Engarde

Engarde

Combat fixes that makes sense

Oldrim version

Notice:Version 4. 0's has been released! This release bought many, many changes, almost all part of the mods have been reworked and refined. Please see below for the new key binding. IMPORTANT: please update in a quiet place without combat.

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This is a port of the same named mod from oldrim, while Enderal did marvel in terms of story, world building, character progression. I felt that it didn't change melee combat a whole lot, and the same problems that plauge Skyrim's melee combat still exists. Thus the focus of this mod is to fix as much as possible while being as compatible as possible.

My philosophy:

• []Everything that exists in game must exist for a reason, focus on fixing useless actions more than creating new ones. For exmaple, fixing and rebalancing walking vs running, making the different type of power attacks actually worthwhile.

  []Be compatible and customizable, everything is implemented using the most compatible and most performant method I can dig up. Most features can be turned off or are simple to disable.

  []I want a "thoughtful" combat experience, I want the player to care whether the opponent is using a long weapon vs a short weapon, heavy armor or light armor.

  • []Each hit in combat matters more, rushing into a crowd of enemy is a bad idea. Melee requires a more methodical approach.

    []Hits are more precise, less hitting and getting hit with nothing but air.

    []Very customizable and compatible.

  • Con: more complicated installation.

    Rather then list down each changes and tweaks, I'll list down what problems I see with Skyrim's melee combat and details how I think this mod could help fixing them.

    "Melee combat is a slapping contest"Not my quote, but struck a cord with me the first time I heard it. The combat tempo of death by a thousand cuts has got to go. Thankfully, this is rather easy to fix. Just raise the damage, pretty much every overhaul mod or combat mod out there does this already. However, achieving a good overall balance between magic, archery, poison, and melee is lot harder task. Thus this mod will offer you the ability to fine tune the damage level by using a zEdit patcher. You can balance other source of damage through other mods and then ramp up or down the creature and weapon damage as you see fit. The changes are made at 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 that bandit's health with a war hammer and he didn't even bat an eyelash"
    With the damage ramped up, some form of impact must occur or the combat just wouldn't make sense. Thus, a stagger on hit effect is added. This is not just visual and works on player, NPCs, and creatures. While this effect isn't new (Ultimate combat has poise system, Wild Cat causes stagger when breaking through health thresholds), this mod is the only one that I know of that just uses a simple formula of comparing the weight of the weapon vs the weight of the target. I feel this simple approach fits Skyrim's simplified combat mechanics better, and is a lot closer to vanilla than other mods. To summarize, any hits (instead of just power attacks) can now cause stagger, a heavy enough weapon will always stagger, no chance or any other mechanics involved. For details, see the stagger configuration article.

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    "Stamina? what stamina?"
    We all seen it, some guy playing Skyrim on Youtube, spent all of his stamina in the first 5 second of the fight on power attacks that hit nothing but air, but still kills all the bandits with ease anyway. Stamina in vanila Skyrim is j