v1.4.0 Fists now count as blunt weapons and the mod is esl-ified. Note that updating to v1.4.0 requires a new game. SPID expansion patches are available as a separate download here, make sure to redownload them if updating because they have also updated.
***Know Your Enemy 2 has been released. I consider it the successor to this mod, and it has a number of advances. Future development of this mod is not stopped, but I will likely focus my efforts on KYE2 ***
Please post below any thoughts, questions or concerns. I try to maintain an active (and friendly) presence in the comments :-)
Thanks for your downloads, comments and endorsements.
The mod page for KYE2 basically starts with a summary of the differences:
Sixteen damage types: The classic types of blade, axe, blunt, fire, frost, shock, poison and disease remain. Bows are now split into regular bows and crossbows. New damage types include fists, shield bashes, sneak attacks, sun, drain, and illusion.
Configurable difficulty: The MCM lets you choose from 4 levels of effect intensity at any time, magical and physical effects can be configured separately.
A simplified experience: There are no traits, no hidden books, and very few weaknesses. Most enemies fall into one of a small number of categories. Resistances come in only two tiers, "resistances" and "strong resistances".
A better inspect power: The player can inspect creatures at close range to learn their resistances. In the MCM you can activate numerical effect descriptions (e.g. "50% resistant" instead of "highly resistant") or make only dead bodies inspectable.
Finely balanced: All damage types are equally viable, with imbalances in the vanilla game accounted for. Most damage types pair well together for wide coverage.
Upgrading mid-game is probably fine, but make a backup save just to be safe.
Poggers, many thanks. Seems kind of a pity that there are less weaknesses. Shield bashes seem kind of a niche damage type, unless it includes weapon block bashes
Meh, weaknesses basically trivialize the game if you learn them. Skyrim's plenty easy as it is, especially at high levels. Shield bashes should include weapon bashes, they are basically a pseudo blunt weapon.
You'll get both. From that mod Ghosts take 50% less damage from physical weaponry, from KYE they take no damage from most weapons. 0.5*0 = 0, so they will end up taking no damage from most weapons, and half damage from those KYE counts as an exception.
This is a damn good mod, man. Makes which weapon I use and which spell I use actually matter. Actually needing to have situational awareness makes the combat much more interesting. Thanks for the tweaks!
This gets asked once or twice a year. There's a couple of reasons: (1) balance; there are plenty of enemies that are weak (or not resistant) to blunt already (e.g. dwarven machines). If undead are added to this list, blunt weapons are just amazing and things like axes have no reason to be used. So something has to resist blunt. (2) Lore/immersion/plausibility. Undead being weak to blunt is not part of TES lore, even going back through earlier games. Moreover, TES games don't even have a paladin class. The closest is the crusader, which uses blunt weapons, bladed weapons, and restoration spells, which as a trio will handle undead fine. I think the trope of blunt being effective against the undead comes from D&D, and to be honest I don't find it very plausible. Undead creatures are magically animated lumps of meat. If you break a few ribs with a blunt blow they don't care. Instead you need to dismember them, and axes are best for that.
Vigilants of Stendarr use maces. Draugr have a specific killmove animation that involves smashing in their faces with a mace. Skeletons and draugr are rigid and cold so they should smash from being brittle. The trope of maces smashing skeletons and undead is familiar and would make sense to most people who have played other games like D&D or WoW.
I admire your persistence! OK: > The vigilants of stendarr target daedra, not the undead (though they don't like vampires for sure). Daedra are perfectly vulnerable to blunt weapons. > I can't find this draugr specific killmove (it's not listed here). > Skeletons are weak to blunt, its draugr that resist blunt. > Yes, as I said, I think the blunt vs undead trope comes from D&D, it may well be in other games too, but it doesn't seem to fit in TES lore. Moreover, none of these address the balance issue which I think is important. That said, if you don't like it, it's just a single value edit in xEdit to change the resistance into a neutral damage or a weakness. Just look up the undead trait (its a perk) and edit the relevant value.
Vigilants are the equivalent to paladins, obviously. The killmove exists for maces and axes against draugr, it's even in the Skyrim gameplay trailer. Also undead should be weak to fire. A lot of these resistances seem random without much thought put into them. Spriggans resist maces because? Trolls get -50% fire resistance but also get (fat) +50 fire resist? Most enemies resist arrows so that style of gameplay is broken completely too. Oh well, good attempt.
