Random Encounter Mod: Legion

irysius · January 3, 2019

# Combat Mod: Legion

(name is WIP and subject to change)

## Latest Download

2019-02-08: Legion-20190208.zip

- Added custom meshes for Legion NPCs

- Requires CT77's UUNP Remodeled armor: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69562?tab=description

- Modified using Azazellz's UUNP-JaneBob sliders: https://www.loverslab.com/topic/104956-uunp-janebod/

2019-02-02: Legion-20190202.zip

- MCM Support

- Refactored scripts to drastically improve performance from initial draft

- Legion health no longer fluctuates drastically.

## Introduction

Spoiler

So I haven't quite seen a combat mod that takes this particular angle, but feel free to let me know if a similar existing mod is out there.

Given that:

- I really don't want to touch vanilla AI

- don't think real improvements can be made to the AI and have them act reliably

- I still like the dumb smashy smashy type combat Skyrim provides

- don't want overhauls that make Skyrim more like Dark Souls

I'm leaning towards a more "involved" combat that has the players make the decision of what order to kill the enemies in.

So the current plan is to define a set of class abilities that can be applied to NPCs.

These class abilities would synergize with each other in a way that hopefully changes up your order of attack depending on the composition of a group.

Balance would generally be tuned to smaller groups (less than 8), with the idea that one-on-one combat should be easy.

Encounter is currently tuned to a vanilla lvl 80 character in Dragonplate, with armor and weapons improved using the vanilla enchanting/alchemy loop.

### Weapon Resistance Mechanic

Spoiler

In addition to having combat decisions boil down to who to kill first, I also wanted to focus on attacking enemies with the correct weapon. (The side effect of this desire is that magic damage is heavily reduced against npcs with these classes)

For example, attacking a Ranger with a bow would result in a reduction of damage, encouraging the player to go up close with a 2h or something. Or a Paladin that's wielding a warhammer would be "good" at it, and if you attacked one with a warhammer of your own expect some damage to be reflected back on you.

Since weapon type specific resistances cannot be achieved naively via existing spells and effects, the mod instead "refunds" npcs health to simulate resistance. This has a side effect of health bars going down then up in quick succession - I am currently ok with this.

### Classes

Spoiler

Tank (Implemented)

- Takes heavily reduced damage

- Increased health

- Emits a slowing aura (to hostiles)

- Protects nearby friendlies

- upon protecting too many hits will become vulnerable to damage

Paladin (Implemented)

- Takes reduced damage

- Emits a low health regen aura (to friendlies)

- Emits a slowing aura (to hostiles)

- Attack damage is increased for each friendly nearby

- Attacks on enemies will heal nearby friendlies

Ranger (Implemented)

- Primarily should use bows/crossbows

- Attacks will apply a Marked for Death effect, increasing all damage taken by a percentage

- Attacking a ranger will cause an applied Marked for Death effect to be dispersed

Berserker (Implemented)

- Reduced health

- Will avenge fallen friendlies

- For every other berserker, tank, or bard that dies while this one is alive, greatly increase damage output

- For every other friend that dies while this one is alive, increase damage output

- Takes reduced damage from weapons the berseker is using, and will reflect some damage from said weapon type.

Bard (Implemeted)

- Emits a magicka regen aura (to friendlies)

- Emits a stamina regen aura (to friendlies)

- High dodge chance when a lot of friendlies are around

- Randomly picks a friend at the start to pocket heal

- Every so often, said friend will be healed greatly (probably 50-75%)

- Maybe periodic buffs to friends but haven't thought that far, or explored technical feasibility

Mage (Implemented)

- Given how much bias I have against magic damage, this is one of the concessions made to at least have magic be not useless

- Emits a magicka regen aura (to friendlies)

- Emits a magicka drain aura (to hostiles)

- The only class that takes respectable magic damage

- Intend for spells to ignore all magic resist

- On death, causes all friends to be afflicted by loose magicka for a while

- Greatly increases friends' vulnerability to magic attacks (otherwise they're basically immune normally)

===============================

Monk (Not Implemented)

- Reduced health

- Higher than normal attack speed?

- Emits a health drain aura (to hostiles)

- Unarmed or dagger only

- Reflects damage from unarmed or dagger greatly.

- Dagger monks will drain stamina on hit

- Unarmed monks will apply five finger exploding heart (you will take significant damage after 5 hits

### TODO

- Implement Monk

- Optimizing scripts

- Think of a better name for the mod

irysius · January 4, 2019

Tuned for vanilla lvl 80, I think.

Legion: Fodder have no special abilities, are weak, and intended to bolster classes like paladins

The intent is to spawn these in small groups (< 10) in different combos, and get a feel for whether or not different class combos significantly alter who you target first.

Each class now wears armor/weapons whose stats are equivalent to daedric, but reskinned to keep each class visual distinct:

Tank: Dragonplate

Paladin: Stahlrim

Berserker: Daedirc

Ranger: Elven

Bard: Fur

Mage: Normal mage gear

This is still a WIP but the mod is definitely stable for testing and play.

Changelog:

Spoiler

Update 1 (2019-01-06):

- added bard and mage

Update 2 (2019-01-10):

- made effort in giving the npcs theme relevant armor and weapons. (all vanilla)

- fix head skin tone issues

Update 3 (2019-01-13):

- First pass applied to better distinguish statuses with visual effects.

Update 4 (2019-01-19):

- Added MCM menu to toggle groups of enemies, and modify percentage composition.

- This currently only includes using hotkeys as the method to spawn groups.

Update 5 (2019-01-30):

- Major script refactoring to reduce load and improve performance

- Added MCM options to customise spawn composition and spawn conditions.

Update 6 (2019-02-02):

- Inverted the damage absorption mechanic.

- legion enemies' health no longer bounce up and down wildly as a result of this change

Hex Memeniac · January 9, 2019

This look interessing, remind me Elite from Diablo, i will try it when it will be stable btw you should a quick video for showcase the different effects

irysius · January 14, 2019

On 1/9/2019 at 8:11 AM, Anogia said:

This look interessing, remind me Elite from Diablo, i will try it when it will be stable btw you should a quick video for showcase the different effects

Thanks for the video suggestion. I'll look into it when I know how to do videos. In the meantime I think I'll put together some screenshots with crappy MS Paint arrows.

I was hoping you can clarify what you mean by Elite from Diablo, do you mean elite mobs? Or is there something I'm missing (Last Diablo game I touched was d2 and even then it's been a while now).

irysius · February 1, 2019

Yay! I think as far as mechanics go I'm currently satisfied.

Just some final tweaks and the vanilla version of the mod should be good to go.

The mod is currently stable, although coincidental mob spawns in highly populated area can still cause CTDs, depending on what kind of other mods are loaded.

Stable version: Legion-20190202.zip