Duel - Combat Realism v4.1

Please, visite the download page at: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=2700


Thank you for your endorsement!

Your acknowledgement is my reward :)


IMPORTANT: Duel - Expansion Pack not needed anymore (and won't be supported as well). Everything is now part of this new version (CK).

Install note!
-------------
Use the Nexus Mod Manager
Now available on Steam Workshop !!!
Lien vers la traduction fran�aise(gracieuset� de Corax)
You want to translate this page in your native language? Great! send me your link and I'll put it just here :)


INTRODUCTION
------------
Duel Combat Realism is a mod that improves the combat system of Skyrim. With this mod, your battles will be more realistic.Now you can cover yourself with your shield, parry with your 2-handed weapon, and plan new strategies using your cunning and your anticipation. Since its first release, Duel Combat Realism has become a must for fighting melee.

The purpose of this mod is to create the best experience of combat with an emphasis on the parry system with the shield, the use of stamina, having a better A.I., and so on; all whilst remaining within the basic functionalities of the combat engine of Skyrim.

My priority is to offer an add-on that combines quality performance, stability and combat balance.


NEW DUEL - Combat Realism v4.1
------------------------------
- Shield staggering have been reduced to avoid exploit
- Harder to stagger
- Opponents have more base stamina


New Duel - Combat Realism CK v4.0.1
-----------------------------------
- Minor bug fix

NEW DUEL - Combat Realism CK v4.0.0
-----------------------------------
This new version add more depth to combat system in Skyrim. Now with scripting enhancement.



GAMEPLAY:
---------
- With stamina cost, blocking with shield or weapon cover you from damages;
- Skyrim's base timed shield block optimized
o If you keep your shield raised, opponent should stagger you;
o If you timely raise your shield during an opponent's attack, you'll block his aggression and he'll stagger;
o If you shield bash a casting mage, he'll stagger and lost his spell;
o If you shield bash someone, he'll stagger;
- Chance to stagger your opponent on each landing hit based on your stamina (tested against your opponent's);
- Shield effectiveness relative to your actual stamina score; less stamina means more damage transfered to health.;
- Improved AI, now opponent with shield know how to use it!
- When you hit your opponent, he lost health AND stamina, based on weapon type you use;
- Different stagger effect magnitude relative to weapon type; maces should have more chance to stagger than sword;
- Stagger chances is better against lower levels, and get very hard to do against opponent that is higher level than you;
- Less powerful Shield Bash, faster recovery for intense combat;
- Fast recovery from Knockdown too;
- Closer Shield Bash (range), closer fighting range. both intended for more realistic animation and betetr A.I. troggers;
- Weapons have better parrying
- Damages done against someone that is knocked back is lower than Vanilla. This avoid some exploit relative to staggers;
- Knockback happen only when opponent is near to death;
- And many more...

ENGINE:
-------
- No known bugs to this day
- No known compatibility issue to this day
- No lags or CPU hit, very responsive
- Well balanced
- Little use of script, best use of native combat engine layers.
- Optimized


Known exploit v4.1:
-------------------
- If you invest all into Stamina, you'll become very powerful.





So you want to know what is under the hood? Duel - Combat Realism is a complex mod with many layers including object linked together, maths, optimization and event handlers.

First, I must admit that coding a combat mod in Skyrim isn't an easy task. Bethesda make a decision to not allow much modification in the combat engine. What is written on their wiki is: "... the specific decisions made by the Combat AI cannot be controlled through the Creation Kit ... the mechanics of combat are not something you can control."

I push this forward: Papyrus scripting is not designed for a mod like Duel.

To create Duel, I had to use many layouts in the Creation Kit to be able to set this up. One of the game engine layer is the Global Variables I used for the older versions of Duel. By tweaking these values, I can create some A.I. tweaks.. like opponent using blocking the way its supposed to be and so on. Here's a list of the global variables, their Vanilla values, and the values Duel - Combat Realism v4.0.0 implement.

