I agree. Always pictured, in Oblivion, even though you couldn't see it... the power surging down your arm and exploding from your fingertips!...... with fire, and lightning and such, anyway.

Though it became quite hard to do so when the NPC could run just about as fast as the magic in the air... ahaha.

So yeah, speeding things up would definitely be my choice. The auto-targeting worked in ME2 mainly because time would freeze as you made your decision... at least I think... and from the look and sounds of how Todd and the team are going with the new combat system, stopping the flow would just not feel right at all.

So being a mage should amount to playing a glorified first person shooter?

I'm neutral on this, but I have to say I don't particularly like the trend of magic being glorified projectiles (something this game sounds like it avoids with the different ways to use magic with the runes etc).

I agree with the people saying magical projectiles should be faster. The interesting thing about this is sometimes Mass Effect gets "accused" of being a shooter and not an RPG but its mechanics definitely very much an RPG by de-emphasizing aiming skill and such. You can pause at any time to aim for example, unless they changed it in Mass Effect 2. For example you could hold the space bar down and everything freezes, then you can appropriately lead the enemy and choose to use a power... and when you let go of the space bar it happens. Right after that you can hold the space bar again and choose your next action, etc, taking away the need for reflex and emphasizing strategy (though you don't need to pause like that to play).

Skyrim isn't Mass Effect though so I'm not saying I think it should utilize the "pause any time to plan your actions" system. It works very well though in my opinion.

Likelikelikelikelike. Totally agree.

^ this.

There needs to be a "only certain spells" option in the poll.

Hell no. Like we really need TES games to get any easier. :meh:

This topic is very interesting. It shows the obvious fact that there is no consensus in how people view this series. In other topics you will see many people criticizing the series as moving too close to an action game rather than being a statistics based RPG, but here we see people that are very supportive of magic being more about aiming skill in action than about strategic spell usage that isn't dependent on aiming skill.

Should magic really be about twitch action and first person shooter-like aiming? Honestly I don't care as long as it's fun, but it's an interesting discussion.

These polls are a very small fraction of the amount of tes fans. Not to mention there's ways the polls can be cheated.

I was going to make a thread suggesting they put Magic Missile in Skyrim, but then I decided better of it. All the same I want some heat-seeking spells! My dual-anolog micro isnt the best and having a few auto targetting spells would really come in handy.

If only a few spells have magnetism (I was thinking the Drain spells as MOST of them are rather non life threatening) it is fine. But there is a reason I choose to be a long distance spellcaster. It is challenging and fun and hitting more won't make it more fun to me.

This options is the answer "yes" to question 1. It doesn't say that you want all magic to be like that.

lol, you're implying that the magic in Elder Scrolls works well enough for you to use it skillfully. It's simply too slow for you to reliably hit someone just by leading them. The fact that you would be so snooty about it implies that you'd rather have a mechanic broken in a game rather than working effectively just so you can talk down to people who actually prefer games to be polished. Magic shouldn't work like the Mooninites' ray gun in ATHF. This is a videogame, not a comedy.

Don't see why actually, spells have the option of being area effect so you don't have to hit target just the ground nearby. Actually it's quite possible that Skyrim get something like the bullet correction in fallout 3, very visible if you use a gatling laser on long range with high big gun skills.
I'm sceptical, a self aiming spell has two problems fist it can be abused, as spells has very long range you can just cast a lot of spells hundred of meter away from a bandit camp and the spells will automatically target the bandits and kill them.
Second it has to be smart enough to avoid hitting other things on the way to the target, worse case enemy is behind cover and only the top of the head is visible, you aim at head, fireball auto adjust to centre of mass and hit cover.

Played a couple of pure mages in Oblivion and all used long range attack most of the time.
No problem at all, only miss the zoom function archers have.

However an auto aim arrow would be a cool spell effect, very overpowered unless expensive and high level requirements.

No, part of the fun of being a mage in TES games is that your character is throwing the spells wherever you point at, not just homing in to your enemy. It requires skill, especially in the ebb and flow of combat, and is more immersive.

No VATS-equivalent or seeking spells, Skyrim is looking so far like a non-dumbed down sequel, but it would be considerably if this was put in.

However, one or two specific spell effects that did this would be okay with me i guess...if it made sense for them to do so. For example, if it was chain lightning that arced to the nearest target, or like the seeker glaive from midas magic. But the vast majority should have to be aimed.

I liked the way combat rewarded you in Oblivion: If you hit someone, it was because YOU were good enough to do that. Including spells and arrows. Instead of in Morrowind, where it was determined on you characters skill level of some sort. It takes some of the freedom away if you get assist in combat. No from me.

I'd like it on CERTAIN spells, as long as those spells are weaker and maybe move a bit slower. They should also be blockable with certain types of shields if they time the block right. It would be easy enough to implement I think.

