Duke Patrick's Combat Magic II

AND

Duke Patrick's Incursion into Fortress Of Fear


Combat Magic mod and Horror Survival Quest mod.


The quest has new? highly original monsters, new features, a new weapon, new ingredients and new style of game-play and dungeon.

Get it here:

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/780-duke-patricks-combat-magic-ii-duke-patricks-incursion-into-fortress-of-fear/


(WARNING! THIS IS NOT THE ENTIRE READ ME FILE!)


Duke Patrick's Combat Magic II Requirements:
OBSE but it must not be a BETA version!
Universal Silent Voice.
English version install of Oblivion only!
Shivering Isle may be needed as some reference to SI resources were used.

Be sure to load the INI file in the same directory as the ESP file.
Be sure to load the Combat Magic ESP AFTER the Fortress of Fear ESP.
(You may remove the FoF esp after the quest is completed.)

Other Mods will conflict if they make a change to:

The Actor value "Confusion"
The Magic effects called "Reflect Damage" and "Reflect Spell".
The Lighting bolts for Shock Magic
The vanilla oblivion object TestKurtMarker
The NPC Delphine Jend must be alive in your game.
The same wilderness area as this mod. One such mod may be Unique Landscapes - Snowdale. But LOAD my mod after such a conflicting terrain mod and it may be OK!



Introduction to Combat Magic
-----------------------------------------
The basic idea of Combat Magic is to use Range, Rhythm and Geometry for defense instead of high health points, low damage magic attacks or magic "cocoons" that require no skill or effort from the player. Then Combat Rhythm and Counter Geometry to penetrate those defenses. Combat Magic should feel more intuitive to a real fight rather than a game of "spread sheets", energy levels and menu trees.

There are universal concepts that apply to all combat and all weapon forms. They all share fundamentals such as defense and offense geometry, timing, accuracy verse initiative, speed (or rate) verses power and much more! The core of the Combat Magic system is a defense called an Omni Shield, it can block most magic attacks but only if the player uses proper shield positioning and it also prevents the Combat Magic practitioner from attacking at the same time. Add to this extremely lethal attacks, where the closer you are to the target and the better your combat geometry the more deadly the magic attacks can be!

COMBAT MAGIC will be like fighting with weapons were you must maneuver as well as attack at the right time to maximize your effect on your opponent. And the more powerful your attack the more you may open yourself up for counter attacks. These features are an "add on" to the existing magic system. It adds a set of powers (attacks, shield, hand to hand buffs) that are gained via a quest.

If set to do so in the INI file it will also buff most of the combat spells from vanilla or other mods. The mod is intended to interact with the vanilla spell system and other magic mods with as few exceptions as I was able to manage and still stay true to my mod design.




Quest Trailer on you tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaztiL01Zf4

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Combat Magic Movies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LLGoyUMX2I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTOynB6Z-Rw

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Quest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJko_OpAx7M&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EankCEgz3w&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

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Current Thread:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1146143-duke-patricks-combat-magic-ii/page__hl__%22combat+magic%22

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Older threads:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1107578-duke-patricks-combat-magic-ii/




Finishing the Quest
---------------------------

There are 3 choices:

1. Finish the quest and DO NOT give the scroll to the mage guild (lie to them that you did not get the information ) Now If you DO NOT kill the hiding Necromancer and do not give the scrolls to the mage guild NO ONE in the game gets CM except for 1% of the Necromancers and Conjurers (That are in Evil factions only) in the game. Then this 1% grows each day to 100% after a YEAR (365 game days) as the secret to CM gets slowly passed on from one Necromancer to another. This is for players like MYSELF that are not all that interested in using Magic (I prefer sword and shield melee combat) but hate how EASY the conjurers are to kill in the vanilla game because their magic is so weak.


2. Finish the quest and DO NOT give the scroll to the mage guild (lie to them that you did not get the information ) Now if you kill the hiding Necromancer and do not give the scrolls to the mage guild NO ONE in the game gets CM. If you keep the CM esp loaded you will still get some other features, such as the Caltrop weapons and vanilla spell damage boosts (see below). If you do not want any of these features then you should take the Combat Magic esp out of your load order and your new savegames will be free of both ESP and all the changes. This choice is for the players that want to play the quest but not utilize Combat Magic in their game.


