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About this mod
This is a HUGE overhaul to Skyrim's encounters. Enemies get new custom spells, traits, combat AI, loot, ranks and so much more. If you already know the vanilla enemies by heart and find them boring or you've played for long with the same Enemy Overhaul and want some diversity this mod will bring a fresh experience.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
This is a very long and dear project of mine that's been going for several years now. I reworked many aspects of the game
that are about fighting - new powers, ranks, passive abilities, loot and much more. The goal is to make fights more interesting by
making enemies more diverse and challenging!
New version out!
Mostly small fixes and adjustments and a fix to a very important bug, that's it this time.. I am sorry to disappoint people but
I will have a lot of free time soon and I will be working on the following stuff in the upcoming bigger updates:
1. Tempering recipes - credit to the person in the comments who suggested this great idea.
2. Creating custom meshes and textures for unique gear!
3. Adding more ranks of NPCs.
Again don't expect this all in 1 update and I cannot promise much yet. Only telling you what is on my mind.
UPDATE!
Okay let me write it here. If you Install this mod I'm assuming 2 things:
1. You are NOT playing on Legendary. Legendary means you deal 0.25 of your damage and take 3x damage but
everything with this mod is balanced around you taking the same damage as other NPCs which is Adept difficulty.
I play on Expert for more challenge but don't ask redundant questions about why things are hard.
2. You use one of the several amazing perk overhauls that are not only a much better version
of the vanilla perk trees but also make you more powerful late game.
GUIDE:
1. Installation
2. List of Changes
3. Compatibility
4. Load Order
5. Mods you might want to avoid
6. Recommended mods
7. Q&A
Installation
- It's just a simple .esp file. Install like any normal mod.
- Then you need to install Attack Speed Fix
Requirements:
- New Save
- Dawnguard and Dragonborn
- Attack Speed Fix(also known as Attack Speed Framework)
- check out recommended mods section for some mods that you can't play without!
Explain!
- Why do you need Attack Speed Fix? Because my mod is based around it. Nothing crashy will happen if you don't have it but
creatures that have high attack speed will have weird attack speed if you don't. After you install just open the MCM and set
attack speed for everyone to 1. You can also go higher for speedier combat. 
Do you have some of the following problems:
- encounters are too boring
- game is too unrewarding
- creatures are one dimensional and have no big abilities you need to keep in mind and watch out for
- you know too much about fighting everything, you're too experienced to have any sort of a challenge
- you become too overpowered late game
- there are no secrets and surprises left to discover
- you want powerful creatures to keep getting new ranks even higher than just level 40-50
- you just want to refresh your experience
If yes then this mod is for you!
This mod changes hundreds of NPCs, encounters, leveled lists and completely overhauled
every major enemy group. Creatures get new powers, traits, custom spells and loot drops.
List of Changes
Affected actors
Compatibility
Load Order
Mods you might want to avoid
Recommended mods
Q&A
that are about fighting - new powers, ranks, passive abilities, loot and much more. The goal is to make fights more interesting by
making enemies more diverse and challenging!
New version out!
Mostly small fixes and adjustments and a fix to a very important bug, that's it this time.. I am sorry to disappoint people but
I will have a lot of free time soon and I will be working on the following stuff in the upcoming bigger updates:
1. Tempering recipes - credit to the person in the comments who suggested this great idea.
2. Creating custom meshes and textures for unique gear!
3. Adding more ranks of NPCs.
Again don't expect this all in 1 update and I cannot promise much yet. Only telling you what is on my mind.
UPDATE!
Okay let me write it here. If you Install this mod I'm assuming 2 things:
1. You are NOT playing on Legendary. Legendary means you deal 0.25 of your damage and take 3x damage but
everything with this mod is balanced around you taking the same damage as other NPCs which is Adept difficulty.
I play on Expert for more challenge but don't ask redundant questions about why things are hard.
2. You use one of the several amazing perk overhauls that are not only a much better version
of the vanilla perk trees but also make you more powerful late game.
GUIDE:
1. Installation
2. List of Changes
3. Compatibility
4. Load Order
5. Mods you might want to avoid
6. Recommended mods
7. Q&A
Installation
- It's just a simple .esp file. Install like any normal mod.
- Then you need to install Attack Speed Fix
Requirements:
- New Save
- Dawnguard and Dragonborn
- Attack Speed Fix(also known as Attack Speed Framework)
- check out recommended mods section for some mods that you can't play without!
Explain!
- Why do you need Attack Speed Fix? Because my mod is based around it. Nothing crashy will happen if you don't have it but
creatures that have high attack speed will have weird attack speed if you don't. After you install just open the MCM and set
attack speed for everyone to 1. You can also go higher for speedier combat.
