Hello,

The title really says it all! This is my 3rd time re-installing Oblivion, the title doesn't say that. I always use 175+ mods, but somehow after careful installation I always seem to get excited about mods and install too many without testing. Thank god for this - http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1004123&hl=crash%20free&st=40 - which I will be following to the letter tonight.

I was using RealisticLeveling, but I have NO IDEA what is wrong with that mod. I seemed to like it at first, but I never, ever got to touch any of my stats like in vanilla. Worst part, is that I was NEVER getting endurance so I had about 70 health at level 4 in FCOM and that's not the best thing.

Good leveling mod that removes the need to micro-manage your skill ups, while trying to get +5 to the stat you want. That is no fun. I like Oblivion XP A LOT, I mean, I would love to use it but apparently it hasn't been updated in a while and is not compatible with Deadly Reflex.

Anyways, your suggestions, go!

Thanks

-J

I tried Oblivion XP with my most recent install, and it crashed my game But I found http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3392, which eliminates those pesky bonuses at level up completely. Instead, your attributes go up by one four every four or five skill points that are governed by that attribute. You still increase three at level up, but it's only by one. I've found it to be really easy and smooth. :shrug: It also changed how health is calculated so that it doesn't matter WHEN you get Endurance (i.e. endurance increases your health retroactively).

This is the reason most of us use leveling mods. Me, I adore both Realistic Leveling and nGCD because they work invisibly in the background, freeing me to concentrate on my roleplaying.

But if you are looking for a mod that allows to you allocate stats yourself you might be more interested in http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15619

I use Realistic Leveling on my FCOM setup and I've loved it.

There's not too much point in using a leveling mod if you want to manage your own stats.
In reality that removes Realistic Leveling and nGCD from your list of possibilities, which in my mind are without doubt the best available mods in this class.

I'm sorry. I mispoke.

I DO like RealisticLeveling, but I was a little confused to how it works.

See, I had a custom class. Half archer/Half blade. An assassin type char, but none of my major skills were in Endurance, and I never nor did I want to use Armorer or wear Heavy Armor.

Maybe I am wrong, but in RealisticLeveling the only way to increase your stats is by using the corresponding skill. Such as Agility is to marksman.

So I found myself having 40 Endurance from level 1 to level 4 and found I would go down pretty quick.

Am I missing something?

Nope you got it. It's made to support the fact a mage isn't going to have 100 Endurance at level 20.

I save the use of mods for other things. I ignore planning for attribute gains and play how I want. When I level up, I bump up the three attributes I want with whatever I get, then open the console to tweak if/as required to +5/5/5. Easy and takes 3 minutes each time I level up. The rest of the time I can ignore leveling. I bring it up only because you seem to be having trouble because of too many mods. I always try to optimize console use before I go mods, but that's just me.

And an assassin isn't that much of an endurance fighter, more like strike and flee .
But as I understand it if you block and increase your block skill your endurance should go up even if it's not a major skill. So it should increase even for your assassin even if probably not as much as a toe to toe fighter.

@Acadian:
There is a mod that does that too. I personally find using the console completely immersion breaking but maybe that's just me.

Be aware also that both Realistic Leveling and nGCD employ their own variations of Kobu's "Wheel" concept: several skills contribute toward leveling an Attribute. RL assigns three skills to each Attribute and in the case of some attributes nGCD assigns more skills than that. When using these mods you are not restricted to Armorer, Block and Heavy Armor if you want to raise Endurance.

I use RL with FCOM and TIE, and I play an assassin-type. It's hard - very hard. But it's also challenging; you learn to employ tactics and run away when things go south (which is often). I love that I can't clear a dungeon in one go, like I could with OOO, or even OOO+TIE - sometimes I can't get further than 2-3 rooms before I have to retreat. I have to pick my fights. Sure, I die often, and yes it's frustrating at times - but you know what? The game remains a lot more challenging for a much longer period. With OOO and RL, the difficulty levels off around L20, and by L30 you can handle just about anything in the game. With FCOM and RL, I had trouble clearing oblivion gates at L25. Granted, I think my PC was a little underpowered (something I'm hoping to rectify this time, even though it's essentially the same character), but... I intend to go as far as I can - L50, if possible. I think I can do it, and still have things that can challenge me.

It may be an idea to have another look at nGCD.
Unless you've played with it's configurations you'll never believe what it can be made to do.
You want to have Light Armour based on endurance instead of agility? Well with a few tweaks to the ini that's not a problem.
Use it along with http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=14304 and there's almost no limit to customization for your character.

Haven't heard of or checked out nGCD yet, but should be putting in a leveling mod here sometime tonight. I like the fact that RealisticLeveling took the stress out of leveling and that it was all automated. BUT, it also started to stress me a bit at level 4 that my character would be [censored] continuing at this rate. Sure, I could kill anything with a bow easily, but that's no fun w/ Deadly Reflex!

