[Mod] Physical Combat And Armor Overhaul

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Magicono43
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[Mod] Physical Combat And Armor Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

Physical Combat And Armor Overhaul

Instead of increasing chance to avoid an attack completely, armor now reduces the damage you take, based on the material as well as the type of attack. Skills now determine most of your chance to avoid attacks, including many more features.


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UPDATE LOG:
  • Version 1.30, 10/4/2020: Added "Soft Material Requirements" module. This module allows any entity to be damaged by any weapon, despite the material it is made from. However, there is a heavy damage penalty for using less than the minimum required material, this penalty increases as the material values get further away from each other.

  • Version 1.20, 7/24/2020:
    1. Clearly Armed Monster Now Have Weapons In Attack Formula. So instead of a Skeleton Warrior having an attack count as "unarmed", they will be given a steel war-axe as their sprite represents for purposes of the damage and condition damage calculations.
    2. Minor Improvements To Condition Damage Warning Messages, Also Added Magic Item Name Support. Still not the best solution, as it still has some spam, but better than before, especially the added RPR:I added item support, magic items properly displaying their names, as well as general optimization of method.
    3. Finalized Bonus & Phobia Method, also made it so enemies benefit from its bonus as well, as well as hand-to-hand use. Also altered all of the enemy stats to "balance" around some enemies having multiple attacks in one animation cycle of their attacks.
    4. Changed Weapon Proficiencies To Be Based On Attributes, No Longer Player Level. With this made each weapon type has different attributes effect the bonus. I could do even more interesting stuff with these, but for now this will work.
    5. Changed Racial Modifiers To Be Based On Attributes, No Longer Player Level. With this, each weapon type has different attributes effect the bonus. Added a few races to the default list, similar to Ralzar's Races Redone.
    6. Took Crack At Balancing Armor Durability Damage Against Higher Level Enemies. Basically made armor and shields take less damage in general from damage, but it should still be enough to be noticeable, hopefully it works better.
    7. Added "Condition Based Effectiveness" Mechanic/Setting, Also fixed some bugs, specifically bluntWeapons not being used as I expected in the main damage formula. With this added mechanic, weapons and armor will be more or less effective based on their current durability value. For example, you will get a damage bonus for having "New" or "Almost New" status on your equipment, and eventually the reverse effect on the lower ends of durability.
    8. Added "Fading Enchanted Items" module and toggle setting. This module makes it so Enchanted weapons and armor broken through physical combat will be destroyed from the player's inventory. This is to keep behavior consistent with other magic items that are "broken" in other ways besides combat.

  • Version 1.15, 7/19/2020: Updated For DFU v0.10.25.

  • Version 1.15, 7/4/2020:
    1. Added Compatibility with added armor items from Roleplay Realism: Items. Also more intuitive compatibility with Roleplay Realism and Meaner Monster mods, thanks to Ralzar. As well as small code changes for better readability. Confirmed fully functional with DFU v0.10.23, and likely most other version.
    2. Also made some changes to each shield type, now smaller shields like the Buckler have lower base odds of blocking in the spot they cover, but a much higher chance of blocking parts of the body they don't normally cover, and the opposite is true the larger the shield type is. So a buckler functions much different than a tower-shield now.
    3. Forgot to mention, the "Phobia" and "Bonus" advantages and disadvantages had been redone pretty significantly, Human enemies are now effected by the respective "Humanoid" versions of these traits, and Willpower now plays a major role in how bad a phobia of an enemy effects the player's ability to damage said enemy, as well as how much more damage the player deals to an enemy they have a "bonus" against. Player Level is no longer a factor.

  • Version 1.10, 4/5/2020: Updated For DFU v0.10.22.

  • Version 1.10, 4/3/2020:
    1. Changed how shields work, now attacks against an entity with a shield equipped roll if the shield will be the piece of armor that is doing the damage reduction, or if the armor under it does instead, the chances are much higher for parts of the body that the shield would normally cover, but there is also a smaller chance for other body parts to be protected by the shield as well, a much lower chance, but still a chance. The chances of having the shield reduce the damage are based on the stats of the character, Luck, Endurance, Strength, Willpower, and mostly Agility, and Speed, determine these odds.
    2. With how this mods works, a shield could actually be a detriment for damage reduction, if the armor under said shield was actually "better" than the shield doing the blocking. For example, a leather shield blocking an attack that would have otherwise been taken by a daedric helm would actually deal more damage than if you did not have the shield at all. This issue has been fixed. Now if a piece of "under armor" has a better damage reduction value than the shield currently equipped, the shield will be ignored, and the better under-armor piece will reduce the damage instead. So you will no longer be punished for using a shield of low value with under-armor of better value.
    3. Minor change to the hit-odds of some of the body parts. Feet are now more likely to be hit than the head, and legs are more likely to be hit than the hands.


