Can't decide which combat mod ... : V

» Tue Aug 07, 2012 7:07 am

I've only tested ACE - RF and DUEL in collaboration, but there are many more alternatives.

Maybe you tested some or all of them and can help me to decide.
The other major ones are:

Deadly Combat
SkyRe ?
ACE
DUEL
Duke Patrick's

any I missed?

Ah, it should be working with Dawnguard, crowssbow compatibility?

» Mon Aug 06, 2012 9:36 pm

I'd also like to know how they differ from eachother. Right now I'm using ACE but I can't really feel any major difference..

» Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:18 am

Haven't used Duke Patrick's, but I HAVE done the kind of SCA fighting he's modelled it off of, and if it's any kind of accurate, lemme tell you, you're in for some 10min melees with one guy, and some 2 second melees with one guy, and until you get it right, about half the time you'll be the one dying.

From what I remember of most breakdown research I've seen/read/done:

Duke's is very 1v1 balanced, and VERY realistic. All parties slow down when they lose stamina, and since you spend most of the fight at 30% stamina, they're slow going. But first hits can kill for both parties (you and opponent), so unless either of you block/dodge, things CAN end quickly.

ACE: RF is just angle-damage tweaks (more damage from back, etc), states of combat (sleeping = +damage, flat footed = weapon sheathed = more chance to be staggered/crit, etc), some movement speed in combat tweaks, and a few other small bits. More of an addition to other changes, which is why I just use it outright.

Haven't used or read up anything on SkyRe. I just saw that it was a comprehensive overhaul, and didn't really want to touch it. Comprehensive overhauls usually include a lot of things I don't want, so I didn't bother sifting through it. Might eventually, seems highly popular.

The two I've got the most knowledge of are Duel and Deadly Combat.

Duel is very subtle. It's a lot to do with enemy AI, blocking and stamina use, but if I installed Duel on someone's game and they didn't know I had, they'd be hard pressed to notice it WAS installed, save that the enemies they were fighting suddenly got smarter. Duel is an upgrade to the vanilla system without changing any of the base gameplay concepts: hack, slash, shield bash, power attack, etc.

Deadly Combat, however, is like a mid point between Duke Patrick's and Duel. It takes cues from Duel in that stamina, blocking, shield bashing, timed shielding, and advanced AI are now more a part of the game than before, but it also affects gameplay choices indirectly involved in combat. It significantly weakens armor across the board, so in order to reach damage reduction cap, you need at least Daedric armor, 100 smithing and 100 heavy armor, and the cap has even been lowered to 75% damage reduced total, and finicks a bit with movement speed in various armours and attacks, so it will conflict EVER so slightly with ACE, but not enough to be concerned about.

I know for a fact that ACE, Duel and Deadly Combat are all Dawnguard compatible - none yet affect crossbows, but the mods for crossbows are steadily trickling in. It's only a matter of time before these mods update to recognise crossbows and dragonbone weaponry, etc.

Hope this helps!

» Tue Aug 07, 2012 5:04 am

Haven't used Duke Patrick's, but I HAVE done the kind of SCA fighting he's modelled it off of, and if it's any kind of accurate, lemme tell you, you're in for some 10min melees with one guy, and some 2 second melees with one guy, and until you get it right, about half the time you'll be the one dying.

From what I remember of most breakdown research I've seen/read/done:

Duke's is very 1v1 balanced, and VERY realistic. All parties slow down when they lose stamina, and since you spend most of the fight at 30% stamina, they're slow going. But first hits can kill for both parties (you and opponent), so unless either of you block/dodge, things CAN end quickly.

ACE: RF is just angle-damage tweaks (more damage from back, etc), states of combat (sleeping = +damage, flat footed = weapon sheathed = more chance to be staggered/crit, etc), some movement speed in combat tweaks, and a few other small bits. More of an addition to other changes, which is why I just use it outright.

Haven't used or read up anything on SkyRe. I just saw that it was a comprehensive overhaul, and didn't really want to touch it. Comprehensive overhauls usually include a lot of things I don't want, so I didn't bother sifting through it. Might eventually, seems highly popular.

The two I've got the most knowledge of are Duel and Deadly Combat.

Duel is very subtle. It's a lot to do with enemy AI, blocking and stamina use, but if I installed Duel on someone's game and they didn't know I had, they'd be hard pressed to notice it WAS installed, save that the enemies they were fighting suddenly got smarter. Duel is an upgrade to the vanilla system without changing any of the base gameplay concepts: hack, slash, shield bash, power attack, etc.

Deadly Combat, however, is like a mid point between Duke Patrick's and Duel. It takes cues from Duel in that stamina, blocking, shield bashing, timed shielding, and advanced AI are now more a part of the game than before, but it also affects gameplay choices indirectly involved in combat. It significantly weakens armor across the board, so in order to reach damage reduction cap, you need at least Daedric armor, 100 smithing and 100 heavy armor, and the cap has even been lowered to 75% damage reduced total, and finicks a bit with movement speed in various armours and attacks, so it will conflict EVER so slightly with ACE, but not enough to be concerned about.

I know for a fact that ACE, Duel and Deadly Combat are all Dawnguard compatible - none yet affect crossbows, but the mods for crossbows are steadily trickling in. It's only a matter of time before these mods update to recognise crossbows and dragonbone weaponry, etc.

Hope this helps!

Thanks so much for this! I'm using ACE right now but I think I will use deadly combat as well.