BlackCompany

This is a damned fine idea. The dog would have a much better life with Lod than with you. Safer, anyway. And there's still Vigilance, a trained war hound, as well. Wow...such a neat, immersive idea. Stuff like this would lend credence to the idea that you affect the world with your decisions. I hope Bethesda, or someone, takes note and makes this happen.

Add a keyword to your armor. Probably want to use something armormaterial leather or armormaterial hide. This will let you temper the armor once you have the associated smithing perk. This is the arbitrary method Bethesda used to separate smithing into multiple, yet utterly identical, perks.

I think the 'Apply Combat Hit spell' will work. Try a condition of getequippeditemtype == 0 on the weapon tab of the Perk Entry Point. This should check to see if you are using your fists. I really thought this works...tried it once myself and if I recall correctly, it did work. The only caveat was that I had to check both right and left hand, and they both had to be type 0, or empty of weapons, to work. in addition, you can add multiple seffects to the on-contact spell you create. If you want shock, fire and ice, add three effects. The healing of the player when they are striking is tougher. I recommend this: In the same perk, add an ability. Give it your buff/healing/resilience effects. For each effect, use these conditions: getequippeditem type right == 0 AND getequippeditemtype left == 0 AND isweaponout == 1 AND isincombat == 1 AND isblocking == 0 Now your healing/buffing takes place only when ALL of these are true. it is not perfect, but so long as the player has no weapon other than fists equipped, the fists are readied, they are in combat and they are NOT blocking, your buffs will apply. Its almost as good as a tight script, and its a damned site easier than the disastrous mess that is papyrus. I too have tried working with this language (too me two weeks to learn Oblivion/Fallout script language) but this object-oriented stuff, coupled with Bethesda's underwhelming "Informationless Wiki" isn't helping me this time round. Really hope this helps because its a cool idea and better than casting spells with the new hot key system. Hope this helps.

Combat animations. Because watching characters swing 2H weapons like baseball bats is a hopeless reminder of just how truly inept, out of touch and outdated Skyrim's anmations - and the people who created them - really are. With these combat animations we may as well go back to turn based. It would be an improvement over this crap. Also, dodging...cause...why the hell was it removed. Quick stepping, backward hop...it doesn't have to be a Witcher 2 Somersault...but for the love of Talos...something, please. Were I in charge of Bethesda I would keep the team who worked on the dungeons and the mini stories that went with them...and use them as the core of a new team to replace everyone else, who I would promptly fire.

There are a ton of things Bethesda could have done better in Skyrim. But encounters like the ones discussed here are not one of them. The ability to encounter - by surprise - boss or assassin who can just...wreck you...at any point is a nice change of pace. Mine, was Ansilvund. I don't even know what I fought in that place. I had a level 40 warrior, decked out in the Dragon Scale armor, Legendary Waraxe with the bleeding perks, et al. He was...Boss...for lack of a better term. The job was innocuous. go in, recover a lost sword. Get back. No big deal. Been there, done that. Then something rose up out of that coffin and sailed in my direction. It let go a deep-voiced Shout...not some scared, high pitched-scream, but a deep-throated call that shook the room. My world spun; a second later I picked myself up off the floor, unglued my back from a wall - and walked into a wall of flame I'd not seen since the battle with Alduin. I didn't make it back out of that ruin with the sword. Never tried it again, either. Want to go another round with Skyrim, another character with a modded playthrough. To make things, oddly enough, even more difficult. But these sorts of encounters...Bethesda really nailed them. I will give them that.

I think Bethesda changed the way Smithing works in 1.5. I believe it is no longer possible to power level smithing as was previously the case. Lost Art might also slow it down, though, I don't think so, since I also use this mod and remember (accidentally) power leveling smithing with the mod installed. Might want to double check me, but I do believe its the patch that slows it down. I think, as you make higher level gear, it will increase faster.