Do you have some of the following problems:
- encounters are too boring
- game is too unrewarding
- creatures are one dimensional and have no big abilities you need to keep in mind and watch out for
- you know too much about fighting everything, you're too experienced to have any sort of a challenge
- you become too overpowered late game
- there are no secrets and surprises left to discover
- you want powerful creatures to keep getting new ranks even higher than just level 40-50
- you just want to refresh your experience
If yes then this mod is for you!
This mod changes hundreds of NPCs, encounters, leveled lists and completely overhauled
every major enemy group. Creatures get new powers, traits, custom spells and loot drops.
List of Changes
Spoiler:
Enemies Overhauled
Enemies have new items, custom spells, perks, abilities, resistances and combat
AI making them more versatile. Some of them will have more tools to harm you
from distance, others will have new ways of recovering health. Some groups of
enemies will have support characters that will cast heals, shields or other
buffs, making their allies stronger. Powerful foes have big spells with a
cooldown and are often distinguishable by fancy auras and other visual effects.
Loot
Bosses and high-level enemies are more rewarding. Based on your playstyle it might just so happen
that not every item you enchant is the absolute best thing you can equip. Explore the world
and defeat powerful bosses to obtain gear with unique effects and new custom spell tomes.
Some gear and spell tomes drop from a particular boss, others from a particular group
of enemies. Some loot has a set chance to drop.
Enchantments
New custom enchants have been added. Some of the enchanted gear you find is disenchantable.
High tier enemies drop enchantments that are better than the regular ones you can get from the
first cave you loot. There are also Tier 2 versions of most vanilla enchantments but they aren’t found
everywhere you look. You need to track down rare enemies and defeat them to obtain these enchantments to
create the best gear possible. That makes the world more rewarding at late game and gives you
more things to improve even at really high level.
Encounter Zones
Most dungeons in the vanilla game start at a minimum level of 2-6 which means you
can beat them at any time but now not every dungeon will treat you like a
novice. If you enter a Dragon Priest dungeon prepare to fight Deathlords and higher
ranked Draugr right off the gate.
Enemy minimum level
Some enemies are just naturally superhumanly powerful and to reflect that they now
start at a higher minimum level. For example even the weakest Forsworn will be
level 10+ meaning you can’t just go anywhere in the world and be challenged
with an opponent that conveniently spawns at your level. Don’t even think about
going into a Vampire cave or a Dwemer dungeon early on. If you happen to
encounter a Werewolf or a Vampire in the wilderness you will be forced to run
until you are powerful enough to fight back.
Big Abilities and Cooldowns
Lots of enemies have abilities with a cooldown. If you see someone summoning something, healing/buffing
themselves or their allies or casting a massive spell then almost all of the time this would be a spell that has a
cooldown. Sometimes killing summoned creatures might be a plan if this summoning spell has a cooldown but
you have to study enemies to learn about that. Enemies have self-buffs on cooldown like shields,
damage increases, movement speed buffs, health regen and many more.
World Encounters
There are hand-placed enemy encounters around the world that are meant for mid-high
level players. Most encounters are going to have you fight a unique foe that
isn’t used anywhere else in the world. Track them down to obtain good loot!
World Bosses
As of now there are 2 optional big bosses somewhere in the world but finding them isn’t
going to be easy.
Armor overhaul
In the vanilla game there isn’t much of a difference between someone wearing iron armor and being naked.
At best the person wearing iron armor will be about 20% tougher which means a 2 shot will likely remain a 2 shot
or at best the actor will survive at 10% HP and require 1more attack. Now the gear you and your enemies wear grants
more protection for each Heavy/Light Armor level you have and each piece of armor gives you 5% hidden damage reduction.
A foe wearing good gear will feel a lot tougher compared to the same foe if spawned with no armor.
The survivability of creatures is now more dependent on the gear they wear rather than their rank.
A lot of enemies get Armor Penetration perks to counter the player’s high armor value so make sure you use
the new Protection enchantment that gives you extra armor.
Vendors
There are 2 new vendors in the game that sell some of the new Weapon Enhancement spells.
Enemy AI
The expertise of enemies grows with their rank meaning a Bandit Marauder is going to fight better than a
Bandit Outlaw. They block more, power attack you when you’re blocking and fight better in groups.
This is called “Combat Style” and lots of NPCs have their combat style improved.
Some of them have it changed to match their theme. Dremora and Vampires are more brutal,
attempting to crush you with power attacks and almost never fear their opponent,
others are more tactical and will circle and flank you more when they aren’t greatly outnumbering you.
High Level ranks
Enemies get more ranks and cap out higher. If vanilla Draugr cap out at Draugr
Deathlord, expect them to get a few more ranks above that. Some enemies get 1
new rank, others 3-4. Different types of creatures have different cap. Bandits
and animals cap out fairly early compared to something like Vampires or Centurions.
