You can put the DLC_MOD_XPRS folder in the DLC folder of the game installation. But first need to enable loading DLC mods, which mod manager does automatically.
Hi, I'm new to ME modding and just have a quick question about this part: "As of v1.2, this mod also unlocks levels 51-60 on the first playthrough on a new profile. This is done without affecting the achievements in any way (if you want to also unlock achievements, you can for example import this profile or use console commands)."
Can I still unlock achievements normally with this mod installed, it just doesn't unlock anything on its own? Or does modding disable achievements like it does in some other games? Can I unlock the level 60 achievement in my first playthrough with this mod installed or will it accept only a "legit" NG+ game?
This mod doesn't unlock any achievement, and it does not prevent you from unlocking them when you satisfy the requirements. It just gives you by default one "perk" that was associated with an achievement.
In principle you should unlock that achievement when you reach 60 on first playthrough. I doubt the game would check for other conditions. Although, to be fully honest, I haven't actually tested this specifically, and that part of the game code is not accessible. In case it doesn't, let me know, but then you can just unlock it with console command.
About the difficulty settings, I'm not sure tbh. Many things in ME1 (incl. most of the achievement-related stuff) are coded in "native" functions that we can't access. Creative workarounds are sometimes possible but not always. But Harcode-Insanity can be unlocked with the achievements via console commands (didn't work for the level cap), or via ini tweaks (set m_nAchievedCombatDifficultyOverride=4 in BIOGame.ini), no?
Yeah theres ini workarounds. Shame if it turns out that its not something that could be modded cuz i imagine Legendary Edition wont have those restrictions on the difficulties.
Yeh I read that they were removing those restrictions. But well, if the ini tweak works it's good enough I guess. Might be that's actually what they're doing for the LE. The other problem is that if it's possible, it would probably require modifying basegame files, which easily creates compatibility issues with other mods. My first solution for the level cap was doing that too, and I didn't like it much for that reason... but now I found another sneakier purely DLC method.
I'm getting back into this game after a few years away and I'm just astonished at the quality of the mods being produced for it, most of them recent. This one excited me, as I just hate that no matter how much I squeeze for XP I just can't get higher than 58 on a single playthrough, I'm always more than 300K short.
For my playstyle unfortunately, this mod overcompensates. Even if I wait until level 53 to install it, I reach 60 before Virmire.
I wish this mod had a dial on it, so that I could tweak the boost until level 60 is only reachable by doing pretty much everything. I assume that's not possible? I read the comments below and understand that my desires depart from your intention with this mod. It might be time to learn how to mod this game myself :D
And by the way, your other mods are looking like they'll be essential on my next run, thanks for your efforts.
Thanks for the feedback! Yeh I understand what you mean. I went for some middle ground, as I wanted to leave a sufficient margin for people who do not do absolutely everything, or do not have all the XP boosting achievements, or do not remove the Mako XP penalty, etc. But I plan to update this mod very soon with two alternate versions (one faster and one slower - the latter should be better for you, though maybe not perfect as there will still be some margin... I didn't even know 58 was possible without cheats).
It's a little sad how much I know about XP in this game. Did you know that the Earthborn special assignment (Old Friends) has a possible assignment XP multiplier of 30, whereas the Colonist and Spacer assignments max out at 10? Or that for maximum codex, you need to be a tech-class Shepard who romances Liara? Or that if you join the squadmate fighting at the bomb site you get double the XP of the one in the tower? Or that 25 geth Destroyers can spawn in the run-up to the final battle? Or that the game denies you the Noveria award (multiplier 50) if you visit the Hot Labs first?
But it's all for naught, as 601,000 XP is exactly the same as 238,100 XP as far as ME2 is concerned. So I gave up.
The closest I came to a perfect playthrough was an NG+ where I had finished the first run with 92,742 XP (level 36). In the NG+ I got to the final boss with 858,148. Glorious. Also fun was the run where I set the Mako multiplier to 2.0, which left me a little short (but 2.1 would have worked).
