Deadly Combat mod for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Special Edition)

Version 1.11 SSE
17 June 2017
Borgut1337

A Special Edition version of one of Classic Skyrim's most popular Combat Mods.

Brodual's #1 Classic Skyrim Combat Mod: (NOTE: this video is about the Classic version, not the SSE version)

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1. Index
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1. Index
2. Requirements
3. Mod Description
4. Installation
5. Uninstallation
6. Incompatibilities
7. Known Issues/Bugs
8. Recommended Mods
9. FAQ
10. Version History
11. Permissions & Disclaimer
12. Contact Information
13. Tools Used
14. Credits

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2. Requirements
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- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (Special Edition) on PC.   (for an Xbox One version, see: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/skyrim/mod-detail/4012304)
- Modern Brawl Bug Fix. Available from: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1473/? (also included in some other mods, but NOT automatically included in this mod)

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3. Mod Description
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The goal of this mod is to make combat in the Special Edition of Skyrim faster-paced and more exciting, to make player skill more important, and to make combat look and feel more impactful. The scope of the mod has been reduced a bit in comparison to the version for the classic version of Skyrim (available from http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/5485/?). A number of small features that I never personally liked have been removed. The mod also no longer re-balances combat by changing any of the numbers related to damage/stamina/armor. For this, I recommend other mods instead (see Section 8). The following features are still in:

(A) Staggering in Combat
Staggering effects (where a Character's current action gets cancelled, and he visibly reacts to getting hit) is much more common in combat. Staggering can frequently occur when characters get hit by any (unblocked) attacks or (unwarded) spells.

(B) Timed Blocking
If a Character (player or NPC) times a block well (meaning that blocking was initialized approximately half a second before intercepting an attack), this counts as a timed block. Timed blocks are significantly more effective. They block more damage, and refund any stamina costs for blocking (blocking by default costs no Stamina, but this can be changed by other mods).

(C) Timed Warding
Timed Warding is similar to blocking, but with Ward spells instead of weapons or shields. If a Ward spell is timed well (meaning that the Ward was created shortly before intercepting a spell), the spell that was cast is reflected back to the original caster.

(D) Scripted Changes to Combat AI
NPCs will sometimes behave a bit differently in combat. If you keep spamming attacks at them, they will be more inclined to start blocking (which can easily result in a timed block for them). You will also sometimes see them playing a quick sideways or backwards dodge animation. The mod will also sometimes make them sprint or roll forwards to close the distance to their opponent more quickly if they're getting hit by ranged attacks. If the player is riding a horse, the mod will also making opponents more inclined to attack the player's horse instead of the player (at least in Classic Skyrim I frequently noticed NPCs not doing anything but stare at the player, if the player was too high on top of the horse for them to get in range for a hit). This feature does not conflict with mods that impleemnt AI changes through Combat Styles.

(E) Blocking Physical Attacks with Wards (NEW in SSE version 1.10!)
Magical Ward spells now interact with physical attacks (melee and projectiles from bows/crossbows) in similar ways as shields do. Melee attacks that collide with your Ward are now treated by the game in exactly the same way as melee attacks hitting a shield when blocking. This means that when a melee attack hits your Ward spell, the damage will be reduced, your Block skill can increase, and your Stamina is reduced if you have any mods installed that make blocking cost Stamina (such as Wildcat). If you time it very well, it will even be registered as a Timed Block by this mod, but that is difficult to pull off because the animation to cast a Ward spell is typically longer than the animation to start blocking with a shield. Arrows and crossbow bolts from enemies that you are facing towards will now deal no damage if you have a Ward active, and they will visibly bounce off of the Ward (instead of getting stuck in your body).
- NOTE: all of this also works for NPCs that are casting Wards.
- NOTE: if you don't care about any other features from this mod, you can get this feature standalone in the separate Wards Act Like Shields
mod.

All of the features in this mod are added through new scripts. They will all affect any NPC (doesn't matter if they're from the base game, or some DLC, or another mod). They all affect the Player and NPCs in similar ways (except for the AI feature, because adding AI to the Player character would be weird). This mod does rely quite a bit on scripting. This is generally perfectly safe, and won't cause crashing or save bloat, BUT it does increase the load on the scripting engine and CPU. It can cause problems (in that scripts will respond slowly, which can cause strange results and look funny) if you have a low-end CPU and/or other mods which add crazy amounts of NPCs. From my own personal experience in Classic Skyrim, Warzones with default settings is not crazy enough to cause problems yet on a 2.67 GHz CPU. Multiple NPC-adding mods on a 10-years old laptop may be problematic.

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4. Installation
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Like any other mod, install through the Nexus Mod Manager or simply make sure the .bsa and .esp files are placed in the Skyrim\Data\ directory. Make sure the plugin (.esp file) is also activated.

