CROSS-CONTENT DISCUSSION: XP values and Level Cap

[thermador]

Added another mod to my list of possible solutions: XFO-NV

Here's the list so far

[Wowboy]

[quote=JaxFirehart]You can only scale deathclaws so far before the question becomes "Why the hell haven't these things taken over the world!?"[/quote]

I don't know why, but this nearly made me fall out of my chair laughing.

[quote=JaxFirehart]

The way I see it, halving XP is the best solution, but the major drawback is the barrier to entry. If I can preserve the first... 10? 20? levels' XP requirements while increasing the remaining levels' xp requirements, I can get the best of both worlds, allowing the player to come into their own fairly quickly but also preventing them from hitting level cap too early.

As always I'm open for suggestions, criticisms etc...

[/quote]

This is a very difficult problem to solve. I agree... the player is pretty much in god mode at level 50. Going past it gets pretty ridiculous.

I would agree with your assessment that the best way to solve this is to increase the amount of xp required to obtain levels. And, I agree that if you simply double the xp, the first few levels would take MUCH longer to obtain, preventing the player from boosting a few key skills needed to play their archetype successfully from the beginning.

How about adding a hidden perk to the player that works like a reverse "Lessons Learned" perk as soon as the player leaves the Vault or Doc Mitchell's house? It would take a bit of grunt work, but it wouldn't be terribly difficult to implement, and by the time the player was level 40, the xp gained would be getting cut by 40%, which would seem more significant than the 1% hit at level 1.

[JaxFirehart]

I haven't looked very closely at this quite yet, but my hope is to make a logarithmic equation, rather than a linear equation. I haven't hashed out any details on the equation quit yet but the goal is to have it smoothly ramp up the xp required to level up. By changing xp required rather than xp earned, it is better hidden from the player.

[Wowboy]

Well, I was looking in the wiki at the settings for leveling... here's the base formula.

 

n = (n - 1) * ((n - 2) / 2 * iXPBumpBase + iXPBase)

where iXPBumpBase = 150 and iXPBase = 200 and n is the level to be reached.

I had an idea that you could try to tweak this formula by simply changing iXPBumpBase.

For level 1 & 2, set IXPBumpBase to IXPBumpBase * log 50 IXPBumpBase    (50 is the base... couldn't figure out how to type a subscript)

Decrement the base by 1 every other level. So level 2 will still be base 50, level 3 will be base 49 and so forth.

This will give you something like this:

Exp needed for level 2 = 200 (it's currently 200)

Exp needed for level 3 = 593 (it's currently 550)

Exp needed for level 4 = 1179 (currently 1050)

so... these lower levels will not be far off from what the currently are...

However...

Exp needed for level 40 = 171546 (currently 118950)

Exp needed for level 50 = 284392 (currently 186200)

 

So, this does give a nice boost to the amount of exp needed, it still keeps the earlier levels within reason. I know that plugging a log function into a linear equation may not have been exactly what you were thinking, but it does manage to flatten out the curve so that the exp needed doesn't become prohibitively high too quickly.

Anyways, that's just an idea I thought I would throw out there. If I have any more I'll toss them out there too.

 

[JaxFirehart]

That sounds like exactly what I was thinking.

[JaxFirehart]

OK there was no good way to implement a logarithmic function for XP. I copped out and made a perk which reduces the XP by 10% for every 6 or 7 levels after level 10.

The XP from 1 to 50 is doubled.

By the time you hit level 49 XP is reduced by 70%, so it takes about 3 times as much to go from 49 to 50.

The XP penalty never goes below 70% so its fine if you have a mod that extends the level cap.

Can be found on the alpha page.

[Wowboy]

Hey, if it works, it's no cop out.

The log function might have been a more elegant solution, but from what the wiki says, using it could prohibitively tie up system resources and cause a performance hit. 

The perk is probably a safer route to go.

[Proph]

How is it going to work with the Lessons Learned perk? Depending on which multiplier is applied first, you might end up with some funky results.

 

Also, Cirosan's Classic Overhual mod was able to increase the amount of XP required for each level by about 30%, but I'm pretty sure it's a linear function and might not work for what you're trying to do. Still, might be worth a look to see how he did it to see if it's possible to increase the exp requirements for just 20-50.

[JaxFirehart]

Both are multiplicative bonuses, meaning the order does not matter. At level 49, with Lessons Learned, XP is reduced by about 45%. Total XP to go from 1 to 50, assuming you take lessons learned at level 26, is increased by about 50% (1.5x).

The XP requirements are procedurally generated, so there is no way to modify only certain levels reliably.

[Risewild]

[quote=JaxFirehart]

OK there was no good way to implement a logarithmic function for XP. I copped out and made a perk which reduces the XP by 10% for every 6 or 7 levels after level 10.

The XP from 1 to 50 is doubled.

By the time you hit level 49 XP is reduced by 70%, so it takes about 3 times as much to go from 49 to 50.

The XP penalty never goes below 70% so its fine if you have a mod that extends the level cap.

Can be found on the alpha page.

[/quote]

Well I can test it if you want me too all I have to do it start a new game with it on an see how it goes.