Unleveled Skyrim

[Nyarlathotep]

So, was thinking about getting back to playing some Skyrim, but was thinking about trying one of the mods that make the world static, so you don't see your standard bandits running around in glass armors all over the place and whatnot. Was thinking about the one that doesn't require dozens of patches, which, obviously, keeps enemies at more or less the same level and makes the high level loot harder to obtain, but doesn't require you to buy it or make it yourself. I know there's a mod like Morrowloot, but, my goodness, there's so many damn patches that I don't feel like going through all of them. Does anyone have some solid recommendations?

[Death Approaches]

loot rarity mods are my preferred way to accomplish this, or mods that shift the level lists higher so they don't start appearing so soon, but that's different than what you ask, still, that can be very fun... there's also things like Bandits Flee, so level differences make them go nope, that's suicide, and they run, so you don't have to be bored smacking down scrubs... Immersive Leveled Item Lists is a handy one, it only outfits ALL NPCs in gear that blacksmith shops sell, so you won't see any high-level stuff early, nor can you loot it off their bodies to make money or outfit yourself. (you'll find it in the world, or craft it, til you get to a level it's sold at blacksmith shops too)

what's your actual hoped-for outcome here, what exactly is the main gripe? what do you want to happen in this unleveled world on a standard gaming session? there might be a more organic way than unleveling it all...

[FauxFurry]

Skyrim Unleveled does not require anything other than maybe Morrowloot (which handles the loot, obviously).
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3807?tab=description

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

loot rarity mods are my preferred way to accomplish this, or mods that shift the level lists higher so they don't start appearing so soon, but that's different than what you ask, still, that can be very fun... there's also things like Bandits Flee, so level differences make them go nope, that's suicide, and they run, so you don't have to be bored smacking down scrubs... Immersive Leveled Item Lists is a handy one, it only outfits ALL NPCs in gear that blacksmith shops sell, so you won't see any high-level stuff early, nor can you loot it off their bodies to make money or outfit yourself. (you'll find it in the world, or craft it, til you get to a level it's sold at blacksmith shops too)

what's your actual hoped-for outcome here, what exactly is the main gripe? what do you want to happen in this unleveled world on a standard gaming session? there might be a more organic way than unleveling it all...

Well, that "Bandits Flee" mod does sound quite interesting, but what I'm looking for is basically a game world where the enemies and the items don't scale with the player, or at least don't scale as much. It is jarring seeing every other bandit wearing a top tier armor, because the player is high enough level and it is kinda silly when every other chest has a top tier weapon, because, again, the player is high enough level. Looking for something that prevents that from happening.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by FauxFurry:

Skyrim Unleveled does not require anything other than maybe Morrowloot (which handles the loot, obviously).
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3807?tab=description

Yeah, I'd like to avoid Morrowloot if possible, since I'd have to go through a fair amount of mods in modlist and get patches for them, which is going to be a massive pain.

[FauxFurry]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep:

Originally posted by FauxFurry:

Skyrim Unleveled does not require anything other than maybe Morrowloot (which handles the loot, obviously).
https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3807?tab=description

Yeah, I'd like to avoid Morrowloot if possible, since I'd have to go through a fair amount of mods in modlist and get patches for them, which is going to be a massive pain.

It is not necessary for Skyrim Unleveled, just recommended.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by FauxFurry:

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep:

Yeah, I'd like to avoid Morrowloot if possible, since I'd have to go through a fair amount of mods in modlist and get patches for them, which is going to be a massive pain.

It is not necessary for Skyrim Unleveled, just recommended.

It does look interesting, however seems like it additionally changes other mechanics as well, which is a big no-no for me.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep:

what I'm looking for is basically a game world where the enemies and the items don't scale with the player, or at least don't scale as much. It is jarring seeing every other bandit wearing a top tier armor, because the player is high enough level and it is kinda silly when every other chest has a top tier weapon, because, again, the player is high enough level. Looking for something that prevents that from happening.

With this, you are going to have to look into various mods that adjust leveled lists and/or encounter zones. And its sounding like an encounter zone one might be more what you are looking for, as it doesn't change the availability of loot in general, but can make it more difficult to get by adjusting where and with what frequency different enemy variations will spawn.