Anyway I look forward to your slower version, thanks again.
Eh no, I didn't know any of this. I imagine there are also several missions that can yield very different amounts of XP depending on how they are completed (e.g. peacefully vs. killing everyone). And I definitely don't want to calibrate this in such a way that reaching 60 is only possible with an Earthborn engineer that romances Liara and completes the missions in a certain way and is patient enough to wait for all those Geth Destroyers. I can maybe add another even slower option, it shouldn't be too much work as just need to tweak my script a bit.
Apologies, I didn't intend to put you to work for me. And agreed, it would be cruel to state that only the Earthborn Liara-mancers are worthy of level 60. This chat makes me realize that there is no absolute answer, it'll always depend on many things. Maybe on this run I'll not be in the mood to fight both Colossi at Solcrum on foot, maybe I'll prefer to perch up on the hill and take them out via the Mako. Margin will grant me that. OK, like others before me I'm warming up to your way of thinking. Thanks. Though a slower option will still be welcome. :)
The mod has been updated with 3 alternative versions. And no worries about making me work... two of those were basically ready, and it wasn't much effort to add a third. I don't know if it will interest many people, but you convinced my that it might appeal to some. There is still a margin, but I'd rather not push too far because of the reasons above, and because my maths are not absolutely exact (since I do not account for XP loss around the level ups).
I am intrigued by the numbers your script is generating. Based on your description your goal is essentially to ensure that each level progression beyond 15 takes about the same amount of time as going from 14 to 15, right? I noticed in the original version that this resulted in numbers that didn't scale evenly up, that there was a stretch of levels where the increase was less than before. In the hardcore version, levels 38-48 actually result in a slight XP penalty (e.g. 81 base XP for a minion kill at level 43 rather than the vanilla 86). Please don't work to fix this, I love it and will let you know how things turn out.
This is mostly intended actually, it may look a bit weird in a detailed comparison to vanilla because vanilla is a bit weird.
In vanilla, each level after 15 takes longer than the previous (I mean longer, in terms of XP required / XP received). But that increase is relatively fast right after 15, then it keeps slowing down until 30, then it speeds up again. They used two different formulas for the 15-30 and 30-60 ranges.
I wanted to keep something more consistent: each level after 15 takes a bit longer than the previous, but the increment with respect to the previous level is either constant (in the quickrun/default versions), or monotonous (in completionist/hardcore). For completionist/hardcore there are indeed some levels where the XP gained is lower than vanilla, but it's just a few percents, and it is compensated by higher XP gains at lower levels.
https://imgur.com/a/MReIa0E -> plot of the "time" to level up by level, black is vanilla, red is default version of my mod... this explains why the ratio mod/vanilla is a bit weird at times.
Ah, I finally get it, that chart explains a lot--how interesting the vanilla progression is when plotted.
Kudos to you for engaging with me on all this. Thanks to your work and that of others, this game is suddenly brand new and I'm giddy as a schoolboy to be playing again.
Oooh, I like the new options. I'll admit, I felt I hit max level a little early in my playthrough with this, but that Hardcore one seems like it'd suit me perfectly (I'm THE completionist, hitting level 59 on basically every playthrough, so the margin of error is more like wiggle room for me). Can't wait to try it out next time I get to a playthrough. Thanks!
Thanks! Yeh I think the original version was a good middle ground for a unique choice, but it can make reaching 60 too early depending on playstyle and conditions.
Does it work? I think technically yes, it does and it's flawless but ... It distorts my efforts in the early stages of the game. That doesn't mean I don't see the effort and intention of yours. I simply think it goes too far. Therefore, I do ask for 8-13-21 on levels 30-40-50 and nothing else.
Sorry I have no idea what you mean. This mod changes practically nothing in the early stages of the game (literally nothing up to level 15, and the differences only start to become noticeable around level 45).