Spell Penetration
Getting your magical resistances maxed out(85% cap for the player) is quite easy and you can become very
overpowered late game. Mid-high level enemies with my mod start getting spell penetration
effects on their spells that temporary reduce resistances, making consecutive casts more
powerful. Now having extremely high resistance will only prevent you from getting one-shot but
getting hit repeatedly will eventually turn an attack that you can brush off into a deadly one. The spell penetration
effect of a spell can be dampened by Magic Resistance, whereas the Fire/Frost/Shock damage can be reduced
by having the respective resistance type. That means that you need both fire/frost/shock resistance to
survive spells and magic resistance to weaken the spell penetration effects that are being applied
and even then you can never become truly impervious to high level spells. Having resistance over
85% now isn’t a waste because the enemy will need to cast more spells before your resistance
gets reduced to life-threatening levels.
Attack effects
Some creatures apply new effects when they hit you. Slows, weaknesses to your armor
or magic defenses, healing reduction, new poisons and diseases, knockback
effects are some of the things you have to deal with.
Balance changes
When you go through a questline the first quests will have you dealing with weaker foes
but the difficulty will gradually increase. You might want to do some side quests
to gear up and get more experience if enemies become too powerful. Side
quests and areas are also tweaked depending on what they are supposed to be
thematically. There are enemies marked as Easy, Medium, Hard and Very hard
everywhere you go but with my mod I’ve tweaked some dungeons to give you larger
number of Medium and Hard NPCs since in the vanilla game it’s 2/3 Easy NPCs.
Leveled lists have been changed to spawn enemies on your level more frequently.
Special and Rare enemies
Sometimes an enemy can spawn as an alternate version of itself. When certain foe has a
special variant it will spawn 20-33% of the time and will work like an elite
version of its normal self that is by average a bit stronger but not on the
level of the upper ranked spawns. Rares spawn 5-10% of the time and are about
the same in terms of power but they usually have better loot. At the moment
there aren’t many rare and special enemies throughout the ranks so not every
creature will have a rare or elite version.
Show
Enemies Overhauled
Enemies have new items, custom spells, perks, abilities, resistances and combat
AI making them more versatile. Some of them will have more tools to harm you
from distance, others will have new ways of recovering health. Some groups of
enemies will have support characters that will cast heals, shields or other
buffs, making their allies stronger. Powerful foes have big spells with a
cooldown and are often distinguishable by fancy auras and other visual effects.
Loot
Bosses and high-level enemies are more rewarding. Based on your playstyle it might just so happen
that not every item you enchant is the absolute best thing you can equip. Explore the world
and defeat powerful bosses to obtain gear with unique effects and new custom spell tomes.
Some gear and spell tomes drop from a particular boss, others from a particular group
of enemies. Some loot has a set chance to drop.
Enchantments
New custom enchants have been added. Some of the enchanted gear you find is disenchantable.
High tier enemies drop enchantments that are better than the regular ones you can get from the
first cave you loot. There are also Tier 2 versions of most vanilla enchantments but they aren’t found
everywhere you look. You need to track down rare enemies and defeat them to obtain these enchantments to
create the best gear possible. That makes the world more rewarding at late game and gives you
more things to improve even at really high level.
Encounter Zones
Most dungeons in the vanilla game start at a minimum level of 2-6 which means you
can beat them at any time but now not every dungeon will treat you like a
novice. If you enter a Dragon Priest dungeon prepare to fight Deathlords and higher
ranked Draugr right off the gate.
Enemy minimum level
Some enemies are just naturally superhumanly powerful and to reflect that they now
start at a higher minimum level. For example even the weakest Forsworn will be
level 10+ meaning you can’t just go anywhere in the world and be challenged
with an opponent that conveniently spawns at your level. Don’t even think about
going into a Vampire cave or a Dwemer dungeon early on. If you happen to
encounter a Werewolf or a Vampire in the wilderness you will be forced to run
until you are powerful enough to fight back.
Big Abilities and Cooldowns
Lots of enemies have abilities with a cooldown. If you see someone summoning something, healing/buffing
themselves or their allies or casting a massive spell then almost all of the time this would be a spell that has a
cooldown. Sometimes killing summoned creatures might be a plan if this summoning spell has a cooldown but
you have to study enemies to learn about that. Enemies have self-buffs on cooldown like shields,
damage increases, movement speed buffs, health regen and many more.
World Encounters
There are hand-placed enemy encounters around the world that are meant for mid-high
level players. Most encounters are going to have you fight a unique foe that
isn’t used anywhere else in the world. Track them down to obtain good loot!
World Bosses
As of now there are 2 optional big bosses somewhere in the world but finding them isn’t
going to be easy.
Armor overhaul
In the vanilla game there isn’t much of a difference between someone wearing iron armor and being naked.
