[Mod-announce] Duke Patrick's SCA style combat NO RECOIL Silver Edition 5p1.esp for Oblivion has been listed on elricm.com

[Elric Melnibone and the Elder Scrolls Web Portal]

The download: 'Duke Patrick's SCA style combat NO
RECOIL Silver Edition 5p1.esp'
in category Oblivion
by Duke Patrick AKA Spookyfx.com has been listed
on elricm.com.

The page link for this individual mod/file is: 

http://www.elricm.com/mods.php?mod=4141 

Mod Descripton: 

The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion:

==================
Duke Patrick's SCA style combat NO RECOIL Silver
Edition (version 5)
==================

By Jerry Chavez AKA Duke Patrick

Prologue
0. Release History 
2. Description
3. Requirements
4. Installing the plug-in
5. Playing the plug-in
6. Save games
7. Conflicts/Known Errors
8. Credits
9. Contact and Information
10. Legal Stuff/Disclaimer
11. Duke Patrick’s crash course in SCA style
Oblivion sword and shield combat!


===============
Prologue
===============

Greetings
My name is Jerry Chavez.I am also known as Duke
Patrick Devlin of Darkwrath Keep in the Society
for Creative Anachronism.

Starting in high school almost 30 years ago I
joined a club were we strapped on an actual metal
suit of 60-pound armor and proceeded to trick or
maneuver our blunted “swords” past our opponents
shield to “land a blow”.

Unfortunately I hurt my back some years ago and
could not fight at a completive level anymore. I
was once one of the highest-ranking fighters in
our club, but now I can only teach. This has
forced me to find other diversions and pursue
other avenues of the art such as writing a book
about the advanced techniques in SCA combat.

You will find many spelling mistakes in this text.
I have dyslexia, but in spite of this I still have
written several books and published magazine
articles on subjects I am passionate about. Thank
God for copy checkers! One of my books was even
published by a professional publishing company. 
Another book on the subject of sword fighting (I
have been self publishing and selling for years on
the internet) has been accepted by the Chivalry
Bookshelf, a professional publishing company for
such titles.

I have looked around for years for sword and
shield fighting games that would bring back the
glory "of the old days" for a few hours of
diversion. Speed and reflex (button bashing) was
the most important attribute in these games. In
real "heavy weapons" fighting great timing and
good "geometry" is what separates the winners from
the people that fall to the ground.

The only games I really thought came close to the
feel of "real sword fighting" was Die by the Sword
and Blade of Darkness. Only because these two
games handled the sword fighting more like a sword
fighting "simulator" than most other games. It is
unfortunate that they still did not really get it
right. In part this problem with the existing
medieval sword and shield fighting games is
because most of the the creators of these games
used the Asian martial arts as their template,
resulting in unrealistic game mechanics for a
medieval European armored Knight. These companies
would focus on overly complicated combo attacks
and a plethora of different sword swings. 

One of the secrets I discovered in my experience
as a sword fighter was that anyone of any skill
level can be killed with a simple “flat snap” if
you can live long enough for that event to happen!
Put another way, in the course of a sword fight
someone is eventually going to make a fatal
defensive mistake. The one that makes it first is
the one that dies. Contrary to what a lot of
people think, shield-work is far more important
than the swordplay.

For the most part I have been very disappointed in
the existing PC sword and shield fighting game
mechanics. These games would include dozens of
“canned” sword swings but only ONE move to block
with the shield. Many game companies did not even
give you a shield at all! The game Fable for
example (a fun game for what it was) had shields
laying around in the game for display but you were
never able to use them.

:~(


In the winter I have about 2 weeks off from my
Special Effects and Animatronics company.

I just spent those 2 weeks (every waking hour)
first playing Oblivion, and then learning
everything I could in the short time I had with
many many hours of trial and error.

I tried to get help on the forums, but no one
answered my email for the 2 weeks. I realize this
is because many people are on vacation for the
Christmas holidays, so I am in no way accusing the
fine people on these forums of being unhelpful.

In fact, after I was mostly done with the work on
my MOD and the holidays were over I did get many
responses on the forums.

I just wanted you to understand that what I was
able to do in my MOD I did 98 percent on my own.
So there is a lot of sloppy code in my work if you
go looking for it. In the end however it works
well enough to accomplish my original goal.

As in real sword fighting my ideal game would not
just be a flow chart of canned moves where you do
this and this will happen depending on what “move”
your opponent picks such as in the game Rock,
Paper and Scissors. In a real fight “shit
happens”! The better fighter can adapt and
“customize” their moves to the unexpected that
pops up in the course of the fight. My perfect
sword fighting game would allow the player to
easily MOD their own basic combat moves and
animations. 

Creating them somewhat in a similar way Magic
users create their own spells in Oblivion. The
programming  technology to do this kind of thing
has been around for over a decade. The creators of
Die by the sword were on the right track, but they
failed to make their game mechanics user friendly
enough so their cutting edge concept did not gain
support by critics and the end users at the time. 

Some of my ideas do include character “stats” as
in Oblivion, a certain amount of “uncertainty in
successes” but the creativity to swing the sword
this way or that way would come from the player. 

Then the computer would use physics based
calculations to determine how hard the moves hit
and how long the moves require to complete. As
such the animations would be longer (more realist)
durations to allow players to catch visual clues
from their opponents. Thus making timing more
important than speed. It would be up to the player
to customize and refine their moves or learn them
from NPC in the game or even from other characters
in multi player online games. 

I have other NUMEROUS untried and original ideas
for sword and shield PC game mechanics. I am just
not a programmer. My skills are in prop making and
hardware not software. The game Oblivion was a
Godsend; it has finally allowed me to try a few of
my ideas.

