In my recent Poll regarding Combat Options entitled "Enemy Reactions in Combat" I asked the question whether enemies should be able to distract you and mentioned this could be chosen from "a long list of Distractions" ... so now I wanted to explore those more fully in a seperate Poll.

Here is my list of Distractions ...

1. Armour Shine - enemy uses a shield to produce a bright glare that burns your eyes for several moments ... (Result: screen goes almost entirely golden white with only a tiny amount of outlines (ink mode) using a shader. You literally can't see anything because the display is washed out so you would do what you would normally do, try to make sense of what you can see and do your best)

2. Alchemical Smoke Flask - enemy throws down a ball of smoke that covers your view, giving him/her time to slip around behind you for a sneak attack. If you are used to this attack, you may be able to predict it quickly enough to turn and catch the fool in the act. (Result: smoke fills the screen all around you giving the enemy time to move somewhere else)

3. Shield Toss - enemy throws his shield at you, stunning you with a loud metalic clang to your face, simultaneously covering your view. (Result: screen goes black behind the shield blocking your eyes and you hear a loud ringing gong sound that adds a cinematic effect of shaking the screen in blurry waves... every on-screen image is doubled and you don't know which one is the real one....)

4. Darkness (Spell) - enemy casts Darkness as a Fast-spell, meaning he can cast this and still move. The area in which you are standing goes completely black unless you have a special kind of Elven-similar ultravision or something familiar to that. (Result: blackness is total, can only hear sounds inside the affected area.)

5. Flat of the Blade - enemy strikes you in the face with the flat of his blade causing vision damage to your eyes (Result: you see everything in red hues like your eyeballs were bloodied (or you were inside an Oblivion Gate hahaha) ...

6. Combat Distraction 1: - enemy throws something to your left, causing you to look over where he's throwing while he goes in for a strike on your right (your new blind spot, thank you) (Result: the camera automatically follows the "feint" produced by your enemy unless you roll your "Combat Experience" skill check successfully, in which case you ignore the feint with a quick snort of derision.

7. Combat Distraction 2: -enemy kicks up some dirt into your eyes, making you stagger backwards clutching at your face. (Result: it's very quick but the affect is pretty annoying, you drop your weapon to clutch your eyes and have to either pick it up again or equip a new one)

8. Combat Distraction 3: -enemy's mouth drops open as he looks over your shoulder at something terrifying behind you. (Result: you automatically look behind you unless you pass your Combat Experience skill check for "gullibility" in which case you just shake your head and laugh.

9. Combat Distraction 4: -enemy shouts "Dragons! Run for your lives!" (Result: unless you pass your Combat Experience skill check, you look up above you just long enough for your enemy to club you under the chin with his weapon, doing double damage)

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If you have some more ideas about Distractions, please post them!

I think that has potential to be the worst combat feature of all time. Imagine fighting multiple enemies at once and just getting "distracted" over and over and over. It's fine to be stunned for a brief moment as you stumble back from a blow or something like that, but other than that it's just excessive. It would be extremely frustrating.

Why cant we just kill them and move on to another activity....

No... and the suggested ideas are pretty lame.

1&4. As far as the "Darkness" and "Armor Shine" effects... just having the "Light" spell be able to temporarily blind/dazzle (Targets hit would be disoriented, and player screen would suffer "Too much bloom Obscurin' Mah vision!" would actually be a good idea, but have no other mechanical effects.

2. A smoke cloud could be workable, as long as the effect is a

3. Gotta hit my face first, but if it is possible to throw a shield like this and cause a temporary daze, sure. Your phrasing makes the idea sound much stupider than it is by trying to have it do too much.

4. In addition to the "Light" spell, since :facepalm: when :facepalm: have elves :facepalm: ever had some sort of "ultravision" in Tamriel? :facepalm:

5. If they have the precision to pull off this kind of stunt... why do they need the distraction in the first place? Such effort would be much better directed by stabbing the throat, requiring an equal amount of precision. So... no, this is stupid.

