BlackCompany Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 (edited) 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). Edited March 24, 2012 by BlackCompany Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkershi Posted April 13, 2012 Share Posted April 13, 2012 Yes I would, also add rolling or some sort of user input evasion apart from blocking, reduce the stamina used from sprinting. Maybe add a dodge stat in place of use input evasion with an animation attached. (Maybe have an activated move for evasion which drains stamina/magic). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlackCompany Posted April 13, 2012 Author Share Posted April 13, 2012 Thanks for replying. The mod is made, by adding animations is simply beyond my skill set. I too wish we had a dodge function, to be honest, and fail to understand the removal of said function from the game. hopefully, some skilled animator will be able to make it happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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