This mod was originally only intended as an
experiment. I wanted to do something that has
never been done before. I wanted a fighting game
that was a blend of the Combat Geometry and fast
twitch found in FPS and the stat based  creative
strategy with it’s “it may or may not happen dice
roll” found in FRP into one game. I did not intend
to release my MOD to the public because it totally
changes the way vanilla Oblivion works and I did
not think people that like FRP Oblivion would
accept that much change in the game mechanics.
However I am eager to get feedback on the concepts
I have introduced in this MOD. And I felt that
there might be a few people out there that would
actually enjoy my game mechanics. 

My Mod will make the Oblivion harder to play only
because it will require you to fight with much
more realistic tactics than you may be use to in
these types of games. I wish I could have included
more of my ideas but there was only so much I can
do in 2 weeks. I was able to do enough to
demonstrate that the concepts I would like to see
in such games would indeed “mechanically” work.
Hopefully you will think the mechanics are fun to
play as well, even if they seem at first to be
impossibly difficult. 

I have taken a NEW character up to level 27 and
completed the main quests with my mod. So I know
it is not actually impossible to do. The Mod was
designed to be played at MEDIUM level on the
sliding difficulty adjustment in the game. If you
are already in the SCA you may want to try your
own skills in the game. If not, than try it
anyway, if it seems too hard then go to the bottom
of this READ ME FILE to my “crash course” in SCA
style Oblivion sword fighting. But do try the game
first on our own, because part of the fun is
discovering the  “tricks” on your own. If I had
more time the “crash course” I give you would not
have been in this readme file. Instead it would
have been incorporated into the game as a Quest to
learn the secrets one by one. Maybe in the future
I may do this anyway. 


Respectfully
Jerry Chavez also known as Duke Patrick Devlin of
Darkwrath Keep
(wow was I shocked to find my SCA name in the
game.)
Duke and Knight in the SCA
Published Author (Haunted House Halloween Handbook
- McFarland publications)
Tromp Loiel (self published)
Project Manager for SpookyFX.com (Scareware
Manufacturing and Halloween special effects)
Movie credits: Valley of Fear (Special Props)
First Time Game Moder  

:~) Thanks for reading all that.


===============
0. Release History 
===============


I should not be updating this MOD, I am suppose to
be working. If I do not uninstall this game off my
computer I may end up losing my customers...

:~[


Feb./28/2007 fixed problem with NPC not chasing
player through doors and sound problem.
Heartbeat and out of breath sound now work. Add
more info to the swordfighting crash course.


March/4/2007 fixed a few more of the missing flies
on some of the Zombies. Turns out that there are
several versions of these 
Creatures in the game and some of the zombies are
"hidden" in the CS. This little problem with the
flies bugs the heck out of me (excuse the pun).
PLUS SEVERAL MORE AND MUCH BETTER ANIMATIONS for
the player’s POWER ATTACKS! You will see them at
about level 8 to 15. Then they may be switched out
by Oblivion for the "high” skill level power
attack animations. I may change that in the future
if people agree that these are better than the
"high" level ones. And I think I fixed the problem
with one of my sounds playing for no reason. I did
a little clean up of some of my sloppy code as
well. It is still not perfect. And more info in my
Sword fighting crash course. NEW screen shots now
included in the zip for those that like to see
them...I know I do.


March/11/2007
Fixed a BIG mistake in the animations for two
handed power attacks. Wow was that a big mistake.
It made the player float around in the air in a
very bizarre manner! All The shield health stats
have been boosted so that your shield will not
break after only 3 shoots as a beginning character
at low block levels. This problem is moot at high
levels because a combat perk you get prevents
damage to your shield. But as a beginning
character it was very annoying to have to carry a
dozen shields just for one fight. WRAP SHOTS are
now in the game. This is a shot where you stand
very close and swing your weapon to “wrap” around
your opponent’s shield. Some of the power attacks
thrown at close range will be wrap shots now. This
is a visual benefit only and has no effect on the
game mechanics.

New (and more realistic) "power attack move back"
animations. Adjusted settings to make blocking
with weapons MUCH less difficult at low block
skill levels so that it is not so easy and boring
to kill gangs of NPC. At low and beginner skill
levels blocking with a weapon (no shield) was just
too hard and really twisted up the game balance
because the NPC do not understand that they should
prefer shields over weapons to block with. Someday
I may be able to change this in the AI. Adjusted
all melee weapons normal damage to be a little
lower so that the difficult power attacks are now
worth the effort.
Boosted the power attack damage a little as well.


March/19/2007
This Version will not produce quantities of
enemies instead of quality of enemies. Previous
editions threw lesser enemies at the player rather
than throwing higher-level enemies at the player.
Some people did not like this feature. So this
Silver edition was released without it. If you
still like that feature (as I do) you can use
AdrenalineOblivion-SpawnElement by CuteUnit. The
back power attack has been changed as well. The
previous one was nice but had an unacceptable
delay at the end of the swing that looked
ridiculous in play. This Silver Edition will give
you some really great one on one Combat especially
at higher skill levels.


This is the first Mod I have ever made. I did a
tiny bit of WAD authoring in the days of DOOM.
And the only other programming I have ever done
was a very simple color basic language 4k game 30
years ago on a TRS80 PC.  That modest work in
color basic was the only way I was able to
decipher the script language used in Oblivion
today.


===============
1. DESCRIPTION
===============

It changes the combat to feel more like SCA
combat. (a worldwide full contact medieval
fighting sports club).