Probably be starting a new character once I get my game set up for good measure, aiming for NO CTD's (knock on wood)

I just want simple, works on it's own, but also functional to the point that if I let whichever leveling mod it is do its thing that at level 10 I won't end up with a gimped assassin-type char that cant take 3 hits before dying in a fight and has to resort to kiting with the bow which is really not the most fun.

May roll a fighter type char this time, but that's off topic. HIT THE BOLD

-J

EDIT: Quick answer if possible, not taking any chances with this install. Both OOO and Frans ask if you want to use Living Economy. I have installed Frans Living Economy in the 4.5b package and now OOO is asking me if I want to install Living Economy as well. In previous installs I believe I answered Yes to both, could that have caused problems?

My experience with nGCD (versus Realistic Leveling) is that , using default settings, nGCD generally tends to award my characters somewhat less health at the beginning of a game than RL. But another thing to keep in mind is that both mods compute health retroactively - you do not need to pump up Endurance early when using either mod. You may start off low sometimes but very soon you will see significant advances in your health numbers.

And Shikishima is exactly right when he says nGCD is very configurable. I've spent many hours tweaking nGCD's .ini and I have been amazed at what I have been able to make the mod do. If you think the mod is giving you a starting health that is less than you would like to have, you can change that in the nGCD .ini. This also applies to RL's ,ini too, by the way. Both mods are wonderfully and amazingly configurable.

Use http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1037276 instead of LE.
It's much more up to date and to be quite honest a better overall mod.

Will do, so I opted out of Living Economy with Frans 4.5b install and OOO. I assume Enhanced Economy is compatible? I'm afraid to try anything new in fear of CTD, haha.

No problem with it.
Load after all OOO/FCOM optional files.

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=15619. Tweaked to give 30 skill points and 10 attribute points per level, no rested XP.

Is RL comparable to KCAS? I like having powerful characters, which is why I've stuck with KCAS. At level 60, your character is a monster. A beast. My next play through, because I've heard good things about RL, I'm considering swicthing. Will I have a weak, wimp at lvl 30 with RL?

I should've mentioned that you should also think about trying one of the Level Rates Modified plugins from OOO. x4 slows level advancement to 4x slower than vanilla, which means you'll level about every 5 hours of play. This works out well for a warrior-based PC, but with my assassin, I had to drop to x5 - things were levelling to quickly for me to keep up and as a result, I had a pretty weak character (relative to the monsters I was facing) even at L25. LRM x5 goes about a level every 7.5 hours, which I think will work out perfectly.


Depends. The character I played prior to my assassin was a Nord warrior-type, and I ended that game at around L34; she could handle just about anything in the game, though the higher-end monsters gave her a good fight (meaning they were tough, but not TOO tough). My new one, like I said, is an Ohmes assassin who ended up a little wimpy, but I'm also using TIE-In, and magic items were few and far between.

Hmm, guess I'll just have to try and see.

My own advice would be to use Progress (linked to by Shikishima, above) instead. Progress is easily configurable and does a much better job of adjusting skill leveling rates. Progress allows the player to set an overall multiplier for advancement rates, edit the bonus given to class skills, change the number of skill increases required to gain a level, change how many times you can train per level and how much training costs and modify the advancement rates for specific skills. And the mod's Magicka-Based Skill Progression and Speed-Based Skill Progression .esps are worth their weight in gold, too.

Sounds nice, but i'm done with editing .ini's. Getting Oblivion set up CTD free and gonna start playing the game instead of modding/re-installing/troubleshooting modding :shifty: .

Anyone know if RealisticLeveling will handle a Spellsword type character well? I was just thinking it would be insane amounts of fun to use the Midas Magic mod with a Melee heavy armor type character who can dish out some good melee damage too with Deadly Reflexes.

It's the hardest thing for me right now, deciding between a leveling mod. I just want some functional, easy to work with, and that will handle my char well and not leave him/her gimped at all. I guess that leaves me with RealisticLeveling or nGCD? What is KCAS like?

My experience is that, using default settings, Realistic Leveling is generally a bit easier on jack-of-all-trades type characters than nGCD. I know that people do create hybrid characters like a Spellsword when using nGCD, but my opinion is that a Spellsword might fare better using RL. nGCD is a bit more "class conscious" than RL. RL tends to level up all skills equally fast, regardless of class, whereas nGCD tends to level up class skills at a faster rate.

My one experience using Kobu's mod was not good. I exited the tutorial dungeon, fought a few Imps in front of Sideways Cave and went up one level after another until, within the space of a minute, I had hit level 8. I didn't feel like troubleshooting the mod at that point so I went back to nGCD, which is what I was using at the time. It was most likely a mod conflict of some kind, but still.

I'm always wary about Progress when I see people tell all the customisation available. It may be just me but when I'm looking for a leveling mod I'm looking for something balanced and most people make it sound as if they had to modify the ini to get something "right" out of it.



Oblivion CTD free, ahhh the dream . At best you will get a relatively a CTD light version(the original game not being CTD free).
And you should use BAIN to install all your mods, I can go from a FCOM Oblivion to a vanilla or OOO Oblivion in a few clicks(took me a while to repackage everything but it was worth it).