At best the person wearing iron armor will be about 20% tougher which means a 2 shot will likely remain a 2 shot
or at best the actor will survive at 10% HP and require 1more attack. Now the gear you and your enemies wear grants
more protection for each Heavy/Light Armor level you have and each piece of armor gives you 5% hidden damage reduction.
A foe wearing good gear will feel a lot tougher compared to the same foe if spawned with no armor.
The survivability of creatures is now more dependent on the gear they wear rather than their rank.
A lot of enemies get Armor Penetration perks to counter the player’s high armor value so make sure you use
the new Protection enchantment that gives you extra armor.
Vendors
There are 2 new vendors in the game that sell some of the new Weapon Enhancement spells.
Enemy AI
The expertise of enemies grows with their rank meaning a Bandit Marauder is going to fight better than a
Bandit Outlaw. They block more, power attack you when you’re blocking and fight better in groups.
This is called “Combat Style” and lots of NPCs have their combat style improved.
Some of them have it changed to match their theme. Dremora and Vampires are more brutal,
attempting to crush you with power attacks and almost never fear their opponent,
others are more tactical and will circle and flank you more when they aren’t greatly outnumbering you.
High Level ranks
Enemies get more ranks and cap out higher. If vanilla Draugr cap out at Draugr
Deathlord, expect them to get a few more ranks above that. Some enemies get 1
new rank, others 3-4. Different types of creatures have different cap. Bandits
and animals cap out fairly early compared to something like Vampires or Centurions.
Spell Penetration
Getting your magical resistances maxed out(85% cap for the player) is quite easy and you can become very
overpowered late game. Mid-high level enemies with my mod start getting spell penetration
effects on their spells that temporary reduce resistances, making consecutive casts more
powerful. Now having extremely high resistance will only prevent you from getting one-shot but
getting hit repeatedly will eventually turn an attack that you can brush off into a deadly one. The spell penetration
effect of a spell can be dampened by Magic Resistance, whereas the Fire/Frost/Shock damage can be reduced
by having the respective resistance type. That means that you need both fire/frost/shock resistance to
survive spells and magic resistance to weaken the spell penetration effects that are being applied
and even then you can never become truly impervious to high level spells. Having resistance over
85% now isn’t a waste because the enemy will need to cast more spells before your resistance
gets reduced to life-threatening levels.
Attack effects
Some creatures apply new effects when they hit you. Slows, weaknesses to your armor
or magic defenses, healing reduction, new poisons and diseases, knockback
effects are some of the things you have to deal with.
Balance changes
When you go through a questline the first quests will have you dealing with weaker foes
but the difficulty will gradually increase. You might want to do some side quests
to gear up and get more experience if enemies become too powerful. Side
quests and areas are also tweaked depending on what they are supposed to be
thematically. There are enemies marked as Easy, Medium, Hard and Very hard
everywhere you go but with my mod I’ve tweaked some dungeons to give you larger
number of Medium and Hard NPCs since in the vanilla game it’s 2/3 Easy NPCs.
Leveled lists have been changed to spawn enemies on your level more frequently.
Special and Rare enemies
Sometimes an enemy can spawn as an alternate version of itself. When certain foe has a
special variant it will spawn 20-33% of the time and will work like an elite
version of its normal self that is by average a bit stronger but not on the
level of the upper ranked spawns. Rares spawn 5-10% of the time and are about
the same in terms of power but they usually have better loot. At the moment
there aren’t many rare and special enemies throughout the ranks so not every
creature will have a rare or elite version.
Affected actors
Spoiler:
Affected actors
Atronachs: Fire, Frost, Storm Atronachs
Wildlife: Bears, Sabre Cats, Wolves, Trolls, Mammoths, Giants, Chaurus, Spriggans, Ice Wraiths, Rieklings
Men andMer: Bandits, Mages, Reavers, Thalmor, Witches, Falmer, Dawnguard
Superhumans: Afflicted, Forsworn, Namira Cultists(added by my mod)
Monstrous: Vampires, Werewolves, Werebears, Hagravens, Dremora
Risen Dead: Draugr, Skeletons, Dragon Priests, Soul Cairn creatures, Kilkreath creatures, Skeleton
Vampires, Labyrinthian Skeletons
Automatons: Dwarven Spiders, Spheres, Ballistae and Centurions
What my mod doesn’t do!
No buffs to followers with the exception being Dawnguard NPCs since they are also potential enemies, no scripts, no
new quests or locations yet, no changes to quests other than tweaks to encounters, no changes to dragons and no
changes to the Imperials or Stormcloaks.
IMPORTANT
Even though this mod is going to make combat much harder the main goal IS NOT to make it impossibly grindy!!!
