[WIPz] Crosp's Crispy Stealth : Blade Assassin

[Crospone]

There was a skill that have been lost between Morrowind and Oblivion : Short Blade.

It was a good choice of melee skill for thieves and assassins, as it was speed-governed.

I like Assassins, melee assassins especially, I think the db faction is terrific and I'm a fan of dagger-style killers.

So, one of the things that annoyed me in this game when I created my first stealther char is that there's no point using daggers for sneak attacks.

The other problem is that when you're playing assassin-style, you would use an attack & hide mod, sneak attack, poison, bow, but you're not very tough, and will avoid melee most of the time. The consequence is that your blade skill will grow very slowly compared with other skills like sneak or bow, and so your strength will.

My goal with this mod is to give thieves and assassins a nice set of combat moves using daggers which doesn't rely on strength and blade so much, as well as giving more tactical approach to blade assassination.

Obviousy I wasn't the only one having noticed that : Jog's Stealth Overhaul increase the sneak attack multiplier depending on weapon range and speed.

JoG is a good mod and I used it for a while but it made the game too easy for me (even an OOO game), and I was just expecting something new.

So here's the main points of the mod :

* Diverse sneak attack : Give the choice between several sneak attacks : enhanced damage, damage over time, stun, kill, etc. Some of the Sneak Attacks only allowed using daggers.

* Attack damage relying on Agility and Strength, rather than Strength only.

* A simple combo melee system, for dagger user (I have some ideas, but still thinking about this one).

* Several skills ignore armor.

* Some pure sneaking tweaks (I don't think It should be interferring with other mods like attack & hide, proximity based sneak penalties, etc..).

For now I'm still working on paper, so it's at a very early stage. But I wanted to write this post to grab some opinion and idea eventually before I start coding.

Let me know what you think, as I'm not a very experienced modder.

Peace.

[HeyYou]

Good idea. JOG's hasn't been updated in quite some time, nor do I expect it ever will be. Not sure if he is even still active. Might have to check on that.

I could see having sneak attacks ignore armor at some set skill level, maybe modified by speed/agility?

Maybe even integrating some of the concepts of the other stealth mods? Weapon length affecting sneak? etc? Not sure how that would go over with some of the other authors though, maybe PM them, and discuss it with them?

Some of the stealth mods I use:

JOG's Stealth Overhaul.

Attack and Hide.

Proximity Sneak Penalities.

Duke Patricks Near miss alerts the targets, and Fresh bodies alert NPC's.

[Vereta]

I've been looking for something of a Stealth Overhaul for some time now actually. I would love to see what HeyYou is suggesting, that is, the integration of the mods he has pointed out.

[Crospone]

Hi,

Here's a more detailed content list of what would be in this mod.

About integration of other stealth enhancement mods... Well let's say the least I can do is to guarantee compatibility with other sneak mods, as far as it's possible. I won't merge my mod with another if their mechanics are distincts and compatible. For example I don't see the point right now to recreate or integrate an attack & hide mod, as it does well its job. However,I think my mod won't work with JoG's, as their purpose are the same, and their mechanisms will interfere.

If there's a real need to integrate other mods, I'd be happy to discusss with other modders, but don't I think it will happen until this one is released...

As I said one part of this mod is about daggers, and the other about small sneak tweaks.

Sneak Tweaks :

Those tweaks can be compared to (and are inspired from) JoG's ones. I call it "small" tweaks because it will just be simple sneak penalties based on what kind of items you've equipped or what you're doing.

For example :

You will always suffer a sneak penalty depending on the weight of the equipment you're wearing.

More sneak penalties apply if, for example, you're running with your weapon unsheathed.

Wearing heavy armor will prevent you from moving in sneak mode, same for 2h-weapons, running in light armor will increase penalty, etc...

Of course, I will make short range/light weight weapons the less penalizing choice.

Some situations will even prevent you from sneaking : being invisible or too close to an opponnent in combat, for example.

Daggers

To make short blade more interresting, I will add 8 combat moves (for now) : 4 sneak attacks and 4 combo attacks.

By "combat move" I mean an attack, triggered by pressing a mod-specific action key, causing damage and eventually another effect on the target, and potentially triggering a nice animation (with a lot of blood and guts, of course).

All Sneak Attacks can be obtained at a sneak level of apprentice and journeyman, but their proficiency increases with your sneak level (amongst other criteria such as agility, speed, strength and weapon skill). They are very deadly, and cost a lot of fatigue.

* Backstab : You stab your target in the back violently, causing high damage and knocking it down. You hit an unprotected part of its body, ignoring a part of its armor.

* Deep Wound : You hit a vital point, causing a bleeding that slowly drain your target life. Ingores your opponent's armor.

* Neckstab : A quick hit in the neck, trying to damage the vertebras. Should nearly kill your opponent (very high damage). Armor is considered.

* Trepanation : (target doesn't wear an helmet). You hit the skull, causing calculated brain damage. Your target is knocked down. When he wakes up, its behaviour may be erratic : it can flee, attack its allies, attack you afterall, or just do nothing. You have chance this will not be considered as an attack (no sneak penalties for attacking).

Combo attacks : This is a sequence of moves that must be performed in a short time interval to succeed. After successfully performing your first attack, you have n seconds to perform the 2nd move, n seconds to perform the 3rd, n seconds to perform the 4rth (periods are not fixed yet). You can see these timers by a scripted spell buff. Those moves have a high fatigue cost and can be performed on only one target at a time.

* 1 - Notch Wrist : Makes your target bleed for a long time. Ignores armor.

* 2 - Second Notch : Double damage caused by notch wrist for the remaining time.

* 3 - Feint : You feint and hit, causing medium damage to your opponnent. If you have poison on you blade, the effect will be critical.

* 4 - Finish off : If the health of your opponent is below 25%, you will kill him.

In addition to this, all these (sneak and combo) moves can be critical, causing diverse additional effects (still thinking about it... someting funny and bloody).

That's it for now. I don't think there's something impossible to script here.

I think I'll start coding in a couple of days.

Peace.

PS : My english may be weird sometimes, I apologize. You may have noticed this is not my mother tongue...