Recommendation for slower leveling and a tougher game

[Arkngt]

I'm obviously bored with my current char, which almost always happens at +Lvl 25 or so. So I'm going to start a new character and would like some tips on how to slow down leveling and make the game tougher (but not ridiculously so).

As for leveling, I am using PN and the XP Reduction in TTW Option. It's rather fine as it is, but I'd like to slow it down a bit more. My current settings in PN are:

Leveling Gain 50%

Combat XP 75%

Speech XP 125

Any tips on which settings to have there? Perhaps Leveling Gain 33% and Combat XP 50%?

As for difficulty, I have the game on Normal and thought I'd switch to Very Hard instead.

My current PN settings are (besides those that are on PN default):

Player Endurance Multiplier 6

Player Level Multiplier 3

NPC Endurance Multiplier 5

NPC Level Multiplier 3

Any tips for those settings?

Also, I'm using RWED, which I've toned down a bit when it comes to multipliers for enemy body parts. It seems balanced around NOT using VATS, but I really like VATS, which of course makes it easier with head shots etc.

I'm also using MMM and wonder about two settings there as well. My current settings are:

Soft Unleveling 12%

Dynamic Player Scaling 6 Lvls

Any tips for those?

That's about it I think.

[TrickyVein]

Remove food healing. Project Nevada lets you do this.

Make finding loot & food or other things in containers almost impossible; my settings for very common, common, rare and very rare loot in PN are 1%, 5%, 10% and 20%, respectively. Just some ideas.

I found 25-33% XP gain to be too slow after about level 12. Setting it to 50% may make getting to 12 seem easier, but it feels more balanced afterwards. 

[Lyndi]

Changing how much prepared food you find in containers also makes food vendors more useful and forces you to go out and hunt for raw food on Brahmin and what not to cook. Adds a bit more realism I think personally.

I run on Very Hard with Hardcore turned on using IMP's more complex needs to make the staying alive thing more interesting. One the main points of that is the Stimpak changes so they are heal over time items so you can't just open the pipboy and be at full HP in 2 seconds. If you are in a big gun fight and start taking hits then you'd better find somewhere to hide.

[Arkngt]

Right, I turned off hardcore after a while this time - but I'll use for my next playthrough. One thing I like about hardcore is that Stimpaks heal over time (as in FWE). I'll also check out Imp's More Complex Needs.

I'll try out the PN settings as well. Perhaps keep Leveling Gain at 50 but lower Combat XP somewhat to 67.

[Arkngt]

Thanks, I'll check it out, might get some tips there.

Reading MMM's readme, i think I'll use hardcore settings for it:

Soft Unleveling 25%

Dynamic Player Scaling 4

[Arkngt]

Slightly Increased: 1,3. When I've tried higher settings, it just gets ridiculous in some cases IMO (as the foyer in Statesman Hotel, where I had a meat wall of Super Mutants - must have been 15 or so in that rather small area), so I've stuck to 1,3. (Speaking of which, in F3, Dynamic Player Scaling was only possible with Increased Spawns or higher - I wonder if it's even working in the TTW version on Slightly Increased?).

[TsurudaHimeko]

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/56671/?

 

How about 'Vicious Wastes'? It works with TTW and PN

[Arkngt]

Yes, seems a bit masochistic IMO, but those features seem to be adjustable so I'll check it out.

[deadboy]

[quote=TrickyVein]

 

Remove food healing. Project Nevada lets you do this.

Make finding loot & food or other things in containers almost impossible; my settings for very common, common, rare and very rare loot in PN are 1%, 5%, 10% and 20%, respectively. Just some ideas.

I found 25-33% XP gain to be too slow after about level 12. Setting it to 50% may make getting to 12 seem easier, but it feels more balanced afterwards. 

[/quote]

Does PNx LET you remove healing from Food or does it just remove it regardless?  I was doing a play through with that "Blood Money" mod that just plops you down at level 1 in the abandoned BoS bunker then does some scaling stuff to make it not be IMMEDIATE death.  Overall it was pretty fun but it was obvious that the author expected food to be a major healing thing.  Since I use PNx and all it's plugins I was getting none of it.

Wasn't a HUGE problem with the instant stimpak heal, but I guess my point was that I just thought PNx removed healing from non-healing specific ingestibles across the board (at least vanilla ones). Is there a setting to turn that off?

[Lyndi]

[quote=deadboy]

Does PNx LET you remove healing from Food or does it just remove it regardless?  I was doing a play through with that "Blood Money" mod that just plops you down at level 1 in the abandoned BoS bunker then does some scaling stuff to make it not be IMMEDIATE death.  Overall it was pretty fun but it was obvious that the author expected food to be a major healing thing.  Since I use PNx and all it's plugins I was getting none of it.

Wasn't a HUGE problem with the instant stimpak heal, but I guess my point was that I just thought PNx removed healing from non-healing specific ingestibles across the board (at least vanilla ones). Is there a setting to turn that off?

[/quote]

Go into Project Nevada Rebalance in MCM and check under Miscellaneous. There should be an option there to enable / disable food healing.