Please see my Web page:
http://www.spookyfx.com/book/tromp.html


To accomplish this, my mod includes:

-NO MORE BLOCK RECOIL! Yes you are reading that
right, I finally found a way to get rid of it!
-Staggering from “hits” occurs more often, but
“paralyze” will almost never happen!
-Tweaked Enemy AI to watch for the player’s
“tells”, but this also means you can “trick” them!
-You can now use a few actual “real life” sword
and shield “tricks” to land your shots!
-Outrageously dangerous Bows and Melee weapons.
Only a few hits will kill!
-Shields are your best friend. If you keep them in
the way of a normal attack you get to live.
-At lower skill levels, weapons are far more
difficult to parry with than when you use a
shield.
-AI settings have been massively tweaked to attack
more deviously, dynamically and ruthlessly at
higher player levels.
-AI settings have been massively tweaked to block
more cautiously, relentlessly and effectively at
all player levels.
-Swords RULE! But magic has also been ramped up a
lot to strive for a little “balance” in the game.
-Draining your fatigue completely with “button
bashing” will result in blurred vision!
-Defensive geometry and great timing is now more
important than great speed and reflexes.
-The angle of attack is a little tighter, so
Offensive Geometry is more important to land a
shot.
-Footwork is now very important for blocks and
hits. Which direction you face must be precise!
-Movement is very important to land blows and to
survive. Stop moving and you die!  
-Fighting Giants is now a very scary venture,
sometimes the only way to live is to run away!
-Bottle necking overwhelming numbers (such as in
doorways) and other such tricks MUST be done or
you will die!
-Range is now very important, weapons can miss you
more often if you keep moving.
-Weapon speed (timing) vrs damage is now the
second most important tactical consideration.
-Heavy one-handed weapons take an eternity to hit,
but they hit HARD!
-Power attacks now require EXPERT timing to land
but they do DEVASTATING damage!
-A few revamped ANIMATIONS for some of the power
attacks just for fun!
-WRAPS This is a shot where you stand very close
and swing your weapon to “wrap” around your
opponent’s shield.

===============
2. Requirements
===============

This is a stand-alone mod. However I suggest you
play it with these other mods:

Duke Patrick's more & better loot
Oblivion Combat is VERY dangerous now; you deserve
more reward if you survive!

Duke Patrick's Zombie-Flied
Changes the Zombies visually to include a swarm of
flies around them.
I also changed the green shader that was on top of
the the zombie so that you will see more of the
original artwork.
You now can see more of the disgusting guts, bones
and ripped flesh as this horrifying creature
attacks!
Zombie-Flied also includes new “buzzing” sound
effects for those nasty little insects! 


And please give this one a try as well:

Duke Patrick’s Magic you can believe in (BETA)
Less “cartoon” and more organic and magical
shaders for more immerse play.  WORK IN PROGRESS!


========================
3. INSTALLING THE PLUGIN
========================


BACK UPS THESE FOLDERS IF YOU WANT TO UNINSTALL MY
MODs LATER!

(for Zombie-Flied)
\Oblivion\Data\sound\fx\npc\zombie 


(Duke Patrick's SCA style combat NO RECOIL)
\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\goblin

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\minotaur

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\skeleton

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\wraith

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\xivilai

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\characters\_male



Now extract the mesh, textures and sound files
from my zip to the proper folders in your Oblivion
Data directory.

For example the Skeleton mesh file
“onehandrecoil.kf” should end up being in:

\Oblivion\Data\meshes\creatures\skeleton\onehandrecoil.kf

If you are updating, just replace (answer yes to
override) all the individual files with the ones
you find in my updated zip files. I would not
suggest overriding your entire folder in case you
have other things in there for other mods. Just
the files you find in my zip file. As of this
version most of the files have changed a little so
replace all the files please. There are not that
many so do not be lazy ok?

:~)

To get the textures and other files to work you
must have an archiveinvalidation.txt file in your
oblivion\data directory. This is easy to do with
the Oblivion Mod Manager by Timeslip. Visit his
site at http://timeslip.chorrol.com to get a free
copy of his program.


=====================
4. PLAYING THE PLUGIN
=====================

You must know how to load my MODS last!
If you do not know this process than you need to
get and use the Oblivion Mod Manager by Timeslip.
Visit his site at http://timeslip.chorrol.com to
get a free copy of his program.


Playing a new character will be the most rewarding
over time. But you will not see a lot of my
changes until your level is higher, about level 9
to 15 for the first set of "perks" and then 16 to
30 for the rest.

Also your block, blade and other combat skills
will need to be about 60 or higher to see all the
perks in full force.



===============
5. SAVE GAMES
===============

To see my changes right away you can play an
existing character!

All melee and bow weapons, old, new and
custom-made ones from other mods get a big power
boost with my mod. But your old weapons may only
do about 90 to 80 percent of what I intend for
them to do because of the weapon damage stats that
are buried in your save game info. 


If you are too in love with your existing weapons
(I know I was when I made the changes after my
first game) you can still use your equipment, but
the damage will just be at a very slight
disadvantage compared to the standard Oblivion
weapons that will be available after my mod is
installed. It is not that big a deal....
really...remember the old saying "it is a poor
craftsman that blames his tools".


============================
6. CONFLICTS / KNOWN ERRORS
============================


This MOD makes extensive changes to the games
settings, NPC and creatures stats, some scripts,
combat styles, spells and MUCH MORE! It will
probably conflict with other mods that change game
mechanics. In order for you to experience this MOD
as it is intended, you must load my MODS last!

If you use this with a previously saved game,
Oblivion may tell you that your save relies on
unavailable content.  This is a generic Bethesda
message, and can be ignored.  You will only see
this when you change mods.

There are going to be some game balance problems
as I only had a few days to play test different
types of characters. But I did make an effort to
give the Magic users a lot more powerful
destruction spells and very powerful shield
spells.

You may notice that “Reflect Damage” spells and
Enchantments have been cut way down to ONE
PERCENT. If I could have deleted it from the game
altogether I would have. The Reflect Damage spell
formulas in the game bypass all armor and parries.
Both you and your opponent’s armor is ignored when
the spell handles damage. For example your
opponent may throw a blow at you with his sword,
you parry it, he throws another and it hits you
but your armor subtracts 50 percent of the damage.
However both times FULL damage (only modified by
the percentage that your reflect magic is set at)
is applied to the opponent who hit you. And his
armor is not subtracted from the damage either.
This means that you could get in a fight with only
a shield and no weapons,  just hold your shield up
and eventually your opponent would kill himself
with reflected damaged....yuk!


