I just upgraded from Deadly Combat 2.55 to 3.01 and was blown away by the improvements. And I was already a big fan.

If you're a first time user of this mod, you are in for a big treat. If you are upgrading, be on the safe side and "clean-save" the heck out of your save games. Some people are having issues with the recoil-on-normal-hit effect not functioning. And for everyone, Make sure you load this puppy last, since it deserves (and probably needs) that kind of respect in your load order.

In case anyone is interested, I am using hardcoe Damage, No Attack Distance Changes, and No Armor Changes. And I am playing on Master on a newer character lvl 10 Redguard who is roughly a Sword & Board Paladin-Type. He's the one I use to test out combat mods.

Other mods that I am using that may overlap with Deadly Combat in terms of AI and stamina regen:

PISE
Deadly Dragons
Hypothermia
Vinis Legit Food and Rest

Interested? Yes. Feasible? Can't say, might be easy, might be impossible, gotta take a look at all the functions available.


What the others have said too Many things are pretty much equal in our mods, and we sometimes talk about how we implemented things too if we know of each other that we want it in our mod as well.

The difference is that Duke Patrick is a long-time expert and knows everything about real life combat in medieval times and knows VERY much (if you think ''that much!'' nope, he probably knows more ) about the physics and techniques involved in combat, and aims to get the most realistic experience he possibly can in his game.

I, on the other hand, just aim to get it realistic enough for average joe to believe it, and apart from that try to make combat fun in the way that I define it - which is fast-paced, quick reactions, and deadly (which might not always be truly realistic but imo it's the most fun).

So in the end it's really just about what you prefer. If you like both ideas, you can just do one playthrough with one mod and the other playthrough with the other mod, so you also get a bit of variation between playthroughs when it comes to combat gameplay

I am seriously liking 3.01! I did find 2 new minor issues though:

1). If you hold down block, then the enemy NPC will act like you did a perfectly timed block on the 2nd or 3rd hit.

2). Perfectly timed blocks are easier now because the window seems longer than 0.5 seconds. Or maybe the scripting optmozations just make it seem thay way? Since enemies recoil now almost every time they attack me, I can now see that the block recoil time is a bit longish and exaggerated. But that's probably an animation issue that will have wait for the SKSE team I guess?

Again, these are very minor issues and I think these are actually beneficial to gameplay given how challenging the mod is. I just thought I'd bring them to your attention in case they weren't intended.

I'm getting weird behavior fighting draughs (sp? The skeleton things). Whenever I frost them (the one that deals damage over time), they get slowed like normal, and then they awkwardly stagger, and then they awkwardly stagger a second time.

Also, sometimes they staggered randomly even when I haven't done anything, but that was before I downloaded v3.01, and I don't if that bug is still there or not

OMG! This mod is amazing!! I actually enjoy playing skyrim now. The battles were a breeze and a chore now every encounter is a challenge and I have to think. I love how it has a Dark Souls feel.

Usually I make suggestions with a mod but to be honest I cannot think of a bad thing to say! Well done and endorsed on nexus!

I'll look into these. About point 1), do you happen to remember whether you were at low stamina at some point? If you're blocking whilst at low stamina, you will get staggered, so if you continue blocking afterwards it will count as a new block again I guess.


Taking a look at this too

Also, thanks to topeira for making a video of my mod!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcZQrqMK44g&feature=player_embedded

I think that was actually at low stamina, but I'm pretty sure I wasn't staggered. I'll do some more testing to be sure, but as I recall it wasn't very repeatable, so if it's real it's a minor glitch. With a few exceptions, turtling in this mod is usually not the smartest choice anyway.

@Topeira,

Epic video! When you combine each of these AI elements together, the NPCs becomes seriously challenging. In PISE most humanoid encounters will be with NPCs of higher level, and the enemy actually gets "smarter" and can take advantage of more of the scripting in Deadly Combat. Imo, this is one of many reasons why this mod is so great. Combined with PISE and on Master, and just getting past a guard's shield feels like a real accomplishment. I wish I had your video editing skills so I could show you guys what I'm talking about.

Hm I was just trying an older version of this I had installed (2.4) with newly installed PISE and when I do the block-slow time it was bugging out and lasting over a minute, lol. It was pretty funny, especially blood effects! Gona give the new version a try and see if it still happens.

Edit: Yep working fine now.

Also, in case this helps you debug: I'm starting a new character so I'm only level 2, which means the draughs are low level (whatever level PISE would make them to be), and probably have low stamina, maybe relevant?

Played with this mod for about 15 hours and must have died about 50+ times lol on Adept. I didn't even die 20% as much as this before. Must have died at least 20 of them by mages with fireballs.

Loving it. I had to use the attackdistance plugin though I found the default one too short. I literally had to be on top of them with my greatsword. It might be about right for a one-handed but the two-handed weapons needed a little more distance considering their length.

Just thought I'd give a quick update.

My next version will have many tweaks and fixes to deal with hopefully all issues which have been mentioned here and on skyrimnexus comments section (that is, if I didn't forget to add any of them to my to-do list). However, I do have a kind of busy week at uni right now, so it'll probably take a little bit longer than it took me to pump out new versions previously. Expect the next update somewhere next week.

