Less Heinous Leveling XP Curve V1.2

Smooths out the leveling curve, making higher levels less grindy, while remaining close to default at lower levels.

Less Heinous Leveling:

As usual, Bethesda has created a leveling curve that makes it increasingly impossible to level as you get higher. This mod seeks to make reaching high levels less miserable, while staying close to the original leveling curve at lower levels.

The mod comes in three flavors. For all three flavors, the XP to reach 20 is only slightly less than Vanilla, but they take progressively less XP than Vanilla for each level, which becomes more noticeable as you reach higher levels.

Standard
XP to reach 50 = ~83% of vanilla
XP to reach 100 = ~67% of vanilla
XP to reach 328 = ~25% of vanilla
Highest XP for one level: no cap, ~11k at 328

Less
XP to reach 50 = ~87% of vanilla
XP to reach 100 = ~75% of vanilla
XP to reach 328 = ~35% of vanilla
Highest XP for one level: no cap, ~18k at 328

More
XP to reach 50 = ~71% of vanilla
XP to reach 100 = ~50% of vanilla
XP to reach 328 = ~13% of vanilla
Highest XP for one level: caps at 4560

The XP curve is modified using a very simple edit to Bethesda’s leveling variables. There are three numbers that determine the XP needed for each level:

fXPStart (vanilla = 200): the starting XP required for each level
fXPBase (vanilla = 75): the base amount XP required increases by for each new level past 1 (eg, level 4 = 75*3)
fXPExpMult (vanilla = 0.0015): Modifies the XP increase such that higher levels increase along the lines 75, 75, 75, 75, 80, 80…

This mod simply sets fXPExpMult to a negative value so that the XP required for each level slowly levels off instead of increasing to the moon. Thus, the pattern for additional XP needed for each new level changes like this:

75, 75, 75, 80, 80, 80, 85…
becomes
75, 75, 75, 70, 70, 65…

Note that these patterns are just here to demonstrate the idea; the actual increase per level does not exactly match these, as it takes more than 1-2 levels before the number actually changes by 5.

I made a spreadsheet with a graph and table of the Vanilla and Standard modified XP required at each level, which you can view for a complete accounting of XP requirements.

This mod will likely disable achievements, so be sure to get a mod to prevent that.

Installation:

Pick one version of the mod (Standard, Less, or More) and deploy it with Vortex, or manually extract it to your Starfield game folder (where the Starfield.exe file is).

Then, you need to update your StarfieldCustom.ini in “Documents\My Games\Starfield”.

Add the following to your StarfieldCustom.ini file under [General]. If you don’t have a [General] section, add one. It should look like this.

[General]
sStartingConsoleCommand=bat LessHeinousLeveling

If you already have a sStartingConsoleCommand entry, add LessHeinousLeveling at the end, like this.

[General]
sStartingConsoleCommand=bat OtherMod1;bat Othermod2;bat LessHeinousLeveling

Customization:

You can experiment with other values to see what feels best to you by modifying the three values in the LessHeinousLeveling.txt file to change the curve to your liking.

Be warned that you can’t lower your level in Starfield, however, so be sure to have backup saves in case you push your level too high.

You can use my spreadsheet to preview the curve you’ll end up with by modifying the three variables in different ways. Here’s how to do so.

On the spreadsheet, go to File > Make a Copy. This gives you your personal copy of the sheet that you can edit however you like.
Go to the Variables tab along the bottom.
You will see Vanilla and Modified variables. Change the three Modified variables values, in cells B6:B8, to whatever you want.
View the changes on the Modified XP Curve tab. There are four graphs and a full table of all levels from 1–328.
Once you are happy with your curve, simply copy the appropriate commands from the Set in game column in the Variables tab over the commands in the LessHeinousLeveling.txt file you are using. Your new curve should now apply when you load the game.

If you come up with a curve that’s working well, feel free to make a Post to share your values!

Credits:

BaronMcChicken