There is a known bug with the ghosts and Wraths
animations sometimes getting stuck when they die.
If anyone can tell me how I FUBAR on the Wraths
please do. I have heard that sometimes the
Oblivion animations get stuck like that, so maybe
in is not my MOD doing it.



This is an Email I got from stefbuik on the
gammingsource.net forums It may help some people
with graphics problems:


Well, looks like the high quality shader .2 is
shut down in the Oblivion.ini(found in"My
documents and settings-->Monica21My games-->
Oblivion") if You see black squares around the
places where flies should be , It`s most
definately the high quality shader concking out.

Your magic shader(brilliant idea!!!, looks
awesome) 

did the same strange block generating on my
7600GT, although it worked partially and generated
small blocks with illegible patterns in it..that`s
how I discovered it.

Best advise I can give is to download the Oblivion
ini-tweaker
(3781-5.0.280-TweakOblivion-TESSource.exe)
Some careful testing and tweaking within that
genius-bit of programming , fixed a lot of issues
for me.

I most certainly see those flies.The buzzing
zombie flies really makes one`s skin crawl, that`s
for sure.




================================
7. CREDITS 
================================

Thanks to Bethedsda for giving us this truly great
game and the TES Construction Set

There is no way I could have produced this work
without standing on the shoulders of the following
giants. I profusely thank them for their work.
Analyzing their MODs was essential to teach myself
how to make my own changes in the game mechanics
for Oblivion.

ChaseCameraMod v1.01 By Woodman
Combat Behavior Modification by Lyrondor
1016-Short Grass V2-TESSource
AdrenalineOblivion-SpawnElement by CuteUnit
NPC Leveled Equipment by Jarol

And special thanks to Timeslip for his Oblivion
Mod Manager.


==========================
8. CONTACT AND INFORMATION
==========================

SpookyFX at aol.com

=========================
9. LEGAL STUFF/ DISCLAIMER
=========================

Enjoy this Mod and learn from it if I have done
anything worth studying.
Please just give me a little credit!

However the treatment below "Duke Patrick’s crash
course in SCA style Oblivion sword and shield
combat"
is copyrighted material and cannot be legally or
ethically “borrowed” in any way.


=================
10. Duke Patrick’s crash course in SCA style
Oblivion sword and shield combat!
=================


Advanced techniques in SCA style Oblivion combat
Written By Jerry Chavez AKA Duke Sir Patrick
Devilin Of DarkWrath Keep

Original COPYRIGHT JERRY R. CHAVEZ © 2007 

The combat may be a little difficult at first as
it is very different from the original system.
Damage is massive for magic and combat. 

NO MORE BLOCK RECOIL! However this will not mean
you can just swing your weapons like a madman! If
you do you will start to get out of breath, if you
continue your vision will get blurred. This will
make it very difficult to fight. If this happens
keep your shield up, and keep backing up to
prevent your opponents from circling around to
your back. If you can, run to safety to catch your
breath and then charge back again to finish the
fight.

Get a shield as soon as possible! At lower levels,
weapons are more difficult to parry with than when
you use a shield.
KEEP YOUR SHIELD UP! At low block skill levels
this will not seem to make a big difference. But
beware using a weapon to block with is very
difficult at low block levels and will never be
easier to do than with a SHIELD at high block
levels. 

When you only have a one handed weapon and no
shield, use range in-between your shots. Step in
to shoot then immediately dodge out of range
rather than block with the weapon! Repeat until
your opponent is dead! If they start to stagger
then you can stay in close and throw a few more. I
USED THIS TACTIC IN MY REAL LIFE TOURNAMENTS! It
works in Oblivion as well. 

If your opponent holds their weapon out in front
of them instead of using the same tactic; do not
be suspired if you blow through their weapon. This
is not fencing; these heavy melee weapons have
serious momentum behind them! It takes a Hell of a
lot of skill to properly deflect this momentum at
the center of gravity on a sword rather than just
impead it with a static block anywhere on the
blade.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My book on sword fighting in the SCA has numerous
chapters (over 100 pages) on weapons physics. 


I will try to stick to the concepts of physics and
not the precise units and math. It is very
difficult to get some engineers and scientists to
explain physics this way. However I dislike trying
to use exact “units” as they can easily confuse a
basically simple concept for some people. When you
can find a way to eliminate the literal units and
still be approximately correct it can be much
easer to grasp the fundamental concept. Once this
is done, then latter you can try to become more
precise with the formulas.
	
Some people see the world in numbers, some in
shapes. Some see the world a little both ways. It
is possible to have complete comprehension using
only formulas. But you will have great difficulty
communicating to the other 2/3 of the world if
that is your way. As Einstein once said  "You do
not really understand something unless you can
explain it to your grandmother." 


The following is a VERY BRIEF and VERY SIMPLIFIED
treatment on weapons physics. This is just to give
you a very general idea of how weapon Length,
Speed and Damage all balance out in the melee
weapons. 


Kinetic Energy is the important realm of physics
when talking about Weapons with very high-speed
movement such as arrows and bullets. However with
slower moving heavy weapons; mass and velocity are
basically of equal importance in determining the
physical effects on the target and how the weapon
“handles” while getting to the target.


Momentum = Mass x Velocity

Momentum is the property of a moving object to
continue moving. It is the combination of mass and
movement. A slow moving, very massive body and a
rapid moving, light body can have the same
momentum. Like energy momentum is neither created
nor destroyed. It is only transported and/or
transformed from one place to another or one state
to another.  

If your 1 pound dagger swings with 10 units of
speed and your 10 pound mace swings with 1 unit of
speed they will both result in about the same
damage in the first moment of contact. However the
heavy hammer is much harder to stop moving, so it
continues to create damage in a slightly longer
duration than the dagger.

Thus, in Oblivion 10 hits with a dagger results in
about the same damage as 1 hit with a mace (all
other factors such as the quality of the steel
being the same). 
	
