Posted August 11, 2013
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.
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.