OVERLY SIMPLIFIED MOD FEATURES LIST:
  • Physical combat formulas reworked significantly
  • Armor now works similar to Oblivion/Skyrim, incoming damage reduced by a percentage based on armor material
  • Shields now roll a chance to block, significantly reducing damage taken from the blocked attack, block chance determined primarily by shield type and wielder attributes
  • Attributes and Dodge skill are the primary determiners for if you completely "dodge/avoid" an attack, armor no longer has an effect on this
  • Critical Strike skill completely reworked, now increases damage dealt on successful crit instead of just accuracy. Multiplier and odds increase as skill increases
  • Combat focused character traits buffed/changed significantly. Most no longer level based but attribute based. Traits changed: Adrenaline Rush, Bonus and Phobias, Weapon Proficiency
  • Racial combat bonuses changed in similar way, removed level based scaling instead for attribute based. Also added more of the races to have weapon specific bonuses
  • Extra "Natural" damage reduction based on attributes, some enemies also have strengths and weaknesses to different weapon types like bladed and blunt types. Also more vulnerable to silver
  • Custom changes to Ralzar's "Meaner Monsters" mod for better balance with this mod specifically, generally enemies more difficult, some weaker though
  • Much more detailed and complex equipment condition damage and degradation through combat. Overall will have to maintain armor and weapons more often
  • Condition Based Equipment Effectiveness Feature, the more well maintained blade will cut better than a dull one basically, also applies to armor
  • Soft Material Requirements Feature, allows any entity to be damaged by any material weapon, but increasingly less effective the further from the minimum requirement that material is
  • Some features can be toggled on and off in the mod settings


WHAT DOES THIS MOD CHANGE AND WHY?:
  • Armor has been changed from having the D&D "Armor Class" rule-set, where better armor would give the wearer a better AC, which would make them harder to hit. This mod changes this entire system, now better armor now instead REDUCES how much damage is taken when hit by a physical attack. Similar to more modern Elder Scrolls games, such as Oblivion, this has more detail than that system though.
  • Skills are now what determines your odds of avoiding an attack completely or not. Armor is there to help protect you when you are unable to avoid an attack. With this, the dodge skills has a MUCH higher factor in your avoidance chances, double from classic values. This also works the same for all enemies as well.
  • With the theme of wanting skills and innate traits and abilities having more impact on a characters ability to fight well, weapons have had their Hit Bonus nerfed massively. That daedric sword will now give +14 to the wielders hit chance, instead of the classic +60. With this change, skills now have a far larger impact on a characters ability to hit things. Weapon skills now scale 150% with your skill, instead of 100%.
  • Combat focused racials have been buffed. The Adrenaline Rush special advantage has been buffed, and also triggers at a higher threshold of health than before.
  • Critical Strike has been reworked completely. When you or an enemies lands a critical strike, the damage of that hit will be multiplied, this value increases as the critical strike skill increases, as well as the classic effect of having an increased hit-chance on that strike as well. With this much more powerful version of the critical strike skill, it now has a much more rare chance of happening, which is determined by the skill as well, the luck attribute now also increases the odds of landing a critical strike. So with 100 CS skill and 50 luck, your chance to land a crit is 25%, and with 100 CS and 100 luck, chance is 50%. The damage multiplier goes up to 200% for the player, and 150% for monsters.
  • Damage reduction does not just occur for those using armor. Willpower, Strength, and Endurance all have an effect on the "Natural" physical damage resistance of the player and enemies. Endurance has double the effect that Willpower and Strength have. This natural damage reduction is capped at 20%, both negative and positive. This effect also stacks additively when wearing armor and shields, so it always benefits you, whether naked or armored like a tank.
  • Some monsters also have an innate damage reduction as well, this is to simulate them having armor, that they clearly are wearing in their sprite, but not actually being able to wear armor. This includes many enemies such as the Skeletal Warrior, Daedroths, and Daedra Lord, just to list a few.
  • Shields now serve a much more effective purpose than before. Shields work the same way in that they protect a few parts of a characters body, but instead of adding a meager AC score like in classic, they now add a very significant damage reduction for the parts of the body they protect, and this damage reduction gets better and better as the MATERIAL of the shield improves. So you won't want to just use that leather tower-shield for long, because it will be vastly out-classed in terms of protection and durability by the higher tier materials. Now those Daedric shields actually have a purpose!
  • Since shields are now much more powerful. It also seemed like a good idea to give 2-handed weapons a reason to be used. You now benefit double from the strength modifier for damage while using any 2-handed weapons that are not bows.
  • With the focus on skills and attributes effecting hit-chance in mind. Luck now has a slightly higher impact on avoiding being hit. Speed is now taken into account for both hitting and being hit, but at half the effect that agility now has.
  • More enemies have been added to the previously exclusive to the Skeletal Warrior club of "Takes double damage from silver". This now includes enemies that would make sense to also have this "weakness". Werewolf, Wereboar, Ghost, Wraith, Vampire, and Mummy.
  • This mod also has my previous mod "Believable Equipment Characteristics And Durability" built in as well, which you can find more info on its main mod page. https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/75
  • Finally, a big addition for the "balance" of this mod is a custom for this overhaul edit of Ralzar's "Meaner Monsters" mod, which changes the primary combat stats of many enemies in the game, with the intention of making them more of a challenge overall. ALL of the vanilla monsters in Daggerfall have been changed in some way, most of them being much more powerful than their original forms.