If this happens to you I suggest checking my mod recommendations. Lower the difficulty, add other mods that make you more powerful
and do whatever you want to have a fun time.
Show
Affected actors
Atronachs: Fire, Frost, Storm Atronachs
Wildlife: Bears, Sabre Cats, Wolves, Trolls, Mammoths, Giants, Chaurus, Spriggans, Ice Wraiths, Rieklings
Men andMer: Bandits, Mages, Reavers, Thalmor, Witches, Falmer, Dawnguard
Superhumans: Afflicted, Forsworn, Namira Cultists(added by my mod)
Monstrous: Vampires, Werewolves, Werebears, Hagravens, Dremora
Risen Dead: Draugr, Skeletons, Dragon Priests, Soul Cairn creatures, Kilkreath creatures, Skeleton
Vampires, Labyrinthian Skeletons
Automatons: Dwarven Spiders, Spheres, Ballistae and Centurions
What my mod doesn’t do!
No buffs to followers with the exception being Dawnguard NPCs since they are also potential enemies, no scripts, no
new quests or locations yet, no changes to quests other than tweaks to encounters, no changes to dragons and no
changes to the Imperials or Stormcloaks.
IMPORTANT
Even though this mod is going to make combat much harder the main goal IS NOT to make it impossibly grindy!!!
If this happens to you I suggest checking my mod recommendations. Lower the difficulty, add other mods that make you more powerful
and do whatever you want to have a fun time.
Compatibility
Spoiler:
Compatibility
IMPORTANT: If you want to be sure that nothing is conflicting with other mods download xEdit and learn to do simple patches.
It's not absolutely mandatory but it’s as simple as dragging things from two separate columns into one and it
requires no programming, no knowledge on how the game works mechanically and no tutorials to watch.
Anyone can do it.
Combat, Perk and other Overhauls:
- Ordenator
- PerMa
- SkyRe
- Probably any other perk overhaul that isn’t Requiem
- Civil War Overhauls
- Combat overhauls(things like Wildcat, Ultimate Combat)
- Revenge of the Enemies
- Advanced Adversary Encounters
- Requiem
- Combat Evolved
Load my mod after Combat Evolved because one of its functions is retouching combat AI.
NPC appearance overhauls:
- They should all be compatible. I haven't touched anything Bijin mods or other similar mods touch. If you have something that changes
the appearance to Harkon, the Dawnguard or Mercer Frey you should test them if they work.
New armor, weapons and creature mods:
- Immersive Weapons
- Immersive Armors
- Mods that work like the two above
- ANY dragon overhaul and mod about dragons
- Cloaks of Skyrim
As far as I remember it touches Dragon Priests by putting cloaks in their inventory.
Load my mod after Cloaks of Skyrim or fix the Dragon Priests inside xEdit.
- OBIS
I rework bandits too but this mod reworks them to a larger extend so load my mod before OBIS.
- Skyrim Immersive Creatures
Load my mod after SIC or merge the few leveling lists that conflict.
SIC is going to have 97% of its stuff working regardless.
Show
Compatibility
IMPORTANT: If you want to be sure that nothing is conflicting with other mods download xEdit and learn to do simple patches.
It's not absolutely mandatory but it’s as simple as dragging things from two separate columns into one and it
requires no programming, no knowledge on how the game works mechanically and no tutorials to watch.
Anyone can do it.
Combat, Perk and other Overhauls:
- Ordenator
- PerMa
- SkyRe
- Probably any other perk overhaul that isn’t Requiem
- Civil War Overhauls
- Combat overhauls(things like Wildcat, Ultimate Combat)
- Revenge of the Enemies
- Advanced Adversary Encounters
- Requiem
- Combat Evolved
Load my mod after Combat Evolved because one of its functions is retouching combat AI.
NPC appearance overhauls:
- They should all be compatible. I haven't touched anything Bijin mods or other similar mods touch. If you have something that changes
the appearance to Harkon, the Dawnguard or Mercer Frey you should test them if they work.
New armor, weapons and creature mods:
- Immersive Weapons
- Immersive Armors
- Mods that work like the two above
- ANY dragon overhaul and mod about dragons
- Cloaks of Skyrim
As far as I remember it touches Dragon Priests by putting cloaks in their inventory.
Load my mod after Cloaks of Skyrim or fix the Dragon Priests inside xEdit.
- OBIS
I rework bandits too but this mod reworks them to a larger extend so load my mod before OBIS.
- Skyrim Immersive Creatures
Load my mod after SIC or merge the few leveling lists that conflict.
SIC is going to have 97% of its stuff working regardless.
Load Order
Spoiler:
Load Order
- Combat mods
- My mod
- Mods that touch interiors
- Mod patches
IMPORTANT
Wrye Bash doesn't work well with my mod. It does unwanted merges to Leveled Characters,
makes NPCs use more/less stuff from their templates and reverts some changes for no reason.