Just like that. And then you get to the point where you get a huge amount of xp without too much effort. I guess it's obvious that you get pissed off when this happens. This means you don't have to try to get before, because with OP mod like this you can make up for xp at the very end of the game - no offence.
Ah ok. I think I see what you mean, but I disagree. It is true that the effort necessary to get for example 20XP is much larger in the early game than later, when you would get many times that for killing one simple enemy. This is already the case in vanilla, though it's true that my mod increases the difference.
But you cannot think of it this way: the XP numbers are just abstract numbers without direct relevance. What is important is the effort required to gain one level. And my mod is designed so that this changes in a smooth way (effort required slowly increases as you level up). The 20XP received early game may be for example 10% of what you need for the next level. The 11520XP received later may be 6% of what you need for the next level.
Sure, the 11520XP late game may seem ridiculously larger than the 20XP early game, but it has no effect on you besides how fast you level up... and that 6% is not so different from the 10%, which is what actually matters. Besides, you cannot make up for "missing" 20XP early game, because it would slow your progression and reduce the XP you get from everything afterwards.
The only way I could reduce those large abstract XP numbers in late game without altering the smooth level progress would be to change the XP required to reach the levels, which were defined by the devs (they decided that you need 200XP to get from level 2 to 3, and 200,000XP to get from 59 to 60; and that is the real source of your issue). I do not want to change that because it would mean current XP and current level would not be consistent in the save files with or without the mod, and this may cause problems.
Thanks a lot. Naturally, I understand the difference and importance of xp at different levels also from the perspective of a player who doesn't care about ME1 anymore and only thinks about ME2 bonuses. I am trying to draw your attention only to balance and moderation in the assigned values. In fact, the point is that my calculations show that the values I asked for earlier are enough to give satisfaction to the style in which the game is ended by the player. It's just an opinion but I like to think it's something worth fighting for.
I do care about balance, and I do care about ME1 more than the ME2 starting bonuses. That is the whole point of this mod, to create a more balanced experience. Otherwise, one can just use the XP glitch or console commands. But again, I consider balance in terms of leveling speed, not the numerical XP values, which don't really matter. I don't think you read my previous post carefully enough. Also, I can assure you that +8-13-21% at levels 30-40-50 would not be enough to reach 60 in a single playthrough. You'd maybe max out at 56 instead of 55, which is a bit pointless.
It was an interesting exchange of insights. I admit that your arguments soften my approach to this matter. BTW, I've achieved 60th level with mod of yours a little bit before Vigil meeting (Ilos) to be precise. I might come back to it preparing my new playthrough. Take care & best!
Thank you for this! I'm, going to be re-playing the whole series for the first time in 5 years and one of the most frustrating things I remember was not being able to hit level 60 even if you do *everything* in the game, so I'd always resort to saving before the fight with Saren and using a save editor to bump my character up to 60 so I could import with max bonuses to ME2. This will save me the trouble of having to do that!
Thank so much for this. Mass Effect is my favorite game but it's so annoying having to replay this game multiple times for lvl 60. Unfortunately I dont have my old profile file because I reinstalled it for mods. I didnt know I had to have that also for lvl 60. So I'm max out at 50 I tried to add the profile later but it doesnt work it has to be fresh characters. So I will edit have to edit my save for ME2 for a lvl60 character.
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Great mod!
"As of v1.2, this mod also unlocks levels 51-60 on the first playthrough on a new profile. This is done without affecting the achievements in any way (if you want to also unlock achievements, you can for example import this profile or use console commands)."
Can I still unlock achievements normally with this mod installed, it just doesn't unlock anything on its own? Or does modding disable achievements like it does in some other games? Can I unlock the level 60 achievement in my first playthrough with this mod installed or will it accept only a "legit" NG+ game?
In principle you should unlock that achievement when you reach 60 on first playthrough. I doubt the game would check for other conditions. Although, to be fully honest, I haven't actually tested this specifically, and that part of the game code is not accessible. In case it doesn't, let me know, but then you can just unlock it with console command.
