** UPDATE September 2009 **

I've recently discovered three fantastic leveling systems that will appeal to old-school RPG fans (games like D&D, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, etc.):

* Oblivion XP by SirFrederik
* Must Train by Wrye
* Wrye Leveling by Wrye

You really should have a look at these if you want more active involvement in your character's development than "natural" leveling systems allow. I've been using Wrye Leveling for a while now and for me, it's perfect.

By the way, Flexible Leveling would be a great complement to Must Train!

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Flexible Leveling v1.0
by Mr. Murphy
August 2008


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1. DESCRIPTION AND CREDITS
2. INSTALLATION
3. CONFLICTS AND ALTERNATIVES
4. WHAT IS THIS MOD TRYING TO FIX? ISN'T THIS A CHEAT?
5. HOW THIS WORKS (AND HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN)
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1. DESCRIPTION AND CREDITS

Trying to get good attribute bonus modifiers when leveling up can be quite frustrating. In particular, it can force you into a tedious, unnatural style of gameplay. I came across "All +5 Attribute Modifiers" by Falconhurst, which makes the +5 modifier available as long you've had at least one associated skill increase. With this mod, you can just enjoy playing the game, without having to worry about your character falling behind.

That being said, "All +5" is a fairly extreme departure from the original system. So, this mod provides three more alternatives, each a "hybrid" between the two extremes of All +5 and the default Oblivion system. They also increase the per-level training limit so that it's possible to obtain a +5 bonus to all three chosen attributes through training alone. See the included Read Me file for the specifics.

NOTE: The in-game training window will still indicate a training limit of 5. Changing the text in the window seemed like a lot of work for a rather small payoff.

FalconHurst's mod is obviously the inspiration for all of this (and note that "Flexible Leveling I" exactly reproduces the functionality of "All +5 Attribute Modifiers"). Similary, the idea to increase the training limit came from "Increased Training Allowance" by GonzoDave.

Thanks to the superb UESPWiki (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Oblivion), which first got me thinking about the leveling process (see Section 4 of this document for more information). And of course, thanks to Bethesda for creating an amazing game and letting us fiddle with it.

You are free to modify or redistribute this work, though I'd appreciate it if you give me credit. The technical aspects of this mod are trivial (see Section 5), so all I can really lay claim to is the idea of creating a compromise between the All +5 and default systems. Also, I can't imagine I'm the first one to have this idea: if I'm just duplicating someone else's work, please let me know ([email protected]).


2. INSTALLATION

Extract the four .esp files to your Oblivion\Data folder. Activate AT MOST ONE AT A TIME in your Oblivion launcher. You can switch between them at any time, but there will be no retroactive changes to your character's current attributes. Simply deactivate or delete these files to uninstall.


3. CONFLICTS AND ALTERNATIVES

These mods will conflict with any others that change how attribute bonuses are calculated, or that seriously modify the character advancement system.

In particular, Flexible Leveling is for people who (like me) think the default Oblivion leveling system needs some fine tuning, but isn't completely beyond repair. If you want an entirely different system altogether, you should try something like
* Abo's Realistic Leveling
(http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13879)

* AF Mods
(http://fuzionmedia.com/oblivion/afleveling.html)

* KCAS: Kobus Character Advancement System
(http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1888)

* SPAM: Simbacca Player Advancement Method
(http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=9914)

These are just the ones I know of, but I'm sure there are others. Abo's mod is similar in spirit to mine: it doesn't replace the leveling system with something radically different, but rather tweaks the default system just enough to make the game enjoyable.

Flexible Leveling is deliberately minimalistic and, in some sense, modular: you can use it in conjunction with other mods that make small, specific changes to create a total system that's right for you. In keeping with this idea, I have NOT modified the formula used to calculate Health from Endurance, because not everyone (or at least, not me) feels that non-retroactive health is necessarily a flaw. If you do want a retroactive health system, you can use skyranger's mod (http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2215). If you don't know what I'm talking about, see the "Health Gains" entry at the UESP Wiki (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Endurance#Health_Gains).


There are two other significant problems with Oblivion's leveling system:

* Levels are gained too quickly.

* The dynamic leveling of the rest of gameworld with your character is a bit too smooth. Your opponents seem to get tougher at exactly the same rate that your abilites, equipment, and spells improve, which makes gaining levels rather unsatisfying.

A number of mods are available that affect the rate at which levels are gained, and how the world changes as your character advances. The most well-known and popular are

* Bofra's Level Rates Modified
(http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3232)


* Francesco's Leveled Creatures/Items
(http://francesco823.tripod.com/index.html)

* Oscuro's Oblivion Overhaul
(http://devnull.sweetdanger.com/OOO/OOO_Guide.html)

These mods don't change the mechanics of leveling itself, and are entirely compatible with Flexible Leveling.

Finally, if you're using mods, you really should be using the Oblivion Mod Manager (http://timeslip.chorrol.com/obmm.html). Among it's many features is the ability to detect conflicts between mods.


4. WHAT IS THIS MOD TRYING TO FIX? ISN'T THIS A CHEAT?

For a thorough, well-written explanation of the issue I'm trying to address, see the UESPWiki entries on "The Leveling Problem", "Efficient Leveling", and "Under Leveling":
www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Leveling#The_Leveling_Problem
www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Efficient_Leveling
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Under_Leveling

I'll try to summarize things here. Oblivion is a non-linear RPG; once you're out of the tutorial dungeon, you can take on the world however you want, in whatever order you want. To make this work, the game has a dynamic leveling system: as your character gains experience and improves, the rest of the world changes with him. You have to give credit to Bethesda for an impressive technical achievement, but this system is not without faults.

