? Oblivion Patch 1.2.0.416

? OBSE 20 or better

? NifSE 1.0 Release or Higher

Do not attempt to play without these three or your computer will explode.

? HUD Status Bars (http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/34905/?) – Use the INI files provided with UVIII – not the UVII ones that come with HSB.

Welcome to oblivion with unnecessary violence. It's rather a different place, and I hope you like it. You may find it rather daunting at first. New controls, new actions, lots of new ways to kill and be killed, but if you read this manual and persevere the rewards are extensive. You'll be lopping limbs off your opponents, hurling spears through their throats, blowing them up, and bathing in their blood before the day is out. Then maybe you'll chill out and serenade their headless corpses with your lute. UVIII: Critical Mess is an extensive rewrite of much of UVII fixing numerous issues and adding a host of new features, mostly taking UV back to its roots and turning the violence up to eleven.

? Ground up rewrite of the critical hit system: 30+ heavily context dependent critical hits, including:

- Decapitation

- Smashed Skulls

- Bisecting

- Various Limb Amputations

- Impaling

- Gutting

- Throat Slitting

- Exploding

- Magic Criticals (flame, frost (shatter), shock, drain/absorb life) - triggered by spells enchantments, thrown weapons etc.

- Ranged Weapon Puncture Kills

- Various thrown weapon kills.

? NPCs have the ability to perform all these critical hits on you and each other, so watch out

? Lots of blood and gore when critical hits occur

? All new configurable slow motion kill camera

? New momentum system for determining when critical hits occur

? All new sneaky throat slit

? Horse combat – including the chance to perform critical hits

? Cast spells while riding ((with all the attendant critical hits))

? Throw weapons while riding (with all the attendant critical hits)

? 6 All new spear combat animations

? Eleven spears available for purchase, and disseminated to guards

? Better hand to hand combat with sheathed weapons

? Hugely more lethal exploding potions

? Shield bashing

? Very deadly reward for becoming champion of the warriors guild

? Superior garbage collection/cloneform behaviour – no more save game bloat creep

? Vanilla Style First Person (Actually UV2.2, but worth mentioning here)

? Around 130 configuration settings – play the way you want to.

? Restored on-the-fly grip shifting

? Huge number of tweaks and fixes to improve stability or repair broken features

? Cleaned and repackaged final product

Switch any weapon (including any added by mods) to you left hand for true dual wielding. Once switched that weapon will do damage independently of the one in your right and damage will depend on your skill with that weapon type. It is possible to use two weapons to do a simultaneous attack which results in a significant damage increase over a single weapon attack, but these are generally slower and make you more vulnerable.

Damage calculations use the same formulas (to the best of my knowledge) as vanilla attacks, though the process is handled somewhat differently internally. If you feel that UV attacks are too weak or too powerful their difficulty can be independently modified in the INI, though of course they respond to the normal difficulty slider along with everything else.

Any enchantments or poisons will be carried over to the left handed weapon and work exactly as expected. Poisoning of left hand weapons is also a simple process. You cannot however currently enchant or recharge the weapon without first returning it to your right hand.

There will of course always come a time when you have a mod that adds that one brilliant and unique weapon and you want two of them - UVIII:CM allows you to very simply duplicate the weapon at the just cost of a repair hammer. It won't of course carry any charges across for enchanted weapons. This feature is desirable even when the mod provides an off hand version of a weapon, because UVIII's off hand versions can have the same enchantment as the main ones.

It's probably worth noting that torches, treated as blunts, can now be used as an OH weapon (doing limited damage, but occasionally some extra fire damage – and that means potentially fire critical hits).

Swap any weapon between a one and two handed grip. If you're strong enough you can wield two handed weapons with just one hand, and even dual wield them.

Rotate any weapon through 180 degrees (either fore or off hand). This allows for stabby daggers amongst other things.

At any given time you'll have access to 18 (or 12 for bows and staffs) melee combat moves with your weapon(s) and an additional 12 kick type moves (11 if you're using a shield as one becomes a shield bash). Giving a total of 30 (or 24) possible melee attacks. Each weapon combination has a unique set of animations. This includes several new animations over and above those in UV RC1. The result is this:

? 1 handed weapon (or sword and shield): 18 weapon attacks, 12/11 Kicks + shield bash when available

? 2 Handed Weapon: 18 weapon attacks, 12 Kicks

? Dual Wielding: 6 Right handed attacks, 6 Left handed attacks, 6 simultaneous attacks and 12 kicks

? Bow: normal shooting, 12 blunt attacks, 12 kicks

? Staff: normal casting, 12 blunt attacks, 12 kicks)- note that bows and staffs use different animations

? Spear: 18 weapon attacks, 12 kicks (6 unique spear animations)

? Hand to Hand: 18 hand attacks, 12 Kicks, 3 Close up moves (tomoe nage, uke goshi and the astonishingly lethal neck snap)

You'll also have access to 5 of 9 possible dodges (on which more later).

The move sets are determined based on the combination of weapons you are holding. Spears use different animations to other two handed weapons. Similarly the skills required and trained are based on which weapons you are holding.

Your hits (including vanilla melee and ranged attacks) will have specific effects depending where you hit your opponent. At the simplest level this is just a multipliermaking you do additional or reduced damage depending on hit location (multipliers are configurable in the INI), but there are a number of unique critical hits and effects, some of which are lethal including:

? Decapitation

? Smashed Skulls

? Bisecting

? Various Limb Amputations

? Impaling

? Gutting

? Throat Slitting

? Exploding

? Magic Criticals (flame, frost (shatter), shock, drain/absorb life) - triggered by spells enchantments, thrown weapons etc.

? Ranged Weapon Kills

? Non lethal effects such as disarming, knocking off helmets, tripping, cracking ribs etc.

