Combat Enhanced Manual

30 different combat combos performed using simple combinations of the basic attacks(i.e. Slash, Slash, Thrust). There are 5 combos for each of the 6 weapon types(Long Blade, Short Blade, Blunt Weapon, Axe, Spear, and Unarmed). The combos range from stat drains to knockdowns to decapitations.
Trance: The ability to slow down time to give you a better handle on the fight and dodge attacks and arrows
Rage: Slows time even further than Trance while increasing your own speed. Allows you to tear through a swarm of enemies in the blink of an eye. You must build up your Rage Level by performing normal combos in order to use Rage.
Difficulty Sliders: There are currently sliders that let you increase the Health, Magicka, Strength, and Agility or reduce the Block skill of all enemies in the game, so you can make things more difficult should you so choose.

Combat Enhanced requires Morrowind Enhanced(MWE) v1.2. See http://www.freewebs.com/aerelorn/ to download MWE, other MWE-enhanced mods, or the ACE Trailer.

Note: Requires Tribunal or Bloodmoon

Installation

Unzip the mod into your /Morrowind/Data Files/ directory
Download Morrowind Enhanced v1.2 and install it if you don't already have it. The latest version can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/aerelorn/ or the major mod sites.
Run Morrowind Enhanced.exe. It is required for the mod to function correctly.
From here, you can set the keys for Trance and Rage, adjust the Difficulty Sliders, and set options to autolaunch Morrowind and/or the Fps Optimizer on startup
Run Morrowind and select MWE_Combat.esp in the Data Files menu
UPGRADE INFORMATION: If you are upgrading from a previous version of Combat Enhanced, you may see some error messages when you first load your saved game. Just click Yes and then resave when you get into the game.
(Optional) I'd recommend printing out the combos list

Combo Overview

Combos are performed via a sequence of the three basic strikes, which are:
- Slash - Press the attack button while strafing left or right
- Thrust - Press the attack button while moving forwards or backwards
- Chop - Press the attack button while moving diagonally or standing still
- It is highly recommend that you turn off "Always use best attack" so you can see the different strike animations

An example sequence is "Slash, Slash, Thrust". You must first hit with a Slash, then with another Slash, then with a Thrust. If you miss, you don't need to start over. Rather, you just need try the hit again. So if you do the following sequence, "Slash(hit), Slash(miss), Slash(miss), Slash(hit), Thrust(miss), Thrust(hit)", the hits translate to "Slash, Slash, Thrust", and the sequence will be complete.

Each combo requires a certain level of skill, as indicated in the Combo List

Each combo drains a certain amount of your fatigue. If you don't have the necessary fatigue available, the move will still work. However, your weapon skills will be lowered for a few seconds, so it's a good idea to keep your fatigue at a high level.

Finishing Moves: All Level 90 Skills are finishing moves. They require that the target has less than 25% of their health remaining, as indicated by the enemy health bar.

All combos can be fully Daisy Chained

Certain combos(like Dismember Arm and Behead) only have a visual effect on NPCs, not creatures. However, the moves still work on creatures.

Hitto has made an addon for ACE called ACE_Subtitles that adds messageboxes upon successful completion of combos, in case you want something more than just the sounds. A link to it can be found at http://www.freewebs.com/aerelorn/

Combo List

	Name	Skill Required	Combo Sequence	Description
Long Blade	Cut	10	Thrust, Thrust, Slash	A deep cut that saps the opponent's strength
	Shockwave	30	Slash, Slash, Thrust	Powerful thrust that knocks all enemies in front of you to the ground
	Blade Break	50	Slash, Chop, Chop, Thrust	Breaks the blade of your weapon off in the enemy, causing massive damage. See Extra Options
	Disarm Weapon	70	Thrust, Chop, Chop, Slash	Knocks opponent's weapon out of their hand. See Extra Options
	Dismember Arm	90	Thrust, Thrust, Chop, Slash, Chop	Finishing move that takes off the opponent's arm