A heavy mass at rest will offer resistance to
start movement. Once it is moving it will offer
resistance to stop moving, This means that a
weapon will start slowly and progress slowly to
faster speeds when starting at rest from a dead
stop.  For a sword to reach optimum speed, a
sufficient amount of distance must be traveled. 
This distance will be determined by such factors
as the mass of the weapon, the mechanical leverage
and the power applied to the weapon to accelerate
the tip. 


A 10 pound mace takes 10 times the "time" to
complete a swing as a 1 pound dagger if all other
factors are the same.

Using two hands on a weapon allows you to place
the fulcrum and effort points of control further
away from each other. This results in better
control leverage and less effort in directing the
weapons tip movement on very long or very top
heavy weapons. Using only one hand on a weapon
results in the fulcrum and effort control points
being only a few inches away from each other. 

However the one handed weapon has the freedom to
swing much faster, thus producing more Impulse
force when it hits.

The arms are primarily used to GUIDE the sword
blow and act as the transmission device to bring
power from the body into the target in the same
way a ridding crop snaps out to move momentum from
the large heavy base to the smaller lighter tip.
	
I first discovered this while doing kinetic energy
tests with different weapons in the 1980s. I was
amazed to discover that the kinetic energy from a
two-handed weapon was not significantly higher
than from a one-handed weapon of the same weight
and length.  This may be hard to understand,
because most of your experience may tell you that
you normally hit harder with a two-handed weapon. 
This is because most two-handed weapons have much
more mass and a longer lever for a blade. And NOT
because your second hand is contributing that much
more power to the shot.

Remember that using two hands on a weapon allows
you to place the fulcrum and effort points of
control further away from each other. This extra
control leverage contributes a great deal to
better handling of the tip movement. However the
extra pushing force just from the leverage is
almost insignificant for impact because it is so
slow. As such, on it’s own this additional (but
slow) pushing force creates very poor impulse
(less efficient transfer of force).


If the weapon is not very long or not very tip
heavy, using 2 hands to wield that weapon is not
the most efficient way to use your pair of hands.
In fact it can even slow down the tip speed of
some weapons unless you hold it with a “baseball”
grip where your hands are touching each other.
This is because your arms cannot move in opposite
directions with enough agility to keep up with the
possible final tip speed at the end of your weapon
swing. This is not so much a problem with the
longer 2 handed weapons such as the Claymore
because the longer lever (from the fulcrum to the
tip of the weapon) creates more than enough extra
speed from the mechanical advantage to compensate
for your second hand slowing down the effort side
of the weapon.
	
If you have a short but top-heavy weapon you may
choose to wield it either way depending on your
desired results. 
	
Two hands on this kind of weapon (such as a 2
handed AXE) will give you much more initial speed
and weapon agility but will greatly slow down the
final tip speed resulting in less impact. However
this additional agility allows you to recover the
weapon back into your ready position quicker and
more accurately for defense and allows you to
start your second shot sooner. 
It is possible to slide one hand down into a
baseball grip or switch from 2 hands to one hand
in mid swing in order to try to trade a little
more power for a little less agility and less
recovery speed.
	
One hand on this kind of weapon (such as a MACE)
will give you a greater final tip speed resulting
in more impact force but you will loose agility
and the return motion back into your ready
position will be much slower. This could leave you
open to a counter attack for a longer time and
result in fewer number of attacks per second than
would be possible if you were using 2 hands. It is
possible to switch from one hand to two hands
during the return to your ready position in order
to try to gain some agility for defense. But the
extra work required to place and remove the second
hand will add more time to initiate the following
one handed attack. 

Many lay-people do not know this, but most real
melee weapons must land several inches DOWN from
the tip of the weapon (on the sweet spot) to hit
effectively. On a faster moving weapons that use
more speed than weight (like a sword) this is the
CENTER OF PERCUSSION. On slower moving weapons
that are top-heavy and use more weight than speed
(like an axe or mace) it is the CENTER OF GRAVITY.
As such, the “hit” range on the game weapons have
been shortened to a realistic range. Weapons will
“glance” more often now. This means that you can
dodge and or step away from blows if you keep
moving. Stop moving and you die!  


With all this in mind the Oblivion weapons were
changed as follows:

(A) being longer or faster or more damage and (F)
being shorter or slower or less Damage.

H  Weapon        reach-class    speed-class    
Damage-class

1h Mace...........D...............F..............B
1h Axe............D...............E..............D
1h Longsword......B...............C..............C
1h Shortsword.....c...............B..............F
1h Dagger.........E...............A..............G
2h Hammer.........B...............G..............A
2h Axe............B...............E..............D
2h Claymore.......A...............D..............E
2h Katana.........A...............C..............C


Unfortunately I did not have time to recalculate
and reinsert the data for all the weights on all
the weapons in Oblivion. So the weights were ALL
left "as is". The weight of the weapons in the
game mostly affect your encumbrance anyway. So to
solve this problem in the short amount of time I
had to do it, I used Oblivions standard damage and
multiplied it by my damage class factors that were
calculated from my own reach and speed class
stats.

Thus all weapon damage was boosted in oblivion,
but the slower ones do more damage over all and
swing slower, and the faster weapons swing faster
but do less damage. This is not the perfect
solution, I would have preferred to revamp the
entire weigh system and used a weight x speed x
reach formula. All in all it works out fine. The
real damage will come from expertly using the
tools you are provided and not by trying to
nitpick the optimum weapon stats. In my club we
have a drill where everyone’s weapons are thrown
into a big pile on the ground. We stand in a
circle around the pile about 20 feet away. At "go"
we all run to the pile and grab what we can to
fight with as soon as you could grab one and start
swinging! You almost never got the weapon you
wanted. I use to hate that drill when I was a
youth. These days I understand how very important
that drill really was!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


As in real combat, moving out of your defensive
geometry for any reason will create openings for a
weapon to hit. Hit your opponent while they are in
the middle of their own swing and you will land
your blow. Hit them while they are moving from one
place to the other and you will land your blow. 

