To get the most out of OCP, you need at least a basic understanding of Oblivion's leveling process. This process is somewhat complex and best understood after you've played the game, but good starting points are the Leveling and Character Creation pages at UESP.
Despite the complexity of Oblivion's leveling process, OCP is designed to be very simple to use. Full details are in the other instruction tabs, but here are the steps for basic usage:
To help keep OCP simple, it uses several conventions throughout all parts of the planner:
As an example, you can view the complete new and existing character data (including historical leveling details that are lost upon any recalculation) for the character I created and leveled using OCP as a guide: Nullis.
The biggest part of OCP is selecting your character's details. Whether you have an existing character or you are creating a new one, OCP provides a straightforward interface that shows the impact of your selections.
Key points for all character details:
The most important time for planning is when creating a new character. There are many character configurations that are almost impossible to efficiently level. Unfortunately, many of these bad configurations include the default classes and the examples used in the Official Game Guide.
From the New Character section, you can see your current selections and a snapshot of their details. Each button opens a dialog where you can change your selections.
In the overview tab of the race dialog, you'll find details about each race's background, their special abilities and weaknesses, and their general approach to tackling the conflicts in Tamriel. Because the starting attributes are different for males and females, you cannot select a race from here.
From the details tab, you'll see all of the starting attributes and skill bonuses for every race and gender. Attributes with a red background are lower than average and attributes with a green background are higher than average. To select a race and gender, press the M or F button in each race's column.
Note: The Official Game Guide by Prima gives Imperials a 5 point bonus in the Heavy Armor skill, but it is actually a 10 point bonus.
The birthsign dialog simply lists all of the birthsigns and their associated benefits. You can select a birthsign by clicking on its image. Any attribute bonuses are shown in the Initial Stats section and any special abilities are shown in the New Character summary.
The class dialog's overview tab describes each predefined class and its details. This is a good way to get a feel for intended play style of each predefined class. You can select a predefined class by clicking on its image.
The details tab summarizes the attribute bonuses and starting skill values for all of the predefined classes. Major skills are highlighted in bold. You can select a predefined class by clicking on its name.
The custom tab allows you to create your own class instead of using one of the predefined ones. You get to select the specialization, favored attributes, and major skills. To help evaluate the impact of specialization, the skills affected by the current selection are highlighted. Any errors are shown at the bottom of the dialog and must be corrected before a custom class can be submitted.
Note: The game says that class specialization gives a 10 point bonus to affected skills, but it actually gives a 5 point bonus.
For existing characters, the new character settings of race (and gender), birthsign, and class are no longer necessary for planning and analysis. Instead, you simply input the current values of your existing character's attributes and skills.
Note: Since the game itself controls the values of existing characters, OCP does not validate these inputs for sanity. For example, OCP won't prevent you from making an existing character with an Endurance of 50 (which ensures a minimum Health of 100) and a Health of 70.
In truth, a character's level has no impact on OCP's leveling and analysis algorithms. OCP uses only the attributes and skills of a character and does not do any level checking. However, the level slider can be used to select your existing character's level so you can gauge at what level certain things will happen in the future; e.g. at what level will you max out your Magicka.
The attributes dialog lets you set the current values of your core and derived attributes. Simply set the correct value for each slider and submit the changes. A summary of the current attributes is shown in the Existing Character section.
All skill values and their major/minor status are entered in the skills dialog. To help ensure the skill values are always valid, checking/unchecking the major status of a skill automatically adjusts the skill's value. Because of this, it is easier to enter the major/minor status of a skill before entering its value. When all settings are valid and you submit the changes, a summary of the current skill values (with major skills shown in bold) is shown in the Existing Character section.
The Leveling Order is the order that the attributes are increased by the simulated leveling algorithm. Each level, the first three attributes that are not already maximized are increased. These are called the Selected Attributes. If possible, the skills associated with the Selected Attributes are also increased to yield the maximum possible attribute bonus.
To change the order of attributes, simply drag and drop them. The first attribute chosen is at the top of the list. You can use Shift-click and Control-click to select multiple attributes at once.