Nice to see what people are working on. Think my biggest one now is a reworking of my Deadly Enemies mod. This is part of the skybalance pack I released recently, but to be honest, I was unhappy with the "compromise" I used to get NPC's and enemies to wound the character. Primarily I was unhappy about three things: 1. Wounds being diseases. This means Vampires/Werewolves cannot be wounded. Ever. Even in Daylight/Human form. Not good. 2. Wounds as diseases are too easy to get rid of, and can be negated during combat with a potion. 3. Diseases have no tick-down time (no time limit) and cannot heal over time. I wanted wounds to be able to do this. So, the reworking uses he 'apply combat hit spell' perk entry point. When the player is not blocking, NPC's have a seriously significant chance to wound (and stagger) the player. The higher your stamina stays, the safer you are. Mind you, I play with a combat mod which requires stamina to attack and block, and increases stamina required to bash. I use another mod with stamina drains for potion toxicity. Wounds due to low stamina (being tired, letting your guard down) in my game - are a serious threat. Especially in group fights. And wounds are bad news. There are two types: Bleeding drains health and health regen rate. Effects heal over real time, from hours to days. Bruising drains stamina and stamina regen, and sometimes carry weight. Effects heal faster than bleeding, but the hits delivering bruising wounds stagger harder. Bleeding wounds are delivered principally with edged weapons, and bruising wounds come mostly from bashing or blunt/hafted weapons. Moreover, effects heal differently. The most severe effect heals in less time than the least severe, simulating your getting gradually better over time. You might bleed badly for a day (drain health) and bleed slightly when you stress yourself for two days (drain health rate.) If this works out as planned I will have an update for my deadly enemies mod by the weekend. And potentially a beta for testers before then. So, that's the big focus. Then my new race mod. Who wants auto-flame-cloak on their dark elf when their health is <= 50%? I do, I do! And, it works.

Well, the "convenient dungeon exit" is annoying after a while. I admit: I liked it, at first. I really did. But yeah, its gotten hopelessly hokey now. And the quests....dear god, the quests...the writing. These things are just....terrible. Believe it or not I am still modding Skyrim, against the day when we will really have something to do in the game that is worthy of time investment. I have combat enhancing mods, stealth overhaul mods, magic overhauls, loot balancers...of this, in the pipeline, tested and working so far, and partly released. Not because I want to play Skyrim again. But just in case the quest mods actually come one day and we are able to really enjoy Bethesda's empty, shallow world for something more. And as for Bethesda...I now look upon them as a developer of kid's console games. I for one am no customer of theirs any more.

This is why I honestly enjoy games like the Witcher 2, where you play a given protagonist. Sure you cannot create "your character." But you can choose where your focus is on Alchemical Buffs, magical signs or weapon skills. You can choose a morally grey path, pick sides, choose allegiances and enemies...all of which impact the game world. But more importantly for immersion: you can see yourself meditate, drinking potions, wiping sweat from your brow. You can HEAR YOUR CHARACTER SPEAK and hear him interact with the world. Since games such as Mass Effect/Witcher 2 only have to animate and voice one character (or two, if there exists a female option) this lets the devs create a character with far more interaction with the world. Consequently, these characters just mean...more. I would frankly love it if the next Elder Scrolls adopted a more personal story. No more saving the world. No more ten races. Give me one or two fully voiced race choices and a tighter narrative, with voice acting and animations for my character. Because we have seen the alternative path, and really, I am not impressed by Bethesda's constant corner-cutting, shortcut style of development. If Skyrim is any indication, the Next Bethesda "RPG" won't be worth buying for at least the first six months - if its ever worth the money at all.