6-9. No, just no.
Combat distraction 1: No combatant ever lets his eyes leave his opponent. If he throws something, as far as the PC's concerned, it was a missed attack or he could check it out once he wasn't in imminent danger of impending stabbity. So if implemented, it would have to have a default 100% failure rate for everyone.
Combat distraction 2: Actually a good idea if it works, but you went way overboard on the effect. Stagger backward with the screen going awkward might work (But the off/shield-hand should automatically/reflexively raise to a defensive position, while your other hand reflexively tries to wipe away the distraction with the wrist, keeping the grip on the weapon firm. (And not actually rubbing the eye, just shielding it at most while he blinks the distraction free).
Combat distractions 3+4: Like the first, it should have a 100% failure rate. Unlike the first, it should be hard-coded. Neither threat (Potential dragon above you or Cosmic Horror behind you) is more imminent than a guy standing in front of you threatening you with stabbity. And, while the guy tries to bluff you like this, you can get a sneak-attack in, punishing the guy for being so patently stupid in trying to distract you with a stupidly vague threat of doom that might kill you within the next few minutes instead of within the second or two it would take to look. Also, people have a pair of things called ears which are really good at detecting things outside your field of view.

I don′t like the automatic responses and the darkness spell and infrared vision is D&D stuff we don′t have in TES (at least not the infrared vision in elves, only night vision in Khajiit please) and the strike with flat of the blade is something I don′t expect to see because if my enemy can do that then he can just strike with the other end of the blade... the one that slices my head in two.

But the rest is nice ideas.

The only idea I like here is the darkness spell and the smoke flask. The only other distraction should be your typical stagger.

I don't like this at all. Sounds incredibly annoying, especially forcing you to look at something. I'll decide whether I want to look at whatever they throw to the left. And why the hell would someone hit your face with the flat of their blade when hitting you with the edge and badly injuring if not killing you would be jsut as easy if not easier?

Hahaha, your reactions to this Poll are not what I expected but actually very funny and totally worth the price of admission. Some of the sarcasm had me rolling in my seat wondering what I was thinking to even add such a feature. But I'm glad I did, cause I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Thanks for your honest input, guys (or gals) ...

Scow2 supported his criticism with some thoughtful answers and I feel I am almost persuaded by them to turn against my own idea. So anyway, it appears the general consensus is that most of these are bad but just a few are pretty good. Well, that's something at least. hahahaha.

Thanks!

Hell no!

I have a hard enough time trying to do combat as it is now!

:toughninja:

I'd prefer it if different cultures lived in different regions with different features, and that they would use these features effectively against the player. I.e. is there are dusty regions, they could do the "Great Khan Move" - throw dust in your eyes during their attack to blur your vision. If they were located in the Volcanic Tundra area, they would use ambushes as a tactic. If they lived in the Glacier regions, they would use camouflage against you (similar to the spore creatures in FONV - very effective but passive).

The player, if he did well with these cultures, might be able to learn these moves, and take advantage of them where they were not intended. I.e. he could use camouflage in a snowy or dusty area. Or he could throw snow or tree branches as a small distraction. The original suggestions seems a little over the top for my preference.

The one about shouting "Dragon!" seems like the kind of thing that only works in comedies (where the opponent would say "I'm not falling for that stupid trick!", but there would actually be a dragon behind them), but blinding someone with a darkness spell or smoke bombs are a decent idea. Maybe illusion magic could conjure up a fake dragon that could scare people away.

"1. Armour Shine "
Even with a shield made of mirrors they couldn't blind you like that.


2. Alchemical Smoke Flask:
Pretty clichéd, but awkay.


"3. Shield Toss - enemy throws his shield at you, stunning you with a loud metalic clang to your face, simultaneously covering your view. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_%28physics%29


"6. Combat Distraction 1:
-Hey look, a stone
-What?Where?
-FATALITY!

7. Combat Distraction 2
Dropping your sword because of some dirt in your eyes?


Combat Distraction 3 & 4
No comment

I chose the smoke flask,mainly for escape,as it would hinder both you and the enemy in combat.
Not to keen on the others,especially throwing a shield,if you are skilled at using a shield,why throw it away?
Massive risk: you may miss,they could use it,your left exposed.....no thanks

Anyway, the idea was for something a little different that might crop up for a moment or two in one in every 5 battles, not meant to be used too often. And to sit here and list a 100 reasons they won't work is not very productive of you. I want to hire you to pretend to be a prisoner at my friend's jail so you can be the one to shoot down every one of their ideas on how to escape. Then, in that situation, I think you're a genius!

I may not like the ideas but I like the concept. Give different types of NPCs something to add a little flavor, like bandits might sometimes throw dirt in your eyes or goblins could... idk throw poo at you?