Engarde Combat Mod - Stagger/Stunlock Issue

[MatthiosArcanus]

Hey there!

I recently discovered Engarde and have been testing it a fair bit today, trying to see if it might fit in my current mod list.
Consistently, despite any changes made in the MCM or in the patcher, I find NPCs getting staggered/stunned (not sure which term best applies) indefinitely when that state is triggered.
This occurs with and without any complementary combat mods (Ultimate Combat and Wildcat in this instance) and also with a minimum mod list where virtually every mod is cosmetic or a bug fix (IE USSEP.)

I'm really liking what Engarde brings to combat, but with an issue like this, it's not something I can comfortably add to my existing list, unfortunately.
The load order where the issue presented itself can be viewed here, and if any other information is needed, just let me know.
Furthermore, here is the load order of three different setups I used in my testing. Each test was performed on a completely new save.
Lastly, with each test, where relevant, I re-ran FNIS.

I would be quite appreciative if anyone could assist in this matter. ?
Thanks!

Edit: Yes I know, it's a lot of mods, please don't lecture me on that point. Part of my enjoyment with modding is in seeing how many mods I can cram into Skyrim and still have it be playable.

Full.txt Tests.txt

[MatthiosArcanus]

Tentatively, I may have found a working solution, although I can't help but feel it's more of a band-aid than a proper solution. I don't have the exact setting in front of me right now, it's something along the lines of final stagger multiplier, it seems that setting that to 0 resolves the presented issue, and also seems to keep dead NPC's from still animating/flying into the air (a new problem that I came across after posting the original query.)

If any new developments occur, I'll be sure to update as needed.

[jabelsk]

I had this issue with Protected NPC's only.

I ran the patcher's esp file through xEdit and noticed the patcher replaced the "on death" event from crits with "stagger", meaning, possibly, if a NPC dies from a crit it "staggers" instead of "death". Game thinks stagger = death in this instance... maybe? (I'm not a programmer.)

I reran the patcher and noticed it also misses race values by overwriting instead of merging.
So my fix was to run a different patcher (NPC rescaled in this case) on a full load order, with Engarde included, to force everything to merge without missing values.
Loaded everything in xEdit to check and it worked so I believe there's some errors in the patcher itself.

Now my game mostly works, mostly.
Anyway, maybe check your esp file with xEdit and make sure everything's good.
Also did you every find what that value was?