Fallout 4
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Genamine

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Genamine

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About this mod

Makes NPCs scale with player level for longer replayability and a better late game. (Vanilla game does not do this.)

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Translations
  • Spanish
  • Russian
  • Italian
Author's notes:
- If you are new to modding Fallout 4, make sure you check out a modding tutorial, such as this one.
- This mod is a Nexus exclusive, I will not spend time to upload my mod to other sites and I will not trust others to do so in my stead, please respect this decision (If you do find this mod on another site, it was stolen and may contain malware)
- Installing on an existing save is NOT advised
- Version 2.0.0 functions in a completely different way and may need balancing passes
- Requires Automatron, Far Harbor and Nuka World DLC
- This mod uses the Mod Configuration Menu by Registrator2000, Neanka and Shadowslasher410; while it is not required for the functioning of this mod, you may want to use it to adjust the experience to your liking



TL;DR:
This mod removes the vanilla stat scaling of the player, and replaces stat scaling of enemies with a contemporary method that is non-linear. The purpose of this is to provide a better late game experience and emphasize the archetypes of enemies more.


INSTALLING:
Do not install on an existing save.
Install using any mod organizer (Like MO2 or Vortex), after installation make sure NPCScaling - Actors.esp is placed at the end of your load order to avoid mod conflict issues.


UNINSTALLING:
You will need to wait for in-game cells to reset after uninstalling.
Some NPCs never reset, and will retain their modified values.

Longer Explanation:
In the vanilla version of the game, a location is fixed at a level between a minimum and maximum value through encounter zones when you first visit that location. The level picked depends on the player level and can never be lower than the minimum or greater than the maximum. After that, the game spawns enemies from a spawn table based on the level chosen for that location. These spawn tables are used only to differentiate between enemies of different levels. The main issue I see with this approach is that the power level of enemies in a given location is very limited, especially with some encounter zones having a maximum level as low as 35. To fix this, in this mod I decouple enemy level from the encounter zones, and instead use encounter zones to determine enemy tier. Rather than a Gunner Major simply being a higher level version of a Gunner Conscript, with this mod a Gunner Major and Gunner Conscript will be the same level, but a Gunner Major will be a higher tier than a Gunner Conscript. Additionally, higher tier enemies will have a higher minimum level.

The following points are the main takeaways from this:
- A Gunner Conscript (for example) at player level 50 will be stronger than a Gunner Conscript at player level 1. This is because a player at level 50 is also stronger than a player at level 1.
- A Gunner Major is always stronger than a Gunner Conscript, regardless of player level, because a Gunner Major is a higher tier enemy.
- Enemies can never be below a minimum level that depends on the tier of the enemy. This means locations of a higher level than the player level will not be scaled down to match the player level.
- Locations with a greater minimum level will spawn higher tier enemies. In practice this means enemies are generally tougher the farther away you are from Vault 111, similar to the behaviour of the vanilla game.
- Locations with lower tier enemies will better keep up with the increasing power level of the player.

Beyond that, this mod also offers the option to remove the maximum level from encounter zones, so that locations closer to Vault 111 will continue to spawn higher tier enemies upon location reset as the player level increases.

The second issue with player and enemy levels in the vanilla game is that HP scales linearly with level (you and enemies gain 5 HP per level), this scaling continues indefinitely and does not line up well with the increase in damage output of enemies and the player. As a result, the player at a high enough level becomes close to invulnerable due to the ever increasing HP pool, and a select few enemies that scale to player level in the vanilla game become bullet sponges. To address this, this mod removes HP gain per level, as well as granting enemies a non-linear HP scaling method that limits how much HP an enemy can gain.

Again, these are the main takeaways:
- The player will no longer gain HP from levelling up, and is limited to perks, endurance points, equipment and chems or aid items to improve their strength.
- Enemies will gain extra HP when they are spawned. The amount of HP they gain is non-linearly dependent on their level and can never exceed an upper limit.
- This WILL result in the game feeling more difficult than the vanilla game at higher player levels, as a consequence of no longer becoming a bullet sponge. The idea is that this will improve the longevity of the game.


