Seeking a mod to fix levelling system

[WarKirby3333]

Hi everyone.

 

The levelling system in oblivion has always struck me as odd. I'm cool with the whole "level as you do it" thing. And I'm even find with how that does bring about strange grinding, like hopping around to level acrobatics. But this does feel in character.

 

However, the system as implemented, has lots of flaws. Everything is based on low cost grinding. For example, acrobatics levels purely on the number of times you jump (as long as you're moving forward at the time) rather than the quality of those jumps. Therefore, the best way to level acrobatics is jumping around like an idiot in someone's basement, constantly whacking your head off the ceiling (to do more jumps faster). Rather than say... leaping around the rooftops of bruma, which is much more fun!

 

This philosophy extends to a lot of other silly things too. Combat skills level purely on the number of hits, rather than the damage dealt. This means that the best way to level any combat skill is to find something with tons of HP that won't fight back, and just spam weak attacks on it all day. Using power attacks is incredibly bad for levelling as they give the same xp per hit, but kill the enemy faster. Surely this system could be improved to reward actual combat, perhaps giving more XP for using a variety of attacks, and for killing blows with a weapon.

 

Spells too, are based purely on the number cast. So making high cost spells hinders you in the long run. This leads to silly things like making a spell that does 1 fire damage on yourself, and holding down the cast key while you walk around to train destruction.

 

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point by now. The oblivion mod community is quite mature now, so I'm hoping someone will have taken a good hard look at this problem. I'd really like to see a mod that keeps the idea of the "level as you do things" system, but makes it deeper, more enjoyable and more rewarding, like the examples above.

 

I've seen mods that rip the whole tyhing out and replace it with an xp/skill allocation system. I'm not looking for that.

 

Anyone have any advice, or could point me towarrds something good?

Edited June 9, 2011 by WarKirby3333

[ThomasKra]

However, the system as implemented, has lots of flaws. Everything is based on low cost grinding. For example, acrobatics levels purely on the number of times you jump (as long as you're moving forward at the time) rather than the quality of those jumps. Therefore, the best way to level acrobatics is jumping around like an idiot in someone's basement, constantly whacking your head off the ceiling (to do more jumps faster). Rather than say... leaping around the rooftops of bruma, which is much more fun!

 

Not quite. You can level up Acrobatics a lot faster by taking fall damage. ;)

 

Spells too, are based purely on the number cast. So making high cost spells hinders you in the long run. This leads to silly things like making a spell that does 1 fire damage on yourself, and holding down the cast key while you walk around to train destruction.

 

This is also incorrect. You gain experience for every spell you hit. However, this actually makes things worse, because you can't train with touch or target spells unless you actually hit a target with them, so... (Self spells work because you are hitting something when you cast them, yourself.)

 

However, I know of just the mod for you.

 

Oblivion XP. Don't let the "update" in the title throw you, this file contains the full mod. It essentially changes Oblivion from using the normal skill increase method to using a more traditional experience point system, and you can purchase attribute and skill increases with their respective points when you level up.

[Telyn]

If you don't like XP systems, you could try All +5 Attribute Modifiers.

[WarKirby3333]

However, I know of just the mod for you.

 

Oblivion XP. Don't let the "update" in the title throw you, this file contains the full mod. It essentially changes Oblivion from using the normal skill increase method to using a more traditional experience point system, and you can purchase attribute and skill increases with their respective points when you level up.

 

Nope, sorry. But thank you ^^

 

This is exactly what I'm not looking for. This sort of thing rips out the levelling system entirely and replaces it with something different. I'm looking for something that carries on the spirit of the original system, but just fixes it's horribly flawed implementation. I like levelling each skill by using them. I just want to use them in the proper context. Like levelling destruction magic by fighting enemies with magic, without feeling handicapped if I'm not setting myself on fire constantly.

 

If you don't like XP systems, you could try All +5 Attribute Modifiers.

 

And this just scraps the levelling system and replaces it with nothing. I might as well just type advskill in the console rather than use that :P

[Telyn]

You still have to practice to level skills with that one. It just frees you from having to worry about messing up your attributes when you use the skills you prefer.

 

It sounds like maybe you should do a search in the libraries. If there is nothing that does what you want, I highly recommend TESAlliance. You can learn how to make your own mods there, for free, with volunteers to help you, and beta testers available. Believe me, if you can come up with a good levelling mod unlike anything that currently exists, your mod will be really popular.

 

 

[schijnn]

Supreme Magicka will fix this for spells. It causes more expensive spells to give you more experience. I'm not sure if there is a mod to do the same thing for other skills, but maybe opening Supreme Magicka in the CS might give you a clue on how to do it yourself.

[ThomasKra]

Then it sounds like you want to change the ways you gain skill EXP in this game.

 

That is impossible; the skill uses are hardcoded. You can change the magic skills to give you experience on cast (because those usage conditions do exist), but you cannot change how the skill uses work in any way or and new ones.

 

The closest is Progress, but that only allows you to control how quickly or slowly your skills level up, it does not allow you to add new skill use conditions.

Edited June 9, 2011 by Thomas Kaira

[documn]

I don't know of any mods to accomplish what the OP is asking, but it could probably be done with scripts. To me it seems very possible to make OBSE scripts to detect skill usage through event handlers, animation states, etc. and then adjust the player's experience with various skill use functions.

http://obse.silverlock.org/obse_command_doc.html#getplayerskilluse