» Sat Mar 19, 2011 4:26 pm Are your BASE skills up to the challenge?
OBSE 18 or better needed.
Get it here:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27949
The SCA portrayed in this mod is obviously loosely based on the real SCA. I could not make this mod SCA exactly like the real one as it would not fit well in a fantasy environment. So I took liberties and artistic license in the description of the organization in the mod.
This entire project was intend to provide me with a fun way to learn and practice 3d modeling, and then it is intended to give the player a very cool weapon that can do something complete new and original, something I have wanted to do for years but did not have the modeling skills yet.
And finally it is a Proof of Concept mod to try to demonstrate how good an NPC combatant can be without resorting to the clich? jacked up HP (or the God awful reflected damage thing) even with only a few of my Combat AI techniques. I would have loved to load the NPC up with all my knowledge of combat but that would have taken many months (a year?) to script! However the few I did include will give you a run for your money! If this NPC is too difficult for you consider becoming a squire in the game to learn the secrets to countering all my "moves".
However, these “moves” are all based on real life melee combat physics. So if you play the combat intuitively you may discover the “counters” to my moves on your own.
My featured combat AI for this NPC:
A very good dodging ability, he will glance, sidestep and bob and weave your attacks (rather than absorb 1000 weapon hits).
A "Brain" to evaluate and adapt to the combat conditions (such as health level, how the player is fighting, how the player is moving and defending).
This Brain will also manage his Fatigue better by making the NPC "rest" strategically instead of randomly by a dice roll as it is now in the vanilla game.
My original Player "Shield Charge" attack that many players asked that I give to the game NPCs.
A true to life shield technique called "Eclipsing". This will be a surprise, so I will not explain this any more than that. If you happen to have read my SCA combat book then you know what this is already and how to counter this move. Otherwise you will need to figure it out on your won OR become a squire in the game (join the SCA) to get training on how to counter this move. If you become a squire you will get a total of 7 specific lessons. But even after you get all those specific lessons you can still get bonuses for your Blade and Block and Blunt skill sets if you continue the sparing fights as a squire.
This mod has a few other AI tidbits!
For example I found a way to help prevent the NPC archers from shooting their friends in the back. This I may turn into its own mod (to effect all the NPC in the game) at about Christmas time after it has been played and tested in this mod.
I am not sure about that, but if my "Don't shoot me Bro" script has no issues in this mod it may be a "Duke Patrick's - Don't shoot me Bro" mod someday.
The NPC you fight are magically muted, silenced, and have zero magicka, but if you are running enemies auto heal or a similar mod you may see him "use a spell". I have taken steps to prevent this as I use enemies auto heal mod myself. But it is not 100% able to override that mod, so you may need to disable that mod for this tournament.
Hammer-Blade is the weapon that shatters shields.
It is expertly crafted by an SCA weapon smith to transfer power from the attacker into the target with physics (not with magic). The visual of the parts flying into the air is something I have wanted to do for years. and NO-ONE has ever done this before! (Lots of blender time to do this mod, but I also use a very clever "trick" in the scripts to get the job done in less than 5 years of 3d modeling!)
So this was the perfect mod for me to cut my 3d modeling teeth on!
ALL Shields, even custom Shields form other games.
Unfortunately it will work on any SWORD that is slotted for the shield slot as well, but it will look silly. I have no way to correct his except for patching for each mod that introduces blocking swords.
And I do not really think I will be doing that.
I might be able to fix this if there was a way to detect that the "shield" in use by the opponent was a sword model instead of a shield model. Such as if their path model had the word SWORD in it. But few custom mods are set up to give you that kind of information.
In the game Hammer-Blade is supposedly designed to take full advantage of perfect mass balance, the speed node (sweet spot) and the transfer of momentum from the attacker to the target to perform its devastating attacks on solid objects (like Shields) that are used to do static blocks (as apposed to active parrys while you deflect the momentum of the attack.)
Because of this, a parry with a sword will not break the sword but one handed parry will cause a great deal of pain to the defender.
As a SCA Knight you can receive large discounts with the SCA vendors, they are allowed to purchase MuMetal arrows and can get Master level training in Alchemy.
To be invited into the SCA chivalry (become an SCA Knight) you will need to win the tournament, and get a passing vote from the voting members of the SCA. The SCA members that do not vote are the belly dancers. The Duke Patrick NPC has veto power as well.
To get this passing vote you must get a 90 AVERAGE disposition from the voting members and a 90 or more disposition with the Duke NPC.
This vote is made each time you leave the SCA encampment. So while you are in the SCA encampment you should do all you can to get the SCA members disposition up to 90 or more.
Tips for raising Disposition with the SCA members:
1. If you are an SCA squire keep your red belt on as this gives you a disposition bonus with SCA members.
2. Do not break any SCA rules.
3. Remember to show respect to the Royal peers by bowing,
this will give you an easy and steady way to get dispostion increased with all memebers.
4. Participate in the nighttime revels and take advantage of that situation to play the disposition mini game (or use an alternate persuasion mod as I do) with the SCA members. Keep in mind that the SCA npc do not have persuasion turned on except sometimes when you are drinking SCA pure grain alcohol at the nighttime revel. You can buy this drink from the vendor, or if your disposition is already 50 or more many SCA members will keep giving you this drink for free during the revel.
