Nearly thirteen years after its original launch, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim still sees many interesting mods developed by the community.
One such mod is NPCs Take Cover – Smarter Anti-Cheese AI, uploaded on Nexus Mods by JaySerpa earlier this week. It mainly focuses on improving the behavior of NPCs, and instead of this “routine” work, the mod actually brings in elements that make engagements with NPCs more dynamic.
JaySerpa believes the in-game difficulty slider simply makes enemies more “spongy”. While this might seem okay for some audiences, it really does ruin the fun for those who like more realistic in-game combat. Well, to make things more challenging, the mod improves the behavior of NPCs during combat. Here’s how the features are described:
- NPCs seek cover: They do this by trying to lose line of sight with you instead of waiting for you to shoot them before moving.
- Zig-Zag time: NPCs move more than in vanilla while in cover, making them a harder target to hit. (Normal movement, no ninja dodge)
- Dynamic AI: the moment they notice you can potentially shoot them from your current location, they will relocate.
- NPCs call you out on your dirty tactics. 200 voiced reactions from annoyed NPCs using reused or spliced from vanilla lines. From “Fight me like a warrior!” to “Take cover!” or “Someone kill that damn mage!”.
- Proactive approach: Enemies will start combat if they see you loading up your bows/magic nearby and aiming in their direction instead of always waiting for you to shoot them in the face first.
- Super Lite: Implementation is 99% done via native engine conditions, meaning no script lag, save bloat, or delayed effects. There’s a small script to trigger the new combat lines, but that’s about it. Zero worries performance-wise.
- Super Compatible: Compatible with any and all AI-combat mods; no patches needed.
It’s not just useful for archers but for all ranged attacks, including magic. Animals and creatures are also affected, not just humanoid NPCs.
To improve Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with better NPC AI, you can download the mod from the link here. As always, the modding community does bring the best out of titles.