Always point your nose at your subject. There is
an old saying “lose sight and you lose the fight”!
If you are not facing your opponent directly you
will leave an opening on your side that can be
hit. If you are not facing your opponent directly
you will most likely miss with your own swing.

Proper movement is very important to survive.
Proper movement is very important to land blows. 
Proper movement is very important to land blows
hard! 

With proper training, a swordfighter’s body
momentum can be transferred to the sword if they
move in the direction that the weapon will move
just before it lands on target. So the most
powerful blow in the game is now your FORWARD
POWER ATTACK! Second is the "move back power
attack" because my new animations now move the
body a step or two forward (not back) in the
attack. The third most powerful is the "move to
the side power attack". Then the standing (not
moving) power attack. Last are the crouching power
attacks. However the "blindside sneak attack" is
still as powerful as the move back power attack".
The least powerful but fasted attack will be the
normal “fast snap” shots no mater what direction
you move in.


Once a blow lands on your body you will likely
stagger from the pain and damage, once this
happens there is not a lot you can do to recover.
You can hope you are knocked back far enough to be
out of reach of the next swing. Keep pressing your
block button and your "move backwards" button. But
there is no guarantee this will work, So do not
let it happen in the first place. Maintain good
defensive geometry and keep your shield up! Keep
moving back and in circles to prevent your
opponent from getting around your shield to hit
you. If you start to stagger then you failed long
before your opponent hit you.


Be sure to carry a lot of health and fatigue
potions. They are expensive, but worth every gold
coin. Learn to make your own and you will not have
to pay the high costs! If you use my Loot MOD with
this combat MOD you will find many health potions
on magic users as well.

It is important to train your character's athletic
stats so that you have a lot of fatigue at higher
skill levels. At higher levels you will be
challenged with overwhelming opponents. To be the
"Hero" and defeat being outnumbered you are going
to need a lot of fatigue, or use careful tactics
and use a patient style of combat. 


Fighting the giants in Oblivion is foolhardy at
best. They will now bat you around like a rag
doll! That is unless you have a Claymore to help
you stay out of their reach! Giants include the
atronachs(except for fire, they are relatively
small), daedroth, Ogres, Minotaurs, Trolls,
Xivilai, and Bears. I did not include the Land
Dreugh because the animations show them only using
their arms to hit with. Most of the weight of
their body just stands on the ground un-utilized
in the attack. I would like to have included the
horses but I did not have time and it was not as
important as the other larger giants.

If your opponents far outclasses your skills or
far outnumbers you do not be ashamed to run away
if it is the only way to survive. Living means you
can practice more, progress to higher levels and
next time be ready to give them a challenge!

Bottlenecks have given small adept groups of
solders a great advantage over larger armies
through out real life history! It works the same
way in the game. Look for doorways, bridges, rock
formations, and trees. You can even use other
fighters in their group by maneuvering to keep
most of the others behind the few in the front you
are fighting. Use anything that will allow you to
fight a few opponents at a time and will not allow
them to circle around to your side or to your rear
flank! 

If you are out in the open with no bottlenecks
then try to space out multiple opponents and hit
them with power shots one at time as you run from
one to the other. If you space them out of range
from each other and your level of fatigue is high
enough you can take down several this way before
you must retreat to regain you fatigue.

When facing a group, point your nose to the middle
of the group, not the person in the middle of the
group. So if you have three opponents and two are
standing slightly to one side and one is standing
more to the other side, you split the difference
between to two fighters that are the furthest
apart from each other (the one furthest to your
left and the one furthest to your right) and point
your nose in-between (at the middle) of the
distance between the two. This is not the best
situation to be in, so as soon as you can,
maneuver them into a bottle neck or maneuver them
so that one or more other the group ends up behind
the others. In other words using one or two in the
group as obstacles for the rest of the group. 


Magic Users are very powerful in my Mod, they can
bat you around like a rag doll if you do not take
the initiative. They 
still cannot defeat you if you cut their head off!
Run them down and kill them fast. Charging at them
in a HARD zigzag pattern will make it harder for
them to hit you with a fireball until you get up
close to them.


Bows can mortally wood you in one shot! So almost
the same thing goes for archers! However try to do
it without a long run at them if they are shooting
at you. Keep your shield up, advance toward them,
as the archer reloads their bow for another shot,
dash at them! But as soon as it looks like they
will fire another arrow get your shield up again!
Also, arrows are easy to dodge if you watch the
archer’s bow. Arrows move a little too fast to
visually track and dodge, but as soon as you see
the bow shake from an arrow release, dodge to the
side! Never stand in one place for longer than a
second if archers are threatening you! Running at
the archer in a HARD Zig zag pattern will work
well untill you get up close to them. 

Heavy one-handed weapons take an eternity to set,
swing and recover from, but they hit VERY HARD.
These weapons are best used against single
opponents that have a lot of armor on or a lot of
hit points. I personally love to fight with the
mace in my own games, as it is the most
challenging to use, requiring expert timing, good
footwork and significant strategy. But then the
pay off can be spectacular when you land a hard
blow!

Power attacks require you to time the blow so that
you are in range of the target at the moment the
swing climaxes!  So throw your blow BEFORE your
opponent gets up to you so that it lands just as
they get in range! The old gamers wisdom is true
in real life and in this virtual reality "strike
into the area your target will be in, not where
the target is at".

The enemy combat AI is “smarter” than it use to
be. They will fight with “protocols” more like a
real sword fighter would. Your enemy is watching
you carefully to see if you drop your shield or
make any opening (mistake) they can exploit.
However this means you can trick them by purposely
dropping your shield as long as you do something
else to keep them from hitting you. Then you hit
them as they open themselves up to attack you. One
way to do this is to stay just on the edge of
their weapon range, drop your shield to bait them,
then hit them FIRST with a fast shot while they
are going for a slow power shot. This is just one
example of using misdirection in your fight to
fool the enemy. See if you can find other ways!