Short Blade	Throat Slash	10	Chop, Chop, Slash	Silences the enemy
	Slice	30	Thrust, Thrust, Slash	Area attack against the enemies immediately in front of you
	Dice	50	Chop, Thrust, Slash, Slash	Increases your weaponspeed for a few seconds
	Puncture	70	Chop, Thrust, Thrust, Thrust	Punctures a vital organ, causing continuous damage
	Stab	90	Slash, Chop, Slash, Slash, Thrust	Finishing move with a strike straight through the heart

Blunt Weapon	Bone Break	10	Slash, Chop, Slash	Damages the opponent's weapons skills
	Knockdown	30	Chop, Slash, Thrust	A thrust to the stomach knocks the wind out of your opponent
	Disarm Shield	50	Thrust, Slash, Slash, Chop	Knocks the opponent's shield out of their hand
	Slam	70	Slash, Slash, Thrust, Chop	Area attack version of Knockdown
	Knockout	90	Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash, Chop	Finishing move that knocks the opponent unconscious

Axe	Hack	10	Chop, Slash, Chop	Quick blows to tire out the opponent and make them attack slower
	Cleave	30	Slash, Chop, Slash	High damage attack that can knock off gauntlets, pauldrons, and helmets
	Spin	50	Chop, Thrust, Slash, Slash	Area attack that damages all enemies around you
	Frenzy	70	Slash, Chop, Chop, Chop	Weaponspeed increase and halves the damage you take for a few seconds
	Behead	90	Thrust, Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash	Finishing move that takes off the enemy's head

Spear	Gore	10	Thrust, Slash, Thrust	A strong thrust to the opponent's hip that slows them and makes them fall down more often
	Offbalance	30	Chop, Chop, Thrust	A thrust to the shoulder that offbalances the enemy and causes increased damage on subsequent strikes
	Sweep	50	Chop, Thrust, Slash, Slash	Large area attack that damages and knocks enemies down
	Quickthrust	70	Slash, Thrust, Thrust, Thrust	Increases weapon speed for a few seconds as long as you keep thrusting
	Impale	90	Slash, Chop, Thrust Thrust, Thrust	Finishing move with a spear through the opponent's body. See Extra Options

Unarmed	Break Nose	10	Thrust, Chop, Thrust	Causes large damage and drains extra fatigue
	Gouge Eyes	30	Slash, Slash, Chop	Blinds the opponent and does extra damage
	Uppercut	50	Slash, Slash, Thrust, Chop	Knocks the opponent backwards and down and does extra damage
	Stun	70	Thrust, Chop, Chop, Thrust	Temporarily paralyzes the enemy and does extra damage
	Snap Neck	90	Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash, Thrust	Finishing move that breaks the opponent's neck

* Area attacks won't effect companions with Companion Share unless you are specifically attacking them

Trance

Trance slows down the passage of time so you can react more quickly, better plan your combos, and dodge attacks. After you've set your Trance key in the MWE window, you can toggle Trance on and off by pressing that button in the game. While in use, Trance will drain fatigue, but will keep working even if your fatigue is 0.

The amount that Trance slows down time can be adjusted with the "Trance Slowness" slider in the MWE window. 10 is the default, and the slowest available. Lower values will make time pass more quickly while in Trance.

Rage

Rage slows down the passage of time far more than Trance, while also speeding you up. Additionally, while in Rage every strike you make will be a combo, allowing you to tear through enemies.

You must build up your Rage Level by using normal combos
Each combo gives you 1 Rage point.
It takes a minimum of 25 Rage points to initiate Rage.
You can see your current Rage Level by pressing alt-<rage key>.
Unfortunately, Unarmed attacks cannot be sped up the same way weapon-based attacks can. Therefore they will move very slowly while in Rage.

Once you've started Rage :

Each second will take off one Rage point.
You can keep track of how much you have left by watching your magicka bar. It will go from full to zero as your Rage runs out.
You can exit Rage at any time by hitting the Rage key again, but if you exit before the first 25 seconds are up, you won't get those points back

Rage does the following combos for all weapon types each time you hit:

Non-lethal hit

Slash - Disarm Weapon(or Cleave if they have no weapon)
Thrust - Cleave
Chop - Disarm Shield(or Cleave if they have no shield)

Lethal hit

Slash - Behead
Thrust - Shockwave
Chop - Dismember Arm

The amount that Rage slows down time can be adjusted with the "Rage Slowness" slider in the MWE window. 60 is the default, and the slowest available. Lower values will make time pass more quickly while in Rage.

