I wouldn't doubt it. They've put a ton of work into this new system.

Thanks for the cool info and thoughts guys. Wicked vids, Worm! Looking at the trailer it seems that individual body parts ragdoll and react when hit. Shouldn't be to hard for someone to mod weapons to do this too!! On an off note, I'm starting to hate that Skyrim countdown clock, too long of a wait.. I may go freeze myself in the ice and get Butters to thaw me out in Nov.

Welcome to swordfighting! You don't like that? Well, it's time to find a new weapon.

Not completely true. You can block with a spell in one hand and a weapon in the other. There are spell shields in Skyrim.

As for the thread, chances are there will be weapon collision as the new animation middleware allows for timed and choreographed attacks. This kind of choreographed fighting is pretty commonplace nowadays.

Realism wise that kind of clanging destroys weapons and isn't a smart way of blocking. Realism wise most sword fights would last a couple seconds.

I'm not a fan of too much realism, so this actually sounds kind of neat. It's NOT realism though.

Well actually, many sword fights (at least between skilled opponents) last several minutes but it has the same effect of lack of fun lol. I'm a fan of realism but there are times you can go too far in the standard version of a game (having to eat and drink to not die is too far in the standard version of a game but in a "hardcoe" mode it's fine and I love it.)

It depends. In eastern sword fight duels with, say samurai, the blades are meant to cut and the sword fight itself would be very quick.

However, the warriors of Skyrim are essentially vikings. And vikings qualify as representing the west. In the west, the swords and weaponry really more on chopping, and brute strength so the sharpness of the swords is not as important. Therefore, there would arguably be lots of clanging of swords since there would be parrying, since the edge of the sword is not as important as the strength behind it.

I think it's a great idea, but I'm afraid it might be a little too advanced to do it right.
To do it realistically, the game engine would have to enforce real physics on the weapons as well as actors and environment.
If it can be actually done, you would be able to swing your mace in water about your chest deep and watch the water splash. When you swing a blade too close to a wall, your swing would scratch (or even cut through) the wall and cause your attack to be weakened or completely blocked depends on your skill and strength. When two actors attack toward each other, the weapons would meet on somewhat mid point (depends on timing and speed of said actors) and cancle each others. Depends on angle and distances of these opponents, you might still get hit when that happens.
Depends on strength/skill of the actors and their timing, one may end up getting recoiled or even knocked back.
Did Bethesda go that far to create a realistic fight system for TES5? rather unlikely. I just don't think it's something they can easily whip up at this point.
Maybe in long distance future, we'd be able to enjoy that level of real action in TESxx. We can only dream.

Nah I saw some show "greatest warriors" or some such that did this Samurai vs. Viking "what if" scenario, and that's where I got it from. The several minute battles with swords constantly slamming into each other is mostly for TV and movies.

I highly doubt they collide. Everything from the recent previews (and the little I have seen of combat) point to a system very close to Oblivion. Previewers have stated that the combat seems to lack impact, and if you watch the one gameplay movie, the fight scene with the bandit shows the player character spinning and slicing at him with blood flying, but the sword never even comes close to connecting.

I was really hoping for great physics and colliding weapons and armor, but it looks like we will be getting essentially the same thing as Oblvion with weapons sort of phasing through objects. Maybe they can still change that before release, but I wouldn't hold my breath...

Treating them as solid objects would be the most impractical thing in the world. That need not be done to have weapons collide, like it happens in Dark Messiah.

And I think it funny how this sentence "it would add so much realism!" is treated as an empirically verifiable fact.

I believe Todd has confirmed parrying will be possible in Skyrim if I'm not mistaken.

I'm pretty sure it was in Oblivion, I remember fighting someone with a sword and we swung at the same time. We both staggered away, it just wasn't very clear. But it made a distinct sound, like 'schwang-g-g'. I'm sure it did.
So yes, I think it will be in Skyrim.

Parrying was in Oblivion. It was just a rare occurrence more so than common.

In Oblivion, WEAPONS did not collide. You could have recoil off of a block from a shield, but weapons themselves, IE BOTH weapons, did not collide.
We don't know if they will in Skyrim or not.

No in Oblivion you can block with weps

I would love this, but am unsure. We'd have to see when it comes out, it seems, but I doubt this

A great idea you've sprouted, OP.

Lol, you got him there. XD

No you would both hit each other and stagger backwards

I this this would be great and add a lot of tension to the battle.

But it could also get old very fast. Since I think it would happen very often.

You mean like in a REAL swordfight? I don't think making things act realistically would get old. Having swords magically phase through things that they weren't programmed to interact with however, does get old.

The only game i have seen that succesfuly implements sword-locks is assassins creed. But the movements of the assassin made it too brief, and were no where near what it would have to look like for two Nords classhing weapons. But i definately think that leaving this out would cause the combat to become very hollow.

You don't block with single handed weapons all that well.. you parry. I would love to see parry though

Huh? Yes they did. I remember in the arena my Nord warrior's 2-handed sword collided with an enemies 2 handed sword when I swung at the right time.