Slowing down the level advancement

[david w]

This will probably prove a really unpopular idea, but I got to thinking how to make the game a little more challenging. The first thing that occurred to me was more monsters, more uber-powerful weapons, more this, that and the other.

But then I figured that an even better way to make it more challenging would be to slow down the level advancement by making the requirements for each level significantly greater than they originally were. By the time a party hits TOB they're generally around 20th level, particularly if they had TOB installed during SOA and have gone over the original game's XP cap. They might also have cleared out Watcher's Keep in the SOA portion of the game and thereby be starting TOB several levels higher than they should be. Wandering through TOB they'll be gaining levels at such a freakish rate that if a fight goes by without at least one NPC going up a level there's clearly something wrong. New high level abilities come along and you get them so frequently that you never have the opportunity to properly test them out before the next one is on its way.

So what about a mod (or just a little judicious editing of a certain table in the table) to slow down the level advancement? When the party get enough XP to hit level 30 in the original game, in the modded version they would only have enough to be at level 20, or lower. The game would be considerably more challenging. Imagine fighting Draconis without a dozen high level abilities a piece; imagine taking on Demogorgon without Greater Whirlwind Attacks... Experienced players would actually have to think how to get the better of certain enemies and not just go into auto-attack mode every time.

Of course the obvious problem with this is that the high level abilities are great and slowing down the level advancement in this way would mean that the party is never going to get access to the majority of them. If the XP cap is changed so that players hit level 40 at, say, 16 million XP the majority of players are going to finish the game at level 25 or thereabouts.

Does anyone think is a good idea? And, better still, has anyone ever gone ahead and tried it?

[Rastor]

If the XP cap is changed so that players hit level 40 at, say, 16 million XP the majority of players are going to finish the game at level 25 or thereabouts.

Not possible.

[david w]

Why not? I've edited the table myself to raise the amount of XP required to hit such-and-such a level greater than it originally was. It worked fine so it stands to reason changing the requirement for level 40 from 8 million XP to 16 million should be possible.

[Mystra's Chosen]

I think the only way it could happen is if you went through all the monsters and quests and lowered the expierience they give.

[CamDawg]

It may be a lot easier than folks realize with WeiDU's spiffy REGEXP handling. If there's some interest in this, I could throw something together for the next release of the tweak pack.

[david w]

I think people seem to missing what I'm getting at here. I don't mean to change the amount of XP per monster or per quest (possible but incredibly time consuming) but the amount of XP required to hit new levels.

Currently a Fighter hits level 30 at 5,500,000 XP which is an amount easily achieveable in TOB. When easy to kill enemies are giving you 10,000+ each, you move through the levels too fast. The idea I had was to move, for example, the level 30 limit up to 11,000,000 XP, thereby dramatically slowing down the level advancement and making the game more challenging.

Anyone who has Near Infinity can see how this could be done. Open up a 2DA file called "xplevel" and change the XP requirements for each level. Save it and put it in your override folder. When you play the game you'll find the XP needed for those levels has been increased to what you've set in the 2DA file. It's also interesting to note that, according to this file, XP for mages can hit 13,000,000 although of course some program must kick in at the 8,000,000 mark and stop giving them any extra.

[TBurma316]

By ToB everyone is so unbelievably powerful it starts to lose it a bit. I remember playing Champions of Krynn on my old Amiga years ago, then moving them up through DKK to DQK and thinking its not right to have so many godlike characters fighting other godlike characters every few steps, and thats what ToB has become. An ordinary average mecenary in Amkethran carrying +3 everything. I'm not a big fan of super-powerful PC and NPc's thats why I like BG1 so much, it doesn't take it too far. Level 8-10 sounds about right, Level 30-40?

If BG1 had the same engine as 2 i'd be in heaven, (I know about TuTu but it doesn't add the banter and NPC interaction 2 had)

[Loerand]

Wouldn't it be possible if you just edited some 2DA-files?

[CamDawg]

Yep, david w already noticed the progression tables are controlled by xplevel.2da.

It's also interesting to note that, according to this file, XP for mages can hit 13,000,000 although of course some program must kick in at the 8,000,000 mark and stop giving them any extra.

The XP cap is set with the xpcap.2da file.

[The_Swordalizer]

@TBURMA316: "If BG1 had the same engine as 2 i'd be in heaven, (I know about TuTu but it doesn't add the banter and NPC interaction 2 had)"

Have you seen the BG1 NPC banter project? they are writing banters, interjections and even romances for BG1. I don't know if its compatible with TUTU tho...

[CamDawg]

BG1 NPC Project is at beta and they are developing for Tutu.