Expect next version to be finished somewhere tomorrow. Will includes lots of tweaks and fixes to issues raised.

@ Borgut1337

Could you post a changelog for the new version coming tomorrow?

Expected features for tomorrow (most already 100% finished, so not so much expected as known ):

- Fixed lots and lots and lots of issues with stamina costs for normal attacks. Now they should always be correctly applied in correct amounts.
- Shield Wall perks will now reduce the extra stamina cost for blocking too long (in addition to their previous effects, because of the increased blocking efficiency overall in this mod the shield wall perks didn't have as much of an impact as they should)
- Stagger chances from arrows and magic are range-dependent. At very close range, they'll stagger much more often.
- Player will get staggered for a bit longer when he's time-blocked by enemies
- Scripts for player-timed blocking react faster, now those rare cases where you block ''too perfectly'' resulting in the scripts not realising yet that it should be a timed block should be fixed.
- The window of time in which a block counts as a timed block is slightly shortened (very slightly )
- If you have the Quick Reflexes perk (the perk which slows time when blocking a power attack) and the perk causes time to slow down, your block will continue to count as a timed block if you were blocking for short enough before the timed slowed down. If you were already blocking for too long before time slowed down, it will not count as a timed block. This makes the Quick Reflexes perk viable again instead of a hassle.
- Stagger animation for the player has been improved, so it will be SLIGHTLY longer (an actual stagger instead of just a quick interruption of his current action) and can no longer be mistaken for an automatic blocking animation.

EDIT: forgot this one:
- Damage over time effects will no longer randomly stagger the target hit. Spells will only stagger when they visually hit their target, and not when their longer-duration effects trigger over time.

This mod now also featured in Gamespot's Top 5 Mods of the Week: http://www.gamespot.com/features/top-five-skyrim-mods-of-the-week-march-3-6363927/

And latest version still planned to be released today!

I'm liking the new changes but I am having a concern.

I play as an archer and I am being constantly stun locked by mages due to stagger, especially ones that use low-level spray spells like flames, frost and lighting hands! I can barely get a shot off by the time it takes to draw the arrow aim and then shoot. I was fighting this mage called Vals Veran and he had this amazing lightning technique that would keep you in perpetual stun while his deathlords and raised deathlords would own you lol

I think it would be great then when fighting a new npc the first one or two hits from them have a higher chance of staggering than latter attacks from the same npc. The reason for this is that the first couple of attacks would be a 'shock' to you but then you would just push through it and some staggering chances should decrease.

I went to fort amol and I literally cannot get a shot off before two mages destroyed me and yet I've killed hargravens, wight lords, dragons and deathlords much easier but an apprentice or adept mage can destory me no problem because I can't attack them.

Lastly,I'm loving the no stagger for over time effects and the range dependent staggers for arrows and magic, perhaps this will alleviate my problem. I'm loving your mod

Yes that last point I mentioned in changelog should help with your problem. If you then still get staggered too much I don't think I'll be nerfing the staggers more though... I think at that point you'll want to consider a more careful playstyle where you think of your positioning and try not to go in 1v5

Well the mages in interior cells are the problem mostly. You load in and there is two mages there and your automatically dead. I find that dragons with the Deadly Dragons mod are easier than 2 apprentice mages in confined spaces. Anyway, I will see how it goes with your new update.

How many hours until release please and I will test it for you in fort amol lol

Just doing some final tweaking and a test run I've gotten used to doing every time before a new release, which consists of fast travelling to random locations in skyrim and killing every living thing I see, to test if combat works fine And also gotta eat lunch. And for some reason CK takes a LOOOOOOOOONG time every time I need to launch it, so I'm just trolling forums now whilst waiting for it to finally launch.

But that's not really an answer to your question erm... yeah I'd say a couple hours, 3 hours max

Another suggestion, I think this idea may differentiate you from the other modders.

Perhaps you could give enemies limited pools of stamina and magic like yourself and after they have exhausted it they will resort to melee attacks or whatever else they have. I am finding melee NPC's have unlimited sprints and unlimited power attacks. Mages can cast spells forever without needing to drink potions.

It gets really tedious trying to dodge enemies power attacks when they keep spamming them and then when you run away you run out of stamina but the enemies never does. It would then make weapons that damage stamina and magic pools useful.

I think this would make your mod MUCH bigger

Ok great... try Fort Amol it's "coc FortAmolEntrance" in console command.

Enemies already have limited amounts of stamina, actually in the latest version I'm some times wondering whether they don't run out of stamina too quickly when they block often (though on the other hand I think they should be punished for constantly blocking and doing nothing else ). And in my mod when you block at very low stamina you will still get staggered, even though you blocked, so after beating someone up sometimes his defesive abilities will be greatly reduced.

Magicka idd does seem to be unlimited, though I do think that maybe that feature belongs more in a magic balance mod than this one.

EDIT:

actually nvm, almost post limit so I'll just make a new thread.

Next thread: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1355683-relz-deadly-combat-2/