though, because of how the character leveling works. Basically, you have to raise the levels of your major skills enough times (10) that it forces a level up. Do this a bunch of times.

 

Say you want to be level 25. Your skills are Blade, Destruction, Athletics, Acrobatics, Block, Alteration, and Sneak. Just an example. First raise Blade from its starting level of 15 or so, to 55. That's four character levels you'll go up right then. Do the same thing for each major skill. Remember, every 10 times your skill levels, you level. You'll be way up there level-wise in about 5 minutes, and the rest of the game will be mostly the same. (Even FCOM has some changes as you level, but they're reasonable.)

 

Also, it's not cheating. Some people might consider it so, but only if you assume your character has to be a weakling at the beginning of the game. It actually makes far more sense that an already quite badass character would be participating in these adventures. Think about it. Why would a level 1 n00b be able to be grand champion of the Arena? Why would a level 1 n00b save the world from an angry god? If you want to have an easier time at it, make your character a badass. There's no reason to forgo all that FCOM brilliance, just because you want to kick ass early on.

[Oneiros1]

Good points all. I didn't know Oscuro worked at Bethesda now, kudos to him, Fallout New Vegas is great.

 

Is there at least something in FCOM that tells me the quest I'm on or cave I'm going to is too tough for my character? Like I said, I'm new to the game, but one of the first quests you get in the game is to close the Oblivion gate in Kvatch. I step through the gate in all my level 3 glory, and promptly get assaulted by 3 clannfears and 3 scamps. That doesn't seem right to me. Granted (and I'm kicking myself for not noticing this before) there's a difficulty scale in options, but even so, that kind of punishment right off the bat is for "dear god are you out of your mind" difficulty, and I must have been on default.

 

One little side-question to anyone who might know, is the Stealth Overhaul mod compatible with FCOM? I don't like way stealth is handled in the game, even in FCOM ("You shot me in the back and I didn't see where the arrow came from but I know where you are, and I'll hunt you to the ends of the earth!"), and I've always liked stealth characters.

[majikmonkee]

I have certain characters who I'd prefer to have live in the world of fur armored bandits and scamps vs glass armor thugs and every daedra being a daederoth (I prefer the latter for my warrior). For my thief character, I selected all major skills she never uses, thus ensuring she and the rest of the world remain at level 1. Granted the enemy variety this way is kind of boring, but not for me, I'm so used to seeing the level 35 enemy variety by this point that it's a welcome change. As an aside, I did use the console to set my character's REAL major skills to the level they would have been if they were the ones I selected, and reduced the ones I selected just for the sake of preventing leveling...

[londonade]

I actually like level scaling and highly recommend using Francesco's mod on it's own. Frans is very customisable so you can essentially tweak the game to suit your requirements. I'm pretty much a 'dead is dead' player and like low level games and using Frans can set up the game world to suit this.

[documn]

Regaring Kvatch: some people rationalized the difficulty by saying that it was a major invasion point. This makes sense - you don't overrun a major city by sending in a troop of scamps. It does mean that you're gonna have to level up quite a bit if you want to clean up Kvatch though, especially with FCOM installed. A short discussion is here: http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1075743-this-is-absurd-too-much-enemies/

[Oneiros1]

How do you know what level a creature is before you start whacking away at it? Did I completely miss a key that displays that info on the screen? Because it seems the only way to find out is to start whacking away at it, and when it kills you by farting, you know it's too tough and you should reload your save because you've died horribly.

[Megatarius]

It would be really cool if there was a subtle and most importantly role-playing way of knowing how hard a dungeon will be. Perhaps, the more bodies there are heaped up outside, the harder it is.

 

I think you should go ahead and install Stealth Overhaul with FCOM. If you load it after all the FCOM files, it will overwrite those changes. There may or may not be a conflict created with it, but sometimes the conflict is something small. Put if after your bashed patch and it will most likely be fine.

 

 

I forgot to mention before:

 

There's a handy little mod I use that helps enormously when facing monsters too high in level.

 

Running Revised:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7484

 

It has transformed my game. It adds a sprint option, so you can get away from that axe-wielding maniac that always matches your speed. With this mod, and both fatigue and health potions added to your hotkeys, you can run in, get a few measly hits in, run away and thus buy some little time to heal before you get mauled with one hit again.

 

I've faced off against level 20 monsters at level 6 with this mod. Sure I did a lot of running away and hiding, but it bought me the time I needed to heal while I fought.

 

This mod also makes pure marksman characters a real possibility.

 

 

Also, you can always cheat in the console to find out a level. Click on the monster with the console up, and type getlevel.

 

Of course, that is cheating, unlike the thing I describe earlier.

Edited January 1, 2011 by Megatarius