Never played Daggerfall or Arena, they were already old by the time I discovered Morrowind.

This is exactly why I find it stupid to try and compare games of such great distances in generations. I'm guilty of doing so occasionally, but it's just natural to do so I guess. But it is pretty useless to do this, even if you did play the game when it was first out, since your judgement now is clouded by different things, such as faulty memory, and nostalgia. That's everyone to a certain degree. The only thing you could do is replay the game, but then we're back to doing what you said, judging the game due to it's age.

In short, it's best to just not do so. The best thing we can do is judge it on our levels of enjoyment in my opinion. Combat's something you can judge I suppose though. Age doesn't effect gameplay that much, as I've played older games with better gameplay than new.

edit: Depends how old, I guess.

I was playing Morrowind less than 3 months ago as a nostalgic adventure and the combat system didn't seem very good to me, although I do play in 3rd person.

Ummm, no it isn't. In fact, it's considerably worse than Oblivion's combat, however, I can understand how one might think it is...Nostalgia glasses and all.

Nah. Oblivion's combat appart from stealth is pretty terrible. Does have decent magic system though.

It's pretty awful in first person and even worse in third.

The point I mean is simply that I really, really detest Oblivion's combat because the staggering and the damage sponge enemies. Then add on the crazy weapon/armor degradation and the mediocre archery and combat just isn't that enjoyable in Oblivion.

Morrowind's combat ain't as rosy as you're remembering it to be. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that you have an opinion and in mine, it's combat just isn't very good.

I prefer how Skyrim's has a slight bit more weight in the weapons.

Both combat systems are still awful, though.

Nostalgia glasses is now about as overused on this forum as the words "depth and casuals".

And before you accuse me, no I'm not a Morrowind fan boy...

Perhaps the reason people keep using those terms so much is that there is some truth to them. Right or, wrong, these terms have come to be used so much (in many cases) over very valid concerns on the direction video games seem to have taken. (not just Beth games).

What purpose would that serve?

... Morrowind's combat... was better... That's... that's a joke, right?

*whiff-whiff-whiff-whiff-thunk-whiff-whiff-thunk* Does that sound familiar. I recall dieing on my first trip outside Seyda Neen to a Kwama Forager... A KAWAMA FORAGER, because I couldn't hit the thing when it was standing perfectly still. And what about blocking? Your character was too dense to use his shield 90% of the time and just took it in the face like a champ.

Oblivion was a huge improvement over Morrowind, and Skyrim is an improvement over Oblivion. I don't really see how anyone can argue otherwise. How is packpeddling around a room while being chased by Umbra, at level one, and whittling away at him with an iron sword for 5 minutes so you can get practically the best weapon in the game, indicative of 'fun'. Back peddling broke Oblivion's combat like a government shutdown. As for the stamina thing... My stamina bar goes down when I block in Skyrim... I don't know what game you're playing.

Admitedly, there were some components of combat I think Oblivion handled much better. Some magical spells are kind of absurd to have linked to your hands. Night Eye, for instance. Destruction, Conjoration and some Alteration, sure, that makes sense, but other don't have a place like that. Oblivion's magic wasn't perfect, and it would be interesting if they could implement both components (gesture and somatic based magic maybe?) but even there I don't think the actual casting process in Skyrim was a step backwards... More of a step sideways. The rest of the magic system was another problem, mind you...

That's because your character's agility was low, if you had started with a higher percentage agility you would have hit it just fine.

I just played Morrowind last week. I think it's combat is pretty mediocre at the very best. It's more of a testament on how NOT fun Oblivion's combat is to me than how good Morrowind's is.

Now I'm confused. Would you mind explaining this post then? Where you clearly stated that it was, in fact, better than Oblivion's combat?

EDIT: to clarify, I've now played TES 3,4, and 5. Out of those three, I consider Skyrim to have the best combat out of those choices.

That's not the point, though. It shouldn't be able to miss a stationary target. It makes no sense.

Well yeah, it's effectively dodging you, you just don't see it.

Yes

And yes to this as well. It is kinda annoying seeing Depth depth depth, thrown around everywhere, but I have to admit, the people who do have a point, when in regards to things like the faction mission questlines, the questlines in general, the journal system, and so on. Some things are simplified for the best. Combat is one of those things that can benefit from being simplified a bit. Perks was a step in the right direction, but their mistake was removing attributes to have them. I'd choose perks over attributes any day, but having both would do a world of good to adding (wait for it) depth to the character stats system.

Do you believe in magic?

Actually Perks were the thing I hated most about the game when it came out.

They were probably the single most thing that caused me to make loads of unfinished characters at the start.

Perks were unnecessary and more suited to an MMO imo.

Other thing I never really liked is the way saves are made in this game, i.e not keeping your characters separate.

To blocking in Morrowind, that goes back to the age old argument of whether this game should be more like "true rpgs" or should gameplay be more action oriented. Having the shield block in according to your skill is an old rpg system, and isn't unusual. Why it doesn't work to me is because the game is in 3d. To me, this kind of function only works well on old rpg games where immersion wasn't the object of the game. I know, they're called roleplaying, but there's roleplaying, and then there's immersive roleplaying. Feeling like you're in the game. That, is what I think the developers are going for. It's not an rpg, its an action rpg. That's why they stopped making bash an automated thing, and gave players control of that, which did a world of good for this game's combat. I hated how I had to wait for my character to randomly bash. That's not immersive at all.

Of course, neither is kill cams, but hey, those are awesome, lol.

As far as backpedaling goes, I don't see what you mean. Walking backwards to avoid being hit? I still do that now, although just not as easily.

What's bad about them? The only thing I didn't like about them was some aren't very useful, and I think the tree thing is annoying. They should have a Fallout system where you can skip the crap ones if you wish. They also need more perks to promote different playstyles. A light armored assassin shouldn't be using a sword the same way a heavy armored warrior does.

edit: If they have attributes and perks, they can put more creativity into perks so most of them aren't damage multipliers but actual game changers.

And so invisible-dodge-mechanics is somehow better than, you know, enemies visable dodging? There is no way to justify the statement that Morrowind's combat was better or more fun, unless your idea of 'fun' is doing math to figure out how best to unbalance your character.

That's because you've not been reading my posts, because if you had you would know that I said that I think Morrowind's combat was the worst of the 3.

Again, it just comes down to whether you want TES to lean rpg mechanics or lean action mechanics. Some people find it more fun crunching numbers to make an optimal build that is combat effective rather than using, er, skill, I guess if you could call it that, to dodge and block.

Always taking the bait...

Probably the way I viewed them back then and the fact they were more important as I was playing on master level. As such attached too much importance on them and as the amount of perks were limited and crafting was also mixed within the perk system it lead to build conflicts that at the time couldn't be undone. Other than loading an earlier save if you were lucky enough to still have a suitable save.