3. Finish the quest and give the scroll to the mage guild. You will eventually get the Combat Magic Kit after the Mage's guild has time to study the scrolls. Once the Guild has developed this new school of magic it will be available for sale to anyone with the gold to buy it and the skill to use it. Every NPC that qualifies as a magic specialist class has a chance to get it that starts at 3% and go up each day to 100% after 60 game days.
They will favor the Combat Magic for combat, but they will also use all other spells as well. Now you may remove the Fortress of Fear quest ESP.


In all of the above cases if you keep the Combat Magic esp in your load order (and depending on your ini setting for this feature) MOST of the spells (both vanilla and many spells from other mods) will be adjusted to match what ever your melee weapons are set to do. So if you have a melee weapon mod that multiples your melee weapon's damage 3 times, then the damage done by vanilla spells (and most other spells) will be multiplied 3 times as well.


The player must finish the quest to get the Combat Magic for the same reason the developers require you to do a quest to get any unique or powerful weapon in this game. However you will be able to "transfer" your Fortress of Fear completions status to any new PC you start.

Read how to do this in the FULL READ ME FILE that is in the zip pakage.



All REFLECT MAGIC and REFLECT DAMGE has been neutralized to remove their effects from the game. These two spell types are the worst thing about the oblivion magic system. Please do not ask me to make this an option. It will not ever be made an option for this mod. In part because it would prevent the mod from working as intended and most importantly because the Reflect damge magic effects group is cannibalized by my mod to create the new Plasma Magic attacks for the Combat Magic Practitioners. The mod will change NPC/player reflect magic items and reflect spell items in their inventory into resist magic and shield magic items.



Equipping The Combat Magic Kit
----------------------------------------------
Once you have the Combat Magic Kit you can equip it in your spell list to use the Omni Shield, the magic enhanced H2H features and the plasma attacks. You will have all of the features of combat magic as long as the kit is equipped and you adhere to the other requirements as will be describe below.





Omni Shield
------------------
If your Combat Magic Kit is equipped, then anytime you block (with a weapon or your hands) the Omni shield will go up to protect you as long as you have a little magicka and you are not incapacitated by things like knockdowns, staggers or low fatigue.

The Omni Shield will stop bolt, ball (but not fog or AOE) type magic projectiles and touch spells. Fog and AOE "blasts" attacks will wrap around the OS. The OS will stop most Melee attacks. The way to defeat the OS is to maneuver around it, or time your attack to hit when it is down, or trick your opponent into dropping it, or wear it down with a barrage of attacks thus eating up the Combat Magic Practitioner's magickia.

Time your block as late as possible to Reflect a spell back at your opponent. But Spell deflection is not something you "try to do". This is something that may happen if you fail to Reflect the spell. Deflection is a halfway successful Reflection. The player and the NPC have the choice to either Dodge, Reflect or Block the spell. The results of those choices can be evading the spell, stopping the spell, bouncing the spell back at the opponent or into a random direction.

The Omni Shield is set to only work with the Combat Magic Kit. However after you "advance" in your combat magic skill you then can use it outside of the Kit. The combination of the other Combat Magic Spells used with the OS is what balance the OS. Using the OS outside of the combat magic kit feels overpowered. So I want the player to use it as intended for good amount of play time to experience my combat magic concept it as intended. Then later when the player can earn the perk of using the OS outside of the Combat Magic Kit.






Plasma Attacks
----------------------
Taping your cast button will discharge a high speed arc of plasma at your target. This is a low power attack that cost 10% of your magicka. Hold the cast button down for more than a tap will cast a slow but powerful plasma ball. There is an area of effect to the plasma balls and it is a dangerous one. The caster and the caster's allies will all be just as effected as their opponents if too close!




Touch Spell Attack
---------------------------
Hold the cast button for more than 1 second will cast a touch spell that "dumps" all your magicka into your target drowning them in a extremely high power attack. You are exposed (cannot block) for that moment of time! This is true of the other attacks as well but for those other attacks it will be much less of a duration.