5. And never let your infamy surpass your fame!
To bow you need to be detected by the Royal Peer, with your game crosshair on them, then hold your block button and tap your sneak button at the same time. The bow animation will take a few seconds to complete. This will increase your disposition with the Royal Peer and the other SCA members if your current disposition is over 20 with them.
Drinking SCA pure grain alcohol has other effects besides breaking the ice with SCA members. It has immediate health benefits, it has temporary penalties to some skills and abilities. But also the longer you stay "under the effects" of the SCA pure grain alcohol the more chance you have of gaining the relaxation state. This relaxation state will banish your afflictions in the same way that praying at the alters of the Nine do. You get a 1 percent chance each second you are under the effects of the SCA pure grain alcohol.
Then if you go to sleep still under the effects you may wake up with your afflictions removed. However you also get a 1 percent chance per second of passing out drunk right on the spot. If this happens you will wake up many hours later with no chance at all of getting this relaxation state until the next time you start drinking again.
Passing out drunk will subtract 20 disposition from all the voting SCA members.
While you are under the effects of the SCA pure grain alcohol your vision will be blurred and you will sway a little.
You can stop the effects of the SCA pure grain alcohol by going to sleep at any time.
Q: Is this compatible with other combat mods?
A: “should be” this mod is not even subject to load order but please load it as last as you are able to, no permanent modifications are made to the game settings or any of the vanilla combat systems. (I do change the game speed for a slow mo effect for 3 seconds ONE TIME only.)Go into any menu to change it back IF you get stuck in slow mo for some reason.
However there are three NPCs you may fight that are heavily scripted for combat.
About 70 percent of what those 3 NPC do in combat will be directed by the "brains" I made them (scripted). So your mileage may vary.
One of the rules of the tournament is that you cannot use magic or raise your health during the combat in anyway. Mods like RBP may conflict because they add change the game so that some players will have a "natural" health increases that is automatic (not in control of the player). However Kyoma (from the gamesas.com/bgsforums ) wrote a script for detecting and compensating any Restore Health abilities. It will add a Damage Health ability with the total of the Restore Health so that GetAV Health detection won't fluctuate because of them.
But any unnatural restore health bonus (that got added by a scripted spell for example) will still result in a change in health (which in turn will be detected and disqualify the player from the tournament).
I am a fantasy based virtual reality addict not a “gamer”. Many of my friends think I am a "gamer" because I do modding, talk about PC games and play PC games a great deal.
But I am not a gamer, in fact I dislike MOST of the video games I have seen for various reasons. mostly because I do not like "game-ish" games that require you to do esoteric button combinations or actions to win the game that have little to do with real life combat and action. I do own several hundred PC games and have played probably twice that number as I am always in search of the "virtual reality" experience.
Oblivion has slowed down my consumption of PC games a lot as it can be modded to get close to my ideals. (Well close enough to try out many ideas I have had for Video games for over 30 years.)
Do not get me wrong, I love magical combat and fantasy creatures and all that, but when you can absorb a dozen arrow shots, jump 30 feet in the air and every swing of a sword produces "fireworks" (sound effects and colored lights") the WOW factor of a magic fire ball in the game is castrated! For magic to be magical in a video game the sword fights needs to lean more toward realism while at the same time still making the player feel like they are a hero (once they have earned their hero status with some effort of course.)
My mods are proof of concept projects for experimenting with realistic mental aspects of combat and simulating the physics of real combat.
I have been pleasantly surprised to find players that really enjoy the realism, this realism movement in Oblivion (known as immersionists) is something I think will be the NORM in the future instead of fantasy based combat.
I think games will get more realistic (in the near future) because the advantages serve both the players and the game companies. The advantages will include shorter learning curves because the more realistic a game is the more intuitive it is as well.
Older people will be able to use their life experience to succeed in games rather than reflexes and memorization.
More people (with lots of money) will play such games, more money can be made by the game developer and more money will go into the game R&D.
To start your adventure go have an early breakfast at the "Feedbag" in the IC market district.
REQUIREMENTS
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OBSE 18 or better needed.
Legal
.................
I worked very hard on this mod. But this mod is a product more of creativity, sweat and tears than script writing talent.
DO NOT distribute or use any of my 3d models, resources or scripts.
You should only find this mod distributed from TesNexus!
If any other web site is distributing this work they are doing so illegitimately.
JDFan made the juggling fire balls so ask him about using that resource as it is not my work. Same for Kyoma's Health detection compensator script.
You can contact them both here:gamesas.com/bgsforums
You MAY use my scripts and my other resources for making a mod only as long as it has NOTHING to do with visually tearing apart shields.
I.E do not make a disguised knock off!
And you must credit me fully and include my "legal" as shown above.
THANKS TO
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DreadKnight
Luchaire
Awia
Speail thanks to
Psymon for playtesting as well as tweaking the mod with tools I do not know how to use yet.
JDFan for his mesh and 3d modling adivce.
Reneer for his unquie knowlegd of hadling AI-crime and the crime handlining script "chunks" I used for this mod.
Kyoma For the Health detection compensator script.
The OBSE team (They make it possible for me to make the impossible!)
and...
All the people that write the Wiki
and the active members on the Oblivion CS forums for feedback in my WIP thread!
Last but not least of course Bethesda for allowing all of us to shape and personalize our own virtual playgrounds!
For the most advanced SCA combat with sword and shield:
http://www.spookyfx.com/book/tromp.html
