M O D F E A T U R E S
(for all actors including the player except were noted.)
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Smash of the Titans
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Any actor can be bat around like a rag-doll if the other actor is much bigger and stronger. The weapon mass you block with and the weapon mass that is used to hit you are factors in this as well. So if you have a large male orc use a war hammer to smash a small female elf blocking with her shortsword she is going to get knock around the room.
But if that same orc is slapped by a dragon that orc is most likely going to fly across the battlefield.
Factors include:
Weapons mass (modified by the defender's block skill)
Strength (size of actor + 10% health)
Stamina of the attacker
Power Attack
Once it is possible to get the weight carried by the NPC actors Carried Weight will be included as well so that if you have heaver armor it will give you a better chance against giants and dragons. For now you may need to use some kick butt esoteric strategy or powerful magic or lots of arrows to fight dragons.
Shield SIZE will be detected now as part of the factor to reduce the threshold that an enemy can trigger the Smash of the Titians push on you. This is only if you block however.
A check is done for Race: Spider, Skeever(rat), Cow, Swarms, Fox and Honkers, Dragons, and then their size is reduced %50 in the Smash of the Titians calculations. This is to compensate for the long legs, long tails, wings or for slow moving type bodies.
There is a player adjustable setting to turn off the Smash of the Titians feature or to try to do some large macro adjustments to the power of the push force.
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Dynamic Stamina Burn For Blocking
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Mass = weapon used to attack (including shield for bash) divided by weapon used to block. Shields get a bonus depending on the size, bigger shields get more of a bonus.
Blocking skill will give the defender a bonus to their mass. For example blocking skill of 100 will give you close to the same fruition of using a sword to block with when you are actually using a dagger.
Strength is based on the SIZE of the actor with %10 of current health added as a modifier.
Unfortunately the bounding box size for females and males are exactly the same. So
Females get a flat 25% reduction in strength but 25% increase in accuracy hit the head and other "hand eye coordination" actions that require an accuracy check.
Attacker Strength x 2 if it is a Power Attack
Force = Mass x Defender Base Stamina x (Attacker Strength divided by Defender Strength) x Attacker's Stamina % x aadpBlockStaminaMul
Result force is subtracted from stamina for the block.
All this works for both the player and all actors that can use weapons.
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Locational Damage And Critical Hits
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A power shot to a head can be a fatal one shot! A blow that does enough damage to the legs can trip your opponent.
Head shots give the most damage, the body does about half of the head and the legs/feet do the least amount of damage. However the locational damage multipliers are player configurable in the Configuration file or by the console.
The scripts for detecting location are not made to work pixel by pixel, it may on some occasions not work 100% accurately as per what you are seeing on the screen. However you will not hit the head unless your aim is on center at the moment the attack hits. So you may think you should have hit the head in some cases, but because of the unsteady nature of combat ( shaky camera view) it is very easy to miss the head and hit the body instead. And NPC accuracy is effected by low stamina, so they may not be able to hit your head if you can keep them at a low stamina levels thru footwork and tactics.
An actor must still aim at the head but if they are a little off-center they could miss if their stamina is low.
Missing the head only means it becomes a body shot. So moving around a lot in combat could very well save you from a head shot!
Head shots that do 20% damage will produce a concussion effect. I am not totally happy with it yet and will likely change it in some upcoming REV.
Leg shots that do 20% damage will trip the target to the ground.
An accuracy modifier for the player and actors is improved when directly behind an opponent. And also it takes far less damage to leg trip the target.
Short range Archery will use the same system that melee does. However long range will use a different system and has flaws as follows:
Only ONE arrow at a time will work, if you fire two before the first one hits the first will just be count as a random location no matter were it physically hits.
Only the very top of the head counts, if you hit the mouth or lower it may not count as a head shot.
If they raise their arms over their head (such as in a power attack) it may count as a head shot even if it hits the arm (this seems to be a rare occurrence fortunately).
If these flaws are unacceptable you can turn off location hits with arrows in the configuration file. Then all shots with arrows at long rang will always be body shot damage.
There is no way to get the heading angles using the camera while on a horse. So I am going to have to do the following for the Targeting while on a horse:
All attacks will either be body or head shots.
All attacks > 40 degrees from the front of the horse will be body shots.
All attacks at < = 40 degrees (toward the front of the horse) will be head shots. (Landing the attack this far in front of the horse is difficult.) Females will get a 25% bonus to their accuracy (50 degrees).