Note: You will not be able to "load" the Magicka "dump" touch attack and just wait for a target to walk up to you before you release it. If you hold your cast button for too long your magicka drains to 0 and you will be unable to cast a magic attack until your magicka is back up over zero. A particular sound will warn you of this magic drain before it happens. There are a variety of sounds that will clue you to most of the timing concerns.



IMPORTANT!
Poor player timing can be compensated with good PC stats and vice versa because many of the important timing windows are based on your PC stats. This is a game mechanic idea I have had for a long time for this kind of action/RPG game. This mod is the first time I have got to try it to this extent. However I have tried this idea to a much lesser extent in some of my melee combat mods.




Combat Magic Spell Damage
------------------------------------------

Damage of all CM attacks except for the plasma balls will be a % (as low or high) as your magicka. But that percentage will rise and fall depending on the following factors:

Character level
Current Willpower
Current Intelligence
Current Fatigue
Current Magicka Level

How well you "kinetically cast" the spells (your moment toward and around your opponent ) for the H2H attacks. Player Timing for the touch attack.

All Combat Magic damage will then be scaled by the difference from the vanilla WeapSteelWarhammer compared to your to your current WeapSteelWarhammer weapon. So if you have a mod that increase your WeapSteelWarhammer to 2 times normal the Plasma ball will hit at 2 times 30 points.

The Plasma Ball is set at 30 cost to magicka and 30 BASE damage.

After the damage is calculated it is then reduced by magic resistance up to 85% or what ever your melee armor protection limit is set to in your game settings.





Ghost Dodge
-------------------
This will give you almost complete immunity to attacks but it will cost a lot! The magic drains fast as you trigger the ghost state. so you must learn to only enact it when absolutely needed and for a as short a burst as you can (to just avoid the attack). Also you cannot attack block nor move around during your ghost state.

You must have the Combat Magic Kit equipped and then you press (or rather TAP) the Left and Right and Back Move buttons all at the same time.

Significant pain will prevent you and the NPC from triggering the ghost dodge. The pain duration is determined by the Willpower stat. The more will power you have the shorter the time the pain will distract you. The more damage you take at one time the longer the pain may effect you.




Fast Rest
--------------
If you stop and do not exert yourself in anyway you can fast rest or in this case "meditate" to regenerate your magicka a little faster than normal. This is in part to help make energy level less important than what you do with your energy.





Combat Magic H2H
----------------------------


Fist De Cuffs:

To activate the Combat Magic H2H features you must not be wearing any armor or rings on your hands and then you must select the combat magic kit as you active spell. You will see a pulsing aura of magic spill out of your hands.

Punching in this state will increase the damage you can do to your opponents and can bat them around the battlefield like a rag-doll! And you may see a "flash of light" effect at the point of contact when the player punches an actor.

Each punch (power attack or normal) will be buffed using your magicika. The amount of magicka used and the amount of increased damage is dictated (kinetically spell casted) by your combat geometry and your movement. Movement forward while punching = about 1/5 the maximum. Power Attacking = about 2/5

Moving left or right will increase the damage/consumption depending on how far around you are relative to your opponent. So If you swing around directly behind them. This will give you about 2/5 the maximum. If you only get half way around them to attack their left or right side you will get about 1/5 the maximum.

Therefore if you manage to swing behind your opponent while throwing a power attack and move forward at the same time you will have an outrageously devastating magically buffed kill shot at 5/5 of your current magicka added to your attack !

Moving backward while attacking will use no magicka at all but will not buff your attack either. Even if you are power attacking or back behind your opponent.

If you hit your opponent with a power attack at the time they are staggering, or stagger them with the same power punch, you will swat their bodies away from you in the same manner you see people go flying when hit with a shotgun blast in the movies. They will go flying backward on a mostly straight trajectory until they hit a wall or tree or other solid object.

They will be flung more or less straight back thru the air FAST and hit the wall viciously! This is a great move against multiple opponents, thus briefly incapacitating one opponent while you deal the other.