Though looking at the wiki, bandits are pretty much limited to mid tier equipment outside of the chieftan's weapon. So if you are seeing high tier stuff on them, a mod probably tweaked the leveled lists already.

Is it more that just seeing bandits with the gear in general is jarring to you, or is it that the low end plain Bandits end up with it? Would it be fine if you were dealing with camps full of bandit plunderers & marauders instead? If its the former, its going to involve something that ends up editing nearly all the enemy lists. If its the later, an encounter zone overhaul can make it so you see vastly more of the higher tiered enemies that the gear would be more appropriate for.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by hawklaser:

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep:

what I'm looking for is basically a game world where the enemies and the items don't scale with the player, or at least don't scale as much. It is jarring seeing every other bandit wearing a top tier armor, because the player is high enough level and it is kinda silly when every other chest has a top tier weapon, because, again, the player is high enough level. Looking for something that prevents that from happening.

With this, you are going to have to look into various mods that adjust leveled lists and/or encounter zones. And its sounding like an encounter zone one might be more what you are looking for, as it doesn't change the availability of loot in general, but can make it more difficult to get by adjusting where and with what frequency different enemy variations will spawn.

Though looking at the wiki, bandits are pretty much limited to mid tier equipment outside of the chieftan's weapon. So if you are seeing high tier stuff on them, a mod probably tweaked the leveled lists already.

Is it more that just seeing bandits with the gear in general is jarring to you, or is it that the low end plain Bandits end up with it? Would it be fine if you were dealing with camps full of bandit plunderers & marauders instead? If its the former, its going to involve something that ends up editing nearly all the enemy lists. If its the later, an encounter zone overhaul can make it so you see vastly more of the higher tiered enemies that the gear would be more appropriate for.

I feel like most enemies wouldn't have access to the top notch gear, so it would be nice if, for example, most normal bandits would use most common equipment with the rarer ones being, well, much rarer and possibly reserved for the enemies that would naturally wear better equipment, such as the chiefs and whatnot.

[Death Approaches]

OK but then Devil's Advocate time, how can they be a challenge for you, the almighty Dragonborn, without it? Do we pretend we gave them a high-level blacksmith in their camp, so while you can tweak the dist lists to keep them at iron or steel and fur/leather/steel armor, they're really good high-damage / high-protection ones? is it the GEAR or the ABILITY that's bothering you? I mean you can make iron daggers one-shot dragons, right?

Without risk there's no challenge, and without challenge there's no fun, it's a walking simulator, right? smack smack smack, done. kill boss. smack. get mcguffin, read word off word wall, turn in quest, rinse/repeat. yawn.

the thing about level vs unleveled, if they've lived this long to make ??th level, they've killed someone with nice gear and therefore have it, or stolen enough money to buy it, it's a progression that's natural and synergistic.

OK well if you want Morrowloot but, you know, "less", check out a more bare-bones approach like Dreadflopp's High-level Loot Rarified[www.nexusmods.com] and see if that's your kind of thing... it comes with tons of patches for integration with other mods, but itself only has a couple prerequisites.

[hawklaser]

Originally posted by Nyarlathotep:

I feel like most enemies wouldn't have access to the top notch gear, so it would be nice if, for example, most normal bandits would use most common equipment with the rarer ones being, well, much rarer and possibly reserved for the enemies that would naturally wear better equipment, such as the chiefs and whatnot.

If that is the case, I might recommend trying Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul [www.nexusmods.com]. While it doesn't directly affect what enemy gear and loot is available, it does a good job of weeding out the low end enemies as you progress. So that as the enemies start pulling in the higher tiered gear, you would also be fighting the stronger variants as well where the gear could be seen as more appropriate.

You could always rationalize it as that as the events unfold in skyrim, more skilled & better equipped bandits move in to the region. Ones capable of taking forts from the Imperials/Stormcloaks, more successfully raid travelers and traders carrying all the gear you end up selling over time, and so on as things progress.

While I personally use that mod, I don't really recall seeing bandits or other common enemies using that high of tier gear. Its usually the aflicted refugee or the other lone traveler encounters wearing the high tier gear.

