LE Advanced Weapon/Armor Repair

[sukeban]

Salutations Lovely Modders!

 

I'm sure that there is a large "realism enthusiast" base of both players and modders here at the Nexus. You know the type, those playing with PISE, LAotB, Complex Needs, Camping, and a hypothermia mod or two.

 

Whether we do this for the sake of difficulty, roleplaying, or something completely different, our desires are largely the same--to enhance immersion in the lands of Skyrim and to give depth to our characters, their professions, and their actions.

 

Well, this mod idea is to enhance several aspects of Skyrim, achieved primarily through smithing.

 

This is sort of a foundation for modifying several aspects of the game and combat through the use of real-time weapon and armor maintenance.

 

I: BASIC CONCEPT

 

1. Similar to enchantments and their charges, weapons and armors now come with "resilience points" (a new property) that are expended through use.

 

a. weapon and armor ratings are used to determine how many resilience points a given piece of equipment has

i. one point of weapon rating = 1 resilience point

ii. one point of armor rating = 1 resilience point

b. armor rating is taken separately for each piece of armor, not additively for all armor worn

i. this means that ALL pieces of worn armor degrade simultaneously

2. However, not all equipment uses are the same:

 

a. weapons

i. normal attacks use 1 RP

ii. power attacks use 2 RPs

iii. blocking normal attacks uses 1 RP

iv. blocking power attacks uses 2 RPs

b. armor

i. receiving normal attack uses 1 RP

ii. receiving power attack uses 2 RPs

c. shields

i. blocking normal attack uses 1 RP

ii. blocking power attack uses 2 RPs

II: DAMAGE DISTRIBUTION

 

1. Weapon damage is straightforward

 

a. 1/5x RP multiplier for all melee weapons

b. 1/10x RP multiplier for bows

2. However, to encourage smithing for warriors, an improved weapon receives an additional 1/2 reduction in its RP usage

 

a. Tempered melee weapons then receive 1/10x RP multiplier

b. Tempered bows then receive 1/20x RP multiplier

3. To simulate realistic damage distribution, resilience point multipliers are also used for different pieces of armor*

 

a. cuirass = 1/2x

b. helm = 1/4x

c. gauntlets = 1/5x

d. greaves = 1/5x

e. shield = 1/5x

 

*This is helpful to ensure that equipment degrades at roughly the same rate, as this is loosely the ratio that armor rating is distributed within a given "set" of armor. It's also realistic, as an opponent is aiming for your head and body, not for your hands and feet. And shields are, of course, designed for blocking.

4. Heavy armor will be buffed, degrading at 1/2 the rate of light armor. Thus, heavy armor's resilience point usage is:

 

a. cuirass = 1/4x

b. helm = 1/8x

c. gauntlets = 1/10x

d. greaves = 1/10x

e. shield = 1/10x

5. Blocking with a shield or weapon means only the shield/weapon takes damage, not your armor

III: DAMAGE EFFECTS

 

1. Weapons become blunted, losing weapon rating in real-time with its use

ex. tempered fine iron sword (WR of 8 ) executes a normal attack (-.1 charge) --> new WR of 7.9

2. Armor becomes worn, losing its armor rating in real-time with the damage dealt to it.

ex. hide armor cuirass (light, AR of 20) hit by normal attack (-.5 charge) --> new AR of 19.5

3. Minimum of 1 WR/AR for weapons and armor (nearly useless)

IV. REPAIR

 

1. Weapons and armors may be repaired one of three ways, depending on the situation:

 

a. As usual, at a grindstone or a workbench

b. New method, using craftable field repair kits (can also be bought from blacksmith)

 

i. Weapon repair kit appears as "torture tools" artwork, recipe: torture tools, embalming tool (hook variety), hammer

a. Weight: 10

ii. Armor repair kit appears as "bellows" artwork, recipe: bellows, 6 firewood, 6 charcoal, hammer, tongs

a. Weight: 20

iii. Repair kits aren't consumable, so you don't have to worry about crafting lots of them

a. However, you need more materials to repair your equipment

i. Weapons - 2x ingots to repair

ii. Armor - 1x ingot (or 1x leather in case of hide and leather armors) + 4x leather strips for each piece of armor that needs repairing

iv. It would be nice to disable repair during combat, similar to fast travel

c. New method, pay blacksmith to do it for you (for mages, rogues, assassins, etc.)