List of features:
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- Mod Configuration Menu: this mod uses the Mod Configuration Menu to control certain variables, such as outgoing and incoming player damage.

 - Enemies scale to player level, with a minimum level depending on the 'tier' of enemy (e.g. a Mythic deathclaw is a higher tier deathclaw than a Chameleon deathclaw).

 - Tweaked NPC attributes, to emphasise strength/weakness more (it makes sense for ballistic damage to be less effective against robots than energy damage, this wasn't expressed very well in the vanilla game).

 - Player HP no longer scales with level. Adjusted health gained from endurance points to compensate somewhat. The idea here is to prevent the player from becoming a bullet sponge at very high levels.

 - Contemporary enemy HP scaling. This follows a non-linear formula, unlike the linear HP scaling in the vanilla game that would cause certain enemies to bloat massively in HP at high player levels. Furthermore this HP scaling will affect all standard enemies, rather than only some.

- Leveled experience gain, higher level enemies will give more experience. This will only affect enemies modified by this mod. If it does not affect an enemy that it should, there is a compatibility issue with another mod.

- Modified locational damage. This is not a major change by itself, and may be moved to an addon depending on user request. It is mainly meant to help emphasize enemy archetypes.

 - Unleveled encounter zones addon. Encounter zones dictate the tier of enemies spawned and what grade of loot you find in the area. In the vanilla game, encounter zones have a low maximum level, a lot of encounter zones cap out at level 35. This mod removes the maximum level, but does not touch the minimum level.




Known issues:
- Mod conflicts may result in poor game balance.
- Super Mutant Redux patch temporarily removed until I can figure out what makes it cause a CTD on load.



To-do list (I may or may not do these):
- Iron out inconsistencies and smoothen the experience
- Expand on MCM features (maybe?, I'm not sure what else I could add)



Changelog:
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V2.0.2 - Adds Super Mutant Redux patch.
V2.0.1 - Fixes issue with HP scaling not applying properly.
V2.0.0 - Remade from the ground up, too much has changed to list here, read description and sticky post
V1.13.0 - I forgot adding this one, it's been too long and I honestly do not remember the changes
V1.12.0 - Rework of experience reward from killing enemies, new experience multiplier slider for MCM config, minor fixes and minor balance pass for Automatron robots
V1.11.1 - Fixes bad MCM config
V1.11.0 - Adds new sliders for player explosive damage taken, companion incoming/outgoing damage and settler incoming/outgoing damage
V1.10.0 - Makes changes to feral ghouls, balance between vertibirds and behemoths, player damage taken while riding a vertibird and slider range of MCM settings
V1.9.0 - Added mod configuration using the Mod Configuration Menu - see comments tab for details
V1.8.0 - Nerfed NPC damage at higher levels, added scaling damage reduction to power armour, increased enemy limb damage taken, enemies now do reduced damage at >50% health and full damage at <50% health, FOMOD is now more clear about what Beefy Bosses addon does
V1.7.0 - Nerfed feral ghoul damage (radiation resistance lowers the DoT), nerfed assaultron damage, further emphasised energy damage against robots, numerous fixes/additions/tweaks to Beefy Bosses
V1.6.0 - Adds Beefy Bosses addon
V1.5.0 - Added scaling to more NPCs, added missing edits to some NPCs, tweaked feral ghouls to be more potent, removed some dirty edits caused by the Creation Kit, removed scaling from mirelurk spawns and ant swarms, lowered health of lower tier raiders a bit
V1.4.1 - Edited some stuff with turrets, hopefully incendiary and explosive turrets are less op at high levels now; Tweaked Wasteland Whisperer and Intimidation perks, they now work on enemies at and below your level, instead of only below
V1.4.0 - Edits some human NPCs to be less squishy; sets player damage increase to kick off from level 100 onward, instead of from start
V1.3.1 - Removes dirty morph edits from NPCs (credit goes to Thirdstorm for removing the dirty edits)
V1.3.0 - Changed damage graphs; added leveled armour penetration for NPCs
V1.2.1 - Added Hard Mode addon (enemies do double damage and melee damage taken is increased)
V1.2.0 - Added support for Nuka World; Changed leveled damage modifiers (needed due to remaking the mod in CK)
V1.1.1 - Fixes issue with disfigured faces
V1.1.0 - Adds scaling to more NPCs
V1.0.0 - Initial release




