EZEZ is a new approach to a static world. Upon installing it, it will immediately remove the player from the center of the game's universe. Some encounter zones will be easy. Some will be really, really difficult. And they will be this way whether you first discover them at level 1 or at level 50. Best of all, it does this without editing a single vanilla record (and can even apply retroactively to existing saves).

Here's how it works:

Instead of changing the parameters for what level enemies can appear in a given encounter zone, EZEZ leaves that up to the vanilla settings. Instead, it places every encounter zone in the vanilla game into two lists. One list represents the type of enemies (for example, bandits or draugr), which sets the base level.  The other list represents the difficulty of that zone (very easy, easy, medium, difficult, very difficult), which sets a range from which that particular zone can vary from the base level for that type. This means that an "easy" Dragon Priest dungeon might still be more difficult than a "hard" bandit camp.

Anyway, the mod runs a script when it boots up that runs through a list of every* encounter zone in the game, checks which of the other two lists that it is on, and generates a random level within the specified range. The mod then simply sets the encounter zone to that level, preemptively locking it as if you were at that level and discovered the zone. So, for example, a medium draugr zone (21-29) might be set to 26. That dungeon will then be locked and generate enemies and loot as if you were level 26 when you discovered it, regardless of whether you are level 1 or level 40 when that actually happens, resulting in a truly static world with no compatibility issues.

Now, there are two caveats. First, once the script runs, it is permanent. It will lock every zone that the script runs through. In a future version, I hope to include an MCM that will allow you to re-run the script or edit zone levels. But for now, it is run-and-done. (Note that this script will also apply to zones that you have already discovered.) Second, it will not apply to encounter zones outside the vanilla game. The good news is that creating compatibility patches for mod-added zones is incredibly simple. I do plan to create patches for some of the larger mods, such as Bruma, and I will release a guide to explain how mod authors can easily create patches. But for now, just remember that it only de-levels encounter zones in the vanilla game.

This mod also pairs very well with Missing Encounter Zones, which will include the area outside many dungeons in the zone, so the level of the whole area will be consistent. Mods such as Improved Bandits will also scale nicely with the static world, making the early game very challenging.

Mods that edit encounter zone records will still be technically compatible, but they will be totally irrelevant because this mod sets and locks the levels directly by script. Mods that use scripts to unlock encounter zones to increase the difficulty on subsequent visits will undo the level set by this mod. Mods that change the difficulty parameters for spawning leveled enemies within a zone should be compatible, and should apply those parameters using the level set by this mod:

Credits
- Big thanks to hhuuggss for creating Zone Magic, as this mod could not have existed without his SKSE plugin (which is included, per the permissions to use assets listed on the mod page).