*Requires the Oblivion Script Extender v0015 (or newer)*
http://obse.silverlock.org/

Compatible with Shivering Isles!

Summary:
This mod replaces Oblivion's ridiculous system for leveling your Mercantile skill with one that makes a lot more sense.

Detailed:
There is no polite way to put this: Oblivion's system for leveling your Mercantile skill is asinine. Basically, every time you sell something, it contributes 0.4 use points toward your next level. So every time you sell 250 items, you gain a skill level. So, if you want to become a Master of Mercantile, you need to sell 25000 items. (Actually, 0.4 is the average - the uses are worth more in the beginning and much less in the end, but overall, it amounts to 0.4 Use Points per sale. I created a simulation mod which determined that you need to make exactly 25550 sales, in vanilla Obvlion, to become a master [assuming a minor skill]). Needless to say, this takes awhile. To make matters worse, if you sell a group of items at the same time, (i.e. 20 iron daggers), it only counts as 1 sale. So, if you want to maximize your mercantile skill, you have to sell things one at a time: you need to click it, drag the slider over to 1, and accept it - 20 times. What a pain! But wait, there's more! The value of the item has absolutely no effect on your leveling. So, selling 100 iron arrows is exactly the same as selling 100 daedric cuirasses! Awesome!

That's where this mod comes into play. It completely eliminates this horrible system. Now your Mercantile leveling is based on the value of your transactions. For every level, there is a required value of sales (it increases every level); once you reach it, your mercantile skill will gain a level. Buying items also contributes, but only half as much (using recommended settings). For example, let's say you need 1000 gold in transactions to reach your next level. To achieve this, you can sell 100 items for 10 gold, 1 item for 1000 gold, or buy 1 item for 2000 gold, or you can mix and match your buy/sell transactions. If you sold the 100 items, you can do it all at once, you don't need to do it 1-at-a-time. Also, there is no penalty for selling/buying more than required for the next level - it will simply contribute to the next level. So, if you need 1000 gold for the next level, and you do 10000 gold worth of transactions in one session, you're going to gain multiple levels, once you stop talking to the merchant. The end result is that you can conduct transactions in a normal manner, and your Mercantile skill will increase at a logical rate. Purchasing spells also contributes to your Mercantile Leveling, as do purchasing horses and houses (from the original Oblivion only).

Version 1.6 received a complete overhaul. The code was completely re-worked, utilizing functions from the Oblivion Script Extender, and things should run smoother and better than ever! Some key features addressed:
*Shivering Isles Compatibility
*Your Mercantile skill progress is now represented by the progress bar in your skill sheet; no more guessing how long until your next level!
*Balanced the leveling code, so that leveling is not so difficult early on and not so easy at high levels.

When you first start your game with this mod, you will be asked to choose a difficulty setting. The lower the setting, the less money you have to receive/spend per level. "Normal" is recommended for most users:

Very Easy (recommended for Paris Hilton)
Easy
Normal (recommended for most players)
Hard
Harder (recommended for players who use mods that increase items' values)
Insane (recommended for players who eat sandpaper)
Chuck Norris (recommended for Chuck Norris)

You can also customize how purchases affect your leveling:
Equal (1:1) Purchases contribute to leveling just as sales do.
Half (2:1) Purchases contribute to leveling, but only half as much as sales.
None (1:0) Purchases do not contribute to leveling (like Vanilla Oblivion).
The "Half" setting is recommended for most users.


If you later decide you want to change difficulty settings:
Hold both the RIGHT Shift key and the "M" key for a few seconds (r-Shift + M). This will open the configuration screen.


Installation:
This mod should work fine with both new and saved games.

If you use the Oblivion Mod Manager, just copy the OMOD to your OBMM mods folder then activate it from OBMM.

Otherwise, just copy the .esp file to your Oblivion data folder (overwriting any older versions) and enable it from your data list / mod manager.