SPOILERS/MORE DETAILS/INDIVIDUAL MODULE INFO:
  • If you want EXACT numbers and information on how some mechanics and formula work in this mod, under the hood. You can look at the source code yourself from the github linked lower down. You can also email/post a thread on the parent forum post linked below and I would be happy to answer any questions.


OPTIONS:
  • 1. Equipment Damage Enhanced
  • 2. Fading Enchanted Items
  • 3. Fixed Strength Damage Modifier
  • 4. Armor Hit Formula Redone
  • 5. Critical Strikes Increase Damage
  • 6. Condition Based Effectiveness
  • 7. Soft Material Requirements


Sorry for the short novel, but since essentially all of this is calculated behind the scenes, I felt some detailed explanation was necessary, as well as what my general purpose was in creating this.

I hope to make more mods similar to this, both small and large.

Feel free to leave any suggestions and such, i'm very open to anything, and hopefully you find this addition enjoyable or enhances your Daggerfall Unity experience in some way.

Github Source Code: Github


Possible Future Feature Ideas & Concepts To Be Added:
- 3/31/2020, 8:55 PM: Rudimentary blocking system, essentially making having the shield being hit based on chance, rather than always happening. This would make it so wearing armor under a part covered by the shield would not be pointless. This would also add it so other body parts being hit would give a chance to be 'blocked' by the shield, but a much smaller chance than the normally covered parts like the hands and left-arm. This block chance would be determined by a combination of attributes, and possibly a skill that would hopefully make sense, since I have no concept of the pain that adding a new skill entirely would be at this point. So essentially this would work similar to Morrowind blocking in a way. ___Added on 4/3/2020, added into Version. 1.10

- 4/1/2020, 1:45 PM: Make it so the current condition of a piece of equipment, be it armor or weapon determines how effective that piece of equipment does its job. For example, a "New" long-sword will be much sharper than a "Worn" one, so the higher condition value one will deal more damage than the worn one. This would work the same for armor and shields. This would make it so keeping and maintaining your equipment would be rewarded, and poor maintenance would result in less effective equipment. ___Added on 7/24/2020, added into Version. 1.20
Before I work on this though, I would like to add items that can be used to maintain and repair equipment on the go to some extent, such as whetstones.___Added on 8/1/2020, added with mod "Repair Tools" (https://www.nexusmods.com/daggerfallunity/mods/106) Also, I would like to heavily rework how the repair service works, I think it takes too long when time to repair is activated, I think the cost should be based on more than just the base value of the item, as well as the quality of the store an item is being repaired by should have some effect. I would like to make it so repair time can be taken into hour increments, not just entire days.

- 4/1/2020, 2:25 PM: I would like to make it so there is more "feedback" for the player to know that something has happened to their character in terms of the combat rolls. Specifically, I would like a sound to happen that is similar to how when attacking certain enemies and you miss your roll, you here a "parry" or clashing of weapons noise. This feature however would work when the player or enemies get hit, the ones I would like to add would be if an attack has been negated completely into a 0 damage attack, you would hear a sound like the armor got hit, or an attack glanced off metal or something. The other one being when an attack is "blocked" or at least the damage is taken by the shield in some way, you would hear a sound that would make a noise that you might expect to hear something hitting a shield in some way. I think this audio feedback would add both immersion, as well as let the player know what is sort of going on in terms of the dice rolls and such.

