Do encounter zones actually work?

[WhatRules]

I've played most of my starts with Requiem but for SE I want to try something different, so I'm gonna try YASH2 instead. It's a hardcore mod like Requiem but enemies has vanilla levels(stats and AI are buffed to make it harder). In that mod you start out really weak but when my character becomes higher level and has better skill I'm worried that the game will be too easy(changing difficulty can work but it feels more like a self-debuff). This is where I was planning to add an encounter zones mod mid-game. Would that work and does it affect all enemies equally? For example, let's say I'm level 20 and I walk into a level 30 zone. Will ALL enemies be level 30 or just some of them?

[woodsman30]

Good question but I would be careful with zone mods that means adding scripts to a location. I always like a difficult game considering there is so many follower mods I made my game un-playable by yourself you will just die with out help. Basically everything levels with you but I do a twist I set my start level between 40-60 but with level one stats try taking on a legendary dragon with those stats... now my followers level to the game that helps some. Now if you really want to go crazy use a mod like honed metal where you do no crafting you rely on others people's skills and while your at it use no world map, no HUD, no fast travel ...ever. throw in Frostfall, INEED, with something like Vivid weathers now you have a real challenge.

If that is not enough try Immersive Wenches with all the add-ons now everyone is OP because they level with the game and use all weapons and armors available to that level ....try taking Fort Graymoor  when the bandit archers all have Daedric bows.... but I digress. So yea I get it difficult is good?

[Clockwinding]

 

20 hours ago, saltshade said:

For example, let's say I'm level 20 and I walk into a level 30 zone. Will ALL enemies be level 30 or just some of them?

The encounters will be leveled to 30 indeed, for the enemies who support it. For example, a bandit has a max level of 10, and its vanilla highest level variation is 30. So if your zone is leveled to 40 min, well the bandit will stay lvl 30.

The zones will also need to refresh, meaning cell reset (base 30 days of waiting vanilla game).

 

I recommend you use encounter zones unlocked : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/19608

and high level enemies : https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/3231

together. You can set how underleveled you want, correct vanilla skyrim bug that sets a zone's level forever, and High level enemies brings you more enemy variants (up until lvl 65-70!), and they even scale with you, so they'll never be weaker than your own level!

 

I've been using that combo for a long while now, these two really work well together.

 

(links are to the ported sse version, but both mod exist in LE of course)

[Fotogen]

Zones:

- they have min and max level

- zone real level is set when you touch it first.

- eq.: If zone is 30 to 70 and enter at lvl 20, it will be 30. Enter at 80 and its 70. Enter at 44 and its 44

- zone real level is set when you touch it first. After that its fixed

 

NPC level? Depends.

Some NPC have fixed, hardcoded level. If NPC was set to level 30 in CK, its 30 forever. Many named NPCs are fixed level. Random spawns, like generic "bandit" in general scale. But they may also have min, max level.

 

 

I use:

- Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim (combat less forgiving)

- High Level Enemies (NPC scale to higher levels and have better stats)

- Rebalanced Encounter Zones (encounter zones scale to higher levels)

 

Combined they:

- below lvl 10 its like vannila. Easy.

- above lvl 20 I get one-shotted if I don't min/max my character.

- its doesn't scale so good past level 70

- those 3 mods don't do much to improve dragons. So if you want hardcore battle vs dragon, get a specialized "big dragons" mod

 

[WhatRules]

Thanks. These are good answers. Lvl 70 is no worries since I never go that far. My highest level char was 20+ something, and that was with a very vanilla setup. With Requiem I've got to 17 before I had to reinstall after screwing up my save.

[Thermite Dragon]

12 hours ago, woodsman30 said:

 Now if you really want to go crazy use a mod like honed metal where you do no crafting you rely on others people's skills

Now, would it be crazier to use that, or to go the opposite direction:
Never, ever, buy anything from NPCs and rely solely on your own resource gathering and crafting abilities? Especially since when you do that, you level up (thus leveling the game world up as well) without leveling your combat abilities as much. Especially if you also use things like Frostfall and other mods to add realistic environmental hazards and needs, you need to spend so much time outside of towns harvesting resources that you're putting yourself at greater risk.

[WhatRules]

57 minutes ago, Yverthel said:

Now, would it be crazier to use that, or to go the opposite direction:
Never, ever, buy anything from NPCs and rely solely on your own resource gathering and crafting abilities? Especially since when you do that, you level up (thus leveling the game world up as well) without leveling your combat abilities as much. Especially if you also use things like Frostfall and other mods to add realistic environmental hazards and needs, you need to spend so much time outside of towns harvesting resources that you're putting yourself at greater risk.

What resources would you need except food if you play with a needs mod. I don't buy much in my games and I never craft weapons or armor. I prefer finding new equipment while exploring instead, at least until I get rich enough to buy expensive stuff from merchants. I also play with SL Survival which requires that you buy licenses and pay tolls. This is because I don't like getting rich fast. I actually enjoy being a weak low level char, because I play with SL Defeat, so also have mods like YASH or Requiem that slow down XP. When I get strong enough I have to let them hit me to actually get defeated. Then I know it's time to move to stronger enemies.

[Thermite Dragon]

45 minutes ago, saltshade said:

What resources would you need except food if you play with a needs mod. I don't buy much in my games and I never craft weapons or armor. I prefer finding new equipment while exploring instead, at least until I get rich enough to buy expensive stuff from merchants. I also play with SL Survival which requires that you buy licenses and pay tolls. This is because I don't like getting rich fast. I actually enjoy being a weak low level char, because I play with SL Defeat, so also have mods like YASH or Requiem that slow down XP. When I get strong enough I have to let them hit me to actually get defeated. Then I know it's time to move to stronger enemies.

If you go purely found gear, then all you need is food, yeah, but I was figuring making your own gear.
You could impose a rule that you couldn't use found armor, because it's not the right size.  

[WhatRules]

35 minutes ago, Yverthel said:

If you go purely found gear, then all you need is food, yeah, but I was figuring making your own gear.
You could impose a rule that you couldn't use found armor, because it's not the right size.  

I have Mortal Weapons and Armor taking care of that so I don't need to impose a rule. If there is something I hate it's having to apply mental restrictions because the game lacks them(it runs immersion). I still have to do that, but the less imaginary restrictions the better.