Spell Bursting:

If you punch into an incoming ball type spell (cannot punch bolts as they are too fast nor fog as it is too "swirly" ) with your magicka enhanced H2H attack it will burst the spell into a cascade of magic embers.
Your success to do this will be: Fatigue Percentage * ( agility + handtohand + luck ) It will cost the same magicka as deflecting the spell would with your Omni Shield.

If the spell flying through the air has not traveled very far then trying to punch the spell would not have enough time to react to it properly. You have no penalty at about 20 feet but at 10 feet you will have 1/2 the chance to succeed. At 5 feet you will only have 1/4 the chance to punch a spell cast at you at that range.




Attack Chain Absorbed Fatigue Effect:

If you hit your opponent with several punches in a series inside of a short amount of time you will absorb some of their fatigue and they will stagger helplessly for a second. You can then press the attack, as long as you strike on target and come in with a good rhythm this speed bag effect will continue until you run out of magicka. Once you have landed the required number of fast blows inside of the time limit a stat comparison is done to see if it is possible to overtake your opponent.

target's strength + resistmagic times their fatigue percentage <= player's current magicka == succeed

The cost of magicka to do this is %5 of the player's current magicka. You will know you are in the "speed bag" cycle when your opponent is stumbling around after each of your hits and you may see flashes of blue, green and red lights splashing on your opponent if the room's light level is low. This feature cannot be used to "knock out" the opponent, only keep them at a exhausted level. However the normal H2H game system may still knock them out as each hit will reduce the opponents fatigue a little per the vanilla system.







INI file
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;Duke Patricks - Combat Magic II


; Set this to 0 if you do not want the mod to save your Omni Shield Skill level in your save game.
; If you do not set this to 1 your skill level will be lost if you unload the mod and reload it latter.
; Any mod that changes the persistent object called TestKurtMarker will conflict with this feature.
; In this case you will need to set this to 0 or unload the conflicting mod.
; Default is 1



; Set this to 1 if you want the Omni Shield to work all the time and not just when you equipped the Combat Magic Kit.
; HOWEVER this will not work until your Omni Shield skill level is 100%
; Default is 0



; Set OSTogState to 1 if you want to use a toggle key to toggle the Omni Shield awake or asleep.
; Default is 0
; set OSTogKey to the toggle key you want to use. Default is 209 which is the PageDown Key.
; To set the DEC code to assign OSTogKey to other keys see this link: http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/IsKeyPressed3




; Set OSTogMes to 0 if you want to turn off this reminder pop up message.
; Your Omni Shield will not work until you press the OS toggle button to wake it up.
; And remember that even when it is awake you still must perform a block to trigger it on.
; Default is 1


; Set this to 1 if do not want vanilla and custom spells damage (other than Combat Magic spells) to be boosted by this mod
; Default is 0


; Set this to 1 if you do not want the Omni Shield to work if player/actors have a shield equipped.
; It just looks silly to have the OS and a physical shield out at the same time. Default is 1


; If the player/actor stands still no blocking and no attack then magicka regenerates faster.
; Set to 0 to stop fast rest magickia regeneration.
; .01 is the default


; If You do not want the "Magus" "shaman" "Lich" "Xivilai" "Dremora" to ever be able to use Combat Magic set this to 0
; 1 is the default





For the most advanced SCA combat with sword and shield:
http://www.spookyfx.com/book/tromp.html

Awesome mod! This really gives a new aspect to magic in the game. It was kind of boring the same click-and-shoot gameplay. One question, you stated that we must not use an OBSE BETA, so I cannot by any means use OBSE 20 beta 5? I'm asking because I use some mods that need this version of OBSE.

I cannot troubleshoot any issue you "may" have if you use any 3rd party beta program with this mod.

However after I rest up from this project ( I have been working on it for months) I will be doing beta testing of OBSE 20 myself.

I am going to sleep now, I will check back here in a few hours.

Excellent! I shall downloadith at thy next opportunity.

Hate to sound ignorant, but I am when it comes to this mod, but one stupid question if you dont mind

could this be considered as a magic system replacer type mod, or an add on to existing vanilla magic system?

sorry but I really am in the dark about this mod


thanks for your answer, thanks for the mod, and for sharing your work with me

It is an add on. It adds a set of powers (attacks, shield, hand to hand buffs) - that are gained via a quest.

