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About this mod
Fixes level scaling completely, by remaking the entire weapon damage formula to better scale damage into mid/late game.
- Permissions and credits
This mod overhauls the way the weapon damage calculation formula works to scale weapon damage higher into mid/late game, without upsetting the early-game balance.
Additionally, Strength now contributes to your weapon damage just as much as your Blade/Blunt skills do, for more consistent damage, and swinging your weapon with 0 Fatigue will now only reduce your weapon damage by 30% compared to vanilla's 50% reduction. Also, (optionally) low weapon durability will reduce your weapon damage by only 30% maximum compared to vanilla's 50% reduction.
Umbra Weapon Damage Comparison at Various Strength/Blade Levels:
STR Blade | Vanilla DMG Mod DMG
30 25 7 8
50 50 13 16
75 75 20 29
100 100 29 45
No more hitting Skeleton Champions 23 times just to kill them, no more dealing pitiful damage when you run out of Fatigue, and no more wasting time tediously min-maxxing or efficiently leveling. These endless sources of frustration are banished! But unlike most other scaling mods the game retains its challenge and fun. See the explanation below.
In-Depth Explanation
Installation
There are two versions: the main file only fixes damage scaling and changes the fatigue multiplier. The optional file fixes damage scaling, changes the fatigue multiplier, and changes the durability multiplier. Only use one file.
Download and drop the .esp into your data folder, or install using Wrye Bash or Mod Organizer 2.
I highly recommend using Sensible Creature Health and Sensible NPC Health by the illustrious DwemerPuzzleBox and turning the difficulty up to 58% for the optimal experience. The improved player weapon damage scaling, the slimmer creature/NPC health pools, and the flat increase to enemy-to-player damage will create a rewarding and challenging Oblivion experience.
Additionally, Strength now contributes to your weapon damage just as much as your Blade/Blunt skills do, for more consistent damage, and swinging your weapon with 0 Fatigue will now only reduce your weapon damage by 30% compared to vanilla's 50% reduction. Also, (optionally) low weapon durability will reduce your weapon damage by only 30% maximum compared to vanilla's 50% reduction.
Umbra Weapon Damage Comparison at Various Strength/Blade Levels:
STR Blade | Vanilla DMG Mod DMG
30 25 7 8
50 50 13 16
75 75 20 29
100 100 29 45
No more hitting Skeleton Champions 23 times just to kill them, no more dealing pitiful damage when you run out of Fatigue, and no more wasting time tediously min-maxxing or efficiently leveling. These endless sources of frustration are banished! But unlike most other scaling mods the game retains its challenge and fun. See the explanation below.
In-Depth Explanation
Spoiler:
For those that don't know, vanilla Oblivion calculates weapon damage by taking your weapon's base damage and either positively or negatively multiplying it by multipliers calculated from your weapon's associated Attributes (Luck and Strength or Agility), Skill Level (Blade, Blunt, or Marksman), Weapon Durability (% out of 100), and Current Fatigue Level and then multiplies the final result by 0.5 to get your final damage value.
To put this into perspective, Umbra - one of the best weapons in the game - has a base damage of 28, but with 50 Strength/Blade and 100% Fatigue/Weapon Durability it will only deal 13 damage.
The equation looks like this:
WeaponDamage = BaseWeaponDamage x fDamageWeaponMult x (fDamageStrengthBase + Strength / 100 x fDamageStrengthMult) x
(fDamageSkillBase + Skill / 100 x fDamageSkillMult) x
(fDamageWeaponConditionBase + Durability / 100 x fDamageWeaponConditionMult)
If we insert Umbra into the equation with its 28 base damage at 100% Durability, and our character has 50 Blade and 50 Strength, this is what we get:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (0.75 + 50/100 x 0.5) x (0.2 + 50/100 x 1.5) x (0.5 + 100/100 x 0.5)
Simplifying:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (1.0) x (0.95) x (1.0)
Simplifying again:
WeaponDamage = 28 x (0.475)
= 13.3 Damage
That sucks! The strongest sword in the game being so weak at 50 Blade and 50 Strength cannot hope to keep up with the health scaling of enemies. Now let's redo the equation with the numbers from this mod:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (0.4 + 50/100 x 1.4) x (0.4 + 50/100 x 1.4) x (0.5 + 100/100 x 0.5)
Simplifying:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (1.1) x (1.1) x (1.0)
Simplifying again:
WeaponDamage = 28 x (0.605)
= 16.94 Damage
This is a lot better damage without being overpowered, and as the player skill/attribute levels grow it will continue to increase more rapidly than vanilla, ending up at 45 damage (compared to the vanilla 29). This will keep pace with the additional health added by level scaling, especially with added enchantments or skills over 100.
