About this mod
Defense is more intuitive. Blocking and Armor Ratings are more intuitive and better balanced between you and NPCs. Blocking requires Stamina. Wards block melee attacks.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
A module of SUMMER: Skyrim Universally ‘Mursive Mechanical Expansion & Recalibration
Defense is more intuitive. Blocking and Armor Ratings are visible and better balanced between you and NPCs. Blocking requires Stamina. Wards block melee attacks.
Armor and Block ratings are more intuitive and visible.
- Damage Resistance from armor and blocking shows in the effects menu. There was no way to see this directly previously, as Damage Resistance did not scale linearly to Armor Rating.
- Armor Ratings are more intuitive. Maximum damage resistance corresponds to 500 Armor Rating (0.2% resistance per armor unit), down from 833.33 (0.12%). Armor pieces no longer provide an invisible bonus in addition to their Armor Rating (previously 3% each). What you see in the menu is what you get.
- Armor skills have a weaker effect on Armor Ratings. Armor will provide 1.2x as much protection at maximum skill, down from 1.4x.
- Damage Resistance from armor is capped at 80%, unchanged from vanilla. This makes 400 Armor Rating the functional maximum (80% of 500), and it no longer changes based on the hidden bonus from the number of pieces you are wearing (the maximum could be between 542 and 567 depending on armor count in vanilla).
- NPCs use the same Armor Rating calculation as the player, where previously they received more damage resistance per unit of armor.
- This is all implemented through a small number of settings. This mod does not edit any individual armors' Armor Ratings directly, so does not require patches for other mods that do so.
Cumulatively, these tweaks:
- Make it easier to understand how much damage you will deal to an enemy based on their visible armor, and vice-versa
- Make most enemies less damage-spongy in the early game, and make you less of a damage sponge at high skill levels
- Make low-level armor slightly weaker, keep high-level armors comparably effective, but still allow low-level armors to be effective at high skill levels or with tempering
- Allow you to hit the armor cap with 2 of the 4 options you have to improve armor: skill, tempering, enchantments/potions, and shield/ward spells; as opposed to setting a high cap that you need to use all 4 options to achieve, and which enemies will never achieve.
- Mods that affect specific armors' Armor Ratings or that overwrite the settings above will be accurately reflected in the menu: values are pulled from your armor, perks, and game settings in real time in the menu.
Damage reduction from blocking is visible and more effective.
- Blocking with shields is more effective in general and slightly less dependent on Block skill. The base block rate is increased from 45% to 50%. A Daedric shield at 0 skill will block 52% in vanilla vs. 59% in this mod. At 100 skill, this is 63% vs. 77%.
- Blocking with weapons is less effective at low skill levels vs. the vanilla game, but more effective at high skill levels (almost as effective as shields) . Blocking with an Iron Sword in vanilla would block 34% at 0 skill and 40% at 100. With this mod, it is 31% vs. 45%. It remains less effective than Shields.
- Blocking provides up to 80% Damage Resistance as it does in the vanilla game.
- Damage Resistance from blocking and armor stack as they do in the vanilla game: with the maximum 80% block and 80% armor, you will take only 4% of incoming damage (20% * 20%).
- The amount of damage you block with weapons in vanilla Skyrim increases with based on the attack rating of the weapon you are being attacked with, rather than the weapon you are blocking with, meaning stronger enemy weapons are easier to block. This bug is described here. It is fixed by SSE Engine Fixes and Engine Fixes VR. The Damage Resistance rating shown in the menu assumes you are using those mods. It will work without them, but the values shown will be incorrect.
Blocking drains stamina.
- Stamina will drain slowly as you block to prevent spamming block.
- If you run out of stamina, your shield will drop until you regenerate it.
- Stamina drain from blocking will show in the menu for parallelism with the other tweaks from this module.
Wards can block melee attacks.
- Wards will now block melee attacks (configurable), and will use the base block damage you would have while parrying with your fists (25% using the settings in this module). This makes their effectiveness less than a shield and comparable to parrying (in the Parry module) with the weakest weapons in the game, but makes them visually much more satisfying to use.
- Ward costs have been cut in half: in the vanilla game, they are too expensive for the protection they offer. This makes them more viable as one of mages' only 2 defensive options.
Requirements
- Mandatory: SKSE or SKSE VR
- Recommended: SUMMER main file for the Mod Configuration Menu. The features of this module will work without it, but you will be unable to configure settings.
- Recommended: SkyUI or SkyUI VR for the Mod Configuration Menu.
- Recommended: SSE Engine Fixes or Engine Fixes VR. The mod will work without them, but displayed Block ratings will not align to what's happening in game.
- Optional: SPID or SPID VR will make NPCs also experience features of this module.
- Optional: SKSE Address Library or Address Library VR if using Engine Fixes or SPID (required for those mods).
Compatibility and Troubleshooting
- My Armor Rating is showing as 0%: This will happen on the first time you load the module. Unequip and re-equip any armor and it will work properly from then on.
- No known unexpected incompatibilities. Don't use alongside other mods adding similar features.
- Flagged as ESL
My mods
- SUMMER gameplay mechanics expansion: Special Edition / Legendary
- SPIES secret city entrances: Special Edition / Legendary
- TESSA The Elder Scrolls Soundtrack Additions: Special Edition / Legendary
- Dawn of Hope Redux soundtrack addition: Special Edition / Legendary