README for Dragon Combat Overhaul (DCO)

Mod Author: Apollodown
README Author(s): Apollodown, sevencardz
Version: 9.0
Website: http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/32597/

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CONTENTS
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REQUIREMENTS
FORUM ETIQUETTE
TERMINOLOGY
KNOWN ISSUES
*CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT*
DCO TACTICS
MORTAL KOMBAT

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REQUIREMENTS
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Skyrim version: 1.9.32.0.8.
Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE) version: 1.6.16

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FORUM ETIQUETTE
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Generally, it is a bad idea to announce with disdainful chagrin that DCO is most assuredly causing
some problem with your game, and then expect help from Apollo or the flying monkeys or the other
good people of the Nexus. You will most likely be swiftly shut down or flat out ignored. The same
can be expected if you ask a question which has already been clearly answered either in the
description or via a sticky post. Running a keyword search on the forum is also a good idea, as
many issues have already been discussed in detail within the forum itself. Help us to help you.

If you are having an issue and are just stumped, show some respect and give a detailed description
of what you tried and what you believe the issue to be. If you have a large papyrus log or load
order list to share, use pastebin.com or a similar service, so as not to clog up the forum. Also,
pictures are worth a thousand words and imgur.com is a great hosting service for those. I recommend
that you write your comment outside of the Nexus first and then come back to it a day later. Before
you post the comment, ask yourself if you would respond to your own comment if you were to read it
on the forums.

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TERMINOLOGY
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FLYING MONKEYS - Describes awesome users who, for reasons only known to them, thoroughly enjoy
Apollo's mods, humor and general demeanor, and are more than willing to tease out bugs and mod
conflicts, suffer through game crashes and testing monotony, and help answer worthy questions on the
forums. Unofficially, anyone is a flying monkey if they decide to be. Officially, flying monkeys
are only recognized AFTER they have proven themselves in the Rancor Pit, and have been formally
recognized by Apollo himself.

THE RANCOR PIT - Describes the normal tone within the mod forum, where all claims are subject to
being mercilessly questioned and refuted by the flying monkeys. Bugs are to be expected with any
sort of software, and even moreso with experimental software. However, the vast majority of issues
which are reported turn out to be user error (whether intentional or unintentional).

SKYRIM SORCERY - Describes what happens to your game if you decide to load an existing save after
you install and/or uninstall mods and you then decide to save your game afterwards. When Skyrim
saves your game, it literally saves EVERYTHING about the current state of your Skyrim. You can not
expect the game to work correctly if you have swapped out mods and then load a save that was created
with a different set of mods. The game has blatant warnings about this.

There are only a few exceptions to this rule, including simple texture or sound replacers,
SKSE plugins, ENBs, etc. If a mod author does not explicitly state that you can install the mod
without starting a new game, then you should always assume that you should. Even if the mod author
claims it won't cause any problems, you should always try to do it anyway, just for safe measure.

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KNOWN ISSUES
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FLYING GLASS ELEVATOR (GAME LIMITATION)

Dragons may fly backwards, wonk out completely, fly into buildings and rocks, do backflips across an
entire cell to land in your face, steal your girlfriend, etc. etc. etc. These are pre-existing
vanilla issues that my mod, unfortunately, has a tendency to exacerbate. This is because of the
fact that I PLAY WITH THEIR BRAINS AND MAKE THEM DO STUFF THAT IS AWESOME. It doesn't usually
affect much; it's mostly just immersion-breaking. Personally, I think it's more immersion-breaking
when a mammoth takes on a dragon and wins with epic fervor, but whatever.
- Apollodown

These are simply limitations of Skyrim's game engine. Currently, very little can be done to remedy
these limitations besides attempting to work with them or work around them.

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DRAGON STALKING (EXACERBATED VANILLA BUG)

For unknown reasons, dragons you kill can end up 'stalking' your character. Specifically, the
dragon's unburnt and still lootable corpse follows you from cell to cell. This is another
pre-existing vanilla issue that DCO exacerbates. The issue also happens in the vanilla game, but
much less often.

To remedy this issue when it does happen, open the console, click the dragon, use command
'markfordelete' to make sure the game deletes the dragon corpse from any subsequent save games you
make. Next, use command 'disable' to remove the dragon corpse from active gameplay and prevent it
from reappearing.

There is currently no known fix, but research is being done in that area.

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UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE (EXACERBATED VANILLA BUG)

If a dragon happens to ragdoll your character into a gently flowing stream, your character will stay
stuck in ragdoll mode, unable to move, and will continue to float down the stream like a lifeless
cadaver, until colliding with something solid. This is a vanilla bug and DCO has nothing to do with
it, other than making it more likely to occur.

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*CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT* *CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT*
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*CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT* *CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT*
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*CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT* *CAUTION: SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT*
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DCO TACTICS
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EVASION

Seek out nearby bridges, forts, towers, caves or even a few trees and boulders, then take cover
quickly and hold your position. TROGDOR THE BURNINATOR makes dragon combat similar to a dwarf
wrestling a sumo. Except, not only can the sumo eat the dwarf, he can also use powerful breath
attacks and HE CAN FREAKING FLY. Out in the open, you are an easy dragon target, so hide somewhere.

