I am trying to determine how many skill points to allow for the new release, so I'd like to know if people change the number of skill points they have to spend each level. I would also like to know how many players use the Specialist preset, which makes Major and Specialized skills cheaper, versus the "Jack-of-all-trades" setting, which makes all skills cost 3 points to increase.

If you do change the number of skill points you have to spend, please list what you change it to.

Reason for change:

I've written all the details in the main forum thread here (see my sig), but to sum it up:

In the new release I will be capping skill increases to 5 per level and higher level skills will cost more to improve. To offset the higher cost, I will be increasing the default value of the number of skill points you have to spend each level. Everything will be configurable in the ini file for those that want to keep the old system.

I set it to Jack Of All Trades and decrease the points to 30.

Wow - you like it hard! I think you'll like the new release then. Basically I'll be putting a cap on how much you can increase a skill in one level and increasing the cost to raise higher level skills.

Dear Andalaybay

Are further suggestions for the new release allowed? I was thinking about how to get the best out of both worlds - the vanilla and the Oblivion XP leveling system.

The advantage of an XP based leveling system is, that you get rewarded for almost everything you do. That`s the main reason for using Oblivion XP, right? The major drawback of the vanilla default leveling system is: you can do quests all the time, you only get some coins and maybe a useless item for it. But what is the advantage of the the vanilla leveling system? It makes you be, what you do! It`s totally logical that you get better in the things you do. With Oblivion XP you can get a master in Destruction without even once casting a fire ball or another spell from the magic school of Desctruction!

So I was thinking about introducing a system to Oblivion XP that records and anolyses all your actions like the vanilla leveling system and offers you multiplier as you level up and distribute skill points. Let`s say you cast a lot of fire balls. Oblivion XP should record that and after you gain a level offer a multiplier for Destruction. This way your skill advancement reflects your actions: it lets you be, what you do.

What do you think? Do you like my idea? Could you do that?

The idea behind Oblivion XP is that you don't have to use skills to improve them. Rather you improve your skills so that you can use them better. I admit that the vanilla system is a good concept, but unfortunately in Bethesda's desire to have all skills evenly distributed, you would be forced to use skills that you normally wouldn't just so that you can improve the underlying attribute.

I can understand what you are suggesting and it's not a bad idea. I have no idea how I would implement such a thing without completely rewriting Oblivion XP. I'm not even sure there's a way to record how much someone has done something. I guess there must be some stuff available because I would imagine that's how some of the other levelling mods work. But for the most part, Oblivion XP uses the miscellaneous stats to detect when something has happened. It doesn't monitor which skills you use. So the infrastructure does not exist for something like you are proposing.

The full description of the changes I have implemented for the next release are in the forum thread here. See my sig for the link. I'm actually looking for some people to help test

I don`t want to change the basic concept of Oblivion XP or force the player to use certains skill just for the sake of improving them. I was thinking about adding an idea from the vanilla leveling system to the Oblivion XP leveling system, not the other way around. My idea was to reward a player for using skills he uses a lot, because he likes them. The effect would be a character, who is directly shaped by his actions and not by abstract thoughts.

But I guess, this is going to be nearly impossible to implement. Maybe you can get to know how the vanilla leveling system keeps record of the player`s actions.

Yes, I understood what you were saying. I'm saying that currently Oblivion XP does not monitor skill usage, so there would be no way for me to say "oh, you've used Destruction 15 times, you deserve a bonus". I was just saying that since Oblivion XP does not monitor skill usage at all, it would be a lot of work for me to add that at this point.

Not a bad idea, just not easy to implement! Oblivion XP expects you to make your favoured skills major and specialized skills and then rewards you by making those skills cheaper to improve. Since there is no penalty for creating a character this way, Oblivion XP was designed this way. Now I guess that is still a bit restrictive because the Specializations fall into groups. So you have a character that specializes in combat, or magic or stealth. I think you're looking for a bit more of a blend, where the Specialization is defined by the skills you actually use, rather than the arbitrary classification that Oblivion imposes. With a custom class, you're free to select the skills that will be Majors, but you're still restricted to picking a Specialization that is close to what you want, but doesn't necessarily fit your character very well.

I voted for 36 points per level and 2 points for major specializations. In many ways I feel that the current systems has managed to reach the very fine balance between to much to little which I like quite a lot. But then, if it is changed I have no issues so long as I can change it back to something that suits me in the ini.

Sounds like the Nehrim leveling system. You can improve your stats and skills at level up and you can train skills normally.

Isn't that just a simple GMST?

The only thing I've changed for this character is ObXPSettings.multXPNeededBase (setting that one a tad higher, is all). Voila, slower levelling. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy with it.

Mind you, the specialisations/majors system leaves a little to be desired. But still, this has to be one of the best implementations of it.

I decreased mine.


Set ObXPSettings.attributePointsPerLevel to 6 ; 13
Set ObXPSettings.skillPointsPerLevel to 16 ; 36

Set ObXPSettings.trainingSessions to 5 ; 5
Set ObXPSettings.trainingCostMult to 10 ; 10

Set ObXPSettings.minimumLevelApprentice to 0 ; 0
Set ObXPSettings.minimumLevelJourneyman to 0 ; 5
Set ObXPSettings.minimumLevelExpert to 0 ; 10
Set ObXPSettings.minimumLevelMaster to 30 ; 20
Set ObXPSettings.minimumLevelGrandMaster to 70 ; 30

Set ObXPSettings.maximumAttributeIncrease to 2 ; 5

Set ObXPSettings.skillPointPreset to 1 ; 1

Thanks for the responses everyone! I had two options for the new skill point default and I've opted for the lower number based on the responses here and on TES Nexus. Of course this will all be configurable. Also from the responses I got, I think the new cost progression will be quite popular. It sounds like it will give a "toughness" tweak that a lot of people will like. It's all configurable as well, so those who prefer the old system will be able to continue to play with those settings. So now I'll just finish adding the last few bits and will release the new version shortly.

Voted the same, for actually the same reasons.