It is possible to chain these effects, for example kicking somebody in the knees which knocks then to their knees, then stylishly beheading them immediately afterwards.

Critical hits are determined by your momentum which builds as you perform different attacks in the game. This means if you want to get the spectacular kills you need to use a bit of imagination while fighting. Of course there's always a small chance of a random critical hit, and you can determine how likely this is by changing the settings in the INI – see below.

Of course their scarcity is fully configurable in the INI. If however you wish to perform them on demand you have a couple of options. There is an ability (god amongst men) which is NOT given by default, use the INI to enable it, which you may cast to make yourself able to perform critical 100% of the time. In fact this is not exactly the case, opponents may still block, counter and dodge your hits, but if they do connect they're likely to have an effect. Similarly you can make use of concentration mode to get a very temporary guaranteed critical hit though it is again subject to dodges, blocks and counters. See below for more information about this. A more permanent solution is to change the criticalhitchance setting in the INI up or down. To completely remove the chance of critical hits there is a setting to turn them off. You can also switch off the momentum system. If you do then critical hits will be based on a the difference between combination of your health/fatigue and that of your opponent (plus a small optional criticalhitchance modifier)

NPCs too get to perform these critical hits on you and on each other. They don't use momentum, instead using the method described above. You can vary the frequency of them with the NPCcriticalhitchance setting in the INI. Be warned, turning this up too high will make the game seriously challenging.

The limb amputations depend on a special skeleton. This means if you change it out for another one, you might lose those effects.

Throw any weapon or object (as a rule of thumb, if you can pick it up you can throw it). If you have trained in the skill then throwing weapons becomes a much more deadly pursuit. Throw objects with variable power for different spin and distances. Certain types of weapons may stick in scenery if they connect at the correct angle. You can instantly prepare an object to throw as you pick it up, meaning you can run away flinging things at your pursuers. Different types of objects fly differently, shields spin horizontally, weapons spin vertically, spears, arrows and darts fly straight etc.

If you have been trained in throwing weapons, then if you do it properly and get a head or torso shot then the weapon should stick in the opponent killing them (along with great gouts of blood). You can recover your weapon by holding the uv action key and activating the corpse.

When throwing enchanted or poisoned weapons the enchantment or poison is applied to the target as expected. Throwing a poison or potion will apply the effects of that potion to the target with some splatter to nearby actors. It is also possible to use alchemy to create throwable explosives (see below). Throwing a soul gem will release whatever soul is trapped in there (including a random one if the soul is not named)

When NPCs hear the sound of something being thrown, they may go and investigate it meaning throwing can be a very useful method of distraction for sneakier types.

The marksman skill 50 perk has been improved and linked to your skill level. You can now zoom when drawing a bow or aiming a throw to a much further level depending on your skill, and the free zoom allows you to control how much you want to zoom in or out. This can also be considered an observational skill.

If you're in third person mode, the camera will automatically switch to first when you draw your bow or aim a throw the snap back to third person once the projectile has connected.

After you throw an object, you may find it difficult to locate. To counteract this, you should have access to a spell called Locate thrown objects. Casting this will cause any object you have thrown to glow with the detect life effect. If the object has fallen through scenery (which is possible if annoying because of the way collision works in the game) then you can recover your last thrown object, as long as you are still in the same cell as it, by clicking the unnecessary violence settings option in your inventory and using the menu that appears when you exit the inventory to recover the last thrown object.

Chargeable spells: Charge any spell you have to a more powerful version simply by holding down the cast key. It will increase the power of the spell up to the level of your magicka, but with a limit set by your intelligence, thus higher level starting spells can be charged more, making them still useful.

Note that this doesn't work yet for casting from horseback.

Soul trap and release: If you capture a soul using soul trap, the soul gem will be named for that creature and a spirit version of that will be released to wreak havok. This will work for any creatures or NPCs including those added by mods.

Pre-filled soul gems will release a random spirit (appropriate to the level of the gem). The spirit may be of anything from the basic game.

This isn't exactly a magic skill, but its a spell so I wasn't sure where else to put it. UVIII gives you a spell that allows you to remove the script from your equipped weapon. Please do not use this if you don't know what it means. It allows you to apply UV actions (such as grip shifting, and dual wielding) to scripted weapons from other mods - of course the scripts will no longer function, so be sure you mean to remove them.

If you're lucky enough to own a horse, you might think you could lean down and behead the proles who can't afford horses. Well now, with UVIII:CM That can be a reality. A fully new horse combat system has been implemented, based on UVIII's own existing combat engine. When on your horse you'll have three attacks you can make (left, right and thrust). Just hold the left or right key to get the requisite direction of attack. Hit detection is still slightly in beta, so you need to get your target into your focus while making the attack, but when they connect they can cause critical hits just like any other combat move – so yes, leaning down and swiping somebody's head off is now entirely within your capabilities.

Of course the oblivion engine doesn't really want you to do horse combat, so it's necessarily a little bit of a cludge. When you mount your horse, if you have a weapon equipped, it will be swapped out (though you'll still have it in your inventory) for a special horse combat weapon (which actually switches between being an amulet and a ring depending whether you have it drawn or not). In these states, all the magic effects of your amulet/ring will be copied onto the weapon, and that item temporarily unequipped. This can lead to some annoying visual effects, which I'll look at fixing in the next update – but for now, either accept them or don't wear rings/amulets with overt magic visuals when riding. When you get back off the horse everything should return to normal within a couple of seconds.

You can also throw weapons (including explosives) while on a horse (though not your primary horse combat weapon I'm afraid – that just creates too much mess). When you throw them, they behave like any other thrown weapons so impales etc are all likely to happen.

