About this mod
Welcome to unDeads Don’t Die (uDDD or u3D). Now, undeads, will really be a threat as they are able to recover from their “death”.
This mod intends to bring a deeper gameplay when fighting undead NPCs by forcing the player to adapt to each undead type in order to permanently kill it.
All highly customizable in a complete McM ;).
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
I) Why this mod ?
I looked for a mod which would allow undead NPCs to reanimate unless killed the right way. I only found 2 mods covering this aspect (“Truly undead reborn” and “Curse of the undying” - Go to check them too !). Unfortunately, they are both too limited in options for my taste. So, I decided to create mine and take advantage of it to learn papyrus scripting and creation kit deeper. I also significantly added more options than I need and made this mod as much customizable as possible to allow everyone enjoying the undeads fitting the most their favorite gameplay 😉.
NB: Every parameter is preset with default values. There are numerous options available, but you don’t have to change everything. I recommend viewing this mod as fully functional right away, with the flexibility to customize specific aspects that don’t quite match your gameplay style.
II) Mod’s features
0) Main files
- ESPFE: ESP flagged as ESL.
- Skeleton
- Draugr
- Vampire
- Other undeads
2) Features
NB: Pretty everything in customizable within the McM.
a) Direct death
- All base game weapon types can be tweaked within the McM but only Dragon, Daedric, Silver and Bound types have a chance to permanently kill the undead by default.
- Elements such as fire, frost, and shock have also a chance to permanently kill the undead, by default.
- Damaging spells or weapons from restoration magic with sun, restoration or holy traits, can permanently kill the undead, by default.
- You can increase the perma kill chance by striking the corpse with a weapon able to permanently end the undead (at least 1% in McM). Each strike has a chance, determined by the weapon’s settings in the McM, to definitively kill the undead creature.
- Soul trap, disintegration, and decapitation can permanently kill the undead as well.
NB: About decapitation, there is no tweakable choice. It seems that the game does not allow reanimating a decapitated body anyway. - Werewolf claws can also permanently kill undeads by default (for gameplay convenience).
- Poisoning system: You can also place an ingredient in the undead’s inventory (like garlic for vampires), which will cause it to burn and ensure its permanent death. If it is alive (not yet a corpse lying on the ground when you give it the deadly ingredient), it also may flee because of the intense pain it feels.
- Injury system: An undead may not recover its full health after reanimation if hit by a weapon to which it is sensitive.
It may also resurrect or start bleeding during a fight and see its health decreasing over a random period of time. In case of bleeding, it won’t be able to resurrect after its next death.
- Enraging system: An undead can be pretty pissed off to have been killed once and may get its stats randomly boosted for a random time period (which could make it a mini boss. Good luck ! ;p).
[Disabled for now] NB: In case the undead is a vampire, it also has a chance to transform to its beast form. However, this feature is disabled by default because I haven't had the time to test it thoroughly. It works as intended, but if for any external reason the game script engine fails to revert the NPC to its human form, any future NPCs with the same form ID may also spawn in beast form. To fix this issue, you can reset the race of the affected NPC back to its original race form ID using the console command: Select the actor, then type "setRace RaceFormID". [Disabled for now]
- The mod can be turned off for NPCs based on the specific type of undead independently.
III) Undead death
So! What is happening when you have just killed an undead ?
1. At death, a first check is done over the killing hit. It will check if the weapon, projectile, or element which caused the death stopped the reanimation process or not. In case of a permanent deadly hit, the corpse of the undead is cleaned from the associated mod’s scripts. Otherwise, the undead is placed in a random standby delay (customizable in McM) during which its corpse will remain lying on the ground apparently dead 😏.
NB: You can hit the corpse again and again (with a deadly weapon) to increase your chances that it remains permanently dead.
2. Once the delay passed, the undead will start reanimating for about 6 seconds (~ the animation time).
3. Once reanimated, it may be injured, bleeding and/or enraged:
- If enraged, the reanimated undead will see its stats randomly boosted for a random period of time (the duration is tweakable in McM). Some FXs will also take place to make you understand that your opponent is, now, pretty pissed off 😉.
