LE Would a non-lethal mod be possible, now?

[DuskWulf]

One of my favourite things about New Vegas was how fatigue could be exploited to create weapons which would render a character temporarily disabled. In other words, they'd just lie on the floor for a bit and then get up later.

 

Whilst in this 'downed' state, they could be robbed of all their worldly possessions by activating them, similar to pickpocketing, but all items would be on offer with no risk if the player had actually managed to down them non-lethally in the first place.

 

Via this means, it was possible to complete New Vegas without making a single kill. (No, really. I had a killcount of 0. I even talked the Caesar's Legion General down at the end.)

 

I'd love to see something like that in Skyrim. And I'm wondering -- with the current more advanced scripting options of the base game, SKSE, and the MCM for configuration, would a non-lethality mod be possible?

 

Essentially, what I'm thinking is this.

 

In the configuration menu you'd be able to flag weapons in your inventory as non-lethal weapons, you'd also be able to do this for unarmed (so you could literally knock people out). Instead of health, then, the attack system would work off of fatigue, which would take the place of health.

 

Perhaps a system calculated from health could do that.

 

Also, there could be dangers in sustained combat, where if combat goes on too long, it could start damaging health as much as stamina and you'd need to retreat rather than fighting on, or you'd have to make the decision to kill the target. That would add an interesting bit of tension to the proceedings.

 

For stealthy characters, sleep darts and knock out blows could be added. I know there are already mods for stealthy knock out blows, though, and those are neat. I use one myself to avoid at least some of the endless murder.

 

Here's the question, I guess: How do we disable an NPC?

 

Here's what I'm thinking. The system first checks to make sure that you're using a non-lethal weapon in combat, if it does, it starts ticking over fatigue for that foe. Once the foe's fatigue reaches zero, it sets essential on the foe and then runs the kill command on them. This would make them double over in the same way that an essential creature would.

 

Activating them then would silently add the pickpocketing perks to the player so that they could loot their downed foe, and so that all items would be available to them.

 

After a set amount f time (perhaps calculated upon the foe's stats), they'd be resurrected, set to full health, and then their essential flag would be removed.

 

I'm not sure how possible any of this is, let alone plausible.

 

Thoughts... ?

[eyra]

Interesting. I'm also waiting to see this type of mod to skyrim, but no one has come with it yet... (Exception is blackjack, but it is quite different).

 

But after reading this topic I also had an idea to make it viable. It is about creating a mod packing a sleeping poison with a long effect duration, a staff with the same effect and bows, crossbows, arrows and bolts without damage to be "poisoned" with the created poison, all with unique crafting ways (and if I have some free time to improve the mod, which I rarely have, I'm would also make bound versions of those weapons).

I already started the mod, and now I need to make the testings and put the other items I would like it to have, but I'm not very sure if I'm going to release that as I don't have much time to maintain it and answer questions on the mod page...

 

Anyway, I like your idea to make this kind of mod, but it is very difficult and requires a lot of scripting and a large amount of time to test those scripts, and that I cannot do. :(

Edited November 5, 2013 by eyra

[ScottC12]

I use the Bind and Gag Spell mod, which temporarily disables the target (bound and gagged). The spell is great for "good" type spellcasters, though it may be a bit overpowered. I have rarely seen anyone resist the spell. I have not tried to pickpocket anyone bound and gagged, but I suppose it could be tried. The mod file is currently set to hidden, though.