Finally you can also cast spells from horseback. The UV charged casting does NOT work yet from horseback, as this would lead to some nasty save game bloat that I'd prefer to avoid – so for now its normal spells only I'm afraid.

You can now climb up any static object which has full collision, including walls, buildings columns, trees, in fact almost anything. To get the very best out of this skill I highly recommend the use of one of arthmoor's open cities mods. To climb effectively you must be looking at the object you wish to climb and you must first jump to get started.

It's also possible to catch a wall in mid air and begin climbing immediately, this means you can jump from wall to wall, or lower yourself down from high buildings.

The other acrobatic skills available are a series of 9 different dodges. At the most basic level we have ducking, which everyone can do. After acrobatics skill 50 we get the normal dodges available to a player as the skill 50 acrobatics perk, however they are accessed with a simple double tap of a direction key instead of the slightly convoluted vanilla system.

Once we get to skill 75, a second set of much more acrobatic dodges become available. These cannot be performed in heavy armour unless you change the INI setting that prevents this, and the same setting can also make them impossible in any armour at all. The acrobatics simply take over from the lower skill level ones when appropriate (assuming you've learned the skills)

You will of course see NPCs making extensive use of the dodges, leaping out the way of attacks, arrows, thrown weapons etc.

One additional benefit of the new dodges is that they impress bystanders. They can be used as street performance (see later) in order to affect people's disposition and even earn money.

Climbing through windows (BETA) yes you read that right. You'll be able to enter or exit any building through the windows. If a building is locked then you will have to be able to open the lock (i.e. have lockpicks or a skeleton key). The lockpick game is not however played, rather, a test is used based on your lockpick skill.

There are a couple of reasons this feature is considered beta, one is that it's not actually possible to detect a window as part of a larger static, so it's up to the player to use his own judgement to say he's over a window, second it only works if the building you're entering is a single load cell (this is sometimes not the case for multi storey buildings) third if the level designer is lazy and the inside model doesn't match the outside model's dimensions then there will be a mismatch about where you arrive. Finally if there is a load door to another building nearer you than the load door of the building you're trying to enter, then you'll end up in the wrong building, and probably falling through space. If the system does fail, it will catch you and place you in front of the door, as if you had entered that way.

You can now knock people out and rob them if you manage to sneak up undetected behind them and bonk them on the head. No special weapons are needed for this effect and it will work on any NPC. They will appear dead, and thus lootable, but wake up after a short period of time.

You can also perform the rather more lethal version of this and slit their throat. This can only be done with a short, bladed weapon, but it's just alarmingly good fun to do. Make sure you aim for the back of their head when you perform a standing UV power attack while sneaking and undetected and they'll be dead before they hit the ground.

All attacks on sleeping victims are considered a coup de grace and will always be lethal (except for the specific case of knock out blows).

Three new special components/ingredients are available to you:

? Black powder

? Fuses

? Tap components (proximity detectors basically)

In combination with potions, these three objects allow you the flexibility to create various useful explosives:

? Create explosives to blow the locks on doors or containers

? You must use exactly the correct amount of black power or you may fail to open the lock, or completely destroy the container (and break all the contents) that you are trying to open.

? Create bombs to throw at people (these are often extremely lethal, blowing those nearby into meaty chunks.

? Create fused bombs to throw

? Create bombs which will explode when someone is near

? You don't have to just throw the potions though, you can use the lock blowing system to affix exploding potions to any door or container, with a proximity trap or fuse to create real and effective traps. The life of a cyrodiil assassin has never been so sophisticated.

? You can also reverse pickpocket explosive potions onto npcs and watch the hilarity ensue (note that a fuse is a good idea here).

You'll find these objects and ingredients and a selection of premade explosives and traps for sale around cyrodiil and its mods in the hands of various merchants.

Each performance skill affects how much the people around you like you, not unlike persuasion. There is an amount they like each skill type and performing that skill will drag their feelings towards you in that direction. Some may like a skill, others may hate it. Some may even attack you (or stop attacking you) when you perform for them. The rate at which their dispositions are dragged is dependent on your speechcraft (or in one case acrobatics) skill and how much they like that discipline.

The skills are as follows:

? Juggling

? Dancing (can be done with or without weapons in hand)

? Acrobatics (actually the dodges from the melee system, but they have the same effects on non-combatant bystanders as long as you have your weapon sheathed)

? Playing the lute. This can be done either with one of seven default (and user changeable) tunes, or you can turn your keyboard into an instrument and actually “play” the lute. You too can violate the airwaves of cyrodiil with your ten thumbed, tone deaf, talentless noise pollution.

Performing should always be done without weapons (or at least with weapons sheathed). If people see you performing they may start to gather around you. They may even through you some coins. If you get really good you can make significant money performing as a bard for the cultural elite.

You may taunt people until they start fights with you, which means defending yourself isn't a criminal offence,

You may also plead with people attacking you and ask them to spare your life, which they just might.

Finally, as a master speechcraft perk, you may learn to sweet talk honest merchants into buying goods of dubious origin (stuff you stole). It won't affect their long term responsibility of course, they're not about to become a thieves guild fence, but it can be very useful, especially if you need to provide a receipt for some unique object.

Enter a version of “bullet time” whenever you want, with the amount of time you get determined by your willpower (but quite short). In this mode a successful hit always triggers a critical (note that that doesn't mean every hit is a kill, or indeed every hit is successful) but you can only make one attack (successful or otherwise) while in bullet time.

If you have a shovel in your inventory you can bury the corpses of those who have fallen. You can also mark those graves with a wooden headstone complete with customisable epitaph.

You can then dig up the grave and either plunder the stuff, or safely store your own things there (be warned though grave digging is considered an offence in cyrodiil)

You can also actually dig up any grave (from any architecture set in the game and most mods) you come across in the same way and access the loot of the fallen, though graves you did not make yourself should not be considered safe storage.