Table - Global Variables tweak
[on website only]


You can roughly notice (from table above) that base staggering effects have been reduced. this is needed to avoid "staggering exploit" where the player can stun the opponent with speed attacks using a sword. Duel Combat Realism goes further by taking control of staggering via scripting.. read on for more details about how I override it and how it will change your gaming experience.

Blocking with a shield or weapon cost stamina points. Shield bashing range have been reduced to a more realistic range, and combat range have been reduced slightly to trigger the defensive stance from opponent during a fight; basically, Vanilla have an excellent A.I. with combat, but the problem is that the combat range was too high and A.I. integration didn't work well. by adjusting combat range, a full package of new possibilities just become available.

Stamina and Health regen delay have been raised too. This feature force the player to use his cunning and anticipation to survive a fight instead of relaying on stats recovering. Having a high regen rate is unrealistic and may be an exploit in most case.

Duel Combat Realism override many features of the game engine. One of them is the staggering effect magnitude and the chances that a character will stagger during a fight. It uses a complex math to determine if a character must stagger or not. But first, it have to pass a random test based on perks and weapon. Table below shows the logic used by this mod.

[on website only]

ShieldWall Perk have been modified to better fit Duel - Combat Realism. Instead of giving a flat bonus% when blocking, this mod will dynamically gives bonuses based on your perk level AND your actual stamina percentage. This way, with more base stamina you can block more attacks before losing block effectiveness. The table below shows how bonus/malus are calculated relative to your skill and actual stamina.

[on website only]

Based on this table, if you have Armsman20 perk with 100% of you stamina, you get a +20% bonus when blocking. With the same perk but with 30% stamina left, you get a -40% blocking effectiveness. What it means is that 40% of damage is directly transferred into your health. In short, less you have in stamina, more you get into your health.

Next feature is that each weapon type have its staggering effect magnitude; mace are slower, have more chance to stagger, but mace should stagger MORE due to impact type. The table below describe how Duel - Combat Realism add this feature.

[on website only]

Want to go further into the Duel Engine? OK, here is the main algorithm that is used to evaluate if someone who get hit must stagger or not.

[on website only]

Following this diagram, Duel - Combat Realism wait for a landing hit (001). When it happens (002), the mod use the table Global Variable Tweak to evaluate if it have to start calculation about staggering effect. Then, if successful (004), Duel calculate the chances the Actor have to stagger his opponent (005). With the resulting value, the mod throw a random roll based on Actors stamina (006). If successful, then Duel - Combat Realism use a spell to stagger the target (009).

The 005 and 006 items from the diagram is build on a Papyrus script. To appreciate its complexity, here is the code:

[on website only]

Well, if you don't understand papyrus code, here is a short description..
Random chances roll is done between 2 values; min value and max value.
Min value = target stamina - player stamina divided by absolute value between target level minus player level. Then we subtract the player equipped weapon type.
Max value = base player stamina and add to it the player level minus target level.

If random roll scores lower than player's actual stamina, then it apply a staggering effect. Simple like that ;)

Papyrus script is a powerful language that gives many features. But even the best thing in the world may have some hidden side effect. This is the case with scripted mods. One of the problem with script is that the compiled results isn't optimized compared to the native game engine. Other problem is script is given a priority order upon many tasks and, most of the time, native game engine events is processed before any scripts. For a combat mod like Duel - Combat Realism, this is no good and it may result in a big hit toward performance.. side effect in this case could be lags.

To prevent this, Duel - Combat Realism make little uses of script and most of its engine use the native exposed values to render a real time experience. To make this possible, I had to design an architecture where triggers were not part of scripting; scripting is used ONLY for statistical calculation. The graph below shows the big picture.

[on website only]

From this diagram, you can notice that events is managed by the trigger layers. Then, the statistical maths is done by the script and finally the script cast the effect. Finally, by optimizing the script (using .modAV() instead of .mopdAttributeValue() for example, and other stuff..), Duel - Combat Realism is fit for the toughest combat in Skyrim.

More info will follow in the next days. Stay tuned!

[on website only]


Duel Craftable Arrows have its own respective pages now. This is necessary for better compatibility with Nexus Mod Manager. Please refer to the proper page for download.

ENJOY !!!