Hey guys,

I'm about to embark on a new Oblivion game after finally getting my setup stable. However, I'm curious as to how you prefer to level. What is it that makes you choose one over the other? If you can, choose a selection but also give a brief reason in your post.

Happy polling!

For me that is definitely Oblivion XP Update.

I do not like the vanilla way, and ObXP update brings back the feeling of the games i played in the past...like Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Loki and others. This way ones i do level i think i really deserved the new level.

You're missing a few: Realistic Levelling and KCAS that I know of, and probably a couple others as well. I use RL.

Other, Realistic Leveling + Progress.

Thanks! Added to the poll

I interpreted the question as per the thread title as more one of style of leveling--the "the skills you use increase" style of nGCD/Realistic Levelling/KCAS/etc. versus the more traditional RPG "you get experience points for quests and other gameplay milestones" style of Oblivion XP.

(Of course even then there are indeed options missing, like Wrye Leveling.)

For myself, I voted nGCD+Progress because that's what I'm using for my current playthrough and I've been very happy with the combo: I wanted something that didn't eliminate the Bethesda-style skill use-based levelling, just that made it better. That said, another factor in my choice was that Oblivion XP was in limbo when I started this character. Now that XP is under active maintenance again, if I were starting a new character, I might very well choose to give it a try. So I can't really say that I prefer nGCD to Oblivion XP since I haven't tried them both; it's just that nGCD seemed a good first choice to try, as something that intuitively makes sense and is closer to what the original game was trying to do.

I use Realistic Leveling, simple and easy to use, it removes the tedium of micromanaging attributes. I can level up my skills as I play along.

You've missed quite a number of popular leveling mods in your poll choice - AF Leveling, Balor, SPAM, Advanced Selective Leveling, Galerion, Wrye etc, but none the less have mentioned probably the three most commonly used.

I'm an nGCD freak myself and can't see past it.
It's the only one that can be set to mimic any and all other leveling mods through it's ini file - with the exception of XP and Wrye which both have a completely different outlook on skill advancement. Saying that, there's not an awful lot of faults to be found if used straight out of the box.
It's quite unbelievable some of the things that can be done through configuration which can make each and every character quite unique.
Add in Progress an you have complete control over how your avatar develops.

Oblivion XP for me. I tried nGCD, but just like the original game, I hate the grinding it requires. You have to use one skill over and over and over to improve the derived attribute. I like being able to just play the game doing a wide variety of things and still being able to level up everything.

With no more derived attributes in Skyrim and a hopefully better leveling system, I shouldn't have to revert to leveling mods anymore.

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36349 is the only one skill mod I use. It basically removes the concept of classes, which is just fine for those like me who often start with a sneaky archer and end up with a battlemage

Yeah I used to use that mod but then just said screw it and changed all specialities so it doesn't matter if you chose Minor/Major skills or even what class. Simply what you pick at the beginning is what you level up faster in, of course I used progress to do so but progress is really an excellent mod, combined with realistic leveling it doesn't really matter what you start out as what matters is what you end up as and with default progress leveling rates with options like Global slowdown it will still make your character slowdown in progres in learning new things when they are advanced though so it's still well balanced.

I personally have no problem with the vanilla system of leveling. I'd be nice to have minor skills back like in Morrowind, but I've grown accustomed to how the Elder Scrolls has handled gaining levels by now, so it's hard to imagine liking a different method more.

I've always gone with vanilla but I don't think I should vote in this poll because I haven't tried any other leveling methods.



Though I admit, out of all of them, nGCD looks the most interesting to me.

I just use a mod that gives me +5 to any stat I choose when I level up. Much easier that way.

Wrye,

I like hoarding items then selling them so that I have the gold to train my skills..Has Traing Cost go up each time you do it..So 20,000gp to train get expensive after all and with merchant's that do not have much money..Take a while to build up that much loot has well..

Once I went OblivionXP, I never looked back :biggrin:

I like to use Progress to control how fast my skills do level, but I still use the Vanilla sleep, level up, distribute points on Attiributes.

nGCD + Progress forever!

(ex KCAS user, only other leveling mod I've used)


Happy gaming!
--Tomlong75210

Voted for Wrye. I like the money sink, the ability to level exactly when I want to, and the ability to allocate skills and stats exactly as I want.

Couldn't imagine playing without Oblivion XP!

I have two different mod setups, courtesy of mTES4: one using Oblivion XP and the other using nGCD + Progress. Since my playing time is quite limited, I've stacked the Oblivion XP setup with FCOM, several of TheNiceOne's mods, and a whole boatload of quest mods. When Darkrder's Sancre Tor mod comes out, I'll be in a position to play through that, which I've looked forward to for a long time. In a nutshell, this setup plays a bit faster.

The second setup has nGCD + Progress, several of Phitt's mods, and several of Tejon's other ones. This is for a challenging game. Tactical, slow, thinking, planning... Combat is something to avoid until ready. And being ready means planning ahead. Only a few potions available, can't carry much, have to watch my fatigue levels, protect against disease, Cava Obscura makes things really dark, so plan for torches... This game moves very slowly, but is quite fun. It just takes longer, and I have little time at the moment. However, getting through a cave is a monumentally satisfying accomplishment!

I played with ROM, which basically using Realistic Leveling (or nGCD) kind of leveling.

Old game setup used nGCD.

In MW, I used GCD.

So, my character is what he pick as his major. I'm not a power level type of guy.. So I just pick the skill depending what he want to be and let the game evolved alongside him.

nGCD+Progress, and I try to role-play as much as possible as far as my class goes.

I have no problem with the vanilla leveling either. I don't get where the "leveling problem" comes from because the first character I played through the game with had 100 in all his class attributes and quite a few other attributes close to 100 by level 28. This was without planning ahead and using miscellaneous skills to deliberately raise other attributes: I just played naturally.

Oblivion XP for me, though I suspect I'd like the other mods just as much as well.

I dislike the artificial breakpoints created by leveling, so I prefer a system which makes it as transparent as possible, which currently means Realistic Leveling + Progress. No level-up screens, no optimizing to get +5s, I just play the game and, every now and then, look at my character sheet to see whether any stats are damaged and notice that I'm a higher level than I used to be. (I think my current character is somewhere in the low 20s, but she might have gotten up to 24 or 25 since I last checked...)

I suspect that a lot of the impetus for Oblivion XP comes from people who fondly remember D&D-style class-and-level-based RPGs, but I've always hated them and preferred pure skill-based games where you get better at things by doing them and "levels" don't exist at all. RL+P makes for a pretty good approximation of that ideal.