Leave it Bethesda to find new ways to highlight their embarrassingly bad writing and poor skills with AI and NPC behavior. As if their mediocre, recycled, canned idle animations running during dialogues were not bad enough, they go and do...this. Whatever this is. And anyway...who wanted this feature in Skyrim? I mean...who the hell. As if being married in real life ain't bad enough - I know many married couples and am still waiting to meet a happy one - who wanted it as a feature in a game about exploration and adventure? I mean, maybe if they'd had some story-based reason to encounter a bride to be, and a building relationship between two primary characters...ok, its still patently ridiculous to me, but I might have been able to at least understand the option. Especially if they cleverly used time lapsing and spread the main quest across in game months/years. As many a Hollywood writer can attest, shoving two strangers into life-threatening situations with only one another to rely upon can and often does serve as a contrived reason for a hokey, poorly thought out romantic trist. But this...this is pitiful. This is embarrassing. I no longer want people knowing I play Skyrim, because every time I say it now, its "Oh, the game with all those naked characters/armored lingerie/marrying people in a video game, how ridiculous comments." I remember a day when RPG's used to be for adults. The intended audience was one who wanted to use their brains to solve creative challenges, explore a world and use their knowledge of that world to work through challenges and slay enemies in clever, creative ways and against all odds. These games once were the domain of grown ups. I miss those days.

Good point here. Navigating the Skyrim world just is not fun. There is so little room for exploration. And much of what is there to explore requires vertical movement. Which is about as fun as a root canal. Hello, Bethesda: If you intend to feature mountains prominently, you might want to make scaling the mountains possible. Just a hint. I can second the notion regarding the mountains. Realistic as they are...in real life I can scramble over rocks and such. skyrim makes this impossible, and as such makes navigating the world much less fun. Coupled with the dumbed down RPG and the shallow world...well, i think its about time RPG fans began looking elsewhere than Bethesda for our "fix."

Adding NPC's can CTD your game for a number of reasons: -Conflicting AI packs. Someone has NPC's trying to do two things at once. Historically, Bethesda games could not handle this -Moved the wrong object. Some objects just should never be moved. If, in the process of adding NPC's, one of these objects/references was moved...CTD These are two highly unlikely causes. More likely still: -Your rig simply is not handling the additional NPC's very well. Additional NPC's mean additional armor and weapon meshes, animations running, AI Packs to track and potentially even scripts to run. You might want to consider posting your rig specs when posting about CTD, as well as load order. This might help troubleshoot the issue.

Skyrim's chief problems are its shallow progression, disconnected quests and a total lack of contextual believability. Character progression is a series of numbers and perks. Moreover, some jackass decided we did not even need to see our perks in game. Anywhere. They just...done show up. There is no fallout-style "Perks" screen in the menus so we can actually see our progression. Utterly stupid. Moreover, it does not matter whether we are only slightly good at something - skill level 30 - or a master at it. Guards start talking us up as if we have a "reputation" akin to Gandalf or Robin Hood whenever the associated skill reaches the amazing level of 30. Again, ridiculous. Guessing which perks affect what because you cannot see them, and hearing about your incredible "reputation" beginning at level 30, combine to make character progression something of a joke. And then, quests. Utterly disconnected. Utterly without consequence. Want to lead a guild of horrid assassins? ok, do that. Want to then be the Archmage, too? Sure thing, no problem. How about a Master Thief - sneaking, safe cracking - and master Warrior - heavy armor, safe smashing - at the same time? No problem. Kill indiscriminately, people will still trust you without question. Go to forts, where there live people minding their own, or even worse, mines, where you find armed men who might, or might not, be bandits, actively working the mine. And kill them. Every. Last. One. Whether you are working for the Jarl or the Dark Brotherhood means absolutely nothing, if every quest just asks you to kill people. With their empty dialogue and lack of emotion, a village NPC is every bit as emotionally devoid as a random bandit, so who cares which one I kill. Bethesda tried - and failed - to flesh out characters, and the result is a big lot of characters whose names I cannot even recall and about whom I cannot be bothered to care in the least. I've talked to toasters with more feeling than General Tulius (FONV.) Not that it matters. Because role playing games, in order to be fun, must feature something I like to call "Contextual Believability." That is, within the context of the world, lore and situation they create, they must be believable. If Dragons are a big enough threat in the world, why aren't more people cowering in fear? Digging bunkers in case of Dragon raids? Improving the old wilderness forts as a means of using them as safe havens for the people in smaller villages? Were I chief of the defenses for Rorikstead, I'd be moving the bandits out of Greymoor and moving the villagers in, just in case. Of course, it wouldn't matter if you did because, as someone said, bandits have mages in sufficient number (well, not in my game, no more bandit mages, ever) to just put down an entire army at will. Skyrim is shallow, the quests disconnected and the world itself not in the least believable. I can buy into the fiction of Amalur far more than that of Skyrim. Bethesda have fallen far since Morrowind. They really have begun making RPG's for people who don't like the RPG. Now, I just wish someone would make an RPG for people who do like an rpg.

