Engarde

Fixed Skyrim's melee combat being adjusted one at a time

Engarde

Combat fixes make sense

oldrim version

While there are a lot of combat mods out there that add a lot of interesting mechanics, I feel like no one has really tried to address the issues with the base game mechanics, like stamina and uninteresting power attacks. Therefore, the focus of this mod is to make as many fixes as possible while being as compatible as possible.

My philosophy:

Everything that exists in the game must exist for a reason, focus on fixing useless moves rather than creating new ones. For example, fixing and rebalancing walking vs. running makes different types of power attacks actually worthwhile.

Compatible and customizable, everything is implemented using the most compatible and performant methods I can dig up. Most features can be turned off or simply disabled.

I want a "thoughtful" combat experience, I want the player to care about whether the opponent has long or short weapons, heavy armor or light armor.

history:

Over a year ago I started creating a list of mods that would provide the best combat experience. I add to the list, remove from the list, modify each one so that they balance and play nicely with each other. It wasn't long before the urge set in to just tinker a little to make it perfect, but of course no one small module could satisfy it, and before I knew it I was learning papyrus scripting, learning how to create animations, learning to read and modify havok behavior files, the list goes on and the changes piled up.

Now, a little over a year later, I've finally arrived at a package that I feel is complete enough to present to the rest of the community. The end result no longer looks like most of the modlist I started with, but I still have to thank the original authors of these mods for the inspiration and showing me the ropes. The modlist I started with was Lethal Enemy, Attack Commitment, Weapon Range Fix, Action Combat, Ultimate Combat.

feature:

Rather than listing every change and tweak, I'm going to list the issues I see with Skyrim's melee combat and detail how I think this mod can help fix them.

"The battle in Skyrim is a clapping contest"

Not a quote from me, but it gave me a call when I first heard it. The battle rhythm of a thousand cuts has begun. Thankfully, this is easy to fix. Just increases the damage, almost every overhaul mode or battle mode already does this. However, achieving a good overall balance between magic, archery, poison, and melee combat is a difficult task. Therefore, this mod will provide you with the ability to fine-tune the damage using zEdit patches. You can balance other sources of damage with other modes and then ramp creature and weapon damage up or down as you see fit. Changes are made at the base record level by applying a multiplier to weapon/unarmed damage, so they will be compatible with any other mod.

"I just took off 1/2 of this bandit with a warhammer and he didn't even hit it with an eyelash"

As the damage increases, some form of impact must occur or the fight is pointless. Therefore, the staggering of hit effects is increased. It's not just visual effects, it applies to players, NPCs and creatures. While this effect isn't new (Ultimate Combat has a stabilization system where wildcats cause staggering when health thresholds are breached), this mod is the only one I know of that only uses a simple formula to compare the weight of the weapon to the weight of the target. I feel like this simple approach fits Skyrim's simplified combat mechanics better and is closer to vanilla than other mods. All in all, any hit (not just power attacks) can now cause stagger, and a heavy enough weapon will always stagger without chance or any other mechanics. For more information, see the Staggered Configuration article.

"Endurance? What is endurance?"

We've all seen it, some guy on Youtube playing Skyrim spends all his stamina in the first 5 seconds of a power attack, hitting nothing but air, b …