Imagine sitting on the horse, you are facing forward on the horse. This is 0 degrees. 90 degrees would be looking directly to your right (or left). 140 degrees would be looking over your shoulder behind you, 180 would be twisting your head like Linda Blare to look directing behind you.
If your target is more than 80 degrees your attack will be very weak, and really you should not get the attack at all but the only way to stop this is by editing all the races thus making this mod very incompatible with other mods and it would not cover custom races.
So instead I am only going to make the attacks the rider is swinging very weak on targets that are in the zone greater than 80 towards the back of the horse.
Critical locational damage will not happen unless your opponent missed their block or you are around to the side or back where they do not "block". Otherwise the damage will be low damage (the normal "vanilla" damage that is inflicted on one who is successfully blocking.)
So fights could be fast and brutal or go on for a long time depending on how well they block and what armor they are wearing versus what weapons you are using and where you hit them!
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New Dynamic Damage System
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Because of the script LAG in Skyrim I am forced to create my own damage formula for my features.
This custom damage formula is only going to be used for my combat mod features. It will not change the normal damage system in the game except that I will reduce the normal vanilla damage by about half via games settings. As the normal damage system is not changed I will not be including the unrealistic damage perks bonuses in my custom damage calculations.
Even so, I would like to include factors such as the weapons actual base damage and weapon smithing bonuses however there is no way to get the base weapon damage of the weapon you are using in Skyrim nor the smithing data. When SKSE change get me the data I need this may change. For now there is no scripting code to detect weapon's base damage so I am forced to use simplistic weapon "types" to determine the base weapon damage then plug that into a formula that includes:
Strength is now based on the SIZE of the actor with %10 of health added as a modifier.
Females get a 25% reduction in strength but 25% increase in accuracy to hit the head.
Skill (one and two handed)
Stamina Percentage (No more hitting hard with only 1% stamina.) If your stamina is too low so will be the damage and if you attack with a full green bar your damage will be devastating sometimes depending on the other combat conditions.
Locational Armor. The Helmet, Boots or Cuirass ( AR / 50) is the % subtracted from the scripted damage. So a 15 AR helm = 30% reduction of the scripted locational damage.
If you are hit in the head most of the time a good helm may be all you need!
Hand Modification = 2/3 for the right and 1/3 for the left hand (just like the Vanilla game.)
Locational damage modifier (see below).
Head Shot Locational Damage Multiplier
aadpCritHeadDamMult
Body Shot Locational Damage Multiplier
aadpCritBodyDamMult
Leg Shot Locational Damage Multiplier
aadpCritLegDamMult
Arrow Damage Multiplier
aadpArrowDamageMult
To summarize : Vanilla damage (with perks & smithing buffs) + Location Dynamic Damage (no perks and no Smithing as of yet.) = Total damage.
However the Skyrim's Script Lag delays the resulting damage. Some players have this much worse than others. There are ways to help reduce the lag explained in the KNOWN ISSUES read me files.
Note: If an actor does not have enough stamina and strength, then no weapon, not even a 2 handed war hammer will stagger.
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Archery
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My Skyrim INI file has changes that force the arrow to shoot on center of the crosshair while you are in first person view. This mod is designed with that in mind. See the installation read me file for important skyrim.ini settings concerning archery.
Strength will be more important than marksman skill for RAW massive damage with arrows. If you are not strong enough to effectively draw a powerful bow you will not do as much damage as those that are. However marksmanship will prevent you from missing what you aim at. So you will hit your critical shots more often and not miss the target as often. If you have very poor marksmanship your arrows will not hit where you aim. Just like with Melee weapons Females will have weaker shots but are also more accurate.
All actors can now run while drawing and shooting a bow. However your aim will be horribly affected unless your marksman skill is extremely high. Running is the worse movement. The moment after you fire a bow will add to your inaccuracy, each time you fire another shot too soon after the last one your aim gets progressively worse. Crouching (sneak mode) will double your aim effectiveness. Even if you hold still in the crouch position and carefully take time to aim your shot there is still a base inaccuracy that is directly proportional to your marksmanship level. But low stamina will be the worse thing for your aim. So you will need to balance the amount of time you take to fire the bow with the amount of stamina you are burring while holding the draw.
All of this applies to the NPC archers.
When you are in 1st person and moving around while drawing your bow you will see bow sway.
Marksman skill will reduce the amount of visual bow sway you see in first person.
This then will be a first person visual indicator of when momentum(your moving around while drawing the bow) may effect your next shot. Bow sway is not used in 3rd person but all factors for missing shots still apply.