Thanks for this. Turning if off today. No more CK opening delay. And no more having to move all but 10 saves to another folder to avoid 5 minute sync times. So handy to know. Thanks.

Came late to the party. just finished Witcher 2. Good thing for Skyrim, that, cause I would likely have passed on this game had I been playing Witcher 2 when Bethesda released the game. Witcher 2 is simply that good. So now, of course, I sit here, thinking, considering. Mulling ideas, as it were. I want to make Skyrim...darker...somehow. Lore friendly or not I don't particularly care. Finished my initial, lore-friendly, be-the-good-guy playthrough. Now I'm running about in Raven armor with two weapons on my back, one of them silver with a wolf's head on the hilt. And I'm thinking. About Werewolves spawning, intelligently, on the map. Maybe they have their own areas where they frequent. Maybe they only spawn in those areas. Or maybe they are rare/nighttime only spawns. About Vampires slinking along roads in the dark. Maybe attacking villages like Falkreath or Riverwood or other open towns. Others could disguise themselves as non-hostile travelers, who will stop and talk, giving you the choice of fighting them, or not. About the occasional dead bodies lying about outside caves. Or even on the outskirts of villages. Of course, they would be disabled by day, and then "turned on" at night, complete with blood stains, to lend credence to stories of nighttime raids. About vigilant of stendarr who have suddenly swapped robes for real armor, and torches for real weapons. Because Skyrim has suddenly become that sort of place. Basically, I am thinking about a mod akin to Random Encounters, or even Warzones...but with monster spawns, vampire spawns...ghosts...many of which would need scripting for nighttime appearances only. If anyone else has any ideas on things that could make Skyrim a little darker, and lend the wilderness a sense of foreboding it severely lacks, I would love to hear them. And I am sure others would be interested as well.

Greetings all. I know there are a lot of ideas running around out there. Lot of projects, too. So...thought I'd stop and ask what folks are up. Me personally, testing two mods: -Major magic overhaul of all perks and spells. More subtle effects. More poweful spells + much slower combat magicka regen. The focus is subtle but powerful, instead of explosive but mediocre. -Witcher style potions. Potions such as Detect Life + Night Eye, damage enhancement and reduction, and spell magnitude increases. Also, Sword Oils that allow you to deal Bleeding, Damage or Chance-based Freezing Damage for a duration of up to 10mins real time. Since they are more powerful, all potions feature "toxicity." This drains your overall Stamina while the potion is active. The potions are good, but you are limited as to how many you should use at once. As the game progresses, you will be able to handle increased "toxicity" levels based on your stamina increases. Coupled with a combat system like mine that makes stamina relevant for blocking and attacking, this makes managing more powerful potions a rewarding challenge. All potions are made with Ale (Lesser) or Alto Wine (stronger) as a base, and use other ingredients as well, from one other to 4 or 5 others, depending on strength and potion type. Sword oils are different. They need an oil base - either Dwarven oil, or from animal fat. For this reason, Troll Fat has been renamed to Animal Fat (Blubber) and placed on death lists for larger animals. (It was this, or create numerous types of fat, with a new recipe for each.) Larger animals provide more fat, and animals smaller than sabre cats and deer have no significant quantity. Animal Fat base makes lesser oil; dwarven oil base makes better, longer-lasting oil. So far its fun. Nice to have truly powerful, yet balanced, potions. And the oils mean no more one-hit poisons. Drove me nuts, after playing Witcher 2. So...what is everyone up to. Say hello and let us know what's in the works for Skyrim.