I recommend placing the plugin relatively low/late in the load order, but before plugins such as a bashed patch or other kinds of mergers. Ultimately the load order shouldn't matter much though, since this variant of the mod only adds new features through scripts and doesn't change any existing records.

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5. Uninstallation
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Uninstalling scripted mods can be dangerous in the middle of a playthrough. To be safe, try to follow the following steps first (some may not be necessary, but it's good to try to be as safe as possible):

- Use the in-game configuration power to deactivate the mod
- Try to go to a location in-game with few or no NPCs (entering "coc qasmoke" in the console would work well)
- Use the in-game waiting function to wait a while (for example, 24 hours).
- Save the game, then deactivate and uninstall the mod (either through NMM, or by simply deleting the files originally installed).
- Now it should be safe to load your saved game again and continue. To be even more safe, you can google around a bit to see if there are any other safety tips for uninstalling scripted mods in Skyrim. If you used the console command to enter the quality assurance cell "qasmoke", you can similarly teleport back to the regular game world using, for example, "coc whiterun".

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6. Incompatibilities
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This mod changes very few existing records, and almost exlclusively adds new records and scripts. This means that it is compatible with almost every mod.

Some mods that people specifically asked about:
- Combat Evolved: Compatible on a technical level. Based on user reports, also compatible on a gameplay-level.
- Wildcat: Compatible, and also recommended (with some features disabled through configuration). See Section 8 on Recommended Mods.
- Smilodon: Compatible, and I suppose similar recommendations hold as for Wildcat. I never personally looked into exactly what the differences are between Wildcat and Smilodon.
- Ordinator: There is an optional compatibility patch available, please see: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/articles/170/?

The only record existing in the base game that has been changed by this mod is the ImpactData record for Arrows. This was necessary to make arrows bounce off of Wards, instead of going through them and piercing the player. This means that I suspect that there may be a very small (but not critical) incompatibility with Sound Overhaul mods which may edit the same record to change the sound of Arrows hitting various objects (but Immersive Sounds Compendium is compatible according to user reports for example, I suspect Immersive Sounds Compendium may be such a mod, but I did not check this). There are three different ways in which you could use such a mod together with Deadly Combat:

1) Load Deadly Combat before any such mod. This will cause arrows to no longer bounce off of Ward spells (their damage will still be reduced, the only difference is purely visual).
2) Load Deadly Combat after any such mod. This will cause the sounds to revert back to the vanilla sounds for arrows specifically (any other sounds changed by such a mod will still be changed just fine).
3) You could try merging the changes into a new plugin, using a tool such as SSEEdit.

Not compatible with:
- Wards Act Like Shields: the same feature is already included in this mod.

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7. Known Issues/Bugs
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1) When you get hit by arrows/bolts and you have a Ward up, you may still see blood effects and/or hear your character reacting as if they were hit, even though the projectiles visibly bounce off of the Ward and don't hit your character.
2) When melee attacks are blocked by a Ward spell, it can sound like the weapon struck a metal object (like a shield). I would prefer something sounding a bit more magical, but this would create many more incompatibilities with mods such as Enhanced Blood Textures.

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8. Recommended Mods
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- Mortal Enemies SE (available from: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/4881/?).

I have not actually played a lot with this mod yet, but it looks very interesting and I am planning to play with it myself.

- Wildcat (available from: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/1368/?).

This does a lot of the tweaking of numbers (damage, stamina costs, armor) in ways that I liked better than similar features in the Classic Skyrim version of Deadly Combat. I removed them from Deadly Combat so that I can use Wildcat for such changes instead. In the latest version of Wildcat available at the time of writing this (version 6.02 for SSE), there is a configuration power available. I recommend using it to tweak the mod as follows, but you can of course make your own choices as you like:

- No (Default) for "Disable Dynamic Combat"
- All default options for Attacks Cost (stamina costs for attacking removed from SSE version of Deadly Combat)
- Whatever you prefer for "Disable Pulled/Held Bow Stamina Cost"
- No (Default) for "Disable Health Based Regeneration"
- No (Default) for "Disable Slow at 0 Stamina"
- Whatever you prefer for "Disable Swimming Stamina Cost"
- No (Default) for "Activate Full Body Stagger" (although it may not matter a lot what you choose here, since Deadly Combat probably automatically overrides it).
- Yes for "Disable Injuries" (if you really like them it's probably safe to leave them on. I personally prefer turning Injuries off because they feel very "game-y" to me due to effects being chosen at random).
- Yes for "Disable Bow Interrupts" (the staggering features in Deadly Combat should make this specific case obsolete, Deadly Combat implements these kinds of staggers regardless of whether or not an actor is pulling back his bow).
- Yes for "Disable Timed Block" (Deadly Combat has its own Timed Blocking feature. In Deadly Combat, there is only an 0.5 seconds window for blocks to count as Timed Block, instead of a 1 second window. I personally prefer this, but the implementation that makes this possible does come at the cost of slightly increased CPU usage through more scripting).
- No (Default) for "Disable Attacks of Opportunity".
- No (Default) for "Disable Backstabs".
- No (Default) for "Disable Health Based Attack Damage".
- No (Default) for "Disable Penalties vs. Massive Targets".
- No (Default) for "Disable Melee Damage Boost" (The SSE version of Deadly Combat no longer contains any changes to game settings or other changes that affect the amount of damage that is dealt. It only contains the core scripted features that I feel are necessary to make combat look and feel more impactful and fast-paced).
- Keep (Default) for "Disable Configuration Power" (useful in case you change your mind later on for any of the options you've chosen).