Compatibility:
- Basically not compatible with any mod that changes the same NPCs (Called Actors in the Creation Kit). Having another mod override NPC records is not the end of the world, but a smooth experience cannot be guaranteed if they are.
- May or may not conflict with mods that edit companions and settlers, such conflicts will not be game breaking, but may degrade the experience of this mod.



FAQ:
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Q: Enemies feel too weak/strong, is this normal?
A: You may be experiencing compatibility issues with one or more other mods, make sure you have placed NPCScaling - Actors.esp at the very end of your load order to avoid such issues. Alternatively it could be a new NPC added by a mod, therefore it won't be affected by NPC Level Scaling. If you have already placed NPCScaling - Actors.esp at the end of your load order and still experience issues, make sure to leave a comment detailing which enemy you feel is too weak/strong and in what location you encountered this enemy.

Q: I don't like some of the changes this mod makes, will you make these changes optional or remove them?
A: All the changes made are meant to bring together the overall experience this mod aims to provide, chances are that if I change one specific thing, the overall experience will suffer as a consequence. I try to make things optional where possible, but most changes made are simply necessary in the bigger picture.

Q: Do I need to start a new save for this mod to work?
A: From V2.0 onward, you need to start a new save for this mod to work.

Q: Will this mod make all areas the same difficulty?
A: No, enemies are tiered (Deathclaw -> Alpha Deathclaw -> Glowing Deathclaw -> Deathclaw Matriarch -> etc.), the farther away from V111 you are (in a radial pattern), the higher the tier of enemies you encounter. So regardless of all enemies scaling to your level, you will still encounter higher tier enemies the farther away from V111 you are.

Q: If I change the player incoming/outgoing damage multiplier with MCM, will it affect NPCs not edited by this mod?
A: Yes, it will.

Q: How do encounter zones work?
A: Encounter zones specify a minimum level A and a maximum level B for area X, upon entering area X, it will match the zone to your level for the duration of one cell reset, if you are below minimum level A specified by the encounter zone, it will use level A instead. This calculated level will be used to determine the outcome of leveled lists, this means if an area has a minimum level A of 50, but you are level 10, it will spawn loot and enemies as if you were level 50. When the cell of that encounter zone resets but you are now level 80, it will spawn loot and enemies for level 80. When the cell of that encounter zone resets again but you are now level 110, while the maximum level B of that encounter zone is 90, it will spawn loot and enemies as if you were level 90.

Q: Is this compatible with [mod]?
A: Open [mod] and NPCScaling in FO4Edit and look through the records of NPCScaling, red means conflict. If there is a conflict, the mod that is loaded last will get priority. I know this answer may not be helpful or satisfactory but I don't really have the time to provide an adequate answer any time a question like this comes up for a very specific mod.

Q: Do you take suggestions?
A: Feel free to share your ideas, I may take inspiration from them, but do not expect anything. I do not work on demand nor does it matter to me in any way what you think of this mod, I make mods purely for the entertainment of making them and I upload them because I have made them anyway and it would be a waste not to share.

Q: I keep dying, plz nerf.
A: That means the mod is working as intended, being a bullet sponge at higher levels is the consequence of poor balance in the vanilla game.

Q: Will this mod be available on xbox one?
A: Probably never. It's not that I have a reason not to, it's purely that I only frequent the Nexus and can keep track of mods I uploaded while I'm here anyway, whereas if my only reason to visit Bethesda.net would be to keep track of a mod I uploaded, it would be a poor reason and I would stop showing up eventually.

Q: LOL at the screenshot. Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?
A: 42.



Credits:
Thirdstorm - For removing dirty edits in NPCs
Mod Configuration Menu - For enabling variable mod settings