Only with settings in the ini will it buff spells from vanilla or other mods. The powers do interact with the vanilla spell system and so far other magic mods.

Thanks, I borrowed your words and used this in my edited read me file.

:bowdown:The quest design in this mod simply must be seen to be believed! It is both fun and challenging, with allot of unique "horror events" not seen in any other mod I have played! The combat magic aspect of this mod is how Oblivion magic SHOULD have been in the first place!

I'm having a problem with this mod. I have an amulet equipped that has multiple enchantments on it. One of those enchantments is reflect spell that gets changed by this mod to resist magic. When the mod is first initialized all the enchantments including the changed resist magic one work fine. After I fight a necromancer for some reason none of the enchantments on that amulet work and if I try to remove the amulet my game crashes.

Tell me exactly where and how to get this same amulet and I will see what I can find out about it.

For now put the amulet away in a safe container (like in a player House ) and do not wear it then start the mod aganin after a Mod "clean save".

The amulet is "Greater Prism of the Ice" from the Frostcrag reborn mod. Its editor ID in the construction set is "frostcragAmuletIcePrism".

I could not load that mod (too many prerequisite 3rd party mods that I do not use) however I made a duplicate of that same amulet (exact copy of the spells, enchantments, shaders and so on)

get it here:

http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=28565

The amulet is only a custom collection of vanilla resources (no custom made resources like custom shaders nor a custom mesh file ) and when I use my "Greater Prism of the Ice" amulet I have no issues at all. My mod changes the reflect magic 20 effect to resist magic 20 in my inventory I see two entries for all the effects of the amulet, the original resist magic 30 and also the new resit magic 20. The amulet works as expected, and I can take it off and on with no game stopping events. :shrug:

So it may be a compatibility problem with the mod itself as the Frostcrag reborn mod makes game setting changes as well as inventory manipulation.
Or incompatibly with the other prerequisites mods that the reborn mod mod needs to run. But that is just my speculation as I said I could not load this mod to try it.

Nothing more I can do at this time but try the file I linked above and see if it works for you. Put the other one in a container FIRST then save. Then load my file. The Amulet will automaticly appear in your inventory and you will get a message that tells you this. Put it on the ground and cast the fix spell at it. Or Wait for the auto fix to happen and THEN you may put the amulet on and continue your game as normal.

Fortress Of Fear quest ESP update Rev 1.1

Fix small issue where special target was set to player height instead of the zombies height.

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/780-duke-patricks-combat-magic-ii-duke-patricks-incursion-into-fortress-of-fear/

I love this mod concept but i have some issues with the magic effect swapping:
When i load the mod, some of the "reflect damage/spell" effects i had on items got replaced with the "fake spell" and dont get automatically replaced with shield/magic res.
Some do get replaced (randomly) but some dont, and i have to fix them with the spell.
It DOES fix it, but if i exit oblivion and reload the save they get "fake spell" again, and get replaced automatically only if you're lucky.

This means i have to fix potentially all my things manually every time i enter oblivion?
That's annoying, and i'm afraid NPC's have this problem too

Also, the console tells me that the automatic script spell "fix fake enchanted spell whatever" gets added to me when i open the console, and then removed in a sec

What's this script? Is there a better way?

My game works perfectly without it, so i'm afraid i wont risk messing it up for now.
If you can get a "fix" for this, i'm sure ill love you (and the mod)

I love the idea of this mod, but it won't start for me. I installed the ini and both esps in the data folder along with the textures, sounds, etc. I get a pop up saying that the quest has started and then I go to fight necromancers. They can all use the combat magic, but when I kill them, they don't have the kit and I get no quest update.

One thing that could stop the quest update would be if you are in combat but did not know it such as with mudcrabs that are not able to "get to you" over the rocks.

You need to be out of combat for the quest to update AFTER you are in combat with the Combat Magic Partitioner.
BTW there is no kit to find on them. KIT is just a term used as a game reference to the way the Combat Magic selection of tools is selected in your menu.

However I made a major change to the way the quest starts and it will be uploaded in about an hour from now.