This is happening in my case, too. All part of Bethesda's idiotic "psychic greetings" system. Due to dialogue conditions for certain auto-greetings, Bethesda NPC's "know" whether you are good at sneaking/magic/fighting etc, just by looking at you. Worse still, they comment on it tirelessly. I am testing a race overhaul that, among other things, makes the Ancestor's Wrath an auto-ability. It is "always on" but hidden when your weapon is away. When you have health below 50%, and your weapon is out, it turns on. Doesn't matter to NPC's however. Nope, since its always on - even when you cannot see it due to its being hidden by conditions - they forever tell you to get that dangerous magic away from them. Utterly f***ing idiotic. And to make it worse, this is the third game to feature the same system, which no one in the known universe actually likes or enjoys listening to.

This is now done: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=13673 Note: The skulls are on the Death Item list for all trolls and frost trolls, so checking their inventory with the console why they are still alive will not reveal the skulls. Dead trolls will always drop a skull, however. All the credit is yours for the mod, and I listed you as author since really, you made the mod as far as I am concerned. I just moved the items onto the list. Thanks for the idea! Special Note 2: Doing it this way allowed me to let trolls drop loot without changing the trolls themselves. So, this is 100% compatible with overhaul mods which make trolls tougher/smarter/faster etc. It might overwrite any changes made to the death items they drop, but that's pretty minor when compared to the alternative of changing the troll inventory and breaking compatibility with overhaul/wildlife mods entirely. Enjoy!

Are you sure its a conflict? Which mods cause it? Have you tried disabling one? And are you familiar enough with "conflicts" to know which ones to ignore, and which need your attention? just reply back, and I will help if I can.

Have a wildlife mod I am working on. Thanks for pointing this out. It will be done in my mod before I release it - and I am probably releasing it this weekend. You have a very good point here: You see Troll Skull trophies all over the game. So...why not be able to take them when you kill a troll? Provided the item is a miscellaneous one, and can be added to an inventory or leveled list, I will do this. If this turns out to be possible, I will also do a quick, standalone version of the mod, in case you use other wildlife mods. Wow...so simple, and yet so important for immersion. Fantastic suggestion.

This is a quick mod I cooked up the other day when I got beat down while fighting an Orc Bandit with an Enchanted 2H weapon. I blocked numerous strikes (using a mod that actually lets you block damage) and so was not watching my health closely. Then, I died. Only after the fight, did I realize...The weapon enchantment killed me. The boss never even landed a successful hit. But the weapon enchantment triggered anyway. So, I died. Now, I would like to use a weapon that could do that. Except for two problems: 1. I would eventually need to use the shitty recharging system, and 2. It would completely defenestrate every change I have ever made to try and balance combat. In fact, it literally does do that. Vanilla weapon enchantments are annoying. Hence, this mod. What it does: -Enchantments will no longer expire on weapons. This isn't cheating. Keep reading, please. -Enchantment damage is DRAMATICALLY reduced. A high level weapon enchantment will ONLY add between 5 - 10 TOTAL damage on strike. Much of that is over time, and no longer immediate -Enchantment damage ONLY triggers, if the target struck IS NOT Actively Blocking the strike. Now you can no longer use enchantments to win fights by setting your opponent's shield on fire. -Absorb Health is gone. Gaining health during what it supposed to be the most dangerous time in the game - combat - ruins the game. Thematically, emotionally, technically in terms of balance, Absorb Health enchanting a weapon ruins games. I have never played a game where this was not true. -Poison Strike replaces Absorb Health. This enchantment damages health far more than elemental damage, but does over an extended period of time. Other versions damage Stamina in the same way. Its a slow burn, and means you will still need to fight, though it will wear down your foe in time. I suspect some people will love this mod and others hate it. That's fine, but for those who would like it, I am very close to releasing a Beta version of it. My number one concern: Does replacing an enchantment outright, such as in the case of Absorb Health, affect enchanting? I never played an enchanter - knew from the get go it would break my game balance if I did - and so I have no way to test this effectively. Plus, enchanted weapons are so rare in my game I hardly see them. That Orc was the first one in 10 levels to have one, a change I enjoy, especially in Skyrim. Other than that this works fine, as testing has revealed, and I would like to put it out there for the community.