WHIRLWIND SPRINT is useful for avoiding dragon attacks and for quickly taking cover.

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DISTRACTION

If possible, lure the dragon over to some guards or a giant's camp and position them between you and
the dragon. Magic users should summon daedra, reanimate corpses, charm animals, etc., to give the
dragon something more convenient to chew on. THREAT LEVEL MIDNIGHT, OSCAR! means dragons will seek
you as their primary target, but it certainly helps to bring plenty of followers with you.

BECOME ETHEREAL is useful when using yourself as a dragon lure; damage is negated, but not physics,
so you will still suffer the stagger/ragdoll effects.

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BLOCKING AND STAGGERING

NOTHING CAN MOVE THE BLOB means that dragons can not be staggered by normal attacks, so if you
successfully disagree and avoid a stagger, running is usually the best thing to do next.
OH REGINALD.......I DISAGREE! will only partially mitigate the stagger and ragdoll effects from
TROGDOR THE BURNINATOR, and so this tactic is best employed by sword and board style players because
it requires you to already have the option to block quickly.

UNRELENTING FORCE is currently bugged and does not stagger dragons. The next version may fix this.

DRAGONREND gets nerfed by DCO unintentionally, but it's also arguably overpowered.
Dragons will land, but they will immediately take off again and are not stunned.

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DIVIDE AND CONQUER

Due to JOE COLLEGE WAINWRIGHT, dragons will intentionally flank you, knock you down repeatedly, fly
just out of range, obliterate your followers, refuse to land, etc, etc. This becomes exponentially
more difficult when two or more dragons are present and MOOSE AND SQUIRREL kicks in, at which point
they will quickly establish a hierarchy and proceed to attack you strategically as one cohesive team.

BEND WILL is useful for quickly turning reinforcements against each other. Mount the dragon and
command it to attack another dragon, then dismount in a safe area and do it again until you've
turned them all against each other.

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HORSES

Fighting dragons while mounted on a horse has significant advantages:

1. Dragons CAN NOT ragdoll you while mounted, but they can knock you off the horse.
2. Most attacks which would ragdoll you, only stagger or disorient the horse.
3. You can push dragons around while mounted on a horse.
4. You can move faster on a horse and use its stamina to conserve your own.
5. Dragons DO NOT target or damage the horse unless it turns hostile to them.

Disadvantages:

1. Obviously, it's harder to hide yourself and your horse at the same time.
2. You can't aim in first person, cast magic, shout, dual wield or block on a horse.
3. You can't see the horse's health meter. (thanks, Bethesda)

Vanilla Bugs:

Physics and collision detection may wonk out near a dragon, sending you and your horse flying far
into the distance while still being mounted on the horse.

Sometimes, failure to mount a horse (because of being interrupted by a dragon) can result in your
character becoming frozen in place, unresponsive to all input commands. Known fixes include using
the 'coc' command to move away and then back to the area. The safest option is to reload a previous
save game.

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MORTAL KOMBAT
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All dragons at or above level 20 are now parsed by type and have different combat styles.
This integrates seamlessly with DG, DB, DD, Bellyache's, EMD and many other initials.

WE DIDN'T START THE FIRE

Fire dragons explode on crash landings, hasty landings, and the second strike of Triple Threat. The
third strike of Triple Threat creates a supernova. OH REGINALD.......I DISAGREE! works against
Fire dragons' hasty landings. Fire dragons tend to be faster and more violent than other dragons.

MAN BROSKI, THAT'S JUST COLD

Frost dragons chill the air around them. When a lot of wind blows past you, say when the dragon
flies over your head or flaps its wings, you get frozen solid. OH REGINALD.......I DISAGREE! does
not work against them because they temporarily freeze you solid. Frost dragons tend to be more
resistant to injury and slightly slower than other dragons.

I'M SHOCKED, SHOCKED TO FIND THAT GAMBLING IS GOING ON IN HERE!

Shock dragons consistently shock the air around them. It doesn't hurt that much, but BOY DOES IT
STACK UP. Shock dragons can also use the Storm Call shout. Would you like fries with that?

NOW WAIT JUST ONE GOSH-DARN MINUTE

Undead dragons behave normally... until they hit 35% health. If below 35% health and on the wing,
undead dragons turn into bones, restore 25% of their health, gain 100 armor, and become immune to
all forms of injury. All wind-related knockback events (wing flaps, takeoff and landing) are
removed while the dragon is bones, because they have no skin. Come on now.

WOODLAND CRITTER CHRISTMAS

Nature dragons call on their woodland friends for help. So expect to fight a deer. And a mudcrab.
And then the dragon lands on your head. Deadly Dragons' Forest Dragon is both nature and undead.
Once it turns into bones, it loses its ability to call animals to its aid.

Legendary dragons cycle through Fire, Frost and end with Undead.

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REINFORCEMENTS - Always has a 25% chance to occur if the dragon has been affected by DCO at all.
LIMIT BREAKS - Happens 75% of the time at 20% health to dragons affected by MORTAL KOMBAT.

Each dragon type has two different limit breaks that they can pick from: one is likely; one is rare.
With 5 dragon types that makes for 10 limit breaks.