The enemies you face get tougher as you gain levels, and unless you make the "right" choices during character creation and then develop your character in the "right" way, the game becomes harder and harder, and gaining levels becomes something to avoid (a perverse situation in any RPG). The problem is that the "right" choices usually involve restrictive and counter-intuitive selections for major skills, followed by a tedious (and downright bizarre) playing style that can seriously detract from any sense of immersion in the gameworld.

The "Efficient Leveling" strategy is this: At the start of each new level, choose two or three attributes you want to develop during that level, and then try to get that +5 bonus modifier by gaining 10 increases in the skills governing each of these attributes. At the same time, try to avoid increases in skills belonging to other attributes, since you need "headroom" to improve these skills later on (when you're trying to increase these other attributes). In order to apply this strategy, you need to select major skills in such a way that you have control over your leveling rate, and can delay leveling up until your skills have increased by the right amount.

In practice, this means choosing major skills in a very unnatural way. For example, it would seem obvious that a fighter-type character would want Armorer, Block, and Heavy Armor as major skills. However, this makes efficient leveling of Endurance virtually impossible: if even one non-Endurance major skill increases, you can't get the +5 bonus. Conversely, Light Armor is a great major skill for a magic-using character, precisely because he'll never use it; it will help to control the leveling rate. If you've played Oblivion for a while, you've probably noticed that Conjuration is useless: that makes it a great major skill for any character!

Even worse is the style of gameplay that's forced on you. Getting 10 skill increases is really quite hard, especially if none of the skills governing a given attribute are skills your character naturally uses. As you come close to reaching a new level, you'll find yourself having to break off from an exciting quest to engage in a tedious, totally unrealistic "self-training session." This could mean a Mage donning a suit of heavy armor and a shield, and letting a mud crab beat him up for 20 minutes; a Thief brawling with a warhammer; or a Fighter casting Bound Dagger a hundred times in a row. Equally frustrating is deliberately neglecting useful or fun skills, because it's not "efficient" to develop them until later.

Because efficient leveling requires you to choose several unimportant skills as major skills, your character will probably start off as a bit of weakling. This isn't a problem in default Oblivion, since the game is quite easy during the first few levels. However, most of the "overhaul" mods (Francesco's, Oscuro's, FCOM, etc.) make the game much harder initially, and it may not be possible to survive without choosing major skills that are genuinely important to your character. This makes the efficient leveling strategy largely incompatible with these wonderful (some would say essential) mods.

The Flexible Leveling mods make it possible to gain all the benefits of efficient leveling in an enjoyable and natural way, without having to break from game immersion (i.e. by doing something your character wouldn't really do), engage in boring self-training sessions, or avoid developing your skills. You're free to choose major skills that actually make sense for your character, and that will make him or her tough enough to survive those early levels when using an overhaul mod.

RECOMMENDATIONS: If you don't want to think about bonus modifiers at all, I'd recommend Flexible Leveling I or II. If you feel that bonus modifiers do make the game more interesting, but you don't want to be a slave to them, try IV. With VII, you'll definitely have to keep an eye on your skill and level progression, but it's still an improvement over the default system.

Are these mods cheats? Absolutely, but if a cheat makes the game experience more enjoyable, why not use it? When deciding whether to use any mod, you have to ask yourself "Am I playing this game because I want an experience that's 'realistic' or 'as the designers intended,' or am I playing because I want to have fun?" The number, complexity, and popularity of mods that change the leveling system (see Section 3) shows you that there really is a problem.

I'd also point out that these mods don't necessarily make the game any easier, because the default leveling system can be so divorced from reality. Returning to the example above, Endurance is a crucial attribute for any character, including a Mage. But the only way to get an Endurance modifier is to increase three skills that a Mage will never use in battle, so the use of Flexible Leveling instead of Efficient Leveling doesn't really change his odds of survival.

Given the high cost of training sessions, I don't consider this aspect of Flexible Leveling to be a cheat. There are plenty of other ways of gaining skills (those silly self-training sessions) that are far less immersive and realistic than training.


5. HOW THIS WORKS (AND HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN)

If you feel that none of the Flexible Leveling options is quite perfect, it's very easy to make your own version.

First you need to download and install the TES Construction Set, available at
http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/TES_Construction_Set

Start the Construction Set, and go to Gameplay -> Settings. In the window that opens, you'll see a (very, very long) list of variables. We're interested in the ten variables named iLevelUpXMult (where X = 01, 02, ... , 09, 10) that represent the attribute modifier bonus available when the skills governed by that attribute have increased by a total of X during the last level. Click on each of these variables, and change the "Numeric value" to whatever you want. Similarly, the variable iTrainingSkills represents the number of training sessions a player may purchase per level.

Note that there is no iLevelUp00Mult. If none of the three skills governed by an attribute have increased, that attribute can only be increased by 1. There is no simple way to change this and, in my opinion, there's really no reason to; if your character didn't use an attribute during the last level, then why should it increase much?

When you're done, save your work (File -> Save). A new .esp file will appear in your Oblivion\Data folder. Activate it in the Oblivion launcher, and start playing.