The configuration file setting for arrow damage will still effect arrow damage as a multiplier. However for ranges up to 30 feet you will now have Locational hits with bows (and locational armor counts just like melee weapons).
A head shot to an actor with no helmet can be a kill in one shot even with a low end bow as long as you draw back arrow all the way first. However you will find that hitting the head in combat may not be so easy unless your target in close range. You almost never miss what you are aiming at if they are inside of 20 feet and you are not moving around.
New Archery Perks:
Vanilla Perk Name......New Name................New Effect (old effect no longer used)
Critical Shot............... Accuracy.................Increase arrow accuracy by 20%
Ranger......................Arrow To The Knee....If your aim is true (arrow shoots on the cross hair) and you hit the legs, only need 5% (instead of 20%) damage to trip and fall your target.
BullsEye....................BullsEye....................If your aim is true (arrow shoots on the cross hair) you hit the gaps in the armor (armor is ignored)!
Arrow To The Knee adds the opportunity to target the knee. "Targeting the knee" means you may hit the target legs with LESS damage but you will still make them trip and fall as long as you do at least 5% damage.
Normally to make the target trip and fall with a bow shot you must hit the legs and do 20% damage OR hit the legs while you are directly behind the target and in close range with 5% damage.
Bullseye only works if your arrow is shot on the cross hair. If your accuracy is bad from moving, low stamina or from a low marksman skill you will often not fire your arrow on the crosshair (you will miss).
My new archery perks can be combined to do devastating attacks such as using Bullseye and Accuracy together.
So a female archer (+25% accuracy) with the Accuracy perk (+20%) and a high marksman skill, a full green bar and in the crouch position (x2 accuracy) and not moving around will almost never shoot off the crosshair. This means you will hit the head if you aim for it. Then with the Bullseye perk (because you did not miss the arrow shoots on the cross hair) you will have hit some gap such as the eye slot or the neckgap thus bypassing the head armor earning you a satisfying one shot kill!
Or combine Accuracy, Bulls Eye and Arrow To The Knee together and you will not have to worry about multiple armored opponents overrunning you as you mow them down before they can reach you!
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Bow Draw Stamina Consumption And Damage
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Zoom now only consumes a very small amount of stamina. This cannot be adjusted because it is a game setting. Drawing the bow now consumes stamina. Consumption rate is based on the bows damage. This can be adjusted in the configuration file:
aadpBowStamina
If the archer does not fully draw the bow actors will not inflict full damage. As long as the archer fully draws back the bow they will do full damage no matter how much stamina is left with when the arrow is released.
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Momentum System
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There will be both Linear Momentum and Rotational (possible) bonuses for the extra effort you put into your attacks with good footwork and timing.
Linear Momentum is triggered once you have taken a few steps and your body does not stop or slow down or veer off a straight direction for any reason.
If you turn as you are moving forward to attack your opponent your Linear Momentum will not be transferred into the attack. This means you cannot get both Linear Momentum and Rotational momentum bonuses at the same time. The more you move in the direction that is not forward the less your Linear Momentum will be transferred into your attack. This is proportionality scaled to how much you are not moving in the forward direction. So you can sidestep and get about half the possible Linear Momentum but moving backwards will transfer almost no liner momentum into your attack.
Rotational momentum is triggered when ever you move your mouse (or what ever your turn control is) to spin your actor left or right or completely around 360 while attacking. (360 in first person is FUN!)
This Rotational momentum bonus is also scaled to how much you turn before your attack lands.
Some of the animations will rotate (spin) the actor without your input, this was counted as turning in Oblivion and I think it is the same in Skyrim, but I have not done enough testing to be absolutely sure.
Linear Momentum power is increased with speed and will need a little ramp up time to work. Rotational momentum power will depend on how far you spin before your attack hits.
The maximum Linear Momentum bonus I could get in testing with a level 1 actor was 1.5. using sprinting. You must hit BEFORE you slow down or some other obstetrical (such as your target) slows you down. This means your normal damage based on your strength is multiplied by 1.5. This Max is NOT easy to get. On a Horse charging full sprint I got more than 2.5
The max Rotational bonus I could get was 1.4 by spinning 360 before handing the attack. Again this is harder to do than it sounds.
Most of the time you will get momentum bonuses of about 1.1 to 1.3.
This will work for all melee weapons and I believe it will work for H2H as well. It will not work for shooting arrows with bows.
