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About this mod
Adaptive Leveling is a new character development paradigm based on Skyrim Skill Uncapper. It works to bring real specialization to Skyrim's leveling system and allows you to focus fully on the skills you want and get rewarded for it.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Description
Goals
What is adaptive leveling?
Adaptive leveling means that the experience that your character gains towards levels varies based on how much you are specializing. If you focus on a small number of skills, those skills will increase the amount of experience that they grant per level. We achieve this through Skyrim Skill Uncapper by applying an increasing multiplier for increasing skill levels and a decreasing multiplier at increasing character levels. Think of the skill multiplier as your expected character level and the level multiplier as the inverse of your actual level. My presets are set up so that leveling only 6 skills to the maximum will earn enough XP to get your character to their endgame level, thus removing the incentive to level more skills that you don't want just for the levels.
Rescaled leveling curve
Reducing the number of skills down from 18 to 6 means that we have to compensate by increasing the total experience from those skills as well as the total effort to level them. Fortunately, we already have a useful model for doing this from the skill trainer formulas. We make leveling relatively easy up to skill level 50, somewhat harder after 50, and even harder after 75. Using this model also means that higher level perks will require more investment to get to. Also, if you use skill trainers, it will feel more worth the money at higher levels.
More info:
Classed vs. Classless
Adaptive Leveling was originally designed for a Classed setup, which I highly recommend. Classed and Classless are almost the same, but Classless is functionally closer to vanilla. The Classed preset reduces character experience to zero from skills below 25 and reduces skill experience to zero at level 20. The Classless preset, on the other hand, assumes your skills start at 15 and doesn't reduce anything to zero except when you reach the level cap.
Skill rate adjustments
The baseline global skill rate is 0.50, in accordance with MorrowLoot Ultimate's recommendation. I have adjusted these somewhat based on how hard each skill is to level on an Ordinator-based setup.
More info:
Attribute gains
I have modified it so that leveling up health grants 3 carry weight. Furthermore, your first level-up's attribute gains are doubled. Thus, at level 80, you will have 800 attribute points.
Perk gains
I have not modified perk gains in these presets. If you are using a perk expansion such as Ordinator and would like more perks, you can modify this section.
More info:
Alternatively, install another mod such as ESO Skyshards which allows you to gain more perk points.
Requirements
Class mods (pick one, for Classed presets only)
General mod recommendations
But wait, there's more! I'm giving you a leveling system for specializing your character, but that isn't quite enough to incentivize trying all different combinations of skills, is it? The skills need more balance and depth, and you need more role-playing options. So to help you out, I'm giving you a mini mod guide right here.
Disclaimer: I don't personally care for setups meant to make the game very difficult or fast-paced. If that's what you're looking for, check out SkeletonJack's OMEGA, which offers an optional Uncapper preset using the Adaptive Leveling paradigm.
Limitations
Auxiliary skills aren't actually hard capped at 20, and they will still level up from skill books, skill trainers, and quest rewards. If your skills go above 20, you can fix it using the
Using the console
To the best of my knowledge, Adaptive Leveling presets CANNOT be backported to Classic Edition's Skyrim Community Uncapper.
Goals
- Diversify your gaming experience by putting hard limits on what each character can do.
- Eliminate incentives to level skills you don't want.
- Define a concrete end game to work towards.
- Prevent needing to edit the configuration per character.
What is adaptive leveling?
Adaptive leveling means that the experience that your character gains towards levels varies based on how much you are specializing. If you focus on a small number of skills, those skills will increase the amount of experience that they grant per level. We achieve this through Skyrim Skill Uncapper by applying an increasing multiplier for increasing skill levels and a decreasing multiplier at increasing character levels. Think of the skill multiplier as your expected character level and the level multiplier as the inverse of your actual level. My presets are set up so that leveling only 6 skills to the maximum will earn enough XP to get your character to their endgame level, thus removing the incentive to level more skills that you don't want just for the levels.
Rescaled leveling curve
Reducing the number of skills down from 18 to 6 means that we have to compensate by increasing the total experience from those skills as well as the total effort to level them. Fortunately, we already have a useful model for doing this from the skill trainer formulas. We make leveling relatively easy up to skill level 50, somewhat harder after 50, and even harder after 75. Using this model also means that higher level perks will require more investment to get to. Also, if you use skill trainers, it will feel more worth the money at higher levels.
More info:
Spoiler:
As an example, in the Classed Level 80 preset (v1.1), most skills follow this pattern, which makes it take about three times as long as normal to max out your skill:
Show
As an example, in the Classed Level 80 preset (v1.1), most skills follow this pattern, which makes it take about three times as long as normal to max out your skill:
[SkillExpGainMults\BaseSkillLevel\OneHanded]
1 = 0.50
20 = 0.00
25 = 1.00
50 = 0.424
75 = 0.269Classed vs. Classless
Adaptive Leveling was originally designed for a Classed setup, which I highly recommend. Classed and Classless are almost the same, but Classless is functionally closer to vanilla. The Classed preset reduces character experience to zero from skills below 25 and reduces skill experience to zero at level 20. The Classless preset, on the other hand, assumes your skills start at 15 and doesn't reduce anything to zero except when you reach the level cap.