It's not just the guards you have to look out for, digging may well disturb the spirit of the dead, who will become enraged and attack you! If it's a normal grave it will just be a random spirit, but if you dug it yourself then it will be the specific spirit of whoever is buried there.

All the new skills and moves are delivered via the vanilla training system. To learn a new skill go to the appropriate trainer, enter the training menu tap the UV Attack Button and they'll present a list of available skills. If they have the skill to teach you and you have the skill to learn you can spend some cash and learn a new skill. Accumulation of every skill in the game is a decidedly costly experience (not for those who don't like this idea it can be entirely bypassed in the INI to give you all the skills up front when you reach the required skill level)

All the training dummies, training bales etc. actually work now so you can train your skills by attacking them. Target spells aimed at the dummies also train the relevant school of magic.

You can now stow your shield or off hand weapon on your back when you're not using it. When you sheath or draw your weapon you can choose whether to ready/stow your shield or OH weapon. This allows for greater flexibility of weapon choice (for example fighting with a torch in one hand is feasible without actively unequipping your shield).

If you don't want to stow weapons/shields on your back then there's an option in the INI to simply hide them when you sheath your weapon (note, you do still need to use a two key combo to do this).

UVIII includes a fumbling system. It is possible when making an attack to fluff it, depending on a combination of the difficulty of the attack and your weapon skill. If you do fluff the attack one of various things will happen.

? Drop your primary weapon

? Drop your shield/oh weapon

? Drop both

? Hit yourself

? Trip Over

It's not just you who can fumble, your NPC opponents can as well.

If you like a bit of fighting, the warrior's guild is one of THE places to hang out in Cyrodiil. Essentially and underground (technically underwater but lets not split hairs) fight club, it provides the toughest challenge for serious fans of combat. Magic is banned in the fights, including all magic items, potions, spells (and for some reason booze). This means once you enter a fight you'll have no means to heal yourself and will have to rely on your skills to survive.

The guild is made up of systematically generated characters, of staggeringly different skills, equipment and levels so there's always somebody new about with the exception of ‘the organiser' who is a constant. He it is who organises and runs the book on fights. You may however challenge anybody in the guild to a normal or bare handed fight, though they may not necessarily wish to fight with you for one reason or another. If you choose to fight bare handed you will be disqualified for equipping any weapon or piece or armour.

Fights are not always to the death. They are bouts of two minutes each and you are awarded points both for damage to your opponent and for how entertaining you were to watch. Get enough points and you progress through the ranks of the guild. Lose a few fights and you'll find yourself demoted again. Get to the top of the heap and there's a one off special treat for you. It's a big hefty extremely lethal weapon. It's not for everyone, but it's a huge amount of fun to play with. (here's a hint: you might want to try throwing it).

To find the guild, head for the imperial prison isle, take a left and look for a bar called Wrye's dive teetering on the edge of a cliff and approached by a rickety old bridge. From there, it's up to you.

That warrior's guild is a fully (if not completely wonderfully) voice acted faction.

If you spend a lot of time with a large bounty on your head, there's a fairly good chance you'll eventually be tracked down by some bounty hunters. They'll come looking to bring you in dead or alive - preferably dead. The frequency of these randomly generated encounters can be controlled in the INI file.

Look around you. You may see NPCs holding their weapons differently. Some may be dual wielding, some may be carrying one handed weapons on their backs, or two handed weapons on their belts. Some may even be dual wielding two handed weapons. If any of them are in combat they may well be making use of some of the new UV moves.

Anybody you fight when using UVIII:CM has access to almost the same set of skills as you – including most of the lethal critical hits. They will use many of these moves against you and against each other. Moves are given to AI based on their skill set (and their equipment) so as you meet higher level opponents you'll be facing more sophisticated fighters. They will duck, dodge, block, kick and set about you with a dazzling array of violent behaviour. They will attempt to avoid your ranged attacks, often diving out the way before you even release an arrow, after all who likes having a bent bow pointed at them?

The NPCs have likes and dislikes, if they approve of what you're doing you will see their disposition toward you creeping up.

UVIII:CM was really designed to be played primarily in third person as that's largely how I play, though thanks to the improved first person mode this is no longer as necessary as it was in early versions. However to get the best out of all the wonderful animations you should at least try it. To make third person mode more acceptable the camera has been tweaked to become much less elastic making it easier to play in this mode without becoming seasick.

All the animations now work fine in first person (you will even see your legs when you kick), but some of them might clip a bit. This is a necessary evil. Of course you could go for one of the third person animations in first person mods and remove this issue, but many people (myself included) dislike this.

One useful camera feature is the bow and throw ‘autoswitch' This instantly transfers you into first person mode when you draw a bow and back to third person a short time after you release. It does the same for throwing. This makes archery a lot more feasible for regular third person players.

UVIII:CM is incredibly configurable via an INI file, placed in Data/ini/. If you don't like a feature it can be disabled (mostly). There are virtually no numbers hard coded into the game, instead with all being made available in the INI, meaning you can configure the game to play exactly the way you want to. There are currently around 130 user configurable options so I shan't list them here, however there is a comprehensive description of each in the INI file.

It's also possible to override the setup menus and define keys in the INI so those who wish to use it but often start new games needn't go through the set up process every time.

If you wish to change any of the animations, for whatever reason, then it is a little more complicated than simply swapping the files out. For each animation you change you will need to modify the values in three separate scripts:

? uvLookUpHit - You'll need to fill in the time in the attack where it should connect (you can usually get this out of nifskope if it has a hit point – never make this identical to the stop point – always allow a minimum of 0.1 seconds)

? uvLookUpStop - Fill in the total length of the animation (again nifskope is where to look)

? uvLookUpHeight - Make a judgement about the approximate height of the attack. A good rule of thumb is that most attacks are around 70, but especially high or low ones will need values between 1 and 100.