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Combat Endurance
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Endurance Feature (for NPC and the player)
This kind of combat is so physically intensive that sometimes the victor is not the most skilled, he may only be in much better condition than the loser. You can literally defeat your opponent by outlasting them as long as you make no mistakes in your defense. This fact will make building your stamina base up to high levels just as important as your health and skill.
Each time your stamina hits zero 10 points is taken away from your BASE stamina. This is done vicariously in a script only and not done to your actual stamina attribute for the safety of your save game.
Then the percentage that your adjusted base stamina is lower than your normal base stamina will equal the stamina percentage that will stop stamina regeneration.
So say you have 100 base stamina. You go to zero% stamina 2 times in a Fight. Now your stamina regen will stop at 80% (8/10 of the green bar). This can be adjusted in the console or the new configuration file (see above).
This endurance depletion can be regained quickly by sitting or sleeping, or it will regenerate slowly when you are not using your stamina and you are not in the alert state (weapon or hands up for fighting.)
Because this feature will not harm my over all combat design if it is not used this entire feature can be turned off in the configuration file.
aadpCombatEndurance
But I highly suggest you do not do that because this makes building your base stamina very important and adds a realistic, deep and unique level of new tactics to the combat.
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NPC Fumbling
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NPC might hit each other by accident if they miss hitting you and they are crowding in and around you. You can maneuver them with footwork and timing so that this happens more often by either getting them to line up close to each other (behind one another) or by swinging around to one side so that their attack turns into one of their comrades! Evading the attack with a bob and weave dodge is also a good way! This event is NOT a dice roll, it is based on their stamina and the combat geometry (obstacles, distance and positioning) at the time. The more stamina they have the less likely they will fumble. The longer the weapon they are using the more likely they can reach and accidentally hit other actors that they did not intend to hit. This fumble hit is not a skilled attack, so their weapon skill is not part of the damage calculation. If the accidental target NPC is holding up a block in the way of the attack they will block the hit. Otherwise if the damage is great enough they will stagger and if the damage is lethal they will die.
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Feint System
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Feinting is the act of starting an attack one way then changing mid-swing into another way.
Generally your player reflexes should not determine the success of the feint, your stats, your opponent's stats and other combat conditions should. However you will need to be prompt and accurate in finishing your blow after a successful feint or you will lose your opportunity.
And combining feints can be tricky and will require some player skill to accomplish.
I have several chapters in my SCA combat book on the subject of feints but due to the huge limitations of moding Skyrim I had to adapt this vast amount of information to a very simple system. It is as close to real life as I could make it.
The fundamental of almost all feints is to reduce the amount of time your opponent has to respond to an attack. This is done by hiding or camouflaging the start or end or all of your attack as much as possible. You must either hide or camouflage the clues that tell your opponent where the attack will land, the pathway the attack will take, the threat level or the timing of the attack.
For my Skyrim mod there are 3 kinds of basic feints that can be attempted:
Target Feint: Start high then finish low or vice versa
Flank Feint: Attack on their left then finish by stepping around to their right or vice versa
Range Feint: Start the attack at one range then finish at a much different range.
These basic 3 can then be combined into 4 other compound feints. This makes 7 feints total that can be used in the game.
Target Flank Range Feint 200% multiplier
Target Range Feint 150% multiplier
Target Flank Feint 150% multiplier
Flank Range Feint 150% multiplier
Target Feint 100% multiplier
Flank Feint 100% multiplier
Range Feint 100% multiplier
Off hand (left) attack (+50% when used with a feint.)
Success of feints is related to Stamina, so in some cases you may want to try to tire your opponent before throwing your easiest less powerful feints.
Success depends on a comparison of the attackers weapons skill modified by the feint multiplier and stamina% against the defenders block skill and stamina%
For a feint to work they must be able to see you and your false clues. So any attacks at 90 degrees to their side or more will not allow a feint to work.
There are many ways to trigger the feints, all you must do is throw your blow one way then finish it in another way using moves that do not fight against momentum.
For example to do a Target Feint, you could thrust or power attack at their feet then before the attack hits shift the thrust at their head.
In the game all you need to be aware of is where your cross-hair is aimed at and when.
Your best feints will be ones that combine the most false clues.
Range Feint is triggered by starting the attack at one range then finish the attack at a dramatically different range (25% or more change in range while still IN range).
In real life combat range transitions are where many fights are won or lost (the killing blow is often landed). This is because the angles of attack and the parts of the weapon that can strike you change as you move away or close in. A pommel attack can turn into a blade attack in this way for example.
The Flank Feint does not mean you aim left then shit the aim to the right, you must actually move your body from one flank to the other by stepping sideways and around your target as you attack.