Difficulty Sliders

There are currently 5 enemy difficulty sliders that are adjustable in the MWE window. Each one will multiply a certain attribute of the enemy by the value shown. For instance, if you set the Health difficulty slider to 2.5, all enemies you fight will have 2.5 times their normal health.

Extra Options

MWE_BladeBreak can be set in the console(type "set MWE_BladeBreak to <value>") to the following values:
1. The default, Blade Break works normally
2. Blade Break is turned off completely
3. Blade Break only works if you're in Trance. So if you're accidentally using it sometimes, but still want to use it at others, this is the option for you

MWE_AutoEquip can be set in the console(type "set MWE_AutoEquip to <value>") to the following values:
1. The default, nothing happens
2. If you use Long Blade Disarm Weapon or Spear Impale and catch the weapon falling in midair, you will auto-equip it.
3. Same as 1, except it only works for Long Blade Disarm Weapon and not for Spear Impale
4. Same as 1, except it only works for Spear Impale and not for Long Blade Disarm Weapon

Addons

The following two addons are available for ACE:

ACE Subtitles- created by Hitto. Adds messageboxes to successful combos.
ACE Books - created by Hitto(with books by Hitto, Harlequin, Zorro17, and Goumindong). Adds 23 books that that fit into Morrowind lore which detail the usage of the 30 combos in ACE. The books are scattered in various locations around Vvardenfell.

TC Compatibility

It is very easy to use ACE with TCs(Total Conversions). Simply do the following:

Install the TC Compatible version of MWE_Base.esp. See the Morrowind Enhanced manual for more details.
Install ACE normally.
Copy the MWE_Combat.esp file from the TC Compatible Esp folder of the install zip into your /Data Files/ folder, overwriting the regular esp.

Troubleshooting

Problem: I used a move and it knocked an enemy through a wall.

Solution: Some moves do this. Most of the time the enemy will run back through the wall. Otherwise, you can type "ra" in the console to reset the enemies to their starting positions.

Problem: I was using a Long Blade, and my sword suddenly broke.

Solution: It sounds like you used Blade Break accidentally. There is an Extra Option available to limit this.

See also the Troubleshooting section in the Morrowind Enhanced manual.

If none of these answers help you, locate the log.txt file that's been created in the same directory as Morrowind.exe. Zip up that file and send it to me along with a description of the problem.

Known Issues

If you use Long Blade Dismember Arm against an NPC who is not one of the default races(i.e. a new race added by a mod), they will be killed but their arm will not come off. If there is a popular mod that uses a lot of new races, support will be added for them if someone requests it.

A crash/freeze bug has been reported by several people, though I was unable to duplicate it. It occurs whenever the player dies, and is caused by one or both of the following Blood & Gore add-on plugins:
- Blood & Gore Adventurer's TC
- Blood & Gore GIANTS

Contact

Feedback is welcome using any of the following methods:

Morrowind Enhanced Forum: http://aerelorn.1.forumer.com/
AIM: aerelorn
MSN: aerelorn@hotmail.com
ICQ: 310565663

Credits

Scripting/Coding/Everything else: aerelorn

Original Sounds: CaptainCrisis

Special Effects Textures/Icons: Xeocube

Special Thanks to: AcidBasik5, Alpha Falcon, Argent, bodgy, DarrkPhoenix, delta21, DireGuard, empty, freestonew, FrozenNord, Harlequin, Hitto, j4m3sb0nd, Korrow142, Lucypher, matteg91, Mode_Locrian, mutko_dr, Nanashi, PirateBill, Sarvus, Sayter27, Sionach, Staberinde, StanRex, theKettle, TheLys, thraldur, Tonto_101, Torpulf, Zorro17 and everyone else who downloaded the beta and gave feedback and ideas

Daisy Chaining

Each time you hit, the type of hit is stored in a list of your last 8 hits. Based on your weapon type, this list is then checked against the available combos. So for example, let's say you're using Unarmed and your last 8 hits were:

Chop, Slash, Slash, Thrust, Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash

If you make a Chop next, you'll perform Gouge Eyes because your last 3 hits will be Slash, Slash, Chop.
If instead, you make a Thrust next, you'll perform Snap Neck because your last 5 hits will be Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash, Thrust.
If you switch to a Long Blade and make a Thrust, you'll perform Shockwave because your last 3 hits will be Slash, Slash, Thrust.

