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About this mod
Adds consistent level caps to 1,400+ NPCs from the base game and all DLCs. The comprehensive solution to Oblivion's NPC scaling problem
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Balanced NPC Level Cap
Requirements:
None
Requirements:
None
Note: This is a port of Balanced NPC Level Cap for the original Oblivion. There may be some issues as modding is not officially supported yet.
Description
Balanced NPC Level Cap adds consistent and balanced level caps to all NPCs in Oblivion.
For those that aren't aware, most NPCs in Oblivion have no maximum level and will always match the player's level, with an occasional small plus/minus offset. This does not appear to have been changed in the Remaster. The intention of this feature was that all locations and enemy types would provide a constant challenge level to the player, However, in practice, it usually strips away much of the sense of variety and progression. To make things worse, non-optimum leveling choices can mean that enemies eventually begin to outpace the player in power level, and this makes the game less fun overall.
The fix? Simply add maximum levels for NPCs. NPC level caps have been determined using an algorithm applied to all NPCs in the game. The results were manually checked for consistency.
Additional Information
Spoiler:
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This sets all NPC level caps to the equivalent level of the NPC when the player is level 30, with a few minor alterations to some NPCs. For example, Bandits have level offsets ranging from -4 to +0, so their maximum levels will range from 26 to 30. In general, NPC level caps range from 20-50.
Azani Blackheart is now the highest level NPC in the game, with a cap of 55 and offset of +25. This is fairly logical, as he's an end-game boss of the Fighter's Guild questline. For some reason, Vilena Donton has a HUGE offset of +40 in the vanilla game, meaning that this old warrior is actually the toughest NPC in vanilla Oblivion. She has now been capped at 50, placing her just below Azani. Dremora Valkynaz have an offset of +0, meaning they should normally have been capped at level 30; however, I have instead capped them at 40 as I believe they should provide more challenge considering they're the toughest Dremora.
Azani Blackheart is now the highest level NPC in the game, with a cap of 55 and offset of +25. This is fairly logical, as he's an end-game boss of the Fighter's Guild questline. For some reason, Vilena Donton has a HUGE offset of +40 in the vanilla game, meaning that this old warrior is actually the toughest NPC in vanilla Oblivion. She has now been capped at 50, placing her just below Azani. Dremora Valkynaz have an offset of +0, meaning they should normally have been capped at level 30; however, I have instead capped them at 40 as I believe they should provide more challenge considering they're the toughest Dremora.
Installation
- Navigate to your Steam\SteamApps\common folder.
- Add the .esp file in the download to the \Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Dev\ObvData\Data folder.
- Open the plugins.txt file in the \Oblivion Remastered\OblivionRemastered\Content\Dev\ObvData\Data\ folder.
- At the bottom of the file, add the line Balanced NPC Level Cap.esp
Since this mod edits a lot of NPCs, probably load it high up (if that is even possible) so that other mods can overwrite it.
Uninstallation
Reverse the above steps.
Compatibility
This mod edits a huge number of NPC records, and so will conflict with any other mods that edit the same records. Since we do not have tools for resolving conflicts yet, you're best bet is to put this mod high up in plugins.txt and hope that means that other mods can overwrite it...
My Mods
I spend a lot of time creating and supporting my mods, so any donations are gratefully received.