Ok, before I start: some people may consider some of what I am about to say a spoiler, although I believe that would be extremely nit-picky.

And a quick edit to add, because some folks didn't get it, the title of the thread was meant in jest.
... so..

For a game setting that's Tolkienesque, Middle Earthish, Dark Agey in nature, there sure is a lot of shootin' in Skyrim.
Feels like at least 9 out of 10 NPCs are carrying bows and arrows, and the 1 out of 10 is a mage who, no matter if novice, adept, master, whatever, he/she can shoot ice shards/lighting bolts/balls of fire at you indefinitely, as if they have infinite magicka (and I have yet to see any mage use a staff, BTW). Even the creatures shoot stuff at you.

Why is there so much shooting in Skyrim?

I guess I can see why the need for arrows, since dragons tend to fly around for a long time before eventually landing (although I must say, I have yet to shoot an arrow at a dragon, I prefer to use shouts and/or plain catch them mid flight from a hill. or wait until they eventually land) but everyone with bows and arrows? I always play melee characters, and it seems just about every single enemy I come in contact with, is back-pedalling shooting stuff at me, so I spend most of the combat sequences trying to dodge projectiles and cornering the enemies so they cannot back-pedal away from me. It is specially frustrating when it is a mage who can shoot ice shards forever, the ones that slow you down, those take forever to corner.

I can't wait for the construction set to come out so I can fix that, among other "must-fix" stuff.

Mages do not have unlimited magicka, if you use a weapon that either absorbs or damages magicka, they will run out and pull out any weapon they have or punch you.

I feel as if you've stretched things a bit just to try to fit CoD into Skyrim.

I don't have any problems with things like that, I mostly use my bow any way.

If you hide behind cover and deny line of sight to your enemies they'll slowly come to you. Using your environment more (when possible) should make this a non-issue.

Also, do you have pains in your back? Because your stretching pretty far out there.

Dont see your point, Lord of the Rings was one of the most protracted ranged fights Ive seen. Sauron never gets within 3000 yards of Frodo or anyone else.

That said your post doesnt even moderately resemble Skyrim, hence shouldnt be treated that seriously. As said you were just really wanting a way to compare this game to MW3. Good on ya, very original.

I guess one needs to explain everything on this forum because some people...

The title was in jest
But the amount of shooting in the game, that's the gist of my observation.

..I tell you, someday Biometrics are going to advance...

Yeah, like how every companion seems to always switch to a bow, even if I just gave them a Super Awesome Sword of Death Mongering with +10 to one hitting stuff. It's weird.

Yea I asked the support team at Bethesda, it's actually a glitch. For some reason all the npcs have an invisible hunting bow in their inventory that they have the urge to use whenever possible lol
Hopefully they'll fix it.

*sights enemy from 30 yards away*

do you
1 use a bow to get a few hits on the enemy before he notices you
2 run toward the enemy axe swinging

i think option 1 makes more sense

Yeah, I guess this is a problem if you just run up to every enemy wagging a sword at it.....

It's more the instances where you are in a place like a hall, or corridor, and the enemy right in front of you pulls out a bow and arrow and starts back-pedalling That just annoys me to no end. Not to mention, I do favor melee characters, so if I see an enemy on the distance, I charge!

It makes sense to start off with a bow but I never do it. I sprint forward with my shield and knock everything over.

Despite what lots of people are saying, I gotta say I notice this too. Most of the enemies use some sort of bow or ranged weapon, and maybe switch to something else for up close.

I was kinda hoping that they would be the opposite, mostly using melee weapons and only a few using bows (since bows take much more training and time to master). I made a character specifically for like sneaking up on and ambushing enemies by killing them before they could get close, and instead I often get into shoot-outs. Quick ones because it's pretty easy to shoot and it does alot of damage, but still.

Oh I get it now, it was a joke, haha.

Anyways now that that awkwardness is over with, no there are just as many enemies that rush straight up to me to fight in melee range as there are that shoot at me, it seems pretty balanced to me. Again I think the only point of this thread was to mention COD.

A non-sense is not a jest if it only works in your head. Anyway, the amount of shootung seem quite reasonable to me, and enemies magicka DO run out. mage has an upperhand on melee warrior is actually an understandable design, you just need to be more tactical.

i agree there are some issues such as companion using bows though.

my comment on the part saying mages dont use staffs well lets rephrase that, in ur game u havent seen them use staffs. i have quite a few times but other than that yes this game does have alot of things shot at u though it doesnt bother my. there is a thing in game to help close the gap between u and them

Most enemies with bows do not back peddle very fast and once you get into melee range they pull out a weapon to go at you. Also the ratio is more like half and half as I see it and that seems to be only NPC enemies, I have never seen a wolf or bear back peddle while shooting you with a bow. Also mages have magicka just like you do, most weak mages I ran into run out of magicka after a couple spells and then pull out a weapon and run at you.

if you dont drain it im pretty sure it cant run out though (or they already top it off by time they hit you once with their dagger, either way it is bs considering their spells can hit 400+ damage), but that is my only grip about ranged enemys (not that there are a lot of them)

Yeah... I'm with you on Frost spells. Those things are damn annoying, because every mage seems to use them. They make Stamina a useless stat to invest in for combat purposes, because no matter how much you have, it sits on 0 during the fight.

Yeah, I use that technique for mages especially. Love your avatar, btw.

Skyrim: Call of Duty?

*pulls out her eyes*

*crushes them*

I REFUSE TO BEHOLD SUCH A THING.


Seriously... in a world where you might go for a stroll and run into three elves throwing lightning bolts or a plain old eleven foot tall brown bear picking his teeth with a evergreen tree... You can bet your last septim that I'm going around with something that lets me damage things before they get too close.

cause it would be pretty stupid if for every enemy you could just stand on top of a rock and throw stuff at them until they are dead