- 4/2/2020, 3:45 PM: I think most players can attest to the fact that after a point, enemies have a harder and harder time get a chance to get an attack off on the player, this usually coming down to the player actively moving around to avoid their attack attempts, as well as the one that bothers me that I wish to change. This issue being the fact that hits against enemies does a noticeable "knock-back" effect on enemies, essentially allowing the player to sort of combo enemies to death, without them being able to do much against this. So what I eventually would like to change is altering the "weight" stat of essentially all enemies, so this knock-back is significantly diminished, BUT, having it so the weight of the weapon being used, as well as the strength of the user gives some difference to this change, so a heavy steel warhammer will do much more knock-back than an ebony tanto, or attack from a bow. ___7/24/2020, Decided this would work better as a separate mod after some testing. It's the enemy AI that needs to be reworked, not just some weight values. The planned mod will be called "Combat AI Overhaul."

- 4/23/2020, 9:40 PM: Someone suggested something on the Nexus Mod Page that I forgot to list here. I would eventually like to have it so the paper-doll accurately represents what the current damage reduction for a body part is, instead of what currently displays, which is the old classic "Armor Value" of the item currently equipped, with my mod enabled this value is completely meaningless, that's why I eventually would like to have this display the actual values that my mod changes these to.

- 7/6/2020, 8:50 AM: Something that might be considered minor to most, but I think would be nice to add. Make it so when enemies that don't normally "use" weapons but are clearly using them in some way in their sprite, such as the Gargoyle, actually use that type of weapon in terms of the damage calculation for durability damage and armor resistance to type of weapon. The way it is currently, the only enemies that actually take these into account are Human NPCs and Orcs, otherwise they are all considered unarmed type attacks, which does not make sense to me for enemies like the Skeleton Warrior or the Gargoyle. ___Added on 7/24/2020, added into Version. 1.20

- 7/26/2020, 9:40 AM: This would likely be more for debugging and testing purposes, but possibly add a console command that would add a HUD display to the screen that would show "live" values for various things happening in combat and such, just useful information in general, maybe some users would find this useful as well while playing, not just for testing. ___7/26/2020, Upon further consideration, this would probably work better as a separate mod entirely, as this sort of function could be used in other ways as well, but this one would specifically be something like a "Combat Log" that some other games have in them.

- 8/8/2020, 10:30 PM: Add a new optional feature, that feature being changed is altering the "material resistances/immunities" of various enemies currently in the game. For example, making Daedroths able to be hit by materials other than Mithril and above, to instead something like Elven or something, to better balance these enemies around limitations such as player level and not being able to easily obtain those higher materials and such. Another good idea to add onto this idea, make another sub-option possible to this feature that will make it so these enemies can be hit by any material to some degree, but as that material gets further and further below their "minimum" required material, increase there damage resistance to said lower material attack accordingly. So using a steel axe against a Daedroth? Well expect your hit to only do 20% of it's expected damage, or something like that. Do this for a bunch of enemies that it would make sense, perhaps all of them. ___Added on 10/4/2020, added into Version. 1.30

Edit 1 -- 4/3/2020, 11:50 PM: Released Update Version 1.10
Edit 2 -- 7/4/2020, 10:30 AM: Released Update Version 1.15
Edit 3 -- 7/19/2020, 11:25 PM: Released Updated Version Compatible With DFU v0.10.25
Edit 4 -- 7/24/2020, 10:50 PM: Released Update Version 1.20
Edit 5 -- 10/4/2020, 4:55 PM: Released Update Version 1.30
Last edited by Magicono43 on Sat Nov 27, 2021 4:45 am, edited 40 times in total.

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Magicono43
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

Main Mod Image
Main Mod Image
ArmorReducesDamageTakenInsteadOfAvoidingOverhaul Mod Image 1.png (447.72 KiB) Viewed 15350 times
Armor_Shield Dam Reduction Break-down
Armor_Shield Dam Reduction Break-down
Untitled44.png (14.37 KiB) Viewed 15350 times
Monster Dam Reduction Break-down
Monster Dam Reduction Break-down
Untitled675.png (11.45 KiB) Viewed 15350 times

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Magicono43
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

Edited Monster Stats 1
Edited Monster Stats 1
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Edited Monster Stats 2
Edited Monster Stats 2
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Edited Monster Stats 3
Edited Monster Stats 3
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Last edited by Magicono43 on Sat Jul 25, 2020 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Ralzar
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Ralzar »

Wow! That’s a lot of work you’ve put in. But does this use the new formulahelper code that’s coming with the next livebuild or the one that’s out now?