I shall endeavor to get these uploaded today around about 4 - 5pm ET. If not, they will be up as an open Beta test by tomorrow around 12n ET. Also forgot to mention: -I lowered the max armor rating to 70 from 80 in my Tweaks. Was already considering lowering it more, though, since I agree that, at higher levels, you actually have so much armor you can just stand in the path of oncoming Warhammer blows and not flinch. Think I will go ahead and accommodate the 50 request before release. -Also, for each Perk taken in my Smithing tree, I lower the speed of smithing skill increases 5%. When you take Arcane Smith or Advanced Armors, it goes down another 10%. Taking every perk in the tree can slow down smithing development by as much as 50% or so (forget the exact amount, its a lot). Reasoning: The more you know of something, the harder you have to work to find new knowledge. The better you are at something, the harder you have to try to get better still. I have a lot more to learn about kung fu, for instance, and far more room for improvement, than Bruce Lee did during his peak, for instance. I will see about getting this whole mod pack up. My loot mod is ready to go, too....but it changes a couple of things beyond just loot (like adding the Silver Sword script to Dawnbreaker) so load order is key there for many people. But it makes loot rare. And I mean rare. Bandit camps will sometimes yield 30 total gold, on a good day, and most NPC's - bandits, et al - have a couple of gold if you're lucky, for realism. Loot is semi-regional and class/faction based as well. Will see about posting this soon. The mods are done, and even tested for many hours now. Just like to be sure before releasing.

Had this same problem before even the first patch released. Seems if you fight a named dragon twice - and you can, if you find the dragon first, then get a bounty quest to kill it after you have already done so - seems that, if this happens, you only get the soul the first time. Annoying, but not unexpected. Seems the Dragon's death should just...resolve the bounty, even if you have not gotten it yet. Something I hope Bethesda fixes.

