Weighted Running v1.0a
This mod alters Athletics experience, working off the simple principle that running/swimming with a pack stuffed full of claymores, welkynd stones, and who-knows-what-else will be significantly more exercise than jogging along with an empty inventory. That is to say, the higher your encumbrance percentage, the faster you gain Athletics experience when running. It’s highly recommended you use this mod with another that increases the effects of a high encumbrance, or use the alternate .esp, which allows you to carry 8-times-strength instead of 5-times-strength and increases Encumbrance movement penalties by 5/6.
Installation:
OBSE REQUIRED
Place WeightedRunning.esp OR WeightedRunning-EncumbranceChanges.esp in your Oblivion/Data folder, and tick the checkbox beside it in either OBMM or Data Files in Oblivion’s launcher.
Uninstallation is trickier. If you want to remove this mod from a savegame that has used it, please first load up the save(s) in question and input “StartQuest WeightedRunningReset” into the console*, and save your game. If you don’t, it will in all likelihood leave the experience rate permanently changed. Don’t worry, a reminder of this can be found in the mod’s description.
While this mod is perfectly compatible with mods that change the experience-rate for Athletics, if you want to change the rate while the mod is installed, perform the steps for uninstalling it and, once the new mod is in place, input the command again to restart WeightedRunning.
*to open up the console, press the hash key (~) anywhere in-game.
How it Works:
When first loaded (or restarted), the mod saves the current Athletics experience increments for running and swimming. Every four seconds, the game checks the percentage of your maximum encumbrance that’s currently filled. The Athletics experience-rates are set by taking the original saved ones, and modifying them by the “filled” encumbrance percentage, minus the “Sweet spot” of 35%. For example, if you’re carrying 60% of your maximum encumbrance, your Athletics will increase 25% faster than normal. If you’re only carrying 20% of your maximum, your Athletics will increase 15% *slower*.
If you feel like changing the sweet spot, just input into the console “set WeightedRunning.SweetSpot to [percentage]”. The Sweet Spot will be changed back to 35% if you reset the mod, though.
Incompatibilities:
There shouldn’t be any.
Special Thanks:
Bethesda, naturally.
The folks behind OBSE. What a hugely useful tool.
The community at the Construction Set Wiki, who I owe all of my modding abilities to, and a sizable chunk of my continued ability to mod.
Nireth, on the Elder Scrolls Nexus forums, for the original suggestion.
Version History:
1.0: March 23rd, 2008. Initial Release.
1.0a: March 24th 2008. Added an alternate .esp that alters the way Encumbrance itself is handled.