I will check out if I can fix these issues in the future. This is not going to cause crashes but
the mod won't work as I intended. I have a Bashed Patch for my other mods but I make sure
that mine isn't affected.
Combat mods - combat mods do variety of things and sometimes touching the combat AI of enemies is one of them.
You don’t want that since I have my own AI on different enemies that make them do stuff like use shouts,
fight more at a distance, cast spells with 1 hand while swinging a weapon with the other and
they are all very carefully balanced to make sure the enemy doesn’t do something too much
and uses all its tools properly. Even if you believe that the combat AI mod you have is very good
and challenging it will break some NPCs and make them not sure all their available tools added
by my mod. The other functions of your installed combat mods(such as scripts and custom
combat interactions) will work regardless of load order.
Interior mods - my mod touches some interiors by tweaking hand placed stuff and adding more hand placed stuff.
If you load my mod after mods that for example change the lightning(ELFX) or add new interior music(SoS – Sounds of Skyrim,
obviously) then my mod will return the interior back to normal. BUT if you load these mods after mine then your
new lightning effects and such will work and they also won’t remove whatever placed objects I touched
so there will be no conflict.
Show
Load Order
- Combat mods
- My mod
- Mods that touch interiors
- Mod patches
IMPORTANT
Wrye Bash doesn't work well with my mod. It does unwanted merges to Leveled Characters,
makes NPCs use more/less stuff from their templates and reverts some changes for no reason.
I will check out if I can fix these issues in the future. This is not going to cause crashes but
the mod won't work as I intended. I have a Bashed Patch for my other mods but I make sure
that mine isn't affected.
Combat mods - combat mods do variety of things and sometimes touching the combat AI of enemies is one of them.
You don’t want that since I have my own AI on different enemies that make them do stuff like use shouts,
fight more at a distance, cast spells with 1 hand while swinging a weapon with the other and
they are all very carefully balanced to make sure the enemy doesn’t do something too much
and uses all its tools properly. Even if you believe that the combat AI mod you have is very good
and challenging it will break some NPCs and make them not sure all their available tools added
by my mod. The other functions of your installed combat mods(such as scripts and custom
combat interactions) will work regardless of load order.
Interior mods - my mod touches some interiors by tweaking hand placed stuff and adding more hand placed stuff.
If you load my mod after mods that for example change the lightning(ELFX) or add new interior music(SoS – Sounds of Skyrim,
obviously) then my mod will return the interior back to normal. BUT if you load these mods after mine then your
new lightning effects and such will work and they also won’t remove whatever placed objects I touched
so there will be no conflict.
Mods you might want to avoid
Spoiler:
Mods you might want to avoid
- Mods that increase spawns. Some enemies help each otherwhile fighting. Its up to you to decide whether having to
deal with 10 healers will make your experience more challenging and fun or impossibly grindy and tedious.
- Mods that overhaul some of the enemy types that I’ve touched. If you really want to use an enemy overhaul for a particular
group of creatures(lets say Vampire enemy overhaul) then you have to load it after my mod but the 2
mods won’t be balanced with each other in mind.
- Mods that replace enemy AI or change the minimum/maximum levels of Encounter Zones.
I do this myself.
- Mods that add new ranks to enemy leveled lists. For example High Level Enemies does that but my mod also covers
this in its own way.
- Mods that add new items to creatures. You have to check the way they’re added. If the creature is directly edited then it
will conflict with my mod but if the new assets are added through a script then it might work out. If there is a conflict
you can make an xEdit patch(very easy drag and drop stuff everyone should be able to do it -_- ).
Show
Mods you might want to avoid
- Mods that increase spawns. Some enemies help each otherwhile fighting. Its up to you to decide whether having to
deal with 10 healers will make your experience more challenging and fun or impossibly grindy and tedious.
- Mods that overhaul some of the enemy types that I’ve touched. If you really want to use an enemy overhaul for a particular
group of creatures(lets say Vampire enemy overhaul) then you have to load it after my mod but the 2
mods won’t be balanced with each other in mind.
- Mods that replace enemy AI or change the minimum/maximum levels of Encounter Zones.
I do this myself.
- Mods that add new ranks to enemy leveled lists. For example High Level Enemies does that but my mod also covers
this in its own way.
- Mods that add new items to creatures. You have to check the way they’re added. If the creature is directly edited then it
will conflict with my mod but if the new assets are added through a script then it might work out. If there is a conflict
you can make an xEdit patch(very easy drag and drop stuff everyone should be able to do it -_- ).
Recommended mods
Spoiler:
These mods are not just mods that I found cool! All of them impact fighting encounters so they also
affect my mod in some sense. Please take your time to read how these mods work in tandem with my mod.
