Damage inconsistency

[Mansh00ter]

In the process of making a less arcadey combat system, one of the major things that needs to be addressed is the incredibly all-over-the-place damage system Skyrim uses. This would be best accomplished by minimizing the impact skills, perks and character stats in general have on weapon damage - then you can count on being hit for X damage whether a lvl 1 is swining that axe at you or a level 30.

 

However, whatever I try I just can't figure out what the hell is Bethesda using for their damage calculations. Low level NPC's consistently hit for much lower damage than they should. Higher level NPC's hit for more. I thought there may be some setting which controls damage scaling relative to levels, but nope.

 

Any ideas if it is even possible to limit weapon damage to weapons ONLY, and thus keep an iron axe do iron axe damage regardless of who's swinging? This would be a first good step in the right direction to get some consistency out of combat in Skyrim.

[ScarabMonkey]

Perhaps this is purely based on skill level rather than level? Of course higher-level actors have higher skills and thus the difference?

 

Just a guess really, but may be worth looking at :)

[Mansh00ter]

Nope, I set all skill multipliers to 1.0 min/max, so that skill doesn't affect weapon damage at all (this was for testing, in final version it will account for max. 25% damage increase - in vanilla it can boost NPC damage 300%).

 

Folks over at Bethesda forums pointed me in the right direction - seems there are a number of hidden perks which affect NPC damage output. They are responsible for low level NPC's doing pathetic damage, and for the higher level NPC's doing "nuke-it" damage. Setting those multipliers all to 1.0 finally equalized the damage output. Now when you see someone with a steel axe, you know (roughly) what to expect if that thing hits you.

 

And getting out of Helgen might finally be interesting. :P

[ScarabMonkey]

That's an interesting idea, more MMORPG style rather than traditional RPG, i.e. item-based rather than skill-based.

 

Personally I'd prefer skill to make more difference than item, but each to their own :)

[NoAardvarksAllowed]

Nope, I set all skill multipliers to 1.0 min/max, so that skill doesn't affect weapon damage at all (this was for testing, in final version it will account for max. 25% damage increase - in vanilla it can boost NPC damage 300%).

 

Folks over at Bethesda forums pointed me in the right direction - seems there are a number of hidden perks which affect NPC damage output. They are responsible for low level NPC's doing pathetic damage, and for the higher level NPC's doing "nuke-it" damage. Setting those multipliers all to 1.0 finally equalized the damage output. Now when you see someone with a steel axe, you know (roughly) what to expect if that thing hits you.

 

And getting out of Helgen might finally be interesting. :P

Did they mention which these perks are and just where they are hidden?

[Mansh00ter]

No, but I found them anyway. :P

 

You can find all of them by going to the perks section in the CK, and entering "cr" in the filter. It is the crExtraDamage and crReduceDamage perks (and a crNerfDamage).