You also may have noticed now that the numbers for Strength and weapon skill are exactly the same in the formula. This is by design. One point in Strength now equals one point in Blade or Blunt in terms of added damage. Previously Strength could only increase your damage by up to 25%, while Blade/Blunt/Marksman would be able to increase it by up to 70%. Now they scale to +80% damage each at 100 Strength and 100 Blade/Blunt/Marksman.
The final change is that fFatigueMult has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.3. This means that when your Fatigue reaches 0, you will be dealing only 30% less damage compared to the vanilla game's 50% less damage. -30% is still impactful enough to incentivize keeping fights short or using Restore Fatigue potions or spells, but is not a huge bother like -50% is.
(Optional)
The final, final change is optional. This alters the Weapon Condition system in the exact same way as the Fatigue system. Low durability weapons will only deal -30% damage maximum compared to the vanilla game's -50% damage. A 30% damage reduction at low durability keeps the game challenging but similarly prevents the Weapon Condition system from being nearly as annoying as some people find it.
Show
For those that don't know, vanilla Oblivion calculates weapon damage by taking your weapon's base damage and either positively or negatively multiplying it by multipliers calculated from your weapon's associated Attributes (Luck and Strength or Agility), Skill Level (Blade, Blunt, or Marksman), Weapon Durability (% out of 100), and Current Fatigue Level and then multiplies the final result by 0.5 to get your final damage value.
To put this into perspective, Umbra - one of the best weapons in the game - has a base damage of 28, but with 50 Strength/Blade and 100% Fatigue/Weapon Durability it will only deal 13 damage.
The equation looks like this:
WeaponDamage = BaseWeaponDamage x fDamageWeaponMult x (fDamageStrengthBase + Strength / 100 x fDamageStrengthMult) x
(fDamageSkillBase + Skill / 100 x fDamageSkillMult) x
(fDamageWeaponConditionBase + Durability / 100 x fDamageWeaponConditionMult)
If we insert Umbra into the equation with its 28 base damage at 100% Durability, and our character has 50 Blade and 50 Strength, this is what we get:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (0.75 + 50/100 x 0.5) x (0.2 + 50/100 x 1.5) x (0.5 + 100/100 x 0.5)
Simplifying:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (1.0) x (0.95) x (1.0)
Simplifying again:
WeaponDamage = 28 x (0.475)
= 13.3 Damage
That sucks! The strongest sword in the game being so weak at 50 Blade and 50 Strength cannot hope to keep up with the health scaling of enemies. Now let's redo the equation with the numbers from this mod:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (0.4 + 50/100 x 1.4) x (0.4 + 50/100 x 1.4) x (0.5 + 100/100 x 0.5)
Simplifying:
WeaponDamage = 28 x 0.5 x (1.1) x (1.1) x (1.0)
Simplifying again:
WeaponDamage = 28 x (0.605)
= 16.94 Damage
This is a lot better damage without being overpowered, and as the player skill/attribute levels grow it will continue to increase more rapidly than vanilla, ending up at 45 damage (compared to the vanilla 29). This will keep pace with the additional health added by level scaling, especially with added enchantments or skills over 100.
You also may have noticed now that the numbers for Strength and weapon skill are exactly the same in the formula. This is by design. One point in Strength now equals one point in Blade or Blunt in terms of added damage. Previously Strength could only increase your damage by up to 25%, while Blade/Blunt/Marksman would be able to increase it by up to 70%. Now they scale to +80% damage each at 100 Strength and 100 Blade/Blunt/Marksman.
The final change is that fFatigueMult has been reduced from 0.5 to 0.3. This means that when your Fatigue reaches 0, you will be dealing only 30% less damage compared to the vanilla game's 50% less damage. -30% is still impactful enough to incentivize keeping fights short or using Restore Fatigue potions or spells, but is not a huge bother like -50% is.
(Optional)
The final, final change is optional. This alters the Weapon Condition system in the exact same way as the Fatigue system. Low durability weapons will only deal -30% damage maximum compared to the vanilla game's -50% damage. A 30% damage reduction at low durability keeps the game challenging but similarly prevents the Weapon Condition system from being nearly as annoying as some people find it.
Installation
There are two versions: the main file only fixes damage scaling and changes the fatigue multiplier. The optional file fixes damage scaling, changes the fatigue multiplier, and changes the durability multiplier. Only use one file.
Download and drop the .esp into your data folder, or install using Wrye Bash or Mod Organizer 2.
I highly recommend using Sensible Creature Health and Sensible NPC Health by the illustrious DwemerPuzzleBox and turning the difficulty up to 58% for the optimal experience. The improved player weapon damage scaling, the slimmer creature/NPC health pools, and the flat increase to enemy-to-player damage will create a rewarding and challenging Oblivion experience.