These feints can be performed serendipitously as well! Meaning that due to the dynamic nature of combat an opponent can throw a high blow and without purposely doing so finish the blow low as when they miss your head and the blow pass on by and hitting your torso instead. So in a fight you may throw many "feints" without even realizing it. In truth, this is how many shots get by one's differences even when no feints are purposely used. This will happen in the game as well. You may be surprised to see that you succeed at this or that feint even when you did not know you were doing one. If you do not want to think about throwing feints just be sure you move both in and out and around your opponent and “automatic” feints will happen. Basically KEEP MOVING while you attack, do not stand in one place as your attack moves and this will make defending against your attacks more difficult. This is how the NPC are able to throw feints, because they are animated to keep moving while they attack.
As with all my mods the results of these feints are based on the attributes, actions timing, conditions and dynamics of the combat and not on simplistic dice rolls. This means you can eventually learn to take advantage of the subtle factors in combat and predict your opponents action. For example if your opponent shifts suddenly from your left to your right, closing in quickly from out of range, you'd know this could well be a "Flank Range Feint". This would be very hard to block, your block calculations will be dramatically penalized, so ducking or moving out of range may be a better tactic than trying to move your shield to block!
All of these new maneuvers will now work in the game the same as it would work in real life, with some limitations due to the fact that I am molding an existing game and not creating one from scratch. For example, a great shot is to start a blow out of range aimed at the head on the left flank, then lunge in and finish the blow at the legs moving (side stepping) to the right flank. This combines the range feint, flank feint, target feint all in one and is very good at harvesting legs! This is a real life move and works the same way in the game.
When you succeed at a feint your opponent will be confused for a brief moment and will find it very difficult to move to defend themselves. The weapon or shield they were using to block with will swing into the wrong position to block the attack.
Of the 7 feints you get to use you will only get to use the same one successfully ONCE on the same actor then a timer must time out before you get to use it again on that SAME actor. This timer is their Block skill times 2 in seconds.
Important note: You will see a miscellaneous item called "loose thread" (not a great name but I almost called it dust bunny) that will come and go in your inventory. You will need to just ignore this as it will have no effect on your carried weight and it will have no value (zero gold value). If you want to know more about this read about it in the known issues read me file.
Some players have removed their cross-hair. Cross-hair is not needed, it just makes explaining the feints easier. In truth it is ONLY the middle of your screen, basically where you are looking at, the zone of best perception that is straight out from your nose.
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3rd Person Head Shot Assistance
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Feints like flank and range are just as easy in 3rd as in 1st. I fight most of the time in 3rd person myself and most of the features are designed with that in mind. However Target Feints are definitely easier to do in 1st person. They can be done in 3rd person with practice without any assistance at all however I have add a head shot assistance for third person as follows:
Unless you are looking down at the knees or lower it will not be a leg shot it will be a body shot. If you are looking anywhere above the chest the shot will be detected as HIGH. Now if you are on center to the head you will get a head shot, otherwise it will still be a body shot. This feature can be adjusted or turned off in the configuration file.
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Left Hand Weapon Attacks Are More Difficult To Defend Against!
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This feature is integrated into the feint system now!
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Increased Backwards Speed Plus Trip And Fall Risk
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THIS IS NOT DONE WITH RANDOM DICE THROWS!
The falls result from running into objects in Skyrim!
In combat there are tricks fighters can use to run backwards while maintaining a relatively fast pace and at the same time keep the chance to tripping down to an acceptable low rate. This will depend on your agility and skills.
I believe the player should be able to do what they want IF it is possible to really do so using their attributes and skill levels, as long as they accept and sometimes suffer the RISKS of doing so and then suffer the pros and cons realistically depending on HOW they do what they are doing.
There is a technique called Circling, and Reverse Circling. Instead of running backwards in a straight line you run in various diameter circles. This allows you to see much of where you are going as you run backwards.
This mod is for running backward realism. It will make it so that any large obstacle, or incline change or change in elevation (like a step on a stair cases) you run into while running backwards would give you a significant chance to fall down based on the PC Sneak skill and your Stamina percentage.
This way if you use the circling trick to see where you are going not only can you avoid bumping into something while running backwards, but when you must move over such things as inclines you will not have the same chance to fall because you are excepting it! You can do this by turning your mouse and side stepping instead of moving directly backwards.
But if you bump into something while running backwards you take a great risk of falling to the ground.
You can also trip if you take too much of a tight turn while running backwards, or if you run over some low lying rocks, or back up on an incline, or other NPC or Creatures, or anything that changes your speed while you are running backwards.
