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DESCRIPTION
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This is a very small mod I made to address two issues:

1. I was quite annoyed by the fact that a longsword could hit a wall or objects from too far away (screenshot). I play 1stPerson as much as possible, but even there I found it quite annoying. I didn't found anything which addresses this problem so I made it myself and I thought that some of you would like to have a fix for that as well.

2. The second thing I address with this mod is the fighting distance. The distance you must have to hit an enemy now is much more realistic, that means no more getting hit by the air in front of the enemies weapon.

I made no changes to any Weapons, the changes I made affect vanilla melee weapons just like melee weapons added by a mod. There should be no problem with custom weapon mods.

Update 2.0:
I found out that some settings regarding the unarmed range are quite strange in vanilla. A drauger for example has the same armlenght as a human but for some reason his unarmed combat range is 1/3 shorter than that of most playable races (found more races where that is the case: some Vampires, Skeletons etc.etc.). By experimenting with the values I found out that the draugr armlength is much more realistic. In various unarmed combats I experienced much better fistfights. (much less air punch hits)

There are also some Inconsistencies with some creatures for example: why has a Frost Troll a much greater attack range compared to the normal troll even though his arms have the exact same length? Also includes fixes for more of the long distance melee attacks like that of the mudcrabs.

Besides the new update also eliminates some other balance Issues with the initial release (see details).

Short overview of attack distances in version 2.0 (Player and Humanoid NPCs) Vanilla vs. MeleeWeaponRangeFix:
Distance calculation based on the information from Hectasword (thanks again for that).

Vanilla Skyrim:
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Unarmed: 96 (ca. 1.39m) (ca. 4.56 Feet)
Dagger: 98 (ca. 1.41m) (ca. 4.62 Feet)
Shield bash: 141 (ca. 2.03m) (ca. 6.66 Feet) (damn! 2 meters shield bash!)
One handed Weapon: 141 (ca. 2.03m) (ca. 6.66 Feet)
Two-Handed Weapon:183 (ca. 2.64m) (ca. 8.66 Feet)



Skyrim with the MeleeWeaponRangeFix: MOD:
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Unarmed: 64 (ca. 0.92m)(ca. 3.01 Feet)
Dagger: 71(ca. 1.02m) (ca. 3.35 Feet)
Shield bash: 80(ca. 1.15m) (ca. 3.77 Feet) (the strike animation is farther than the dagger-strike, 80 seemed accurate)
One handed Weapon: 101 (ca. 1.46m) (ca. 4.79 Feet)
Two-Handed Weapon:131 (ca. 1.89m) (ca. 6.20 Feet)


Update 2.1:
I played the game for a month and made tiny adjustments based on my experiences during that time. So far I found no bugs and in my opinion the fighting experience is much better than in vanilla. At the moment I have version 2.1 ready for those who have Dragonborn and Dawnguard.
If anyone is interested to have it for Skyrim with only one of the dlc's or non of the dlc's please leave me a message. Im quite busy ATM and will only do it if there are people out there who need it. (Would even do it If there is only one request.)

Update 2.2:
Fixed the .esp of the main download. V2.1 accidentally required the Hearthfire DLC. V2.2 only requires Dawnguard and Dragonborn. Sorry for the Inconvenience.



IMPORTANT!!!
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If you are not interested in the changes I made to unarmed combat distance and monster melee combat range you can download V1.1 there I didn't touch creature values.


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COMPATIBILITY:
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Should be compatible with almost everything. If you have a mod which alters the combat distance and has settings you prefer, put your mod under this one in your load order.


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HOW TO INSTALL
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If you have the Dawnguard and Dragonborn DLC's pick the main download

-If you have only Dragonborn pick the Dragonborn download under optional files and copy both esp.
-If you have only Dawnguard pick the Dawnguard download under optional files and copy both esp.
-If you have no dlc's (Hearthfires doesn't matter) pick the Skyrim Only download under optional files and copy both esp.


extract the esp file(s) into:
...\Steam\steamapps\common\skyrim\data

-Open the Skyrim launcher
-Click on data files
-Check the box for "WeaponRangeFix.esp"

If you have no "data files" option in the launcher

Open SkyrimPrefs.ini. File can be found in:
...\Documents\My Games\Skyrim

Find [Launcher] and add this line below it:
bEnableFileSelection=1


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DETAILS
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(This description is based on my knowledge about the mechanics. It is possible that there are mistakes so if you find any (aside from spelling mistakes, me no native english speaker) please let me know and I will correct them.)

There is a difference between fighting distance and the distance where you can hit objects.

-The default distance to hit objects is 150 for single-handed weapons which is ridiculously long. (Shield bash has the same distance which is even more ridiculous)
-The default distance to hit objects with two handed weapons is ca. 112 which diden't make any sense to me. I mean shield Bash object range 150, 2H weapon object hit range 112???
-The default distance to hit objects with fists is ca. 62 (which is quite good)
-The default distance to hit opponents is 141 * weapon reach * npcsize
-The default distance to Shield bash an opponent is 141 (just silly)

I changed the distances as follows:

-object hit single-handed distance 85 (tiny bit longer than the animation (Screenshot))
-object hit two-handed distance 85 (same as single-handed, sorry but more didn't make sense because of the animation, sadly the same range as single-handed swords)

-opponent hit distance 101 (this makes sense because you can hit arms and legs. 2H weapons have a combat range of 101 * 1.3 daggers 101 * 0.7. The range factor like 0.7 is defined for each weapon. I didn't touch this factors.)
-opponent shield bash distance 80 (you now really have to get close.)

As you can see the two-handed weapons have a bigger range in combat than the single-handed weapons. I felt that this is important concerning the combat balance. But the object matter is something different. There I oriented myself on the animations an the 2H and the 1H weapons have almost the same range.

V2.0
Made some discoveries about the unarmed Combat and found out that there are some strange things in the Vanilla version. Unarmed combat range for most of the Human sized Races is 96 where some Vampires, Draugar, Skeletons, Dremoras etc. have ranges of 64 even though they have the same arm length and the same unarmed animations.
By experimenting with the values I found out that 64 is much more realistic. Whit 96 these races can give air punches and hit. My hypothesis is that the developers Initially set the ranges to 64 and than Increased it for whatever reason.

Changes:

-Most humanoid sized Races (draugr, skeletons, playable races…) which use weapons have tier unarmed combat distance reduced to 64
-Frost Trolls have now the same attack range as normal Trolls which is 128
-Werewolf 150->140
-Werebear 150->140
-Mudcrab 150 -> 60 (in v1.2) -> 64
-Bears 124 -> 85

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KNOWN ISSUES:
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-There is still a small distance between an object and an 1H/2H weapon if you hit it at maximum distance but it is really tiny. I made that because I want the player to be able to hit an object lying on the ground right in front of him. This gets problematic after going under 85.

-Daggers still have a recognizable Distance to an object or wall when hitting it at max distance. I don't know how to address that since all single-handed melee weapons except fists use the same distance variable when it comes to hitting objects and they don't use their range factors as they do when attacking opponents.

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It is possible that there is a mod out there which does exactly the same thing. If there is, I was unable to find it. Please let me know if this is the case.

If you find a more elegant solution for the problem, please let me know.

If you want only one part of this mod (object or fighting part) let me know.

If you have any suggestions regarding the mod or if you find any bugs, let me know.

If you like the mod, endorse it.



have fun