Two thinking beings are not remotely like two
animals fighting. There is a saying, “sword
fighting is like playing chess at 60 miles per
hour”. There is very little “finesse” in fighting
dumb powerful animals. They will attack with their
most powerful shots and will not bother to
“block”. Their only intent is to cause you more
damage than you cause them in the shortest time
possible. You need to fight them in the same way!
Hit first before they hit you! Use a power attack
on your first shot if your timing is good. If not
than a fast normal attack will do. But in either
case keep on hitting as long as your fatigue is
above 20 percent.

Here is my list of sword “trick shots”. These are
all REAL sword-fighting tricks I developed and
used to win my tournaments in the SCA.  It is now
possible to use some of them to trick your
opponents in Oblivion.


TRICK SHOT CLASSIFICATIONS:

Duration Prolepsis
The attack changes its duration (faster or
slower). 

Tempo Prolepsis
A perceivable rate in a series of attacks is set
up and then broken.

Attack Prolepsis
The apparent attack (angle and part of the weapon)
changes into (or turns out to really be) another
type of attack.

Target Prolepsis
The apparent target is a feint; the real attack’s
intended target is slightly or drastically in
another location.

Breacher
The attack opens a trajectory by physically
reorienting the opponent’s weapons, limbs or body
with an unexpected or powerful or leveraged
pushing or pulling force. This either directly
moves the opponents protection out of your way or
tricks them into over compensating by reflexively
reversing and moving their protection out of the
way. 

Slinking
The weapon navigates through a narrow, angled,
winding or obscure slot.

Oblique
The attack is thrown at an unusual angle that is
not easy to match or is not usual to complement
with the parry weapon.

Eclipse
The attack starts and/or passes through areas that
are visually obscured.

Trompe“L'oeil
The attack starts or passes through deceptive and
unthreatening positions to create the illusion
(mental or optical) that there is no attack until
it is too late to counter it.


Here are some examples of how to use some of these
 “trick shots” to misdirect or confuse your
opponents into failing their block in Oblivion.


Duration Prolepsis
This works well if you outclass your opponent, or
if you have a lot more fatigue than your opponent.
And it works far better if your opponent is
blocking with a weapon. But it still has a small
chance of working if they use a shield. Basically
you fire a series of 3 to 6 low power FAST shots
at them but at some point in the series of blows
you pause a little longer or throw the next shot a
little sooner than the others. Eventually (unless
you get too tired first) they will mistime their
own movement and drop their guard. Once they
stagger you can rain down on them with a lot of
fast low power shots. Or hit them with one power
shot then dodge away from them to recover your
fatigue.


Tempo Prolepsis
This works well if you outclass your opponent, or
if you have a lot more fatigue than your opponent.
But it may still work if you do not. And it works
far better if your opponent is blocking with a
weapon. But it still has a small chance of working
if they use a shield. Basically you fire a series
of low power FAST shots at them while changing
your rate of fire slower and then faster each
time. Eventually (unless you get too tired first)
they will mistime their own movement and drop
their guard. Once they stagger you can rain down
on them with a lot of fast low power shots. Or hit
them with one power shot then dodge away from them
to recover your fatigue.



Target Prolepsis
If you are coordinated and have good timing, you
can side step one way then the other to trick them
into turning their "nose" (and thus their defense)
the wrong way. This is a hard trick to do but it
can be done. There is a very tight window of
opportunity as they turn one way then the other to
face you; they will be open for your shot. You may
not even see it, but it will be there for a split
second. Get close to your opponent, move to your
right, and then dodge to your left. Fire your shot
at the same time you start to dodge to your left.
If you are properly facing your opponent at the
time the blow should hit, you will get past their
block and land your blow! This may be the only way
(next to the Trompe“L'oeil shot I describe below)
to hit an expert blocker with a shield in a tight
corroder where you cannot move more than 30 to 90
degrees around your opponent. Another example of
this type of shot is to throw your blow just off
to the side of the opponent directly in front of
you (to near miss them) in order to hit the NPC
behind them! This is a common but effective trick
used by SCA fighters in our "wars" where we have
thousands of SCA members meet to fight Kingdom
against Kingdom.




Breacher
This works well if you outclass your opponent. But
it may still work if you do not. And it works far
better if your opponent is blocking with a weapon.
But it still has a small chance of working if they
use a shield. Basically you fire a very powerful
shot at them. So powerful that even when they
block it they will stagger. Once they stagger you
rain down on them with fast low power shots. If
you have a very powerful blow sometimes they will
die in your first shot.



Slinking
Dodge around and behind your opponent, but you
must fire your shot first and at the right time so
that it lands on their back just at the moment
that you get around them.  If you are not facing
them at the correct moment as your shot climaxes
your swing will miss them!


Oblique
This is a hard shot to make work in Oblivion, but
it can be done. When your opponent throws a power
shot that takes a long time to complete, you DODGE
just to the side of their shot and then throw your
FAST blow at the right time so that your shot
meets them just as they are at the end of their
own power swing. The window of opportunity to
dodge to the side is very small. This is because
the NPC will turn to face you as they throw their
shot. But the turn they perform has a very slight
delay in it. So there is moment were their blow
will climax but you can be to the side of the
blow. This will require hours of experience in
Oblivion fighting to master. As I said it is not
easy, but it is possible. 

It may be just easier for you to dodge back out of
range instead of to the side as long as you are
watching carefully and can spot when the NPC is
throwing the power shot to give you the time to
use this trick. 

Another way to do this trick is to dodge toward
and also one way to the side and then the other
way to the opposite side (right then left for
example) as the NPC runs at you to close range and
attack. Often the NPC will start his own attack
out of range to hit you at the right time, but
when you charge at him and change direction from
side to side it can confuse him and he may just
miss you as you come into close range. That will
put him at the right location (right next to you)
and angle to get an easy shot on him!



Eclipse
Maneuver your opponent and yourself around trees
and posts. Once you have the post or tree
in-between you and your opponent you will fire
your shot around the obstacle into your opponent.
Some obstacles in Oblivion will not act solid.
This trick will not work with such obstacles.