It will not kick in until after about 1 or so seconds of running backwards. This represents getting up to speed and developing the momentum that will throw you off balance if you run into something. This way you are not tripping all over things in small or cramped or crowded space where you would not get enough speed to really throw you to the ground.
(Coming soon in a latter REV: Tripping over the soft "floppy" bodies of the dead! Unlike static obstacles like chairs you will trip over this obstacle anytime you are running backwards.)
If your SNEAK skill is good you will mostly only stumble a little and not fall down. If your stats are VERY good you will not fall or stumble very much.
With the player adjustment you can even set it so that tripping is only a rare
event. That way if you want, this will add a fun and realistic surprise to your game once in a while even if you do not want it to be a constant challenge in your game.
I can understand why players would feel that you should not be able to run fast AT ALL backwards as mot people do not train to do this and cannot do it themselves. I for one cannot do this, but I have seen some fighters in the SCA (usually pole weapon fighters) that could run backwards almost as fast as most other fighters could run forwards.
So I know it is possible, it just takes a lot of training and ability.
AND those fast backwards running SCA fighters DID trip and fall once in a while as well!
In the console set aadpPrecarious to 0 to turn this feature off.
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Dynamic Stamina Consumption
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Swinging Balanced weapons like blades will use much less stamina than when your weapon actually hits a target. For technical reasons this feature only works on living targets not things like trees.
When you throw a blow that only cuts air you lose less of your energy than when you hit something. Your "power" is transfer into you opponent when you land the shot, but not if you miss or they dodge or you purposely do not aim at anything solid, much of the momentum is "recycled" into the next shot by redirecting the BALANCED weapon around and then back into the next attack.
Swinging without hitting a target with a Top Heavy weapon like a mace or axe will use much more stamina than when your weapon actually hits a target. For technical reasons this feature only works on living targets not things like trees.
When you throw a blow with a large top heavy weapon you lose more of your energy overcoming the mass at rest than when you hit something. Your "power" is "pushed" into your weapon as you get the attack up to speed. But When such a weapon hits it has many times more resistance to slowing down and all your power has already been stored into the attack at this point. Missing the target now more often means struggling with he weapon to bring it back under control for the next attack.
I hope this is making sense concerning weapon weight and balance, the effort of moving the weapon and stamina consumption. This is all very logical and even common sense as far as momentum goes ( no esoteric heavy weapons fighting knowledge needed ) but it is so different from most games I fear it could be confusing for players.
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ATTACK BLOCKS!
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If you attack with a normal or power attack while you have dagger up to a 2h war hammer while your opponents is attacking AND you hit the weapon (aim at their arm) that is attacking you will deflect their weapon attack.
To trigger this ATTACK BLOCK you need to:
-Attack them with a melee weapon.
-Hit them (If they block your attack they negate your attempt.)
-You must be aiming off center to their right or left depending on which arm (left of right) is throwing the attack.
*** NEW: - you must win a calculation comparison of base health, stamina % and the defender (the one trying to do the attack block) gets their block skill and 1hand - 2hand weapon skill as a bonus.
If you succeed it will cost a little stamina.
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Bob and Weave Dodge
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Tap your sneak key (crouch) to perform this temporary “evasion state”.
You will need to rise up again (tap your key to rise up) and then crouch again to re-enter this evasion state.
The duration of this evasion state is calculated using your encumbrance and stamina.
The more you carry in your inventory the less the duration. Not carrying anything at all will give you a little more than a second of "evasion time". Fully encumbered will give you about .5 of a seconds. But then this calculated duration time is further reduced by your stamina percentage.
Each time you do this you eat stamina at a cost calculated by your encumbrance. The more you carry the more the stamina cost. This will only work while you are in combat. In this way you will not be interfering at all with the normal sneak mechanics.
Now do not let the simplicity of how this duck mechanic sounds fool you, these simple components combine into a very rich system were it is not impossible to dodge when heavily encumbered but it is extremely difficult. And even if you are striped down to just a leather thong you will not be able to dodge forever as your stamina is consumed progressively giving the actor more and more difficultly as they continue to dodge up and down and yet it never becomes totally impossible either.
With a high stamina, no encumbrance, practice and some luck it is possible to attack and dodge without ever even blocking once.
No simplistic random dice rolls and yet chaos and luck will still be a factor in the system.