- It may also reanimate injured. In that case, a random proportion of its health will be removed. In addition, it may be bleeding either, which lower its life at a random rate and will prevent it to resurrect another time. An FX will also be applied to show its bleeding state.
NB: If an injured undead resurrects many times, it cannot reanimate with more health than the maximum he got in its previous reanimations.
IV) McM
Each button or slider is explained within the McM by hovering your mouse on them. Check the mod's pictures to get a look at the McM options.
V) Compatibility
1) Compatible
- u3D should be compatible with undeads from other mods.
NB: This only depends on the SPID rules set within the SPID file stored in the folder of this mod. You can modify this file to apply the effects of this mod to any undead that may have been overlooked, if needed.
- It should be compatible with Frozen Electrocuted Combustion (FEC) (Obviously, burnt vampires won't get their baby skin back once reanimated 😜).
- It should be compatible with damaging magic from the restoration magic school: HHU - Healing Hurts Undead and Inquisition were tested and are compatible.
- u3D is certainly not compatible with mods doing things with undead's corpses... until the undead is really dead at least 😜. In that case, anything related to the mod is removed from the corpse.
- This mod uses the reanimation magic effect from the reanimation spells in the base game. Unfortunately, NPCs that are decapitated or dismembered cannot be reanimated due to intended limitations in Bethesda’s coding... This is likely because the game’s NPC animations and behaviors are not designed to account for missing limbs.
=> Dismembered NPCs cannot be reanimated.
NB: If anyone has an idea on how to bypass this limitation, such as preventing the game from detecting a dismembered undead, or knows of a mod that could help with this (like Enhanced Reanimation), I’d be happy to explore options to make this mod compatible.
VI) FAQ
Why is there a b in the version name ?
It is feature complete and I have already tested a lot of situations during the development. However, I currently don’t have the time to test every possible scenario or to test this mod into a playthrough. That's why, I prefer to release it as a beta (b) version. I’ll remove its beta status after some time if your feedback doesn’t indicate any major issue.
Distant skeletons do not reassemble well sometimes, why ?
I don't know why. Something about the LOD management of the skyrim game engine, maybe ? If you get close enough to them, you should see all their "glitchy" parts coming back to the right places straight away. I assume that is not a bug from the mod.
Not yet tested with vampire named NPCs (from a 1.5 years memory, I think there was no trouble with Serana.).
If anything wrong happens. An exception should be added in SPID for the concerned NPC.
VII) Update procedure from 1.0b to 1.1.0b+
[UPDATE PROCEDURE - for people already having the older ESP version (1.0b) in their current playthrough]
NB : Not required for a new playthrough with this mod.
Unfortunately, I had to compact the form ID to be able to flag the ESP as ESL. So you cannot update just by overwriting
the old ESP :/. Nevertheless, the updating procedure remains simple, no worries 😉.
=> Procedure 1 no NPCs reset. Procedure 2 NPCs reset.
Update procedure 1 (fastest):
1. Remove/Disable the past version of the mod (v1.0b).
2. Launch your game.
3. Make a save after 30 s.
4. Close your game.
5. Install the new version of the mod (v1.1.0b).
Update procedure 2 (cleanest):
1. Launch your game.
2. Go to a small cell like your house or any small interior with fewer NPCs.
3. Open the game console.
4. Enter: setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 1
5. Enter: setgsiHoursToRespawnCellCleared 1
6. Wait 2 in-game hours.
7. Enter: setgs iHoursToRespawnCell 168
8. Enter: setgs iHoursToRespawnCellCleared 480
NB : 168 h = 7 days, 480 h = 20 days, 240 h = 10 days, 720 h = 30 days.
9. Make a save.
10. Close your game.
11. Remove/Disable the past version of the mod (v1.0b).
12. Restart your game.
13. Make a new save after 30 s.
14. Close your game.
15. Install the new version of the mod (1.1.0b).