Personally I think Obsidian did an outstanding job on the level progression in this game. It is phenominal compared to the progression in Fallout 3, because that game was way too slow it was almost microwave-approved. It'd take 8 hours to gain 2-3 levels and god forbid you play it on easy or very easy because nothing in the game would be worth any XP at all. Getting 5XP for killing a super mutant is not the way to go, heh.

So in respect, I love the new leveling and XP system in this game so much more - regardless if all difficulties render the same XP output - it's just perfect the way it is. Infact I like it this way more.

If you want a slower game, make it harder - or change it to hardcoe mode.

Unfortunately that won't slow down your leveling, it will only accelerate it. Since the harder difficulty you play on earns you more xp, the best option is to either A: increase the bump base so it requires more xp to level up, B: Decrease the amount of xp gained from killing, lockpicking, hacking etc., or C: A combination of increasing the bump base and lowering the xp gained from these actions. It seems to me that it shouldn't be too hard to implement an optional alternative to leveling such as this.

i agree, the game doesn't have any challenge to it once you're at mid levels, most of the enemies if you can find any on the map stay low level enemies the entire game, the only enemies that really are a problem early on is cazedores and deathclaws, thats it, the big scorpions are tough at low levels but they aren't in very many places, its too bad the game is so unbalanced and combat is almost non existent, and exploration just isn't there as well, there's really nothing to fight in the game, its mostly just a game with a story and lots of dialogue, all those good perks are kinda useless since there aren't any enemies to use em on.

Actually in fact - you don't have to change the coding of the game. Because changing the difficulty does not alter the amount of XP you receive UNLESS you change it to hardcoe mode - but then if you think about it it does slow down the game if you make it harder (not necessarily putting it to hardcoe mode) But making the original game harder will slow your game down a tremendous amount because it will take you double or tripple the time to kill things and get things done because it will be all that much harder. (More DR on every foe, less weapon damage, more healing required, more running away, etc).

Even on very hard the game is too easy and leveling up is far too fast, which not only led me to making my own slowed leveling mod, but also to downloading increased Wasteland Spawns and XFO to give me more of a challenge.

Sorry, but I have a hard time accepting that making the game harder will slow the game down. The only thing that has significantly increased the time it takes to kill enemies (for me) is http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1163276-relz-hardened/, and that is a user made mod. Slowing down the rate of leveling really should be an option that modders shouldn't have to do themselves.

Okay fair enough, and I know it won't slow it down too much but making it harder will make the gameplay last longer just abit. Also, your mod sounds like it could be useful -even though personally I like the XP output normally, I'd sure LOVE more respawns, since it takes 4-7 days for foes to respawn usually as if at all.

Just to clarify, The mod I linked to IS NOT MY WORK I DID NOT MAKE IT If you want to try it and you like it give credit to the author.

This is not so (in vanilla, w/no mods).

On normal, kill a cazador, 50XP.
On VeryHard, kill a cazador, 50XP

I think there's also a loading screen message that tells you that harder difficulties does not increase XP gained. It's also in the wiki.

In the GECK, the 'xpkillVeryHard = 50' (or however that lines goes)...my guess is 'veryhard' refers to the level of the monster, not the difficulty setting.

Edit:

I agree with this. I haven't tried everything possible, but nothing so far has 'slowed the game down' by more than 2-3 more seconds per kill. That's hardly significant in terms of feeling 'longer' while actually playing.

Yeah, I realized that after I posted that. :shrug: I must've been thinking of another game

And I should have read better to notice someone did already mention it. I blame being in a hurry...getting ready to go out.
I saw the release post about Hardened...another mod to put on my 'will try one day' list.

I think if it were any longer, then enemies would start becoming Bullet Sponges / Albino Radscorpions. While that would certainly make it 'last longer', it'll just become an incredible hassle to kill enemies.

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For me, the level progression is actually quite good in vanilla. While I did take the liberty of reducing my XP gain in numerous ways, http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36411, and I pretty much set an example of how much I found it too fast here:



If it were decreased just a bit, it could of worked out a lot better. Separating more enemies in different XP gain classes, I.E. Golden and Fire Geckos not being 55 XP fodder, may have worked as well as decreasing the overall XP gain of all enemies slightly. Even decreasing everything by 5 XP makes a lot of difference in the long run.

Decreasing it by 20, as shown in the mod I linked, makes leveling much more difficult via enemy kills. I pretty much "legitimately" earned all three ranks of Lord Death, i.e. with quest, area, and spawn mods, and I'm still not at level 30. :laugh:

It seems like I have more of a problem with the actual XP gains rather than the level XP requirements. I'll stop talking before I start going ranting on about quest XP and how silly some of those are. However, I do have to thank them for being so high or else I wouldn't even be close to level 25 on my character.

With a lack of combat/enemies, I am really beginning to miss those bullet sponges, along with some meaningful places to explore.

I can understand where that's coming from. To be honest, the only bullet sponges I've encountered are the Super Mutants in http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38049. Trust me, while it sounds like a blessing to have Bullet Sponges.. something is a bit wrong when it takes over 50 LMG bullets to down one... and when there's waves and waves of them, depending on how much you handicap yourself, it isn't fun at all.

A little more activity in Vanilla would of made a difference. Not saying bullet sponges, but perhaps just a buff on # of spawns.

When I play Beth games, I almost always hit level cap long before I finish the game. My first character was LvL 28 before she even entered the Strip. Gaining levels isn't that important to me as long as I have something to work towards. On of my favorite aspects of NV are the challenges, which offer a sense of advancement independent of level. I'd like to see more of that in future games.

Here's a thought. How about ditching XP and levelling entirely, and give out skill points and perks for finishing quests?

Problem with that is that then the game is geared towards playing once specific way: Finishing quests. While that's certainly a big part of the game, then what's the point of having any enemies at all? Most people would like there to be a reward for just about anything they do. Challenges offer this up as they are rewarded for sticking to one style of play or doing X # of things. Also, I'm not sure that would pan out to be honest. While there's certainly more control over leveling, i.e. not doing quests at all, I can see how if you do X, Y, and Z quests, you'll get A, B, and C perks because they're on a larger scale than M, N, and O quests. Therefore, it can make a character more powerful than they should at the beginning of a game if the quest rewards are static.

It takes me usually 50 hours to reach level 30. I wouldn't consider that too fast at all.

Personally I feel the leveling went a bit too fast in Fallout New Vegas, but then again I was stupid enough to take the Swift Learner Perk pretty early on, plus I always like to explore (and shoot) everything, so I guess I was sort of asking for it.

Still, I remember feeling that the leveling went a bit too slow in Fallout 3, so that's why I took the Swift Learner Perk. I'd rather have more perks and slow leveling than few perks and fast leveling, but I don't have a very strong opinion on the question whether the leveling speed should be optional on the player's behalf.

I thought that leveling was too fast in Fallout 3 as well as New Vegas, but then that's my play style. Never have I seen a reason to take the swift learner perk, Never taken it in New Vegas either.

I figure it this way concerning optional slow leveling; We have fast travel in Fallout which is shipped with the game, and is purely optional, nobody is forcing anybody to use it. Same thing goes for VATS, it is entirely optional, nobody is twisting anybody's arm forcing them to use it either. Why shouldn't we have the option in the vanilla game to have slower leveling. I find it ridiculous that you can reach the level cap LOOONG before you reach the endgame. Even without mods this is very easy to accomplish.