Wildcat is a streamlined, yet full featured combat overhaul. It makes combat more dangerous and visceral by increasing lethality, adding injuries and context sensitive stagger and making combat AI more responsive and aggressive. It accomplishes this with minimal scripting and no save bloat.
Requirements
This mod does not have any known dependencies other than the base game.
Other user's assetsAll the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources
Upload permissionYou can upload this file to other sites but you must credit me as the creator of the file
Modification permissionYou are allowed to modify my files and release bug fixes or improve on the features so long as you credit me as the original creator
Conversion permissionYou can convert this file to work with other games as long as you credit me as the creator of the file
Asset use permissionYou are allowed to use the assets in this file without permission as long as you credit me
Asset use permission in mods/files that are being soldYou are not allowed to use assets from this file in any mods/files that are being sold, for money, on Steam Workshop or other platforms
Asset use permission in mods/files that earn donation pointsYou must get permission to earn Donation Points for your mods if they use my assets
Author notes
I don't believe in mod copyright. You are free to......
- include this mod in mod packs - create and publish compatibility patches - create and publish derivative mods - fork this mod - use custom assets or scripts from this mod in your own mods
......without asking for permission, as long as you credit me (and preferably notify me so I can take a look).
Money: You do NOT have permission to sell mods for real money that are based on this mod in any way. You do NOT have permission to ask for donations unless you make meaningful changes to this mod and clearly state that you are asking for donations for those changes only.
Tl;dr Do anything you want with this mod, as long as you don't steal my credit or flip my work for money.
File credits
This author has not credited anyone else in this file
Game settings - Removed scaling NPC level boost. - Reduced fNPCHealthLevelBonus from 7.50 -> 6.00.
Version 6.06SSE
Dynamic combat
- Effects are no longer applied to Tolfdir.
Game settings
- Reverted fMagicCasterSkillCostMult from 1 -> 0.5. (NPCs don't typically have cost reduction perks, so this multiplier acts as a replacement for those perks and setting it to 1 is not right.)
Version 6.04SSE
I now have a Patreon: www.patreon.com/EnaiSiaion
Movement
- Removed slowed sideways/backwards movement when holding a spell.
- Removed reduced rotation speed when casting a spell.
Note: automatons, daedra and undead are deliberately immune to impact effects.
Version 6.02SSE
Difficulty
- Legendary: increased damage dealt from 0.5 -> 0.75.
Version 6.01SSE
Misc
- Damage reduction vs. massive targets no longer includes spell duration.
- Increased experience gain of combat skills.
MCM
- Updated some strings.
Realistic Damage Plugin
- Created.
Version 6.00SSE
A huge update to fix some controversial features (stagger lock, full body stagger, incapacitating injuries) and reach the same level of polish as Smilodon.
Note: if you made some customisations using the MCM, many of them have been reset.
Dynamic combat
- Redesigned the Dynamic Combat ability (upon updating, the mod will automatically remove the old ability and give you the new ability).
- Stamina costs reduced from 10/15/10 -> 5/10/5 (this is not retroactive, use the MCM or configuration power to change them).
- At zero Stamina, actors deal 35% less damage -> are slowed by 15%.
- Added Stamina cost when swimming (ported from Smilodon).
- Full body stagger is now DISABLED by default and must be enabled using the MCM or configuration power.
- Timed blocking now improves block by 15% -> 25%.
Injuries
- Stagger is now tied to injury chance instead of occurring all the time when crossing a Health threshold.
- Added toggle to switch from threshold injuries/stagger to rekt-o-meter (burst) injuries/stagger.
- Updated default settings: two Health thresholds (30% and 15%) and 30% chance to cause an injury.
- Arm injury: changed impact event to always unequip and never drop the weapon; no longer deals damage on attacks, but staggers 25% -> 33% of the time.
- Chest injury: changed impact event from draining 50% of current Health -> draining 50% of current Stamina.
- Head injury: changed impact event from elemental backlash -> draining 50% of current Magicka. (While neat, the elemental backlash scaled poorly with anything and the injury was mostly useless in terms of actually shutting down magic use.)
- Leg injury: changed impact event from variable slowdown -> knockdown. (This was a fairly heavy and fail deadly script.)
- Spine injury: changed impact event from paralysis -> draining 50% of current Health, changed lingering effect from knockdown -> stagger.
This gives each injury a more distinct identity, makes the impact effect match up with the lingering effect, and fixes some toxic cases (permanent knockdown, item loss) and scaling issues.
Magic
- Wards protect against trauma (but not against the lingering injury effect).