I wonder if its possible to also unlock the 2 higher difficulty levels in the same way as the level cap.
About the difficulty settings, I'm not sure tbh. Many things in ME1 (incl. most of the achievement-related stuff) are coded in "native" functions that we can't access. Creative workarounds are sometimes possible but not always. But Harcode-Insanity can be unlocked with the achievements via console commands (didn't work for the level cap), or via ini tweaks (set m_nAchievedCombatDifficultyOverride=4 in BIOGame.ini), no?
For my playstyle unfortunately, this mod overcompensates. Even if I wait until level 53 to install it, I reach 60 before Virmire.
I wish this mod had a dial on it, so that I could tweak the boost until level 60 is only reachable by doing pretty much everything. I assume that's not possible? I read the comments below and understand that my desires depart from your intention with this mod. It might be time to learn how to mod this game myself :D
And by the way, your other mods are looking like they'll be essential on my next run, thanks for your efforts.
But it's all for naught, as 601,000 XP is exactly the same as 238,100 XP as far as ME2 is concerned. So I gave up.
The closest I came to a perfect playthrough was an NG+ where I had finished the first run with 92,742 XP (level 36). In the NG+ I got to the final boss with 858,148. Glorious. Also fun was the run where I set the Mako multiplier to 2.0, which left me a little short (but 2.1 would have worked).
Anyway I look forward to your slower version, thanks again.
I am intrigued by the numbers your script is generating. Based on your description your goal is essentially to ensure that each level progression beyond 15 takes about the same amount of time as going from 14 to 15, right? I noticed in the original version that this resulted in numbers that didn't scale evenly up, that there was a stretch of levels where the increase was less than before. In the hardcore version, levels 38-48 actually result in a slight XP penalty (e.g. 81 base XP for a minion kill at level 43 rather than the vanilla 86). Please don't work to fix this, I love it and will let you know how things turn out.
In vanilla, each level after 15 takes longer than the previous (I mean longer, in terms of XP required / XP received). But that increase is relatively fast right after 15, then it keeps slowing down until 30, then it speeds up again. They used two different formulas for the 15-30 and 30-60 ranges.
I wanted to keep something more consistent: each level after 15 takes a bit longer than the previous, but the increment with respect to the previous level is either constant (in the quickrun/default versions), or monotonous (in completionist/hardcore). For completionist/hardcore there are indeed some levels where the XP gained is lower than vanilla, but it's just a few percents, and it is compensated by higher XP gains at lower levels.
https://imgur.com/a/MReIa0E -> plot of the "time" to level up by level, black is vanilla, red is default version of my mod... this explains why the ratio mod/vanilla is a bit weird at times.
Kudos to you for engaging with me on all this. Thanks to your work and that of others, this game is suddenly brand new and I'm giddy as a schoolboy to be playing again.
It is true that the effort necessary to get for example 20XP is much larger in the early game than later, when you would get many times that for killing one simple enemy. This is already the case in vanilla, though it's true that my mod increases the difference.
But you cannot think of it this way: the XP numbers are just abstract numbers without direct relevance. What is important is the effort required to gain one level. And my mod is designed so that this changes in a smooth way (effort required slowly increases as you level up). The 20XP received early game may be for example 10% of what you need for the next level. The 11520XP received later may be 6% of what you need for the next level.
Sure, the 11520XP late game may seem ridiculously larger than the 20XP early game, but it has no effect on you besides how fast you level up... and that 6% is not so different from the 10%, which is what actually matters. Besides, you cannot make up for "missing" 20XP early game, because it would slow your progression and reduce the XP you get from everything afterwards.
The only way I could reduce those large abstract XP numbers in late game without altering the smooth level progress would be to change the XP required to reach the levels, which were defined by the devs (they decided that you need 200XP to get from level 2 to 3, and 200,000XP to get from 59 to 60; and that is the real source of your issue). I do not want to change that because it would mean current XP and current level would not be consistent in the save files with or without the mod, and this may cause problems.