 

i. Cost determined by WR/AR needed to bring equipment back to full repair

ex. skyforge steel sword degraded to 3 would need 8 more WR to fully repair to 11 default WR

 

b. Higher-tier equipment is substantially more expensive to repair, per point of WR/AR repaired

 

i. Leather - 20

ii. Iron - 30

iii. Corundum - 40

iv. Steel - 50

v. Dwarven/Chaurus Chitin - 60

vi. Moonstone - 70

vii. Orichalcum - 80

viii. Quicksilver - 90

ix. Malachite - 120

x. Ebony - 150

xi. Dragon - 200

ii. It would also be cool to limit repair possibilities by blacksmith skill

ex. Only Eorlund Grey-Mane can repair Dragon, Balimund goes up to Ebony, Ghorza and the Orc smiths go up to Malachite, and all others max out at Moonstone.

 

a. Extra, extra awesome if vendor leveled lists could be modified to reflect this exclusiveness

Edited March 2, 2012 by sukeban

[sukeban]

V. MISCELLANEOUS

 

1. It would also be nice to have weapon/armor condition affect resale value. I don't 100% know how to scale that though, maybe 1/4 of equipment's material repair cost multiplied by its remaining WR/AR

ex. ebony war axe at 12 WR = 450 base resale value

 

i. maybe lower if this is too easy to exploit for imba septimz

2. Maybe the damage multiplier should be weighted by equipment material type

ex. orichalcum stronger than iron, receives additional 1/2 damage reduction

 

a. this would give incentive to "trade up" to higher grade materials (since actual WR/AR more or less evens out at high smithing levels) and would help to justify the higher repair cost of better weapons/armor

3. Maybe give Daedric Artifacts (not vanilla Daedric weapons/armor -- they're just glorified ebony) a mega reduction in degradation, like an additional 1/10x multiplier

 

a. This to improve the often quite lame (Rueful Axe) Artifacts and make them desirable for actual use

 

b. Perhaps also only repairable by the player (not good for commoners to consort with Daedra)

 

i. Perhaps only via the Daedric smithing perk

VI: BALANCE DISCUSSION

 

1. This mod is intended to provide realism AND balance several aspects of gameplay that Beth made me sort of o_O at

 

a. Light vs. Heavy armor

 

i. Since vanilla smithing is so OP, it really doesn't matter what sort of armor you go with. You can reach 567 no problem either way. This really gives no incentive to ever use heavy armor, which is weak tea.

 

a. Hence, the "preference" for heavy armor in terms of degrade reduction. This makes sense logically as well, as no way will some random leather speedo hold up against prolonged attack as long as heavy plate armor.

 

b. Realistically, not all armors are viable for all character roles. A ranger can still wear light armor, but he should not expect to take very many hits. This makes sense, as he is a ranger, not a paladin. A paladin can stand and bang and should be allowed to do so. Hence the 1/2 multiplier for heavy armor.

b. Realistic Damage

 

i. I thought it would be strange to have weapons/armor degrade super slowly, as this just doesn't seem realistic

 

a. I don't know how many swings of sword against steel/flesh/bone it would take to blunt either of them, but I can't imagine that a suit of armor could just shrug off a hit from a warhammer IRL.

 

i. Hence, I think that more repair --> realism, as one of the main tasks of a warrior/knight/archer was maintaining their tools of the trade, their gear.

 

ii. It also discourages constant dungeon-diving without ever returning to town, which is unrealistic. And/or, it encourages actually mining for ore so that you can repair in the field.

 

iii. It also encourages smithing to allow more acceptable degradation thresholds and helps to mitigate the OPness of highly smithed gear

 

c. Repair Costs

 

i. I find it unrealistic that at high level every DB assassin/hired thug/mercenary seems to be dual-wielding ebony swords. Ditto for glass weapons/armor and Thalmor patrols.

 

a. This is Skyrim! Most people should be using iron/steel

 

i. Thus, I seek to eliminate these exotic equipments from Joe Sixpack NPCs and place them only into the hands of the most skilled smiths and adventurers in Skyrim.

 

ii. But, even if you somehow find an ebony sword at low level, it should be a labor of love (and crushingly expensive) to maintain your blade in good condition

 

a. This is the PRICE of choosing ebony over steel. I want to make equipment decisions more nuanced and not a slam dunk no-brainer in terms of raw damage dealt/reduced. Choosing ebony over Steel should be a legitimate choice with pros and cons for each argument.