Rev 1.2 for both ESP. From now one BOTH esp will be marked with a REV update even if only one of them needs a tweak. This way I do not have confusion that one is rev 3.2 and the other is rev 2.3 or some such such thing as that.

I do not see this myself, None of my play testers saw it so it could be a conflict in your set up or other parameters (like what OBSE vers you are using) you have. But without any other information from you except "its not working" I would just be guessing.

My guess:
This mod was started years ago back before ref walking was possible, so spells are used (cast on the player/actor and removed a second later) to get some of the changes done. Spells are not 100% reliable, however when used many times over more than the first second of game play this method will work (after some time) but certainly not at the moment you start the game. This is why I use the word"eventually" in the read me file. I am slowly changing out the old magic cast system for ref walking in all my older mods (I have been modding Oblivion for many years) but not every single one has been switched out yet.





Ok, Thanks for trying it anyway. Sorry it was not right for you.

Are you planning on releasing a version where you don't need to do the quest to get the spells?

No offense, but this long quest filled with puzzles isn't really for me. I ran out of patience once I got to the second door of the stronghold. It's not that the puzzles aren't well-designed, it's just that it's not my personal taste.

I would very much appreciate a version that just gives you and other mages the spells.

Hello there

I like the idea of this mod so much that I even restarted the game to play as a combat mage. However, I can't start playing because I'm stuck at the first puzzle


This is what I did so far:



Help please??

Also, a note on the dialogs: I was trying to read the instructions given by
and I missed out a lot of details because the text was too fast. And yes, I'm using the universal silent voice mod but still; USV gives you 8 seconds to read each dialog. This is easy to do if the dialog is made of two lines but here, in the fortress of fear mod, the dialogs are twice as large. I would recommend that you split this four-line dialogs in two-line dialogs.

Tiny Lampe

You have done great so far with the clues. But you need to READ the book, as in try to understand what the book is telling you about how to hide a message.



All the important information is repeatable in some way. But I am curious about extending the 8 seconds to 20 in the USV as anyone can just click with the mouse to stop the timer and move on to the next message. I am not sure why it was ONLY made with 8 seconds when the TEXT can be MUCH longer.
I may need to see if I can patch that from my mod.

It is impractical to try to split up the text once it is made in the CS unfortunately. especially when it has a lot of conditions and result script involved.

God I found the location! I have to thank you Duke Patrick for the clue but, above all, I have to congratulate you; What an ingenious puzzle you came up with! And also, how well placed! It makes a lot of sense that the location of the necromancers' stronghold was well protected against the event of bandits (or the player in this case) assaulting the messenger. Very well done so far. Now I have to properly prepare myself to pay the necromancers a visit.

Tiny Lampe.

Rev 1.2 .1 Patch to change the Universal Silent Voice from 8 seconds to 14 seconds.
Also the book will not be titled "locked" now once you unlock it.

Be sure you replace your 8 second Elys_USV.lip and Elys_USV.mp3 with the 14 second version provided in this mod zip.

If you read faster than that just click your mouse to finish the timer and continue to the next dialog paragraph.


Get it here:

http://tesalliance.org/forums/index.php?/files/file/780-duke-patricks-combat-magic-ii-duke-patricks-incursion-into-fortress-of-fear/

Thanks for this revision Duke.
I didn't find anymore dialogs yet so I cannot tell the difference but I'm sure I will.

By the way, I noticed something:

For those who use Midas Magic, there is at least one spell that doesn't work properly against this mod's enemies: the missile shield spell (it casts a barrier that blocks incoming arrows). Fortunately, this can be solved by manually placing midas after both fortress of fear and combat magic. BOSS places midas before those so in this case manual rearrengement is necessary.

This is a really amazing mod! The quest is incredibly atmospheric and very unique, and, even though I've only fought Necromancers with Combat Magic so far, it looks to be a neat new way to battle.

Oh, but for some reason, I'm stuck on a certain puzzle--I've been on it for about seven hours, which is really sad:

Congratulations on the release Duke, the new quest looks excellent! Your mod certainly adds exactly what Oblivion magic was missing in the vanilla, some actual depth in magical combat beyond flinging fireballs and running around trying to dodge blasts. Thanks!