Got a rework of my rebalance mods I've been testing for over a month now. Calling the package 'Skybalance' for flavor, if no other reason. Thought someone might be interested, especially since a big focus is making combat tougher, turning it into something you can "feel" and that has impact and consequence. Something that makes enemies more dangerous without just using bigger health bars, damage reflection and that garbage. In case anyone might be interested enough for a release, here are some notes. Also note, this is highly modular, allowing you to pick and choose esp files: ======================== Skkybalance Combat Tweaks ======================== Modifies: Game settings related to combat and stamina use, and combat styles +++++++++++++++++ Changes - Settings: -Increased chance of stagger to 80% from 50% -Successful block leaves less than 5% chance you will be staggered by game settings -Normal attacks use 10 stamina (base) -Blocking now uses 20 stamina (base) -Increased base stamina regen (to 0.5 from 0.35) -Slight increase to power attack stamina -Increased power attack cooldown for NPC's -Dramatic increase (to 95% from about 20%) that NPC's will bash +++++++++++++++++++ Changes - Combat Styles -increased fallback odds, bashing and blocking for NPC's -Increased movement/flanking -Tweaked styles to fit intent. Berserkers are more aggressive, bosses more balanced and smarter. -Low level NPC styles are slightly "dumber" than higher levels and bosses. The latter block, bash and fall back more often and more intelligently than low level thugs. ========================= Skybalance Combat - Perks ========================= -Overhauls and frees up all Perks in: Heavy/Light armor; 1H/2H; Smithing; Archery -NO MORE Prerequisite perks. Take any perk in a tree based only on your skill level in that skill. Exception: stacked perks like Skullcrusher -***Beginner perks level up with you. Now you need only take the first perk (ex: armsman/barbarian) 1 time. Your weapon/bow damage or armor rating will increase as you level up the associated skill. No more taking armsman 5 times. (later versions of basic perks tweaked for new effects.) -Beginning with Armsman/Barbarian00, weapon strikes on Smaller enemies and NPC's who are not blocking will stagger -Many perks made much more useful. Others more balanced. Mace perk now only grants armor reduction against light armor. Skullcrusher allows Warhammers chance to stagger opponents blocking with shields, and can stagger those blocking with weapons always at higher levels. -Bleeding damage added to swords as well as axes. Includes silver & mod-added swords made using Dragonscale/Dragonbone AUTOMATICALLY, so long as the author used vanilla armor materials keyword for their weapons. -By skill level 25, blocking will now block 100% of incoming damage, or 95% with weapon. (With above esp file, must have stamina to block, otherwise, blocking does nothing) ====================== Skybalance - Deadly NPC's ====================== Purpose: Tougher, more dangerous NPC's. No Cheap tricks. No "reflect damage" shenanigans. NO Bigger Health bars or damage sponges. Use with at least Combat Tweaks for maximum effect. ***Changes almost EVERY Template NPC and Draugr in the game. Changes EVERY Random Spawning Werewolf. I had to add abilities and perks to them somehow,. Sorry. -Enemies now stagger each other/player when their foe is not actively blocking. Active on hundreds of NPC's/Draugr. Combat is much, much more dangerous. -New "disease" type: Wound. Between 5% - 20% chance of wounds from combat. Some are minor: reduced health/stamina regen. Some are worse, and will drain total health/stamina while inflicted. Concussion "wound" will drain total magicka but can only happen if you are not wearing a helm, and has a small chance besides. -Three ways to treat wounds: Cure Disease (its a powerful potion); Visit a shrine; Use a bandage. Craft these from Linen/Leather, healing potion (salve) and leather strips (to tie it in place.) Bandages only work outside of combat, when your weapon is put away and you can use one properly. -NPC's have dramatically decreased health regen while in bleedout state. Many NPC's and Draugr will take far longer to bleed out. -**Changed Vanilla Werewolf creatures. They now deal bleeding damage against those wearing less than 2 pieces of heavy armor, and can stagger when you are not blocking. Can also wound. Had to change ALL vanilla creature-only "random" spawning Werewolves. Sorry, no other sane way to do it. Also buffed their damage resistance and health regen slightly.** (Not to make them "damage sponges, but because they are werewolves.) -Unnerfed damage from low level NPC's. Many bandits and Draugr at lower levels have a hidden perk which cuts damage dealt to the player in half. I changed this to reduce the damage by only about 80 - 90% depending on the NPC/Character. Much tougher but still manageable low level enemies. Much less forgiving early spawns. -Falmer can now wound you (same as above with wounds), in addition to their Poison damage on every strike -Load Order Recommendation: AFTER anything that changes NPC's and Werewolves. Wilderness Creatures not changed. The above three mods are intended to change the feel of combat. Its more dangerous. Wounds can carry over from one fight to another if you are not well equipped and cannot treat them. And though you can only ever have one of each wound, you can conceivably have all of them at once, making things very difficult. For balance, low level NPC's do not have the full list of wounds to "pass on" but only between 2 - 3 possible wounds they can give. Though these are modular, I must caution: using the second esp (Perks) by itself will turn you into a god character. NPC's will never be able to stagger or deal extra damage like you do. ================== Skybalance Dragons ================== Purpose: Smarter, tougher dragons - without touching the Dragons themselves, or their scripts. Seriously. -Redesigned Dragon Combat style (not Alduin, as it would likely break the game). Dragons now use dive bombing, strafing, flying and hovering attacks much more -Dragons will almost never land/ground fight voluntarily. When they do, they will remain their for far shorter periods. -Increased possible perch/hover duration to balance this, so you can, occasionally, actually get a shot off. -Slight increase to Dragon health regen.*** This was done so you could not halfway kill one, then sit behind cover for a half hour waiting on your own health to regen while hiding in Stealth. Now, they will heal too, though still not enough to keep them alive while being hit in combat. -Dragons now have 100 points of damage resistance. You can make armor from their scales, but they had no damage resistance previously. Strange, huh? -Ten percent magic resistance for Dragons. -Dragon Breath weapons now instill Fear in NPC's, for as long as 5 minutes, leaving the mighty Dragonborn to fight alone. -Reduced incoming damage to DRagons from non player characters to 25% (down from 50%) FAQ: *Q: **I thought this mod does not change Dragons themselves, so its compatible with retextures and possibly other mods that change the big lizards directly? A: That is still true. I changed the Dragon Combat style, and the buff ability attached to the dragon. I DID NOT alter the Dragon Actors themselves, or their scripts. And for reference, I use the more detailed dragons texture replacer with this mod, without issue. I DO NOT, however, use other Dragon overhauls. Q: What about Breath weapons. Shouldn't they be far more dangerous, and do more damage? And are you going to make that happen? A: yes they should, and no, I'm not. I did try this. What I found out was this: Dragons have long necks. Those necks turn far faster than you can run, or even sprint. Once you're caught in their breath cloud, you stay caught until you either retreat inside a structure/behind a rock or the breath weapon finishes. Period. What I discovered was that increased damage from breath weapons meant one of two things: You either had to load up on enchanted gear and postpone the main quest for artificial metagame reasons, or when a Dragon caught you in the open, you died. Period. While both are more challenging, neither is really fun. Had Bethesda left us the dodge roll as an option I would gladly reconsider. Q: What if I want your Dragon mod, but the breath weapons from, say, Deadly Dragons/other Dragon mod? A: Load other mods which change breath weapons later. IF I get enough requests for a version with deadlier breath weapons I will do it, as its really quick and easy. Hope some folks might be interested in these mods. I will release them, like as not, anyway, just in case. But thought I would gauge interest. Like I said they are tested, they are working, they are 100% crash free for more than 20 hours now and in that time I have fought every known enemy in Cyrodiil multiple times, using multiple strategies (including the run-n-hide, it works well against shield-bearing Orcs, really).

