SkyrimCombatLogger

An SKSE plugin for Skyrim Special Edition that logs combat events to a file in real time — hits, combat state changes, deaths, and magic effect applications. Useful for debugging follower AI, mod conflicts, and damage sources.

What it logs

Event	Format
Hit	[HIT] Attacker(FormID) → Target(FormID) | via WeaponOrSpell(FormID)
Combat state	[COMBAT] Actor(FormID) entered/exited combat with Target(FormID)
Death	[DEATH] Actor(FormID) killed by Killer(FormID)
Magic effect	[MGEF] Caster(FormID) → Target(FormID) | EffectEditorID(FormID)

Followers are annotated with [F] in all log lines when LogFactions=true.

Log file: Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\SKSE\SkyrimCombatLogger.log

Features

• Hit logging — weapon, spell, and MGEF hits with source identification
• Combat state logging — entered/exited combat and searching state changes
• Death logging — who killed whom
• Magic effect logging — hostile/detrimental MGEF applications only (filters out buffs)
• Follower filter — optionally log only events involving current followers
• Follower friendly-fire block — auto-resets combat state when followers target each other
• Post-load follower reset — clears stale combat state on game load
• MGEF exclusion list — suppress specific effect FormIDs from the log

Requirements

• Skyrim Special Edition (AE/SE, 1.5.97 or 1.6.x)
• SKSE64
• Address Library for SKSE Plugins

Installation

1. Build from source (see below) or grab a release DLL
2. Copy SkyrimCombatLogger.dll → Data/SKSE/Plugins/
3. Copy SkyrimCombatLogger.ini → Data/SKSE/Plugins/

Configuration

Edit SkyrimCombatLogger.ini:

[Log]
LogHits=true
LogCombat=true
LogDeaths=true
LogFactions=true       ; annotate followers with [F]
LogMGEFName=true       ; include MGEF editor IDs
OnlyFollowers=false    ; set true to only log follower-involved events

[Combat]
BlockFollowerHits=true          ; prevent follower-vs-follower combat escalation
ResetFollowerCombatOnLoad=true  ; clear stale combat state on load

[Filter]
ExcludeMGEF=            ; comma-separated hex FormIDs to suppress

Building

Requirements: Visual Studio 2022, CMake 3.21+, vcpkg

git clone https://github.com/lolidroid86/SkyrimCombatLogger.git
cd SkyrimCombatLogger
cmake --preset vs2022-windows
cmake --build build --config Release

The DLL is output to build/Release/SkyrimCombatLogger.dll.

Dependencies (pulled automatically via vcpkg + FetchContent):

• CommonLibSSE-NG
• spdlog, simpleini, fmt, xbyak, robin-hood-hashing

Contributors

Contributor	Role
lolidroid86	Project lead — design, testing, Skyrim modding context
Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic)	Implementation