Skill rate adjustments
The baseline global skill rate is 0.50, in accordance with MorrowLoot Ultimate's recommendation. I have adjusted these somewhat based on how hard each skill is to level on an Ordinator-based setup.
More info:
Spoiler:
These are the default settings (v1.1):
Show
These are the default settings (v1.1):
[SkillExpGainMults]
fOneHanded = 0.50
fTwoHanded = 0.50
fMarksman = 0.50
fBlock = 0.65
fSmithing = 0.50
fHeavyArmor = 0.50
fLightArmor = 0.50
fPickpocket = 0.35
fLockPicking = 0.45
fSneak = 0.35
fAlchemy = 0.50
fSpeechCraft = 0.50
fAlteration = 0.50
fConjuration = 0.55
fDestruction = 0.50
fIllusion = 0.55
fRestoration = 0.75
fEnchanting = 0.50Attribute gains
I have modified it so that leveling up health grants 3 carry weight. Furthermore, your first level-up's attribute gains are doubled. Thus, at level 80, you will have 800 attribute points.
Perk gains
I have not modified perk gains in these presets. If you are using a perk expansion such as Ordinator and would like more perks, you can modify this section.
More info:
Spoiler:
For example, if you want 100 perk points at level 80:
Show
For example, if you want 100 perk points at level 80:
[PerksAtLevelUp]
1 = 2.40
3 = 1.20
81 = 0Alternatively, install another mod such as ESO Skyshards which allows you to gain more perk points.
Requirements
Class mods (pick one, for Classed presets only)
General mod recommendations
But wait, there's more! I'm giving you a leveling system for specializing your character, but that isn't quite enough to incentivize trying all different combinations of skills, is it? The skills need more balance and depth, and you need more role-playing options. So to help you out, I'm giving you a mini mod guide right here.
Spoiler:
General
Magic
Crafting
Show
General
- Subtle but Classless - Removes racial starting bonuses. This is not required for the Uncapper presets to function, but it will smooth out the early game experience gains.
- IDRS - Improved Disabled Race Scaling - Highly recommended for the above mod as it includes race height changes.
- Armor Rating Redux - Fixes the ridiculously broken armor system.
- Magic Resistance Rescaled - Similar to the above but for magic resistance.
- Reading Is Good - Reworks skill books to give you a long-term boost instead of an instant level.
- Ultimate Combat - Fixes some annoying aspects of combat with customization options.
- Power Attacks and Shield Bash Require Stamina - Prevents cheese.
- D13 Faster GET UP STAND UP animation - Faster get up animation.
- Dual Wield Block and Parry - Helps playability for unarmed builds.
- Dual wielding - bashing and blocking - Similar to the above but without the extra keybinding.
Magic
- Apocalypse - Adds a lot of cool and useful magic spells.
- Balance Adjustments for Apocalypse - Edits to Apocalypse made and maintained by myself.
- Mage Armor Rebalanced - Buffs armor spells and makes Dragonhide fit in the progression scheme.
- Scaling Bound Weapons - Curbs some of the early power of Bound/Mystic weapons and makes them stronger for late-game.
- Balanced Magic - Expansive magic balance overhaul. Includes scaling bound weapons.
Crafting
- Skyrim Alchemy Fixed - Separates crafting skills so that they don't improve each other, which encourages build variety.
- Alchemy Potions and Ingredients Adjustments - Rebalances potion values and Alchemy experience gain.
- Requires patch for Skyrim Alchemy Fixed, see Articles section - Incredibly Simple Alchemy Overhaul - Alternative to the above two mods made with maximum compatibility in mind.
- Ars Metallica - Adds more sources for Smithing experience.
- The Choice Is Yours - Prevents annoying unwanted quest objectives from filling up your journal.
- Better College Application - Allows you to take an entrance test that fits with your character's specialization.
- Sell Unusual Gems - Stones of Barenziah - Gives you something to do with these gems if you have no interest in the Thieves Guild.
Disclaimer: I don't personally care for setups meant to make the game very difficult or fast-paced. If that's what you're looking for, check out SkeletonJack's OMEGA, which offers an optional Uncapper preset using the Adaptive Leveling paradigm.
Limitations
Auxiliary skills aren't actually hard capped at 20, and they will still level up from skill books, skill trainers, and quest rewards. If your skills go above 20, you can fix it using the
player.setav console command.Using the console
advskill command with large numbers is not safe. Because of the way Skill Uncapper works, you must level up your character when you gain the experience to do so, in order to update the leveling rates. The system is flexible enough that you should never have an issue with this in normal play, but console commands such as this can cause issues.To the best of my knowledge, Adaptive Leveling presets CANNOT be backported to Classic Edition's Skyrim Community Uncapper.