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Long-time players of this game know that one of its faults is that if you actually take advantage of its sandbox mode (by exploring and doing side quests) you can reach the level 50 cap before you're even halfway through the main quest. A level cap remover exists — see the first post in the stickied thread — but that forces you to choose between making the game boring via lack of advancement or by winding up with too many CPs to spend.

Fortunately, there's a solution: in your Arcanum/Data/Rules directory exists a file called xp_level.mes. These are the values the game uses to calculate how much XP you need to level... but IMO whoever at Troika came up with these numbers didn't do a very good job.

So I used a spreadsheet to calculate something I consider much fairer. By smoothing out the level progression, as well as making it harder to level up, it helps solve the leveling problem regardless of whether you install the level cap remover. Here's what to do:

1) Install any patches and mods beforehand, including (if you want) the level cap remover.

2) On the drive where you have your GOG games installed, find "GOG_Games/Arcanum/data/rules/xp_level.mes". Make a backup, naming it whatever you wish.

3) Open the file with any text editor, such as Notepad. (Make sure you tell the program to allow the editing of .MES files as is; otherwise it may try saving it as a text file, rendering it invalid.)

4) Copy and paste the lines below, overwriting the comparable lines in the file. Save the file.

5) To make sure it saved properly, start a new game of Arcanum. On the character creation screen, it should say that you need 2500 XP needed to reach the next level. If it still says 2100, then most likely the file saved as either "xp_level.txt" or "xp_level.mes.txt". Delete the corrupted file, restore the backup and try again.

6) Start your new game! Profit.

And here are the numbers to paste. (If you're not using the level cap remover, everything above level 51 is optional.)

{1}{0}
{2}{2500}
{3}{5100}
{4}{7900}
{5}{11000}
{6}{14500}
{7}{18500}
{8}{23100}
{9}{28400}
{10}{34500}
{11}{41500}
{12}{49500}
{13}{58600}
{14}{68900}
{15}{80500}
{16}{93500}
{17}{108000}
{18}{124100}
{19}{141900}
{20}{161500}
{21}{183000}
{22}{206500}
{23}{232100}
{24}{259900}
{25}{290000}
{26}{322500}
{27}{357500}
{28}{395100}
{29}{435400}
{30}{478500}
{31}{524500}
{32}{573500}
{33}{625500}
{34}{680400}
{35}{738100}
{36}{798500}
{37}{861500}
{38}{927000}
{39}{994900}
{40}{1065100}
{41}{1137500}
{42}{1212000}
{43}{1288500}
{44}{1366900}
{45}{1447100}
{46}{1529000}
{47}{1612500}
{48}{1697500}
{49}{1783900}
{50}{1871600}
{51}{1960500}
{52}{2050500}
{53}{2141500}
{54}{2233500}
{55}{2326500}
{56}{2420500}
{57}{2515500}
{58}{2611500}
{59}{2708500}
{60}{2806500}
{61}{2905500}
{62}{3005500}
{63}{3106500}
{64}{3208500}
{65}{3311500}
{66}{3415500}
{67}{3520500}
{68}{3626500}
{69}{3733500}
{70}{3841500}
{71}{3950500}
{72}{4060500}
{73}{4171500}
{74}{4283500}
{75}{4396500}
{76}{4510500}
{77}{4625500}
{78}{4741500}
{79}{4858500}
{80}{4976500}
{81}{5100000}
{82}{5500000}
{83}{6000000}
{84}{6500000}
{85}{7000000}
{86}{7500000}
{87}{8000000}
{88}{8500000}
{89}{9000000}
{90}{9500000}
{91}{10000000}
{92}{10500000}
{93}{11000000}
{94}{11500000}
{95}{12000000}
{96}{12500000}
{97}{13000000}
{98}{13500000}
{99}{14000000}
{100}{14500000}
{101}{15000000}
{102}{15500000}
{103}{16000000}
{104}{16500000}
{105}{17000000}
{106}{17500000}
{107}{18000000}
{108}{18500000}
{109}{19000000}
{110}{19500000}
{111}{20000000}
{112}{20500000}
{113}{21000000}
{114}{21500000}
{115}{22000000}
{116}{22500000}
{117}{23000000}
{118}{23500000}
{119}{24000000}
{120}{24500000}
{121}{25000000}
{122}{25500000}
{123}{26000000}
{124}{26500000}
{125}{27000000}
{126}{27500000}
{127}{30000000}

// And that's it! Enjoy your tougher-but-fairer game of Arcanum.
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TwoHandedSword: Fortunately, there's a solution: in your Arcanum/Data/Rules directory exists a file called xp_level.mes.
Am I blind or there is no such file?
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Leouch: Am I blind or there is no such file?
IIRC, it may have been set to hidden by default. (It's been years, so I don't remember for sure.)

Follow the directions from here, depending on your version of Windows, and then recheck the Arcanum/Data/Rules folder.
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Leouch: Am I blind or there is no such file?
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TwoHandedSword: IIRC, it may have been set to hidden by default. (It's been years, so I don't remember for sure.)

Follow the directions from here, depending on your version of Windows, and then recheck the Arcanum/Data/Rules folder.
It's not hidden, it's just not there.
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goral: It's not hidden, it's just not there.
Hmm. If that's the case, then try installing the Level 127 hack. This link should work; but if not, google "Arcanum level remover" or "Arcanum level 127 patch".

Then, once you've created or found xp_level.mes, you can edit it however you want. If you don't actually want to go past level 50, you can just edit level 51 to be some ridiculously high number, like 10 million.

Alternately, you can simply create the Data folder yourself inside the Arcanum folder, then the Rules folder inside of that, and use Notepad (or another text editor) to create a file called XP_LEVEL.MES. (Just make sure that it's not appending a .TXT at the end, as in XP_LEVEL.MES.TXT, or else it won't work.) Fill the .mes file with whatever set of numbers you want to use, up to at least level 51 using the format shown in my OP... and then, profit!
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TwoHandedSword: Long-time players of this game know that one of its faults is that if you actually take advantage of its sandbox mode (by exploring and doing side quests) you can reach the level 50 cap before you're even halfway through the main quest.
I have never used a level cap remover for Arcanum before, but I will give this a try the next time I play it. I can't say for sure when that will be, however.
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UniversalWolf: I have never used a level cap remover for Arcanum before, but I will give this a try the next time I play it. I can't say for sure when that will be, however.
Let me know how it goes. If you use the default XP numbers that come with the hack (which are the same as the game until level 50) you can expect to get to at least level 60. With the much tougher numbers above, you might get to level 54 if you go everywhere and try to do everything, including the gods quest.
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TwoHandedSword: With the much tougher numbers above, you might get to level 54 if you go everywhere and try to do everything, including the gods quest.
Sounds good. When I play again I'm sure it'll be in the "do everything" style because I'm always keeping an eye out for anything I've missed in the past.