Brutal Combat

Welcome to Brutal Combat!

This is the latest and last version of this mod - which is long overdue! - and has followed thorough testing including a complete playthrough of every quest and bit of story content - including every single question mark in the game - including B&W and HoS.

I apologise this has taken so long - life took over but working on this mod was always a hobby, I just didn't want to release another version until I was happy with it. I kept finding other things I wanted to add or change, plus I wanted to actually finish the game which thankfully I've now been able to do.

The game was played on Death March difficulty and it WAS NOT a new game+. It is compatible with V1. 31 of the game with both B&W and HoS. It will not work with prior versions and it may not work with versions without these 2 extensions. It should be compatible with the GOTY version.

Now, although the mod will work with other difficulties and new game+ - I can't vouch for how balanced it will be as I simply couldn't test all difficulties on normal and all difficulties on new game+ as well. I recommend using my settings and tweaking the various options to tailor the difficulty as players see fit.

In terms of compatibility with other mods - this mod changes A LOT of stuff both in the script files as well as xml files and various other assets as well. There is code all over the place that I've changed. I've tried to comment all the changes where possible to make merging easier but I just don't have time to be as thorough with the code documentation as I'd like. I can't vouch for whether it will merge well with other mods.

I would strongly recommend starting a new game from scratch. It will work with current saves and will detect a save which doesn't have the mod running (you'll need to reassign your skills), however you may not get the full benefit of the mod - and I can't guarantee it will completely work, though it should.

This mod has been a labour of love which has taken literally years of me tinkering and fine tuning every aspect of the game to get it exactly how I wanted it. What began as a rather simple combat tweak has morphed into pretty much a complete gameplay overhaul. The result feels like a very different game. I feel the combat is now much more honest, rewarding and, well, fun! My goal with most of these tweaks was to give the player a more immersive, challenging but ultimately rewarding experience. It is visceral, punishing, but fair. It is up to the players to tip the balance in their favour for each combat scenario.

There are a lot of things that players may or may not agree with in here but I present the mod as is and, for me, it is now complete. At some point I need to put it down and move on. So I present it to you, the community, in the hope you will enjoy it and s