Overview
   
This mod makes all areas and side-missions progressively scale up according to your advancement in the main mission, in Normal mode and TVHM. Level restrictions on the DLCs are lifted, so they can be played anytime during NVHM/TVHM, and they will also scale up according to the progress in the main game story.

This means that you can for example go back and farm Knuckledragger for a Hornet at level 18. Or start Tiny Tina's DLC at level 8, do a couple missions before coming back to the main game, and return to finish the DLC at level 28. Or farm the snowman over and over and over and over. Unlike UVHM (or the "Level 1 UVHM" mod), the areas/missions will not always be exactly at your level (but close enough, as long as you keep up with the main story). However, this mod does not change anything else about the Normal and TVHM playthroughs and their balance.

   
Installation and Compatibility
   
Use BLCMM to install NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling:

• Install BLCMM
• Since the recent updates, BLCMM is no longer able to setup the game files for mods. So you need to hexedit manually, using Cody's Hex Multitool, for example.  
• Open NT-AreaScaling.blcm in BLCMM (or use File > Import mod file(s), if you want to combine it with other mods)
• In BLCMM > File > Save as: select "Open BL2 Binaries Dir", and save it under any name you like (e.g. mymods.txt)
• Launch your game, and get to the main menu with New Game, Character selection, etc.
• Press "Esc" to exit to the title menu with "Press any key to continue" (this step may not be necessary, depending on your platform).
• Open the console (using the key you selected when setting up your game files for mods in BLCMM), and type e.g. "exec mymods.txt".
• Close the console and you're good to go.
  

   
NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling should be compatible with any other mods, as long as these mods do not touch the area level definitions, but there are not many mods that do. If you are using the UCP, disable the directory "Enemy Changes > Make Terramorphous level 40 in Normal mode".

NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling can be applied before loading any save game: it should automatically scale up the relevant areas. If you reload the save later on without NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling, the areas will go back within the acceptable limits in vanilla.

It is a relatively big file (>2 MB, more than half the UCP), so it may take a few seconds to load. The DLC sections may be disabled at will using BLCMM (in case you don't own some of the DLCs, or if you don't want to play them with the NT-AreaScaling modifications). This mod does absolutely nothing in UVHM, so there's not much point loading it when playing in UVHM.

Detailed changes

• Turning in one of the main story missions (not all of them, but most) will make all previous areas and non-accepted side missions scale up to your level, within certain limits (for example, after finishing Wildlife Preservation in Normal mode, all areas should scale up to 19-21).
• Some areas will scale up directly, others may require a save/quit.
• Missions that have already been accepted (and their rewards) will never scale up, but the areas in which they take place, and the enemies you fight, should scale up.
  

Normal mode

• Finishing the main story and killing the Warrior will make all areas scale up to level 30.
• The mission You. Will. Die. (Terramorphous) will be between level 30 and 35 (depending on your level when you finish the main story). Completing this mission should make all areas in the main game and headhunter DLCs scale up to 35.
• Some areas like Caustic Caverns or Lynchwood have a special behavior in the vanilla game, which is mostly conserved here. But they will also scale to 30/35 after killing the Warrior/Terra.
  

DLCs

• All DLCs will scale to your level (when you first travel to the area), at any level between 5 and 35 (5-38 for the Lilith DLC).
• Progress in the main game story will scale up the already visited areas in the DLC. A save/quit generally seems to be required for the DLC areas.
• The DLC raid boss missions (as well as some arena fights like in Murderlin's Temple) will be between level 30 and 35 (35-38 for the Lilith DLC raid boss).
• Completing the raid boss mission (Hyperius, Pyro Pete, Vorac, Dragons, Haderax) will make all areas in the corresponding DLC scale up to level 35 (38 for the Lilith DLC).
• The Lilith DLC works the same as the other DLCs, but with slightly different limits, since the level cap for that DLC is 38 in vanilla NVHM.
  

TVHM

• Same thing, except that the Terramorphous mission is level 50, as in vanilla.
• Finishing the main story and killing the Warrior will make all areas scale up to level 50, as in vanilla. (Note however that some of the headhunter DLCs and the Lilith DLC do not rescale up to 50 in vanilla, but they do with this mod).
  

DLCs

• All DLCs will scale to your level (when you first travel to the area), at any level between 30 and 50.
• Progress in the main game story will scale up the already visited areas in the DLC, same system as in Normal mode.
• The DLC raid bosses and some missions that were locked at level 50, can now be played at any level between 30 and 50. They will also scale up: e.g. you can fight Pyro Pete at level 42, and then come back later to fight him again at level 48.
• The Lilith DLC works the same as the other DLCs, even though it caps at 52 in vanilla TVHM. With this mod, the same limits are set as in the other DLCs (30-50), since levelling up past 50 is generally not a good idea before UVHM.
  

Known Issues

A) In general, if you start a character with this mod, it is preferable to make sure you don't forget to exec the mod before loading the character again. However, you can generally switch between using the mod and not using it, without any problems, except in one situation (described below).

You may experience a problem if you:

• Use NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling and start playing some DLCs at a lower level than is possible in vanilla.
• Load your save file, later on, without the mod. The game will then reset the DLC areas within the acceptable limits in vanilla (e.g. 30-35 for Tiny Tina DLC).
• These areas will then be stuck at that level (which may be too high for your current character), because NVHM-TVHM Area Scaling will not rescale these areas back down. This is because 30-35 are still considered acceptable level values by the mod, which is necessary to let players start the DLCs at any level.
  

This problem does not affect the main game areas. It does not affect the DLC areas that you have not yet visited. And it is only really a problem in Normal mode (since in TVHM, the worst would be to have some level 30 area being scaled up to 35).

If this happens, you can ignore the problematic DLC(s) for the moment, play the main game or other DLCs, and come back to it later.

Or you can use the optional file NT-AreaScaling-DLCreset.blcm that is provided:

• Exec this file instead of the main mod file, and load your character. This should set all visited DLC areas in Normal mode to level 5 (check that it is indeed the case, otherwise maybe save/quit and come back).
• Save/quit and exec NT-AreaScaling.blcm, then reload your character. The visited DLC areas should scale back up, depending on your progress in the main story. This means that if these areas are still too low level for your current level, you will have to complete a few main missions first.
  

B) Some loot pools have a minimum level requirement. For example, relics won't spawn anywhere until you reach a certain level, etc. Usually you get something else instead. But it is possible that some chests in DLC areas just won't spawn any loot at all, if you play them at very low level. I don't think there are many, but this is notably the case for the Train chests in the Mercenary Day (snowman) DLC, until level 15 (maybe?). The problem should fix itself as you level up a bit more. You can try using the Early Bloomer mod by Apocalytech, which unlocks all item pools from level 1 (and thus also has other effects on the early game balance).