But would you still go back to a previous save, if you could earn your way back in? Maybe have to pull off a difficult heist, or a special job? Or even just steal so much gold worth of stuff, without ever getting caught, and you can earn your way back. Maybe pay the blood price in gold for the victim, and you get back in, too. Then a reload would not be needed, you learn from your mistake and pay for it and move on. And as for Wasteland 2, I kicked in $15. Ain't much, but its something, and I hear the Kickstarter is doing well. Also working on mods for Skyrim that make NPC's deadly. They get more perks, can stagger you when they catch you not blocking, will bash and block much more intelligently, and - this is key - will Bash far, far more often. Max percent chance of an NPC bashing in vanilla is about 20 - 30%. In my game - all tests good so far - its around 95% by default, and combat style tweaks make it more likely still that they will use it when you are blocking. My level 40 Dragonscale-armored Nord warrior got the crap kicked out of him not long ago by a Bandit Marauder with a sword and shield. No more waiting behind your shield, biding your time for openings. NPC's know how to handle that, now. And to top it off, you have between a 5% - 15% chance of getting one of several minor "wounds" from combat. These are diseases that can be cured using potions, a visit to shrine, or by crafting bandages using Linen/Leather, healing potions for salve and leather strips (to tie the bandage in place) but they only work outside of combat. Thanks for posting here. I like these thought-provoking discussions and would love to see more of them here.