Description

Locational Damage was originally authored by Kahmul in 2012, and added much-needed hitbox and locational damage functionality to Skyrim through the use of its Papyrus scripting system. Kahmul's mod has an impressive range of features and is overall a fantastic work. There is a marked attention to detail with respect to the effects that are triggered for each hit zone, such as disarm and knockdown effects.

However, the mod may become unstable when active in the presence of a large number of NPCs. This patch is designed singularly to maintain the mod's stability under load. In script lite play-throughs (eg. V+) one might not notice any defects but when playing heavily modded there are scenarios where the scripted effects will stall or persist indefinitely. With this patch, the Locational Damage module will be significantly less taxing on the Papyrus scripting engine and will remain stable throughout the entirety of one's play-through.

This patch relies on both SKSE plug-ins and PapyrusUtil to greatly improve the reliability and efficiency of the original mod. An SKSE plug-in allows the camera-incidence calculations to be delegated to C++ realm (for significantly better performance), and PapyrusUtil allows the patch to store coordinates of actors without the use of arrays and retrieve them in roughly O(1) calls. Check my blog here for more information on the implementation details.

This mod does not utilize the Havok engine to get the most accurate hitbox responses. In 2016, this was not known to be possible at all. Since then, the community has made advancements towards utilizing Havok to produce hitbox events. The most promising attempt at adding full support for locational damage to Skyrim as of 2021 is Locational Damage (SKSE Plugin). However, this mod is not yet available for SSE nor does it have quite the same breadth of features as Kahmul's original work. With time it will likely replace all other Locational Damage mods, as it hooks into events that are close to the Havok physics engine- rendering all camera-based methods obsolete. Its implementation in time will allow full and complete locational damage functionality.

Until those SKSE-only implementations catch up, feel free to enjoy the original mod in SSE along with this patch as a "good enough" approximation for locational damage.

Recommended Mods

Projectile Speed Tweaks by Argonil

• Camera-based locational damage mods compute hit locations based on incident camera angles. While this is highly effective for close-range procedures such as melee combat, it is inaccurate by design at long-range. Classic locational damage mods are least accurate for Archery since bows are often fired at long range and arrows are subject to gravity. With vanilla settings for arrow speed and gravity you are more likely to notice inaccuracy with Archery.
• Projectile Speed Tweaks adjusts both arrow speed and gravity to be more realistic and challenging. This complements classic locational damage mods quite well, by both making the incident camera calculations more accurate and making archery more deadly in general. There are many alternatives that adjust projectile speed & gravity but the above is recommended for being a lightweight and reliable mod that adjusts exactly what is advertised. When combined with Locational Damage this mod will make archer enemies far more deadly. Take care that Projectile Speed Tweaks in combination with Locational Damage will make enemy archers exponentially more dangerous.
  

Smilodon - Combat of Skyrim

• Smilodon is an incredible combat enhancement mod that tweaks damage, timed blocking, and enemy combat styles. In general it will speed up the pace of combat and reward you for striking fast and tactically. You will be punished by your enemies for having poor positioning and overextending. Smilodon is a more lightweight version of Wildcat that excludes an injuries system. This makes it highly compatible and desirable with locational damage mods as all such systems already include hitzone-specific effects such as knockdowns and staggers. When Smilodon is combined with Locational Damage you will need to aim for vital areas quickly or be devastated by your enemies. You will be required to ace your timed blocking to survive relentless attacks. This pair of mods is not for the faint of heart however. Combat will be noticeably more challenging and unforgiving.
  

Instructions
1. Install the original Locational Damage module; ignore warnings from Mod Organizer that it is a LE mod as it will function normally in SSE
2. Install SKSE64 version 1.5.97
3. Install PapyrusUtil (required mod)
4. Install this patch. Mod organizer users should place it below the original module. Nexus users must allow this patch to overwrite all files in the original module.

Compatibility

• This mod is not compatible with Skyrim VR. The most promising mod that adds support for locational damage in Skyrim VR is located here
• This mod should not be used with any other locational damage mods regardless of compatibility due to script load and/or gameplay imbalance, such as Ultimate Combat. Commit to one mod that introduces locational damage to keep your overall mod-list sane.
• Is compatible with any mods that affect combat styles; the NPC->PC features are independent of those (and are effectively random)
  

Author Comment (March 2021)

In addition to the testing done in 2018 and 2019, I've been using this patch across two play-throughs for over 100 hours without trouble and will no longer be referring to it as beta. Besides compiling against the Address Library, I'm thinking about making a few small gameplay-affecting updates this year. Feel free to provide any suggestions or requests in the comments.

Author Comment (March 2022)

I apologize to anyone in the community waiting for the update to this mod to the latest Anniversary SKSE build. I've recently enrolled in a grad school program and it has siphoned much of my free time. I'm hoping to get this mod updated in May.

If any modder wants to take a crack at this, feel free - the SKSE plug-in code is freely available on GitHub and once updated it should just be a drop-in replacement (no Papyrus changes necessary). I'm happy to share ownership of the mod page in such a case. Otherwise, hope to see this updated in May and once again sorry for the delay.