- The duration of injuries is reduced by 2 seconds per level of Restoration.
- Several items have been added to the mod, but are not yet available in the world. They will be added in a later update, or can be added with the console for fun:
--- Potion of Treat Injuries
--- Spell Tome: Treat Injuries
--- Spell Tome: Treat Other
--- Spell Tome: Transfer Injuries
--- Spell Tome: Agony's Embrace
--- Scroll of Treat Injuries
--- Scroll of Treat Other
The reason they have not been added yet is that many people do not use injuries and items added to levelled lists can't easily be removed from them.
Combat styles
- Updated a few combat styles.
Attacks of opportunity
- Added x10 critical strike against sitting or sleeping humanoids (ported from Smilodon).
- Added reduced damage and spell effectiveness against massive targets (ported from Smilodon).
Difficulty
- Modified difficulty settings (ported from Smilodon).
- This means Legendary difficulty is no longer the special "realistic" difficulty! Instead, there is now a Realistic Damage Patch. [NOT YET AVAILABLE IN PREVIEW.]
Game settings
- Increased maximum resistance/block from 75% -> 80%.
- Increased NPC casting cost from 50% -> 100%.
- Reduced Magicka and Stamina regeneration in combat from 100% -> 75% (ported from Smilodon).
- Slightly reduced enemy Health scaling with level.
- Improved weapon block multiplier from 0.15 -> 0.25.
- Increased armor value from 0.10 -> 0.125 (ported from Smilodon).
- Reduced the cost of bashes from 30 -> 15 (ported from Smilodon).
- Reduced the cost of power bashes from 50 -> 40 (ported from Smilodon).
- Modified several other game settings (ported from Smilodon).
MCM
- Redesigned the MCM to match the new features. (You may need to open it, stare at a broken MCM, then close it and wait a minute or so.)
- Added a configuration power to the SSE version.
Load screens
- Updated load screens to match other changes.
Version 5.10SSE
Mechanics
- Ability is now applied to the player after a delay.
- Using the configuration power resets abilities in case an upgrade broke them.
Lethality
- Reverted Legendary to x4/x4.
Version 5.09SSE
Misc
- Includes the upgrade fix from 5.08SSE.
Lethality
- Legendary difficulty: x4/x4 -> x3/x3.
Dynamic combat
- Injuries, full body stagger and threshold stagger are now disabled by default for new installs. Use the "Wildcat" configuration power to enable them.
Version 5.08SSE
Misc
- Now has a new Player Ability Quest, which should solve issues related to updating an existing save from 5.06. Make sure the old version with the different filename is actually uninstalled so you don't have two copies.
Version 5.07SSE
Configuration - Now has a "Wildcat" configuration power for basic settings related to injuries and stagger, instead of two separate versions. (This is because people seem to complain about the Black version but don't switch to White and just give up altogether.)
Donations
Both straight donations and premium membership donations accepted
Improved combat AI: modified combat styles and game settings.
Attacks of opportunity.
Timed blocking.
Faster combat: deal and take more damage.
Unintrusive, low script load.
Can be dropped into an existing load order as a complete combat package.
Configuration options available in the Wildcat MCM if SkyUI is installed (SkyUI not required to use Wildcat).
Fight for your life...
Wildcat is a highly configurable combat overhaul
Most features in Wildcat can be tweaked or disabled using the Wildcat MCM (since SKSE for Skyrim Special Edition is not available on consoles, Wildcat for Special Edition comes with a "Wildcat" configuration power as well. It can remove itself when you are done configuring Wildcat. Using SKSE and the MCM exposes more options). Tinkering is strongly recommended!
Improved combat AI
Combat styles and combat AI related game settings have been tweaked to make opponents much more relentless and decisive. These changes are similar to Combat Evolved and other mods that improve AI, but with a more aggressive bias.
Stamina costs
All actors on the battlefield spend Stamina when performing any of the following actions:
Attack (one-handed): 5
Attack (two-handed): 10
Fully drawing a bow: 5
Holding a drawn bow: 5/second
Swimming: 5/second
Actors that are out of Stamina are considered fatigued, slowing down movement by 15%. Magicka and Stamina regenerate up to 30% faster at high Health and up to 30% slower at low Health.
Injuries and stagger
All actors on the battlefield may become wounded in battle, receiving a random injury. Each injury staggers the recipient and has an immediate "trauma" effect representing pain and shock and a lingering effect that lasts until the victim is healed to 100% Health or for 5 minutes. Undead and automatons are immune to trauma effects, but are still affected by the lingering effects. As with most features of Wildcat, this can be disabled.