Trompe“L'oeil
These types of shots are my favorite in real life,
and in the game as well. This is a very good trick
to use against an opponent who is an expert at
blocking with their shield. Step back, drop your
shield (to bait them) and throw your blow. All
this is done almost all at the same time. As they
dodge forward to close range with you they will be
open. Basically you make a quick retreat retreat
(a small dodge to back away from them out of
range) and then you throw your blow at the right
time so that your shot meets them just as they
drop their guard to lunge toward you!




The Three Branches of Timing 
Timing can be organized into three basic branches
depending on whether you act in the beginning, the
middle or at the end of your opponent’s duration. 
Each category relies more or less on a different
set of tools, and also attempts to take advantage
of opportunities that are of different size and
longevity. Almost without exception, you will not
see large long-lived opportunity unless your
opponent is very bad, makes an enormous mistake or
is just a beginner. It is possible that a great
fighter may do so as a trick of some kind, but it
is very unlikely! Normally you will only get small
but long-lived opportunities, large but
short-lived opportunities and small short-lived
opportunities. 
  
  
The Tools of Passive Timing 

Perception
Estimation   
Accuracy

Passive Timing is where you act in the end of your
opponent’s duration to take advantage of small but
long-lived opportunities. This category requires
more dedication and practice than mental or
physical skills. These are the most obvious of the
opportunities and thus are the most commonly
utilized by most fighters.  
  




The Tools of Synchronized Timing 

Perception 
Coordination   
Speed

Synchronized Timing is where you act in the middle
of your opponent’s duration to take advantage of
large but short-lived opportunity. These
opportunities are most used by counterpunch
fighters who were born gifted with speed. If this
is not you, do not let this stop you from trying
to use Synchronized Timing anyway. 




The Tools of Proactive Timing:  

Calculation 
Manipulation 
Coordination 

Proactive Timing is where you act in the beginning
or before the beginning of your opponent’s
duration to take advantage of small and
short-lived opportunity. It is the most cerebral
category utilizing more mental skills than
physical skills.  This will not necessarily
require raw speed; you may be surprised to know
that perception is not even very important. This
is because you are not watching him for clues to
his movement and then reflexively responding to
that clue. Instead you are imposing a calculated
rhythm on him. Knowing how and when to act is the
most important part of Proactive Timing. 

It requires a very good understating of timing
plus  ingrained knowledge of people’s rhythms.
Thus Proactive Timing has conventionally been the
domain of very experienced (older?) fighters
because of the complexity of the subject and the
holistic manner it has been studied in the past. 


 


Timing and the “Magic Moment”    
All combat with any melee weapon will abide by the
following universal formula of 
“Time and Place”.    

Range  
Defense Geometry 
Offense Geometry 
Opportunity 
Close to attack 
Retreat to start over 
   
Range  
Maintaining the optimal distance just out of the
effective striking reach of your opponent, but
close enough to take advantage of opportunities
such as openings in their defense.  
   
Defense Geometry  
Positioning yourself around your opponent and
positioning or moving your weapons relative to his
to deny angles of attack for him to easily pass
(his limb, body or weapon) though to strike you.  
   
Offence Geometry  
Positioning yourself around your opponent and
positioning or moving your weapons relative to his
to achieve angles of attack (openings) on him. 
   
Opportunity  
This is the moment when you may easily strike your
opponent without him being able to effectively
respond with his own attack. This refers to an
opening in his defense. Either a physical opening
such as when he drops his shield or some other
opening such as when he is so involved in other
actions that it hinders his parry. This can happen
for example when in the case of single sword
combat your sword blow is coming in on him while
he is still winding up for his own sword blow. His
sword will be too involved at that moment to be
used to parry your shot. 
    
Close to attack  
Once you have the opportunity you immediately
reduce your range and/or move your weapon to reach
(strike) your target with your weapon. Preferably
you “close to attack” (strike your opponent) at
the same moment that “Opportunity” occurs. This
can happen with luck, or from a good sense of your
opponent’s movements. Successfully predicting your
opponent’s actions (rather than waiting to see
what he will do, and then finally attacking based
on your observation) is one way to accomplish
this. You can force him into a predicable action
with the use of fakes, feints or other tricks. The
fighter that is best able to decrease the time
between the Opportunity phase and the Close to
Attack phase will have an overwhelming chance to
win.    

Retreat to start over 
Failing your “Close to attack” phase will not
necessarily mean you will be hit with a
counterstrike if you used and maintain good
Defense Geometry. Good Defense Geometry can give
you the chance to “Retreat to start over”. However
you must also understand that you can create a new
Defensive Geometry while Closing to attack at the
same time. “Retreat to start over” may not
necessarily mean you move away from your opponent.
It could just be the act of moving your weapon in
the opposite direction to perform your next action
such as another strike.  

To summarize, you try to win Range to earn good
Geometry, win the Geometry to earn Opportunity,
wining the Opportunity with a successful “Close to
attack” earns you the right to avoid  “Retreat to
start over”!  
 
The Magic Moment  
The time it takes starting from when the
Opportunity appears (or is created) and then the
completion of your action to take advantage of
that Opportunity is what I call the MAGIC MOMENT!
This “Magic Moment” and how to be able to use it
before it vanishes is what timing is all about!
Long lived Opportunities, that is Opportunity that
exists for more than a brief time in the fight are
very rare. So the more efficient you are at using
these Magic Moments the more likely you will
succeed at your action.  The faster you are at
recognizing the Opportunity the faster you will be
able to use it. 

If you are fast this will be a great advantage for
you. 
However expertly executing a relatively slower
action to climax at the same time that the
opportunity occurs is really what GREAT timing is
all about!


No part of this article “Advanced techniques in
SCA style Oblivion combat” may be reproduced in
any format.

Original COPYRIGHT JERRY R. CHAVEZ © 2007