Anyway, this looks to at least on the surface match up well with what I was thinking needed to be changed with the combat system. Although it’s probably going to take some time and testing to see what needs adjusting.

Edit: Oh yeah, with the next live build I’m releaseing a Races Redone mod that changes the races weapon bonuses. We’ll have to see what’s the best way to have these two mods be compatible.

viewtopic.php?f=12&t=3484

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Magicono43
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

Ralzar wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:02 pm Wow! That’s a lot of work you’ve put in. But does this use the new formulahelper code that’s coming with the next livebuild or the one that’s out now?


Anyway, this looks to at least on the surface match up well with what I was thinking needed to be changed with the combat system. Although it’s probably going to take some time and testing to see what needs adjusting.
I just went with the code structure of the current live build, when it is updated i'll just change the code around for what needs to be redone, if it does that is.

Personally, I felt like this was an important mod to make, at least for my own enjoyment of Daggerfall, I want armor to be more than just an upgrade that your AC, now it actually makes a big difference in how much damage you take, instead of your odds. Also adding some of the other features such as having critical strikes actually increase damage done, instead of just chance of hitting.

Yeah, I have not tested a "full" play-through to see how well this actually works during regular gameplay, but I did do some testing in controlled cases inside Privateer's Hold, so it was not all just completely spit-balling, there was some thought into the numbers. Hopefully if people use this they can give me feed-back on this and I can update the mod as problems with balance come up, or another minor feature is added to this.

I think my next "New" mod i'm going to start working on will involve changing how the whole repair system works in various ways to give it more depth and detail.

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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by hello »

first of all, thank you! this mod sounds awesome, i'm currently downloading and starting a new playthrough for it.

another thing though: i think this mod needs another name, as this clearly is a much bigger overhaul than just what the title suggests.

maybe you should call it combat skill overhaul or something that is a bit more descriptive :)
one more thing: are the other mod auther modules like meaner monsters fully included or is it some sort of compatibility thing?

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Magicono43
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

hello wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:29 pm first of all, thank you! this mod sounds awesome, i'm currently downloading and starting a new playthrough for it.

another thing though: i think this mod needs another name, as this clearly is a much bigger overhaul than just what the title suggests.

maybe you should call it combat skill overhaul or something that is a bit more descriptive :)
one more thing: are the other mod auther modules like meaner monsters fully included or is it some sort of compatibility thing?
Yeah, originally this was planned to just do one thing with the armor, then it seemed like it would make more sense to just add a bunch of changes as well since they are using the same over-rides and such. I will likely rename it once I add the blocking "mechanic" that I plan on adding.

On the meaner monster question, this is not a compatibility thing, I just threw in the entire "older" version of the meaner monsters code into mine with numbers that I thought were more appropriate for my mod, so it's a bit messy but it works for the time being as is.

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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Ralzar »

You might want to stick in

Code: Select all

"Contributes": null,
    "Dependencies": [
        {
            "Name": "meaner monsters",
            "IsOptional": true,
            "IsPeer": false,
            "Version": null
        }
    ]
At the end of the *.dfmod file code. To make it load after Meaner Monsters.

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Magicono43
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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Magicono43 »

Ralzar wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2020 6:49 pm You might want to stick in

Code: Select all

"Contributes": null,
    "Dependencies": [
        {
            "Name": "meaner monsters",
            "IsOptional": true,
            "IsPeer": false,
            "Version": null
        }
    ]
At the end of the *.dfmod file code. To make it load after Meaner Monsters.
I was considering doing this, but when I tried doing the load-order change manually with two mods that overrode the same method, it did not seem to change anything. Maybe i'm crazy, but it seems like the load order did not have any effect? Have you tried this yourself with some test mods or anything? I could just be crazy honestly.

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Re: [Mod] Armor Reduces Damage Taken Instead Of Avoiding Overhaul

Post by Ralzar »

I know the load order stuff generally works. My Helmet Swap Dream mod only works if it's set AFTER the correct dream mod.

But what you change might work different. I would expect your monster changes to override the Meaner Monster changes if you set your mod lower in the list.

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