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9. FAQ
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- Can you implement/change <insert some feature>?
No. I do not plan to spend a lot more time on modding. I primarily create mods for myself, and then just share them in case anyone else also happens to like what I created. The source files of my scripts are included in the download, so if anyone thinks something should be added or changed, they are free to do so (assuming they give me credit for my work when sharing any changes).

- Can you add an MCM configuration menu?
At the time of writing this, no, because SKSE hasn't been released yet for SSE. When it releases... I don't think I'll feel like putting in the work to add one. But if anyone else does feel like putting in that work, they are free to do so.

- Can you upload this on another page, like bethesda.net?
No, I don't like uploading to that page personally. Anyone else is free to upload it there themselves though, assuming that 1) they give me credit for the work I have done, and 2) clearly state that users of that page should not start bothering me for support.

- Can you create a console version of this mod?
Same answer as for the above question.
Note: Xbox One version now available here: https://bethesda.net/en/mods/skyrim/mod-detail/4012304

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10. Version History
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1.11 (17 June 2017)
- Fixed a bug where scripts were not correctly distributed as quickly as they should among NPCs.

1.10 (22 March 2017)
- Added feature where magical Wards can interact with physical attacks, and have similar functionality to shields.

1.02 (12 March 2017)
- A small change where the mod now more frequently checks how much Stamina a regular block costs. In vanilla Skyrim, this is always zero. Mods can change this value, and if they do, my mod makes sure to refund that much Stamina again for timed blocks. My mod only checked the value once upon loading the game though, which meant that it would not get updated if the value would change during gameplay (most likely case for this happening would be using in-game configuration options from a mod to change this value in-game, which I believe is not even possible at the time of this writing and would require SKSE).

1.01 (11 March 2017)
- Re-saved a magic effect which still had a script property that had been removed from the script file since it was no longer required. Will stop a warning message from appearing in logs if you have Papyrus logging turned on (which you shouldn't during normal gameplay). Upgrading to this version from 1.00 should not be necessary if you don't have logging turned on, and any kinds of clean-save procedures also should not be necessary if you do decide to upgrade from 1.00 to 1.01.

1.00 (11 March 2017)
- Initial release for Skyrim Special Edition

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11. Permissions & Disclaimer
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- THIS MATERIAL IS NOT MADE, GUARANTEED OR SUPPORTED BY ZENIMAX OR ITS AFFILIATES.

- ALL FILES IN THE DOWNLOAD ARE PROVIDED ''AS IS'' WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY
OR GUARANTEE OF ANY KIND. IN NO EVENT CAN THE AUTHOR BE HELD RESPONSIBLE
FOR ANY CLAIMS, WHETHER OR NOT THEY ARE RELATED TO THE DOWNLOAD.

- Feel free to redistribute this mod in unedited form on any page other than nexusmods.com, under the conditions that 1) you give me credit for the work I have done, 2) clearly state that any users of whatever page you upload to should not start bothering me for support, and 3) you are not asking users to pay for the mod.
- Feel free to redistribute this mod in edited form on nexusmods.com (or any other page), under the same conditions as above.
- Looking at how I implemented features and using some parts in other mods is fine, assuming that 1) you give me credit for the work I have done, and 2) you are not asking users to pay for the mod.
- Feel free to feature this mod in any kinds of videos. I would appreciate if you can include a link to the mod page somewhere, and if you could let me know about featuring the mod in any videos such that I can also link to it from the mod page.

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12. Contact Information
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I will probably keep an eye on the comments section for a few days after uploading this to the nexus, to see if any important issues occur early on. After that, I will go into hibernation again (meaning that I'll be playing Skyrim myself instead of looking at the comments section). I can still be contacted on the nexus by PM for any really important questions or messages. With ''important'' I don't mean questions that you could answer yourself by reading the readme, those should still go into the comments section where other people may be able to help you out if they're feeling nice.

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13. Tools Used
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- The Creation Kit
- SSEEdit 3.2 (available from: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/164/?)
- Notepad
- Notepad++

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14. Credits
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Thanks to:

- Bethesda Game Studios, for Skyrim and the Creation Kit