Also, regular spells should be faster I think. Nothing too significant, but just so you don't always have to cast ahead of the enemy only to see them change direction.

yes

for the magic missile spell which I will add if its not in game already

fire ball (with perk) should be guided by us

For the player: definitely no!

For NPCs, Monsters etc.: Maybe to some extent that could be good, because magic opponents in Oblivion were really easy to defeat. But they shouldn't be all auto-target and imba, there should be ways to a rouge or fighter to avoid enemy spells also.

I voted no for reasons I will get into below.

In response to this post above, I certainly wouldn't classify myself as an 'RPG purist', as some are, but I'm more of a game enthusiast who holds player skill in the highest of regards, when playing any sort of game.

I mean lets really look at this statistics based strategic gameplay for a second. It was heavily used and developed in older RPG games because of a lack of technology to really translate those statistics, numbers and percentages into precise on screen action, in worlds that were designed of poor visual quality (because of weak graphical capabilities). Nowadays, however, technology has advanced to a point that allows us a visual immersion factor, that should be considered as much a necessity in any RPG game, as any other facet should . Roleplaying at its core is now as much about visual immersion, as it is about developing and defining a specific character's attributes and skills with numbers, percentages and statistics. Beautiful, rich, realistic environments go a long way to helping me 'roleplay' my character. Meanwhile developer creativity and ingenuity, coupled with the advances in technology and game development tools, have allowed these old number based skill systems, which define our characters, to be translated into tangible actions and effects that can be seen, felt and heard on-screen, and whose precise and proper use, not to mention their well-timed implementation is literally now in the hands of the gamer(as it should be) rather than decided by a roll of the dice. This however, doesn't simply come down to being able to aim quickly and effectively with a mouse/gamepad(but that certainly is a part of it). To me the strategy comes in when I have to quickly anolyze whats happening on screen and react expediently and accordingly, given what I know about these variables in the game, and all the while, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of my character, and trying to decide what that type of character would do. Lastly it must look epic, or at the very least sensible. If it doesn't, my level of immersion is severely disturbed. And so because of this I slowly but surely master the skills involved in controlling my character in the game, and I constantly push the limits of what I can do with my character, until I'm extremely good at it, and the actions that I'm creating on screen are visually satisfying; often spectacular, but ultimately stay true to my 'roleplaying' experience.

Personally, and so long as it can be avoided, I strive to keep my combat scenarios from degrading into messy, pointless hack and slash fights, or ridiculous looking, side-strafing, panicky jumping battles that muddy the visual experience I'm trying to create and absorb at the same time.

So in closing, player skill is of the utmost concern in my mind. The greater the challenge it is to master, and the more complex and diverse the system is that the player's skill can affect and alter, the better experience I have playing a game. So I say no to anything auto-aim, auto-target, or auto-lock implemented in the game. I would say to anyone who feels that they need it----just try and get better, it makes the game experience that much more rewarding when you really do something amazing on screen.

As long as they don't turn into homing missiles I'm OK with auto targeting

There are better ways to make the game challenging than to have spellcasting be the equivalent of an FPS Yes it should come down to player skill but I don't think having just a couple auto-targetting spells would break the game. Magic Missile starts off as a very weak spell anyways and you can level it up to shoot additional missiles each time you cast it. It could be balanced

I am with the "no" people on this one. I don’t mind if only some spells used it in a clever way which does not make mages overpowered. Not the silly lazy mage way i.e. sitting on a hill spamming auto hit spells at a camp of enemies and before they can run a meter towards you, they are dead.

This feature works in mass effect its true. But the elder scrolls has always been designed to be first person fantasy role playing game. Don’t give me the first person shooter crap, how many fantasy games have you seen that is in the first person and requires you to use your brain while fighting? Not many at all, which makes elder scrolls unique. There is also nothing stopping you planning ahead of battles if you prefer turn based mode however. You could sneak attack from a good position, use an aoe freeze spell to slow them down and then rain down destruction (using the skyrim magic system anyway).

Of course I am not against this, if they implement some auto lock spells which don’t overpower mages, I am all for it. But changing all spells to this will not "polish" or "improve" the system as it would make mages overpowered and, dare i say it, the lazy class.

I voted yes to both, first of all it svcks when your spells don't hit, what a waste of magicka right? Then, because it's magic, I see no reason why your character shouldn't be able to affect its course. It also look hella cool.

I also think that you should be able to buy perks that will improve your autotargeting.

In Morrowind a homing missile like fireball with fire damage 9 for 10 seconds would be very popular against cliffracers.

It's funny how 90% of the people who vote "no" say that they would however like this effect on some spells, when the "yes" option of the poll does not imply that the effect should be used on every spell

No, it would make magic much easier than melee or marksman, which would be unfair. Instead, they should just crank up the speed at which projectile spells move, making them much harder to dodge (but still possible, especially at longer ranges.)