Ordinator - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
That, or any other perk overhaul that makes you stronger late game. You absolutely cannot play on vanilla
Skyrim Legendary difficulty with my mod.
Skyrim Community Uncapper - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Longer and more challenging fights will result in more level ups. Quickly leveling up without obtaining the good gear
you need means you will have to face enemies that are too powerful before you're ready. Just like with a perk
overhaul you can absolutely not play without this mod! Install Uncapper and reduce your combat skill leveling
rate to about 30-40%. Another thing you can do with Uncapper is make each level give you more stats(lets say
15 Health) and make leveling up grant more perks which might be useful if you're having a hard time.
No saving in combat
If you want to restrict yourself from cheesing fights by saving every 20 seconds this is a mod for you.
Ultimate Combat
It gives some new moves to your foes. I would suggest turning off Dragon Priest and Centurion AI. You also
have a great option in the MCM menu that makes armor 25% more effective and damage 25% more effective.
This makes armored targets feel more distinguishable from unarmored guys(check my List of Changes section
to learn more about armor).
Wildcat
It makes combat deadlier for both you and your enemy. You can also control how difficulty
settings tweaks the damage you and your enemy takes. This is useful for example if the damage you
take on a certain difficulty is just right for your taste but the damage you deal isn't.
Combat Evolved
This mod adds some new simple combat mechanics. Just make sure you load my mod after because it's going
to make some NPCs fight in an unintended way. There is also a stealth rework in Combat Evolved which is something
my mod doesn't touch on.
Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul
First - it adds new consumables like food, drinks, potions and poisons(for your enemies). Food and drink
can apply small but immersive effects for a long period of time. There are new potions with interesting effects you can find!
Secondly - do you find it ridiculous how you can stop time and miraculously heal yourself to full? This mod allows you to set
duration on potions so they don't heal you instantly but rather heal you over time. It also prevents potion effects
from stacking and with all these changes potions are now more of an assistance that can potentially save your life
instead of a 100% guarantee.
Warzones
I said previously that you might want to avoid mods that increase spawns but Warzones makes use of some actors
that aren't that common. It's not only Imperials vs Stormcloaks encounter as it might seem! This mod adds encounters
with almost any creature in the game and some of the creatures are very underused in the vanilla. Definitely consider
this mod! I recommend reducing your skill leveling rate with Skyrim Skill Uncapper even further.
Skyrim Immersive Creatures
SIC adds new creatures in the wilderness. Some of them are simple, others are quite rare and formidable foes. Everything
can be toggled on/off in case you find certain foes too outlandish. You can also obtain some new gear and spell tomes and there
are new world encounters. Similar to Warzones I recommend reducing your skill level ring rate with Uncapper if you're gonna be
fighting more things along the way. It also has some useful settings to change respawn timers on cells,
add night encounters and more.
Game Difficulty
I recommend playing on Expert/Master early on and if the game becomes too easy, then pump it to
Legendary difficulty. There are also mods that allow you to change the way difficulty settings affect the
damage you take and deal.
Show
These mods are not just mods that I found cool! All of them impact fighting encounters so they also
affect my mod in some sense. Please take your time to read how these mods work in tandem with my mod.
Ordinator - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
That, or any other perk overhaul that makes you stronger late game. You absolutely cannot play on vanilla
Skyrim Legendary difficulty with my mod.
Skyrim Community Uncapper - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Longer and more challenging fights will result in more level ups. Quickly leveling up without obtaining the good gear
you need means you will have to face enemies that are too powerful before you're ready. Just like with a perk
overhaul you can absolutely not play without this mod! Install Uncapper and reduce your combat skill leveling
rate to about 30-40%. Another thing you can do with Uncapper is make each level give you more stats(lets say
15 Health) and make leveling up grant more perks which might be useful if you're having a hard time.
No saving in combat
If you want to restrict yourself from cheesing fights by saving every 20 seconds this is a mod for you.
Ultimate Combat
It gives some new moves to your foes. I would suggest turning off Dragon Priest and Centurion AI. You also
have a great option in the MCM menu that makes armor 25% more effective and damage 25% more effective.
This makes armored targets feel more distinguishable from unarmored guys(check my List of Changes section
to learn more about armor).
Wildcat
It makes combat deadlier for both you and your enemy. You can also control how difficulty
settings tweaks the damage you and your enemy takes. This is useful for example if the damage you
take on a certain difficulty is just right for your taste but the damage you deal isn't.
Combat Evolved
This mod adds some new simple combat mechanics. Just make sure you load my mod after because it's going
to make some NPCs fight in an unintended way. There is also a stealth rework in Combat Evolved which is something
my mod doesn't touch on.
Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul
First - it adds new consumables like food, drinks, potions and poisons(for your enemies). Food and drink
can apply small but immersive effects for a long period of time. There are new potions with interesting effects you can find!