This an example of my game design philosophy concerning success based on the marriage of player skill and character stats. If you have great reflexes you can succeed with less stat building. And if you are older and not as fast as you once were (like me) you can build your character skills and stats (in this case stamina and reduced carry weight) to compensate and achieve the same success.
Or you can find your own personal sweet spot somewhere between the two ends of this spectrum.
I only wish Skyrim had not remove agility. It is utterly ridiculous that stamina is intended to represent agility, strength (as it dictates your encumbrance limit) and endurance. But that is what we have to work with for now.
NPC will also use this Bob and weave feature, but because of the extremely limited scripting commands the AI for it will not be nearly as intelligent as was in my Oblivion mod. As better commands come out for SKSE I will improve my AI Scripts to be more like my Oblivion mod!
Slow Motion effect for this dodge can be turned off in the Console: set aadpSlowMo to 0
If you DO NOT want the player to perform the Bob and Weave Dodge while using a bow go to the console and type: set aadpBowDucking to 0
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Actors Show Pain
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Humanoids actors react to getting hit! This is based on damage done not by a random dice throw! If the player or other actors are hit with only a little damage no pain reactions ("stagger") will trigger, but if hit with a lot of damage (20% of your current health on each attack) actors will stagger.
So this means anything that reduces the power of the attack (such as armor, magic or actor low stamina ...and more) could prevent the pain reaction. However the lower your health gets the more likely the threshold can be overcome. So once an actor is almost at deaths door you will be able to stagger lock them more often then not. But in the first 3/4 of the fight it will be hard to stagger lock the actors without pause using my unique stamina system!
The stagger will not trigger if the attack is a power attack (I have a separate system for power attacks based on game settings not script) and will not trigger on bash attacks nor will it trigger if the actor or you block the attack.
Power attack stagger should still work on creatures but because of how skyrim animation was made the same system I use for Humanoids will not work on the critters unless I script ALL of them Each with their own personal script. And then this would not work for New Mod creatures. But I have a plan to fix this eventually, but this plan will not work as elegantly as the system for the Humanoids.
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Combat Pacing
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The heaver your weapon the more stamina is consumed for power attacks.
The more damage that hits you the more stamina is consumed to block.
Block Skill will matter much more now to block damage. So although your shield and weapons can block a LOT more damage you sill not do so unless you have a LOT of skill.
Combat stamina auto regeneration rate is now VERY LOW! However you can FAST REST by not moving nor attacking nor casting magic. The fast rest rate while blocking depends on the size of your shield or weapon used to block with. Fast Rest while blocking with a dagger will be like fast rest while not blocking at all.
And then there is the FASTEST REST by not moving nor attacking nor BLOCKING nor casting magic.
This means you need to use footwork and timing (timing attacks and timing blocks) to get your stamina back up to good levels.
IF YOUR STAMINA IS ZERO YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO FIGHT! A slight blur effect will nag you but you will also not be able to swing your weapons nor block!
Actors must have 25% or more Stamina or they will not be able to do a power attack nor a bash attack.
Fast Rest Rate Fine Tune (Float)
This is not intended for the player to adjust the Combat Pacing. This is only intended to try to compensate for slower computers and Skyrim's Script lag.
aadpFastRestFineTune
Just try not to break the combat pacing. You should NEED to do a combination of the following to keep your stamina from hovering in a dangerously low level:
Slow down your rate of fire (mix attacks and blocking together.)
Perform tactical pauses.
Time blocking.
Step away from the attacker for a few moments.
You should not be able to keep throwing blows one after the other nonstop. That is just not how real fights work, not necessarily because you get "tired" but for variety of reasons. The green bar is just s simple mechanic to stand in for those multitude of reasons.
Note: In this mod "weapons out" state counts the same as being "in combat". This is because many times in a battle your opponents get distracted by other actors (like companions) and you will drop in and out of being "in combat" as dictated by the game for shot times.
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Normal Attacks Consume Stamina Depending On Their Type.
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In order of cost:
Fist
Dagger
Sword
2h sword, 1H Mace and Axe
2h Mace and Axe
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Less Arcade like Weapons Speeds
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All weapons speeds even from other mods are now modified by weapon type.
There are 3 parts to a melee attack:
Wind up
Swing
Recovery
These 3 move at different speeds because of momentum and leverage. This will be further affected (speed will be dynamically adjusted) depending on your rhythm with the attacks and your stamina.
In general the weapon's total attack duration will be much slower than in the vanilla game. You will feel this difference even more in 1st person because Bethesda made the swing speed faster in 1st than in 3rd person.