Hey man, if this is not the mod for you that's fine, there are a few other resistance overhauls to pick from, and you don't need to use any at all. But as one more round of responses to your comments. > I really don't think the vigilants are paladins, they are vigilants. They invest in (among other things) sneak, light armor and alteration. None of which are very paladin'y. > I did a bit more digging about the killmove, and I think it's "collarbone crush" but as far as I can tell it is not enemy specific. > Undead being weak to fire was also reduced for balance. Fire is overwhelmingly OP in vanilla, and frost near useless, KYE rebalances them. If you go to the optional files on the original (patcher) version of the mod there's a pdf explaining how the mod was balanced in more detail. > Many traits do cancel out, others stack together, just part of how the mod works. Frost trolls are also frost elemental, so remain weak to fire. > Like fire, arrows are super OP in vanilla. To avoid the classic stealth archer attractor KYE nerfs arrows quite a bit, bringing them in line with other weapon types. The whole point of KYE is that using a single weapon is not a good idea, so if you want to be a pure archer you should not use it. I hope this helps.
Just coming back from playing Shadow of Mordor and I absolutely love weakness and resistance system in that game and just thinking if only Skyrim did that, Too. Thanks for making my wish come true, Man!
Man I've been using Know Your Enemy since like 2018 in Skyrim LE and there wasn't any load order without it since. One of my favorite mods, thank you for the redux version and patches!
i loved this mod ever since i used it on XBOX, but now im on Pc and i cant wait to play with it. question, the difference between the redux and the other one is just that this is more compatible with other mods? sorry im new to modding.
No worries. Both versions are similarly compatible (tbh the redux version is probably more compatible now). The main different is the method of installation. The original version installs via a patcher that creates a custom version of the mod to suit you load order. The redux version uses SPID instead. The redux version is much easier to use if you are new to modding, so I'd use that one.
Do I need to read the books in order to make creatures' weaknesses take effect? For example, do I need to read an axe-about book in order to cause more damage against draugrs with a War Axe?
No, some traits come with weaknesses automatically. In the case of draugr, being undead brings a 25% axe weakness immediately. Reading the undead book increases this to 50%, as well as making them 25% weaker to blades (effectively canceling out their resistance).
There are no built in blood spell resistances or weaknesses. There can't be because blood spells don't exist in the vanilla game, so each mod that adds blood magic will need to create its own framework for their resistances and weaknesses. The best option, is for those mods to hook into the existing resistance systems (i.e. fire, frost, shock, poison, or disease). This is what Elemental Destruction Magic redux does (e.g. earth spells are affected by frost resistance). I think having blood spells be affected by poison resistance would be the most logical.
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*** Know Your Enemy 2 has been released. I consider it the successor to this mod, and it has a number of advances. Future development of this mod is not stopped, but I will likely focus my efforts on KYE2 ***
Please post below any thoughts, questions or concerns. I try to maintain an active (and friendly) presence in the comments :-)
Thanks for your downloads, comments and endorsements.
Upgrading mid-game is probably fine, but make a backup save just to be safe.
I play this mod along CACO, is there any patch existing to get the undead poisons from CACO working ?
> The vigilants of stendarr target daedra, not the undead (though they don't like vampires for sure). Daedra are perfectly vulnerable to blunt weapons.
> I can't find this draugr specific killmove (it's not listed here).
> Skeletons are weak to blunt, its draugr that resist blunt.
> Yes, as I said, I think the blunt vs undead trope comes from D&D, it may well be in other games too, but it doesn't seem to fit in TES lore.
Moreover, none of these address the balance issue which I think is important. That said, if you don't like it, it's just a single value edit in xEdit to change the resistance into a neutral damage or a weakness. Just look up the undead trait (its a perk) and edit the relevant value.
> I really don't think the vigilants are paladins, they are vigilants. They invest in (among other things) sneak, light armor and alteration. None of which are very paladin'y.
> I did a bit more digging about the killmove, and I think it's "collarbone crush" but as far as I can tell it is not enemy specific.
> Undead being weak to fire was also reduced for balance. Fire is overwhelmingly OP in vanilla, and frost near useless, KYE rebalances them. If you go to the optional files on the original (patcher) version of the mod there's a pdf explaining how the mod was balanced in more detail.
> Many traits do cancel out, others stack together, just part of how the mod works. Frost trolls are also frost elemental, so remain weak to fire.
> Like fire, arrows are super OP in vanilla. To avoid the classic stealth archer attractor KYE nerfs arrows quite a bit, bringing them in line with other weapon types. The whole point of KYE is that using a single weapon is not a good idea, so if you want to be a pure archer you should not use it.
I hope this helps.
I am very happy that you and collaborators provided a permanent patch for Elemental Destruction, Sun and Shadow Spells! Even better, ESL-flagged.
Just one more question: is there any built-in weakness related to Blood Spells in Know Your Enemy Redux?