[FauxFurry]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

OK but then Devil's Advocate time, how can they be a challenge for you, the almighty Dragonborn, without it? Do we pretend we gave them a high-level blacksmith in their camp, so while you can tweak the dist lists to keep them at iron or steel and fur/leather/steel armor, they're really good high-damage / high-protection ones? is it the GEAR or the ABILITY that's bothering you? I mean you can make iron daggers one-shot dragons, right?

Without risk there's no challenge, and without challenge there's no fun, it's a walking simulator, right? smack smack smack, done. kill boss. smack. get mcguffin, read word off word wall, turn in quest, rinse/repeat. yawn.

the thing about level vs unleveled, if they've lived this long to make ??th level, they've killed someone with nice gear and therefore have it, or stolen enough money to buy it, it's a progression that's natural and synergistic.

OK well if you want Morrowloot but, you know, "less", check out a more bare-bones approach like Dreadflopp's High-level Loot Rarified[www.nexusmods.com] and see if that's your kind of thing... it comes with tons of patches for integration with other mods, but itself only has a couple prerequisites.

The game starts off more challenging then levels off as it wears on, with more challenging opponents waiting in later areas of the game or in areas where it makes sense in the lore. It is the method used by most JRPGs, strategy games and, of course, games without leveling systems in them at all. It is more of a tiered difficulty system rather than a universal challenge curve.
https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Early_Game_Hell

[Nyarlathotep]

Well, I did find a mod called "Immersive Leveled Item Lists" as well as "Improved Bandits", gonna test them out.

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

OK but then Devil's Advocate time, how can they be a challenge for you, the almighty Dragonborn, without it? Do we pretend we gave them a high-level blacksmith in their camp, so while you can tweak the dist lists to keep them at iron or steel and fur/leather/steel armor, they're really good high-damage / high-protection ones? is it the GEAR or the ABILITY that's bothering you? I mean you can make iron daggers one-shot dragons, right?

Without risk there's no challenge, and without challenge there's no fun, it's a walking simulator, right? smack smack smack, done. kill boss. smack. get mcguffin, read word off word wall, turn in quest, rinse/repeat. yawn.

the thing about level vs unleveled, if they've lived this long to make ??th level, they've killed someone with nice gear and therefore have it, or stolen enough money to buy it, it's a progression that's natural and synergistic.

OK well if you want Morrowloot but, you know, "less", check out a more bare-bones approach like Dreadflopp's High-level Loot Rarified[www.nexusmods.com] and see if that's your kind of thing... it comes with tons of patches for integration with other mods, but itself only has a couple prerequisites.

Well, I can see your point, but I spent many hours playing Skyrim on PS3, playing pirated LE on when I managed to get some cash money for a working, albeit laptop (even managed to mod the damn thing and still have it work fairly well) and moved to SE just fairly recently, last year, I believe. I've had plenty of fun playing with basically the same leveled list for many years, thus I'd like to experience something different. Plus, well, what's fun to one person, doesn't have to be fun to another.

Also, it's not that I don't want Morrowloot, it's that I'd like to try it out, however modding it in at this stage would require me to go through most of my mods and start installing patches for them and I can't be bothered to do it, so I'd rather get something that doesn't depend on dozens of patches to make it work well.

[Death Approaches]

true enough, some people play the entire game with god mode toggled on and they have hundreds of hours, so I guess they're still having fun in their own way... :-) anyway check out that link, it's... s**t I linked the files section not the description page, but it's exactly what you want, takes away gear from them accessing stuff, both bandits and chests, specifically.

[Nyarlathotep]

Originally posted by Death Approaches:

true enough, some people play the entire game with god mode toggled on and they have hundreds of hours, so I guess they're still having fun in their own way... :-) anyway check out that link, it's... s**t I linked the files section not the description page, but it's exactly what you want, takes away gear from them accessing stuff, both bandits and chests, specifically.

It certainly seems like a good mod to test out, thank you for service.

[ДУРНИ]

Requiem is the go-to overhaul for what you are describing. Once you try it, you will never want to go back to vanilla