If you want to change the dodges, then you'll need to edit the following scripts to include the lengths of the dodge animations:

? uvApplyPlayerdodge

? uvDetaermineDodge

Other animations require similar modifications. On the whole its probably easier just to accept these ones, unless you're comfortable rooting around in scripts.

If you wish to change your keys in game, open your inventory and click on the unnecessary violence settings object. The exit the inventory and use the menu that pops up to reset your keys.

UVIII:CM has been designed to be as compatible as possible with as many mods as possible. Because virtually everything is done with scripting, including the dissemination of objects and characters, there is no use of levelled lists. There may of course be some crossover of functionality between this and other mods. If that happens there may be minor conflicts. The known compatibility problems are as follows:

? Not compatible with UVI, UVII:TA or Throw any Weapon

? The area around the imperial prison is used by the warrior's guild. It is thus possible that there may be some compatibility issues around here.

? There MAY be a compatibility issue with dynamic levelled lists (DLL), something to do with the use of con_save. UV saves a lot of data which slows things down a bit. This seems to be a candidate for causing crashes.

? It is recommended that you don't use this at the same time as deadly reflex, but it is possible. You may have to swith off some of UV's features in the INI to prevent duplication. UVIII brings a lot of the features of the now largely abandoned DR, so the need for it should be less.

? If you do want to use it with Deadly Reflex you will have to install the resources of deadly reflex AFTER those of UVII or some DR animations may end up returning to their vanilla versions.

? Similarly, if you wish to use Deadly Reflex you will need to download my compatibility fix which lets DR make use of the latest versions of NifSE ()

? There is an issue with enhance hotkeys and UVII's spell charging. If you wish to use UVII and EH, please disable spell charging in the UVII INI

? Not compatible with The NiceOne's Soulgem Magic

? Probably not compatible with anything that uses a custom skeleton – though the worst you will loose is the amputations.

? UVIII is not compatible with unlimited rings. If you wish to use the mod with the unlimited rings option from wryebash (which may break some features) you MUST load UVIII AFTER the bashed patch.

For the most part any issues (except that of the warrior's guild) can be solved by simply switching off the relevant feature in the INI.

One compatibility question that comes up all the time is Is UV compatible with The answer to this question is, as always, yes. However since many of the popular animation replacers have their moves already used here, you may think carefully about whether it is appropriate to change your combat move animations, considering the fact that this may lead to confusion about what weapons you are using. As an example lets imagine you wish to use a popular dual wield animation replacer. UV already provides a number of dual wield moves (from two of the most popular of these replacers) but these moves ONLY apply when you actually use two weapons. If you swap your right handed attacks for FAKE dual wield attacks (as all animation replacers ultimately are) then you will only see the effects of your main weapon, even though it may look like you're striking with both. Then if you DO strike with both using a UV attack, which may share the same animation, there may be a different effect. I'd generally recommend just swapping in the idles from these animation replacers, but it's up to you. It's your game after all.

It is highly recommended that you make use of The Nice One's awesome HUD Status bars mod. I have provided the necessary INI files in the data/ini folder (copy them out of the optional folder and into the main ini folder to use them). These should replace any that currently come with HSB, because ethe existing ones were built for UVII and UVIII has other features that require tracking. The INI files provided are based on the vanilla layout.

Generally load order for UVIII does not especially matter, but there is one special case: If you wish to use the mod with the unlimited rings option from wryebash you MUST load UVIII AFTER the bashed patch. Generally loading it late is desirable because of script priority.

I expect to see this section expanding after release, but for now:

? The close up throw animations sometimes glitch, but they recover fine.

? The window entry system is distinctly flaky, and has no way to forcibly stop you just pretending a wall is a window...

? Sometimes if you are performing an action such as dance, or climbing in first person then switch to third and stop the action, the next time you switch into first person you may seem to be performing the same action. Just tapping the UV attack key usually fixes this.

? Every so often (and I haven't yet figured out what's causing this but I suspect it's something regular) the vanilla attack key gets locked out. If this happens simply tap the UV attack key and the problem instantly resolves itself, and vice versa for the UV attack key.

? From time to time the throw script seems to just fall on its head and refuse to work anymore. Fortunately saving and reloading is enough to fix it, even if you save AFTER it has broken.

? Some few mod added weapons might not show up when they impale (some of helborne's spears show this trait, so it seems likely others may too). This seems to be a quality of meshes that started off as one (or two) handed and were switched to the other grip. UV handles this for its own modified weapons, but it's not technically feasible to address this for all mod added weapons. It seems to be down to meshes which lack the standard NiStringExtraData nodes. The Spears included in UVIII have been edited to ensure they work correctly.

? Occasionally the amputation animations bug out when you load a save (the actors will keep their amputations from the previous game) There's an option in the UV settings menu to try to fix any bugged amputations. If all else fails, save, quit out and reload the game and everything should go back to normal.

? During horse combat used charges/poisons won't be removed from your weapon till you get off the horse.

? Sometimes your weapon may behave oddly after getting off a horse. Sheathing and unsheathing it should fix this

? Weapons may appear strange in menu mode when switching from first person riding (fixed for inventory). This is purely cosmetic, just rather annoying.

? Since the first person legs and horse combat weapons make use of ring slots, they swap out the magic effects of any rings you might have, so you can maintain the effect. Unfortunately this leads to the shader effects that would play when you put on that magic item. There's not a whole bunch I can do about that. Probably best just to not bother wearing rings that give shield effects etc while on a horse.