I had to slow down the "wind up" a little more than I would have liked because the game would not let me slow down the recovery part of the attack. And if I slow down all three equally the attack looks less realistic than just a "slower" wind up.
This is very necessary for the feint mechanics to work properly (because of the game's script lag). But slower attacks are always going to be needed in a deep combat system anyway so the player can perceive (see) the clues of the attack. This is already very difficult using a 2 dimensional "window" with animations that are not 100% motion captured.
Longer weapons (in the same weapon type) will be a little slower than shorter weapons.
So a 3 foot long 1h sword will swing slightly faster than a 3.5 foot long 1h sword.
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Hand to hand now has a chance to block a melee weapon attack
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If you have the Block skill, you can do close in grapple blocks that can even stop a war hammer by impeding the limbs that swing the weapon instead of taking the force of the weapon from the weapon's head straight into your arm.
This only works if you have at least one hand empty (no weapon in one hand). Just do a normal punch attack (not a power attack) with either hand while your opponent is attacking! And you must be up very close (about 3 feet) for the Grapple Block to work.
Your block skill multiplied by your Stamina percentage is compared to the attackers Stamina percentage (and given a 3x bonus if they are power attacking). If you win the comparisons you will GRAPPLE BLOCK you opponents incoming melee weapon attack.
If you succeed, it will cost you some stamina, and blocking power attacks cost 3 times as much. This simple formula will be expanded when I have the script extender commands to do so.
It is best to use two hands (no weapon in either hand) as using only one empty hand gives you a penalty to succeed.
*** New: A successful grapple block will increase the player's block skill incrementally in the same way blocking with a shield or weapon can.
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Combat Geometry
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The Rear Flank attacks do extra damage feature is now Obsolete. Combat Geometry and extra damage from rear flank attacks is now handled by the Locational hit system.
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More Realistic Attack Range
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Weapons range is now derived from the ACTUAL 3d MODEL length of the weapon and then dynamically set on the weapon on the fly in the game. So now if the weapon's 3d geometry shows it can hit at 3.25 feet and the opponent's weapon 3d geometry is 3.40 feet the second weapon will have a slight range advantage. However the slightly longer weapon will also be slightly slower to swing.
In general melee combat range is set WAY down and now will play much more realistically and allow for more intuitive action.
Warning! Testing weapon range by hitting objects in the game is erroneous! The game engine (like oblivion) uses a SEPARATE system for hitting objects as it does for hitting living targets. In my Oblivion Mod I had a script to try to fake the distance to hit objects based on the weapon range but that is not going to happen in Skyrim for a very long time (I need some sophisticated script commands to do this).
The game's hard code makes 2 handed weapons hit at a shorter range than a 1 handed weapon of the same length, you normally do not realize this in the unmoded game because of the 20 foot long super range for all weapons.
Now, I actually do agree with Bethesda about truncating the range of a weapon when it is held 2 handed as opposed to 1 handed. But they are going about 100% more of a change in range than I would have done it myself. I will try to find a way to fix this in some future revision.
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Weapons are a little more lethal
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Damage done by the weapons is increased slightly via game settings. So even custom mod weapons will be included.
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Weapons Block Arrows
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Swords and other weapons can now deflect arrows IF the arrow hits the weapon no perk needed!. (Player only for now.)
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Shields Block Elemental Damage
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The elemental protection perk is automatic now if you use a shield. It blocks 90%. (Player only for now.) However there is a knock back effect that will not allow you to easily run down a magic user. This can be turned off by the player per the options scroll that is now in your inventory.
Block Perk tree is re arranged. ( I plan to add to it in future revisions of this mod.)
Magic force staggering will effect the actor blocking the magic attack so they cannot advance on the magic user easily. But this can be turned off in the console :
set aadpElemProStaggerSwitch to 0
To turn the knock back effect off.
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No Skyrim Auto Aim! (the attack magnetism)
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Now attacks for BOTH the Player and the NPC will miss more often making dodging a practical defense now.
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Reduced disarm chance
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I am still working on changing all the perks and spells for this.
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No more "Dice Throw" Critical Chance
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The vanilla “dice roll” critical hit damage has been reduced and renamed to LUCKY HIT.
I could not make this a feature that could be turned off. But it applies to all actors and creatures as well s the player.
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Shields act more realistic
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Shield and weapons block a LOT more damage now, you will now actually feel a difference when you allow a weapon to hit or you succeed with a block.
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Running costs less stamina
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Sprint stamina cost is greatly reduced unless you are carrying too much weight. Weight has much more effect on your stamina consumption while sprinting.