Key points for the attribute leveling order:
The information in Leveling Results is the reason OCP exists. The results are automatically recalculated and redisplayed whenever a change is made to the Character Details or the Leveling Order. The results are broken down into three separate areas that should all be examined when evaluating the potency of your character configuration and leveling order.
While the leveling algorithm and analysis attempts to be as smart as possible, it is still not as smart as you can be. Plus, while playing, it is possible that situations will arise that make a different leveling path more efficient. When this occurs, you should use OCP to re-evaluate your path and make the best decision for your play goals.
The initial stats are the stats that your character started with. For existing characters, this exactly what you input into the Existing Character section. However, for new characters, this gives a breakdown of how your race, birthsign, and class contributed to your starting attribute and skill values. Per usual, major skills are highlighted in bold.
The Leveling Details shows the level by level breakdown of the simulated leveling process. Each level, the Selected Attributes are increased as well as any skills that yield an attribute bonus or are required for the major points necessary to level. The values for all majors skills are shown in bold.
All changed values are shown with a yellow background. All values that could not be raised or maximized when they should have been are shown with a red background. These red background numbers are especially important because they indicate areas where the leveling process was less than optimal. Hovering over any red background number will show a tooltip explaining the issue.
Selecting a level loads that level's details into the Existing Character section. This allows you want to evaluate the impact of multiple attribute orders; e.g. if you want to raise your Intelligence to 75ish for the extra Magicka, but then switch to Willpower for the Magicka regeneration. Just load the level data prior to the order switch, switch the order, and evaluate the aggregate results.
After the leveling process has been simulated, OCP analyzes the Leveling Details and displays the important points in the Analysis section. Since the analysis is based on the Leveling Details, any inefficiencies there will be reflected in the Analysis.
Like with the Leveling Details, anything with a red background indicates a sub-optimal value. Make sure you hover over each one to get an explanation of why the value is considered sub-optimal.
Unless you are a hardcore, power-leveling player, you will inevitably get a few uninteded skill ups in some of the more useful skills; e.g. it's hard to avoid gaining a few points in Mercantile or Athletics every level. When this occurs, the key question is whether or not these ancillary skill ups will detract from your maximum potency. This is where Spare Skill Points per Level come into play.
After an attribute has been maximized, the remaining points in its associated skills are considered Spare Skill Points. In other words, if you "burned" all of your Spare Skill Points, you could still reach your character's maximum potency. Thus the Spare Skill Points per Level is the number of skill points you can waste every level until this attribute is maximized.
By using Spare Skill Points per Level, you can gauge how careful (or careless!) you have to be with the skill ups for each attribute. When planning your character, be very careful about attributes whose Spare Skill Points per Level is less than 2 or 3. If you maintain a proper number of Spare Skill Points per Level, you can ensure that your gameplay experience won't be hindered by trying to avoid premature skill ups.
Because of Oblivion's complexity and flexibility, there are many, many different ways to deal with the "Leveling Problem". For example, you could avoid it altogether by Under Leveling, so long as you don't mind missing out on some aspects of the game. But if you are using OCP, odds are you want to know how to avoid pitfalls and maximize your character's potency.
The following is an outline of how to create and play a new character that can achieve a very high maximum potency while spending most of your game time playing instead of power leveling. Don't forget that over your character's lifespan you can use different solutions at different level ranges; e.g. perhaps you won't start using Mysticism for soul trapping until later levels when you have enchanted equipment.
Your gameplay profile is how you will tackle the following issues. For each issue, try to determine which attributes and skills your desired solutions will need and how important each one is.
Note: Since you cannot control when you can obtain a specific scroll from vendors or loot, they are not considered viable solutions here.
You obviously need a strong way to smite your enemies.
Since death ends the game, you'll need some protection from damage and some way to heal yourself.
Whether outside on a cloudy night or in one of the many dungeons, you will need a way to operate in darkness.
After finding a solution to all of these issues, you should have an idea of how much you'll be using each skill and how important each attribute is to those skills. You'll use this as your guide to making selections in the subsequent sections.