Installation with Oblivion Mod Manager:

Installation couldn't be easier. The mod is packaged in OMOD ready format, just open oblivion mod manager, select “create” select “add archive” locate the file you downloaded and click “create omod” The new omod should appear on the right hand panel of the screen. Double click that and Robert will be your mother's brother.

Manual Installation:

Unzip the archive you downloaded and move all the files into your Oblivion/Data folder.

Note: ensure you first disable the mod and check your game is running smoothly before removing the mod completely.

Uninstallation with Oblivion Mod Manager:

Open oblivion mod manager, locate the mod on the right hand panel, double click it. You're done.

Manual Uninstallation:

Delete all the files from the data folder that you added (look in the archive to find what they're all called)

In fact as UVIII:CM is packaged largely as a BSA there are not a huge number of files to go hunting for. Only the skeleton meshes are provided outside the BSA to allow you to overwrite other mod skeletons with this one (which should work with a large variety of mods).

Assuming you've skipped the previous step and not immediately uninstalled the mod after installing it you'll be ready to play it for the first time now.

Have you patched your game to 1.2.0.416

Are you using OBSE20?

Have you installed NifSE1.0 properly (to data/obse/plugins)

Are you starting the game from the OBSE_Loader.exe?

Sure? Right let's continue.

You can start UVIII:CM on a new or existing game. The result will be the same a menu will pop up asking you to choose the keys you want to use for the game (assuming you haven't disabled this and defined them in the INI instead). There are three keys you'll need to choose:

? UV Attack Key

? UV Throw Key

? UV Action Key

Between these three keys and rest of the oblivion controls, you'll be astonished at the variety of things you can do. It's worth pointing out how however that some UV moves require a certain level of manual dexterity so if you are a ham fisted oaf such as myself it will take a little practice to learn to pull them off.

Al lot of the time the same key combinations do different things depending on the context. The principal exponent of this is the UV Action key which when held will make many different actions occur depending what you activate or look at.

So now you've selected your keys. If all has gone according to plan UV will pop up a message telling you that setup is complete.

So it's time to take action. What can you do now? You have access to a very limited set of the UVIII:CM functionality. Most of the moves and skills will require you to pay trainers. For now check the UVIII crib sheet supplied in the readme folder for a complete list of moves, controls, contextual requirements and training info.

Many of these controls are context sensitive. A separate crib sheet in pdf format is provided with the download containing a full listing of the controls, and their requirements, as well as the relevant skill and training requirements. The following listing is more for reference of the possibilities than as a helpful guide since it does not include the context.

Switch weapon to left hand - hold action, left click, - use popup menu

Switch weapon back to right hand - hold action, left click, - use popup menu

Switch to two handed grip - hold action, left click, - use popup menu or in game mode hold block, hold uvaction tap uvattack)

Switch to one handed grip - hold action, left click, - use popup menu or in game mode hold block, hold uvaction tap uvattack)

Rotate Weapon (Right or Left Handed), hold action, left click, - use popup menu

Duplicate a Weapon - hold action, left click, - use popup menu

Left Handed Light Attack / Alt Light Attack - tap uvattack

Left Handed Power Attack / Alt Power Attack -hold uvattack

Left Handed Power Attack Left /Alt Power attack Left - right, hold uvattack

Left Handed Power Attack Right / Alt Power attack Right - left, hold uvattack

Left Handed Power Attack Back / Alt Power attack Back - back, hold uvattack

Left Handed Power Attack Forward / Alt Power attack Forward - forward, hold uvattack

Dual Wield Light Attack / Alt Light Attack 2 - tap uvattack, tap attack

Dual Wield Power Attack / Alt Power Attack 2 - hold uvattack, tap attack

Dual Wield Power Attack Left / Alt Power attack Left 2 - left, hold uvattack, hold attack

Dual Wield Power Attack Right / Alt Power attack Right 2 - right, hold uvattack, hold attack

Dual Wield Power Attack Back / Alt Power attack Back 2 - back, hold uvattack, hold attack

Dual Wield Power Attack Forward / Alt Power attack Forward 2 - forward, hold uvattack, hold attack

Light Kick - hold block, tap uvattack

Power Kick - hold block, hold uvattack – will be a shield bash if you are holding a shield

Power Kick Left - left, hold block, hold uvattack

Power Kick Right - right, hold block, hold uvattack

Power Kick Back - back, hold block, hold uvattack

Power Kick Forward - forward, hold block, hold uvattack

Alternate Light Kick (sweep) - hold block, tap attack, tap uvattack

Alternate Power Kick - hold block, hold uvattack, hold attack

Alternate Power Kick Left - left, hold block, hold uvattack, hold attack

Alternate Power Kick Right - right, hold block, hold uvattack, hold attack

Alternate Power Kick Back - back, hold block, hold uvattack, hold attack

Alternate Power Kick Forward - forward, hold block, hold uvattack, hold attack

Uke Goshi - hold uvattack

Tomoe Nage - left or right, hold uvattack

Neck Snap - forward, hold uvattack

Knock out - tap uvattack

Throat Slit – hold uvattack

Throw Selected Object - hold and release throw

Throw Current Weapon - hold throw, tap attack

Throw current shield / OH weapon - hold throw, tap block

Throw as if it was a spear (usually automatic so a normal throw will do it) - hold throw, hold action, release