Secondly - do you find it ridiculous how you can stop time and miraculously heal yourself to full? This mod allows you to set
duration on potions so they don't heal you instantly but rather heal you over time. It also prevents potion effects
from stacking and with all these changes potions are now more of an assistance that can potentially save your life
instead of a 100% guarantee.
Warzones
I said previously that you might want to avoid mods that increase spawns but Warzones makes use of some actors
that aren't that common. It's not only Imperials vs Stormcloaks encounter as it might seem! This mod adds encounters
with almost any creature in the game and some of the creatures are very underused in the vanilla. Definitely consider
this mod! I recommend reducing your skill leveling rate with Skyrim Skill Uncapper even further.
Skyrim Immersive Creatures
SIC adds new creatures in the wilderness. Some of them are simple, others are quite rare and formidable foes. Everything
can be toggled on/off in case you find certain foes too outlandish. You can also obtain some new gear and spell tomes and there
are new world encounters. Similar to Warzones I recommend reducing your skill level ring rate with Uncapper if you're gonna be
fighting more things along the way. It also has some useful settings to change respawn timers on cells,
add night encounters and more.
Game Difficulty
I recommend playing on Expert/Master early on and if the game becomes too easy, then pump it to
Legendary difficulty. There are also mods that allow you to change the way difficulty settings affect the
damage you take and deal.
Q&A
Spoiler:
Q: Have I seen this mod somewhere before..?
A: Maybe? I uploaded this mod 2 years ago when it was in alpha and barely had anything. Thanks to the valuable
feedback I fixed lots of stuff, reworked things and added much more of my initial ideas along the way.
Q: How is this mod working on your save? How many hits do enemies need to take to die on average?
A: Depends on the foe of course but in general weaker foes like bandits or forsworn will die in 3 - 8 hits whereas monsters
such as vampires would require 10 - 20 attacks. If you need 100 hits to kill something then I suggest tweaking
the difficulty, adding mods that make you stronger etc.
Q: You mentioned minimum levels for some creatures being raised. How do I know where to go?
A: With my mod many places you go to will have high minimum level, examples being vampire dens, dwemer places
and such... I suggest you use your knowledge on the lore to guess what thematically makes sense to be a high level
place but wasn't in the vanilla game. Also remember that it's okay to run from a fight(I know you might be used to
beating any encounter the game throws in your way).
Q: How does a new player approach the world?
A: Well start off with clearing out smaller dungeons and quests to gather some gear and experience before going
into high level dungeons and rushing through questlines. Lots of questlines have their final dungeons tweaked
in order to be challenging for a mid-high level players.
Q: I went into a place and managed to deal with the first batch of enemies but then it got too hard.
I guess I should run..?
A: Yes. I can imagine this mod making you study the game again similar to playing Requiem for the first time.
]Q: I dislike some of the changes you have. Can I turn them off?
A: Unfortunately I don't provide with an MCM menu that has options to switch off mechanics. After all
the mod was made to suit my liking and if I needed something turned off I wouldn't have made it
in the first place. I will consider it in the future however!
Show
Q: Have I seen this mod somewhere before..?
A: Maybe? I uploaded this mod 2 years ago when it was in alpha and barely had anything. Thanks to the valuable
feedback I fixed lots of stuff, reworked things and added much more of my initial ideas along the way.
Q: How is this mod working on your save? How many hits do enemies need to take to die on average?
A: Depends on the foe of course but in general weaker foes like bandits or forsworn will die in 3 - 8 hits whereas monsters
such as vampires would require 10 - 20 attacks. If you need 100 hits to kill something then I suggest tweaking
the difficulty, adding mods that make you stronger etc.
Q: You mentioned minimum levels for some creatures being raised. How do I know where to go?
A: With my mod many places you go to will have high minimum level, examples being vampire dens, dwemer places
and such... I suggest you use your knowledge on the lore to guess what thematically makes sense to be a high level
place but wasn't in the vanilla game. Also remember that it's okay to run from a fight(I know you might be used to
beating any encounter the game throws in your way).
Q: How does a new player approach the world?
A: Well start off with clearing out smaller dungeons and quests to gather some gear and experience before going
into high level dungeons and rushing through questlines. Lots of questlines have their final dungeons tweaked
in order to be challenging for a mid-high level players.
Q: I went into a place and managed to deal with the first batch of enemies but then it got too hard.
I guess I should run..?
A: Yes. I can imagine this mod making you study the game again similar to playing Requiem for the first time.
]Q: I dislike some of the changes you have. Can I turn them off?
A: Unfortunately I don't provide with an MCM menu that has options to switch off mechanics. After all
the mod was made to suit my liking and if I needed something turned off I wouldn't have made it
in the first place. I will consider it in the future however!