Arm/Front Leg injury - Chance to stagger when attacking. Trauma: unequips weapon.
Head injury - Rapidly drains Magicka. Trauma: drains 50% Magicka.
Leg/Hind Leg injury - Chance to stagger or trip when running. Trauma: knocked down.
Spine injury - Receive double damage and stagger from power attacks and bashes. Trauma: drains 50% Health.
Injuries may occur under the following conditions:
Threshold injuries: This is the default injury mode. Actors have a chance to receive an injury when they fall below 30% or 15% Health.
Burst injuries: Use the Wildcat MCM to choose this injury mode. Actors have a chance to receive an injury whenever they take a burst of damage equal to 30% of their current Health. This is the more realistic injury mode, but does increase script load slightly for each actor on the battlefield.
In addition to injuries, there are other ways for actors to get staggered:
Bow interrupts: Actors hit by an attack or damaging explosion while pulling back a bow get interrupted, throwing off their aim or ruining the shot.
Full body stagger: This feature greatly increases the deadliness of combat and is disabled by default, requiring the use of the Wildcat MCM to enable it. When enabled, any incoming stagger will stun the player and interrupt all actions, just like staggering an NPC actor.
Lethality
Speeds up combat by allowing the player to inflict and receive more damage. Combat skills level up faster accordingly.
Novice: x2.50/x1.00 (was x2.00/x0.50)
Apprentice: x2.00/x1.25 (was x1.50/x0.75)
Adept: x1.50/x1.50 (was x1.00/x1.00)
Expert: x1.25/x2.00 (was x0.75/x1.50)
Master: x1.00/x2.50 (was x0.50/x2.00)
Legendary: x0.75/x3.50 (was x0.25/x3.00)
The optional Realistic Damage Plugin increases damage inflicted and received to realistic levels. Damage is fair for both sides and greatly increased, making combat much more deadly. This is more immersive, but perhaps easier to exploit for min-maxed builds that are significantly stronger than the enemies.
Novice: x1.50/x1.50
Apprentice: x2.00/x2.00
Adept: x2.50/x2.50
Expert: x3.00/x3.00
Master: x3.50/x3.50
Legendary: x5.00/x5.00
Spell costs: +50%
Bow damage: -25%
Damage reduction to massive targets: increased to 3/4.
Not satisfied? The Wildcat MCM allows you to choose your own difficulty values, so you can customise the game to your liking (for technical reasons, this is not available through the "Wildcat" configuration power).
Timed blocking
Blocking an attack within 1 second after raising a shield or weapon blocks 25% more damage and briefly staggers a melee attacker.
Attacks of opportunity
Inflict and receive attacks of opportunity with weapons and unarmed attacks. When the target is...
Pulling back a bow: +25%
Power attacking: +50%
Casting a spell: +50% (ward spell negates)
Struck from behind: +25%
Staggered or paralyzed: +25%
Struck in melee: +25%
Sleeping or sitting: Critical strike for 10 times critical damage
NPCs seem to be much stronger after I reload a save: There is a bug in Skyrim that causes NPCs to gain their perks twice when you reload a save, making them overwhelmingly strong. Whenever you reload a save or die, make sure to reload it twice and do not use quick reload. This is a bug that affects the vanilla game and all combat mods and game overhauls.
I die a cinematic death (killmove) despite having high Health: There is a bug in Skyrim that causes killmoves to ignore armor, making them much stronger than they would normally be. Use a mod to disable or nerf killmoves against the player, such as Violens.
Fistfights (brawls) immediately end or turn into a real fight: The "Brawl Bug" is a common issue with many gameplay mods and hard to avoid due to the way Skyrim brawls are implemented. Wildcat comes with a copy of the Modern Brawl Bug Fix included to solve this issue. If the issue still occurs, you may have the outdated Brawl Bugs Patch in your load order below Wildcat (either as a standalone mod or included with another mod such as Enhanced Blood Textures). Either remove it or add the Modern Brawl Bug Fix to the end of your load order.
I inflict or receive suspiciously much or little damage compared to the advertised difficulty multipliers: You may have another mod loaded below Wildcat that modifies difficulty multipliers, overriding Wildcat. Enable the Wildcat MCM option "Allow Wildcat to manage difficulty" or rearrange your load order so the other mod is loaded above Wildcat. (Unfortunately, due to game limitations, this option is not available in the "Wildcat" configuration power.) Additionally, there may be a bug in Skyrim that causes damage values to be off under unknown conditions. I will update this item when I learn more.
I want to disable Stamina costs, stagger and/or injuries: Use the Wildcat MCM to disable these features.