Prepare an object to throw (game mode) - hold action, pick up object

Prepare object to throw (inventory mode),tap throw

Zoom in (Eagle Eye) Throw Mode - hold throw, rotate mouse wheel

Zoom in (Eagle Eye) Bow Mode - hold attack, rotate mouse wheel

Create Explosive Potion - hold action, left click, use popup menu

Create Fused Potion - hold action, left click, use popup menu

Create Proximity Trap - hold action, left click, use popup menu

Attach Explosive to Container/Door - hold action, activate, use pop-up menu

Prepare Potion For Use in Lock - hold action, left click, use popup menu

Poison off hand weapon, hold action, left click ,usepopup menu

Duck - Hold block, tap action

Dodge Left - doubletap left

Dodge Right - doubletap right

Dodge Back - doubletap back

Dodge Forward - doubletap forward

Acrobatic Dodge Left - doubletap left

Acrobatic Dodge Right - doubletap right

Acrobatic Dodge Back - doubletap back

Acrobatic Dodge Forward - doubletap forward

Climb - hold action

Enter Window - tap activate

Stow or ready shield or OH weapon on back - hold action, tap ready weapon

Concentration Mode - hold action - tap uvattack

Charge Spell - hold cast

Taunt - forward, tap action

Slap - forward, tap action

Reason - tap action

Persuade merchant to buy stolen goods - hold action, activate merchant

Start/Stop Dance - left, tap action

Start/Stop Juggling - right, tap action

Start/Stop playing lute - back, tap action

Enable controls while playing lute - hold uvattack

Play Lute Note - tap alphanumeric keys

Play Lute Songs - hold sneak, tap 1-7

Bury Corpse - tap action to start and again to stop

Bury Corpse with Tombstone - hold sneak, tap action to start and again to stop

Change Tombstone epitaph, activate, use popup menu

Read Tombstone Epitaph, activate, use popup menu

Remove Tombstone, activate, use popup menu

Dig up grave,tap action to start and again to stop

A lot of people have put in a lot of work over a lot of time to help me with this mod, some directly, some indirectly. I'm doing my best here to remember to credit everybody but it may well be the case that I miss somebody. If you feel you should have a credit in this mod then please just let me know.

? Massive thanks to LogicDragon for the new animations and skeleton, that he actually gave me over a year ago. I can be a slow mover sometimes. When I eventually got started again on UVIII he has helped extensively to get the new animations ready.

? Huge thanks to Whoguru for all the help she gave me - she entirely built and decorated the warrior's guild and wrye's dive, as well as some early alpha testing and general support.

? Huge thanks to Skycaptain. Many of the gore resources come from his work on deadly reflex. Much work has been done to bring UVIII's critical hits more in line with those of DR, so I have deliberately used similar resources to create that unified feel.

? Thanks to OWASephirot, Amsterdam2019, monpoko, OdysseusB, sinkpoint, Skycaptain, KSTN and Frantic for the animations. This mod could not have appeared without you.

? Thanks to DragoonWraith for not just making NifSE, but for a whole host of other things ranging from simple advice to actually writing scripts. You my friend are a legend.

? Thanks to Scruggs, ianpatt and the whole OBSE team for OBSE. You have made the impossible possible, and brightened Cyrodiil for everyone.

? Thanks to shademe for the construction set extender, and a lot of advice.

? Thanks to reaper9111 for the lute mesh/texture/animation

? Thanks to Helborne and Lloth Deboneville for the spear meshes and textures

? Thanks to J3X for the daedric gear hammer meshes

? Thanks to thetalkietoaster and loupsombre for their excellent skeletons and animations

? Thanks to Wintermuteai, Andysaurus, DaMage and Phitt for various meshes and textures.

? Thanks to LSurvivor (www.marios-aristopoulos.com) for providing the lute notes.

? Thanks to Ronyn, Shadow_Dragyn and Defender1 for the blood textures

? Thanks to Guidobot for his original throwing stars mod. Without poring over his scripts, I'd have really struggled to make the throwing feature.

? Thanks to Skycaptain for his advice, both direct and indirect, on many diverse things, as well as some resources.

? Thanks to everyone at the TES CS Wiki, in particular DragoonWraith again.

? Thanks to Bethesda for creating Oblivion.

? Thanks to TESNexus.com for the one-stop-shop resource for authors and players.

? Thanks to everyone at the Beth forums, who has made comments and suggestions while this mod has been in WIP form.

? Thanks to everyone who's downloaded, played rated or voted for this mod.

? Thanks to Jennifer for being a most extraordinarily understanding girlfriend and putting up with my strange obsession with building this monster, and of course for a little voice acting.

? Blender

? NIFSkope

? NifSE

? GIMP

? Construction Set Extender

? Oblivion Mod Manager

? Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE)

? TES Construction Set

? Texture Replacer

? Readme Generator

? Wrye Bash

? Tes4Files

? Sublime

? TES4Edit

You can contact me by PM on the Official Bethesda forums or the TES Nexus forums as HeX_0ff. Direct support will ONLY be provided on the official forums.

Or for bug reports NOT covered here:

unnecessaryviolence@googlemail.com

You must contact me and obtain my permission before re-packaging any part of this mod. The animations, meshes and textures used in UVIII:CM are often the product of other authors and their permission must be obtained separately if you wish to use them. The scripts are my own work. Please do not use them without my permission.

V3.0:

? ground up rewrite of critical hit system

? 29 heavily context dependent critical hits including:

? -decaps

? -smashed skulls

? -chopping in half

? -limb amputations

? -impaling

? -gutting

? -throat slitting

? -exploding (special cases only)

? -magic criticals (flame, frost (shatter), shock, drain/absorb life) - triggered by spells enchantments thrown weapons etc.