Compatibility:
This mod should work with other mods, unless they drastically change the way the Mercantile skill levels.

OOO & Living Economy - I have discovered that the popular mod, Living Economy (included with OOO), has a mercantile leveling feature that shares some concepts with mine. However, after looking through its scripts, I feel that my mod is more advanced, efficient, and customizable for player mercantile leveling. (This is not a knock on Living Economy - I think it is one of THE best mods for Oblivion - the player mercantile leveling is only one small aspect of that great mod!). So, I recommend you use my mod for your mercantile leveling and still keep all of the other awesome features of Living Economy. Our mods are compatible IF you do the following: 1. Install both mods. 2. Put Smarter Mercantile Leveling AFTER Living Economy in the load order (use a mod manager like OBMM). Then, from Living Economy's configuration menu, disable the "Complementary PC Mercantile Skill Progression" feature. To do this, open the console and type: "startquest cflemenu" (no quotes); that will bring up the Living Economy configuration menu, where you can disable the Complementary Player Mercantile Progression. If you do this, these 2 mods will complement each other very well.


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Version 1.5 vs. Version 1.6:

I've had a few inquiries as to how exactly the new, improved leveling system in v1.6 differs from the older versions. So, here's some comparisons for you (using the Normal settings for both versions):

In SML 1.5:
To get from Mer Lv 9 to 10, you needed to barter ~3000 gold
To get from Mer Lv 99 to 100, you needed ~30000 gold
The total amount of transactions to go from starting Mer Lv 5 to master 100 was around 1.5 million

In SML 1.6
To get from Mer Lv 9 to 10, you need to barter ~1400 gold
To get from Mer Lv 99 to 100, you need ~51000 gold
The total amount of transactions to go from starting Mer Lv 5 to master 100 is a bit over 2 million

The biggest complaint I received on earlier versions was that it was too difficult to level early in the game and too easy later on. This new method automatically fixes both of those extremes. I set the cash value for the Normal setting so that it would require a little more than 50000 for the final level gain (lv99-lv100), which is ~11 Daedric items (the most valuable items found in standard leveled lists) and a bit more than 2 million total from level (0-100). For most people, this should end up maxing out their Mercantile skill just about the same time as their other skills.

So, as you can see, version 1.6 is much more balanced, and it is far better integrated into Oblivion than 1.5. Plus, don't forget the customizability - if the Normal setting isn't to your liking, there are several settings above and below it, as well as customizations for how purchases affect your leveling. I truly believe that SML v1.6 is Mercantile Leveling as it should have been. I hope this clears things up.


Note: I've also left version 1.5 (outdated) available for individuals with an OBSE phobia.
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Change log:
v1.65 Added a keyboard shortcut to the configuration screen. The console is no longer needed for anything.

v1.61 Updated Readme + description, and added an OMOD version.

v1.6 Now requires OBSE. Scripts completely re-written and optimized. Shivering Isles Compatibility, Mercantile skill represented on the progress bar in your skill sheet, balanced the skill leveling code.

v1.5 Buying spells, horses, and homes now contribute to your Mercantile Leveling (uses the Purchases rate you defined in your difficulty settings). Only houses from vanilla Oblivion contribute - not houses from mods or expansions.

v1.4 Fixed a bug that was caused by checking the player's current mercantile value, instead of the player's BASE value. This would have caused you to not level up when you should have. If you SHOULD have leveled, updating to this version will cause you to level immediately when you load your game (everything adjusts and fixes itself).

v1.3 Added more customization. You can now define how you want purchases to affect your Mercantile leveling.

v1.2 Combined the multiple difficulties into 1 functional mod. Fixed a major bug that had the buying and selling data swapped (so buying stuff was worth more toward leveling than selling). Optimized the mod so that it uses fewer CPU cycles (it actually didn't use very many before... but it's even better now!)

v1.1 Added multiple difficulty versions

v1.0 Initial release.
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You might also enjoy my Book Tracker mod:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=18434