It's in this way that moves are fully daisy-chainable, even between weapons. For example, the following 9 hits can produce 5 combos if you switch weapons at the correct time:

Chop, Thrust, Slash, Slash, Thrust, Chop, Chop, Slash, Slash
|____________________|
.........Spear Sweep
......................|_______________|
....................Long Blade Shockwave
......................|___________________|
..........................Unarmed Uppercut
.........................................|_____________________|
.........................................Long Blade Disarm Weapon
.........................................|_________________________|
..........................................................Axe Behead

Hopefully that little chart will make it a bit more clear.

Changelog

Version 1.2

Added a Rage Slowness slider to complement the one for Trance Slowness
You can now do multiple finishing moves against a single opponent while in Rage(i.e. chop off their head, both arms, and then shockwave them a dozen times before they die)
Falling items now fall to the correct ground position, rather than just the best guess(most useful for falling/levitating opponents)
A few misc bug fixes
Added TC Compatible Esp

Version 1.1

Area attacks will no longer effect companions with Companion Share unless you are specifically attacking them
Body Parts from Dismember Arm and Behead will now be deleted after 3 days pass, so they should disappear about the same time the corpse normally would
Dismember Arm now works on NPCs using Better or Smoother Bodies. The falling arm uses the normal Bethesda models/textures
Dismembered Arms/Heads will not reappear on corpses when removing random items from their inventory(except for the Dismembered Head/Flesh items)
The MWE_AutoEquip option now works more reliably
Falling items now take race into account for their starting height
Removed Speed Slider to make more room for data storage on NPCs

Version 1.0

Fixed visual glitch when a disarmed opponent with a shield had their left arm cut off
Enemies who have been scaled will now drop items/limbs from the appropriate height and of appropriate size
Short Blade Punctures will no longer overlap. If used more than once, it makes the current Puncture last longer
Several minor tweaks

Version 0.9a

Changed how Rage works. See the Rage section
Rage damage is now capped at your current strength
Added MWE_AutoEquip variable. See Extra Options
Fixed a small bug where Spear Sweep wouldn't hit the target you hit if they were running away
Fixed Trance precision bug

Version 0.9

Updated Manual
Enabled Rage
Misc tweaks and fixes
One loading code change that I hope doesn't break anything

Version 0.8

Knockdown changed to Chop, Slash, Thrust
Loading Code crash bug fixed
Penalty removed from Dice
Added new difficulty Sliders
Added global variable MWE_BladeBreak to turn off/modify Blade Break
Support for Blocking Enhanced added

Version 0.7b

All moves now drain some fatigue.
If you don't have the required fatigue for a move, it still works, but you get a penalty to your weapon skills for 5 seconds
Changed Spear Gore to Thrust, Slash, Thrust
Changed Spear Impale to Slash, Chop, Thrust, Thrust
Disarm Shield will now work on creatures
Disarm Weapon will upgrade the enemy's HandtoHand skill
Blunt Bone Break is less overpowering
Long Blade Cut is less overpowering
All unarmed moves have had their damage reduced
Stun lasts only 1 second now
Gouge Eyes makes the enemy only half as blind
Spear Gore now also hurts agility, making the enemy fall down more
Loading code changed
Blade Break changed to do only 1000 weapon damage
Combos reset after 10 seconds without a strike, so they don't carry over between battles
Fixed bug with recurring Throat Slash choking sound
Fixed crash bug when using Disarm Weapon/Disarm Shield/Cleave against someone with bound items
Spear Sweep now has a variable knockdown time
Fixed Trance bug
Fixed Minimizing bug

Version 0.7a

Performance bug fixed

Version 0.7

Changelog started