? thrown torches can trigger flame critical

? ranged weapon criticals

? huge sprays on critical hits (including amputations)

? smashed skull leaves brains/bloody pieces etc, which are all ingredients

? chopping in half or gutting leaves guts ingredients lying around (configurable in the INI)

? fixed runaway on arm amputation script

? new configurable kill camera

? 6 all new spear animations

? changed hand to hand animations when weapon is sheathed

? vanilla style first person

? much better garbage collection - fixed a serious bug that was causing save game bloat

? now using two-step disable/delete chain process

? numerous minor bug fixes

? knocked off helmets appear in correct locations

? added snore sound effect to sleeping NPCs

? critical hit chance varies based on a function of aggressor and target's health and fatigue

? retextured juggling balls

? added icon to juggling balls

? restored on the fly grip shifting -since two handers have a wider range of critical effects

? npcs can now perform all the critical hits on each other and on the player

? axe impales have a sensible angle

? new throatslit sneak attack instakill animation (power attack close behind when sneaking)

? separate INI settings for player and NPC crit rates (not magic)

? fixed bug with ensured throw kills

? added graceful exit for throws which error

? made the player extremely lethal in god-spell mode

? restored spearthrow mode

? slightly increased throw hit tolerance (significantly for spears)

? got a nice exploding effect

? added hammer of the gods - special scripted weapon with explosive effect

? exploding potions will now spectacularly kill the nearest character if there's enough force

? fixed bug where NPCs grip shifting could cause messages claiming they aren't strong enough etc.

? smart cloneform behaviour for emitters and impales to reduce save game bloat (same as explosive potions)

? amputations should reverse after loading a save - added menu item to do so if this fails

? removed ability to activate objects from a distance while drawing bows. Still see the activate cursor, but it's inactive

? fixed bug where by switching to a bow while having a shield stowed on your back you could lose your shield

? fixed issue where you can get disqualified in the warrior's guild for using racial abilities

? added hitshader to the killcam for more obvious effect

? massively improved hit detection in the throw script

? created hudstatusbars INIs specifically for UV

? added fence around warrior's guild ring to prevent "joining in"

? fixed positioning of warrior's guild tunnel

? fixed error with warrior's guild name generator

? fixed positioning of warrior' guild elevator

? added momentum system for determining critical hit chances

? Added horse combat, w/enchantments, poison, criticals etc - requires no special presses when getting onto the horse

? Added horse casting

? added 11 spears to the game, distributed randomly (by script) to guards and merchants

? Black iron spears cost more and ignore weapon resistance

? vastly improved dissemination scripts for giving uv kit to merchants - hid it away in chests as it should be

? added shield bashing back in - replacing standing power kick if you're using a shield

? sneak attacking while in midair should enforce a critical hit (usually a kill)

? made explosives even more lethal

? fixed issue with crits on player when in god mode

V2.2:

? Replaced skeleton with better version - should be much more compatible with univeral skeleton etc. removed some neck stuff to circumvent the wobbly head issue.

? Replaced all animations with ones better positioned for first person mode Fixed some animation priorities

? Fixed issue with sneak attacks breaking the damage engine (faulty script that resulted in no damage ever again if you missed with a sneak attack

V2.1.0:

? Fixed amputation head position for better realism

? check for dodges far less often so appearance of distant objects is reduced

? removed pre-cached name array - will slow down name generation but saves on saved game space

? fixed too many items being removed from the ring - only items actually in the ring now cleaned up

? cleaned up weapon arrays after generating equipment for WG members

? removed logging every new creature type (aids stability with mod removal as well as saves space)

? removed pre-cached set of grave creatures

? removed pre-cached set of creature spirits. Now builds up slowly over time the more gems you throw

? added INI setting to control the number of basic creatures to use for gem release before reducing the increase rate to 10%

? removed pointless duplicate array of known creatures

? set a limit on charging spells dictated by the player's intelligence

? ensured amputation is possible with an axe

? fixed error where creatures could be beheaded (would cause duplication of creature rather than beheading)

? removed equip noise when entering inventory (made by scabbard nuller script)

? put an (INI determined) limit on the number of potions that can be randomly generated by the merchant dissemination script. This should reduce save game bloat

? should now work with the wryebash infinite rings IF it is loaded after the bashed patch

? added an INI option to disable recoil on UV attacks (note recoil is still intact for normal attacks) to bring the mod in line with duke patrick's combat mods

? added an INI option to allow players to have the camera switch to third person for UV attacks, removing the need for the first person camera for those who cannot take the bobbing head or different camera position

? fixed throwing off hand weapons so scabbard no longer exists.

? fixed hide off-hand weapon/shield as an alternative to weapon/shield on back

? fixed error where icon would not show up correctly for an off hand weapon

? fixed error the icon would not show up properly for a weapon or shield moved to the back

? significantly improved the location of shields on back

? fixed an issue with opponents not dropping their weapons properly when they die and leving them hanging in midair

? moved INI file to Data\ini\ folder to come in line with most other mods

? cleaned up every instance of strings that were not being destroyed, and thus left in the saved game

? automatically set fneardistance to 0 when in gamemode, and back to 10 in menumode. Does not persist, so shouldn't break the DARN menus, and is an option in the INI (not absolutely sure this is working)

? greatly improved collision detection for throws

? greatly improved hit location detection all round

? fixed potential break in throw script (added a getout clause with a delay specified in the INI)

? added a fairly nasty neck snap sound to the neck snap kill move

? added impale critical hit that leaves the weapon stuck in the opponent

? added impaling with throws leaving weapons stuck in opponent

? added INI choices to determine regularity of instakill throws

? increased range of recognised axes

? increased range of recognised spears

? fixed broken duck animation

? fixed issue with animations refusing to play in first person

? added new throwing knives disseminated around weapon sellers

? added remove script spell

? removed distantLOD and FPAnimations from BSA

v2.0.3 - Fixed an issue that could allow captain Renault to lay into the player at the beginning of the game

v2.0.2 - Fixes A very serious bug where creatures were having their skeletons swapped in for the human amputation skeleton and subsequently disappearing.

V2.0.1 - Fixes a minor bug where marksman was being spuriously trained when using vanilla melee attacks on training dummies

Stop talking, I've now read more than 6000 words and I wanna hit something.