When Todd said there's no spears, people freak out. Sometimes it's amusing to see the reacting being so dramatic and makes me wonder why is spear so good and beloved? In morrowind, spears are very popular because it's simply easy to use. All you do is keep facing the enemy and poke, and he'll never be able to get close to you, because every time you poke he's pushed back. This is not balanced. In real life, when you use a spear to poke the enemy, the enemy can easily parry it out of his way and get close to you while you have nothing to protect yourself. Therefore, spears are either used for special occasions (against cavalry or in a formation), or if used as a personal weapon, the length is greatly reduced to the point that it's almost a claymore (this is configuration is often used in Chinese martial arts), to gain more versatility.

However in TES games today, weapon clipping hasn't evolved to the point where spear's disadvantage can be represented in the game, it's difficult to balance the spears, and if attempt to balance it in some way, it'll either come out as a super weapon again, or utterly useless. That's apparently not what the devs want to see.

About crossbows, I personally like crossbows because it enhances class balance (well, I know there's no defined classes, but there's still classes otherwise every character will be the same). Why? because crossbows are in fact "bows and arrows for dummies". If you are a character dedicated to sword and block, what happens when you want to do ranged attack, such as hunting? It would be too stupid to run around chasing a deer with a sword to hunt for venison, it's just not realistic. What can you do? You should be able to pick up a crossbow which is supposed to require less marksman skill (which, in real life, is true), and shoot the deer. Of course, as a penalty, you cannot reload it in a short time, so you probably cannot use it effectively in combat, or you need to switch weapon as soon as you have taken a shot. This is also true in real life combat, such as cavalry sometimes carry a one-shot crossbow, do a quick ranged attack before engaging in close range. Heck, even the ancient Roman legionaries carry a throwing spear and cast it before melee fights. So I don't think crossbow is useless.

Im not a fan of crossbows but cmon! A huge spear stuck in the rear of a woolly mammoth!!!!????!!!!!

Mount and Blade has spears. Weapon clipping in that seems fine. Spears are not overpowered in that game. Your entire argument about spears is invalid? Actually, no. The fact is that spear type weapons are much more useful versus cavalry or as cavalry than versus regular infantry in M&B, so you're actually fine. The problem is that spears ARE good weapons in certain situations, and it's easy to carry a sword or something for when the spear is impractical. Personally, I don't care that spears are not in Skyrim (it's just a weapon), but I don't think that arguing that it's because they can't work in video games is a good idea.

Crossbows are simple bows. They should be more "fixed" (they're better than bows at lower archery skill, but worse at higher) in terms of damage and accuracy. They can act as a backup for melee characters, just like swords could for bow users.

Apparently this http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/article_06522ab0-34ac-11e0-8a15-001cc4c002e0.html

in MB, spears are used mainly on horseback.

my idea is great

Yea.

You can't reload any decent sized crossbow while moving. That's a good enough balancing disadvantage for me.

That's fine and dandy because that's pretty much the reason Todd gave for not including them. Well, in the sense that to make them work would be a lot more time and resources, also equaling in pushing the game back. To generalize them not working in video games is going too far. Each game is different. Spears would not work in Gears of War. Likewise, with the approach that Bethesda is taking towards combat is apparently leaving a fair amount of problems when it comes to balancing the spears.

We don't need any fancy or intellctual excuses or answers.

WE JUST WANT SPEARS AND CROSSBOWS!!!!!

Yeah, good luck using that logic thing. You wait. Any minute now, shrieks of THEY'VE HAD SINCE OBLIVION TO BALANCE SPEARS, SIX YEARS, WHY DIDN'T BLAH BLAH.

I think you are over simplifying the reasons people like Spears. People don't like them because they are overpowered in MW. They like them in spite of the fact they are overpowered. They are an interesting weapon that allows for a little bit more role playing. I hope they are in, its not the end of the world if they are not and I really don't know what is meant by "the classical sense," but I still hope they are in.

Crossbow, heavy crossbow, long bow, short bow, composite bow, war bow, throwing knives, javelin, and shuriken adds *depth* to the ranged class, were we now only have bow. All of which would have their own special advantages AND disadvantages. Like swords and maces (should be), there is no ultimate bow. Meelee (and magic) already has enough depth with a [censored]load of weapon varieties to it to make it interesting.

No spears. [censored]! +1 on the generic setting meter. *sigh* Not looking good.

yea bethesda has definitely over-simplified the game for the sake of kiddies and they will fail again

Thank you, someone else that can break the spell of the overpowered skills to realize it. I mean, BGS realized it and several players realized it but the masses apparently have not <_<


Crossbows in reality are too slow to reload. This fact just can't be magically over looked even in TES. It also doesn't fit because Skyrim is low tech. Magic is a very rare occurrence in Skyrim. Even a crossbow would be a little high tech for Skyrim. I wouldn't be disappointed if Crossbows were added to the game but I definitely won't be disappointed if they aren't in because there are many factors why they wouldn't and not very many why they should be in. The only factor that would warrant them being in is diversity in ranged weapons, that's it.

I agree with you concerning spears. I, personally, would like to see them in the game but also understand the difficulties the devs may be facing. However, I doubt that most people that want spears will accept any type of logical explanation. :grad:

Your wrong about spear being able to be parried out of the way. Spears are a powereful weapon that can be used in any battle situation. I love spears.
The idea, spears aren't in game hurts me, but I don't cry about it.
I train with spears, so I don't need them in every game. Their inclusion would have been nice though.

Gameplay thoughts aside, spears just MUST be in a nordic setting. It already felt strange that they were lacking in Oblivion.

If I think of a warrior - an imperial legion soldier or a warrior of a Nord tribe - I generally think of spears. If I think of armies, I think of spears. If I think of town guards, I think of spears. How silly would the battles in Lord of the Rings have looked without polearms? Spears are THE weapon of the professional fighter, and a game that has armed forces ought to have spears. A sword is a fine backup-weapon, but nothing beats the style factor of town guards having the spears crossed in front of the gate to deny access to some stranger. Or an army approaching, with the spear heads high above the heads of the soldiers. Or the lone warrior, resting on his spear with the shield in front of him.

Polearms are just very stylish weapons. A sword looks good when in the hand of someone, but only polearms look good when in an idle state. Be it soldiers waiting for the fight to start or town guards walking around with their spear shouldered. It just has so much more style than generic swords/axes at the belt / on the back.

Umm, how so do you know that.

Anyways yah, spears dont seem to be to hard to put in, but hey, what do I know. I dont mind, just it would be nice.

On the subject of crossbows, well, longer reload times, cant move while reloading, but increased damage. They have more punching power. Anyways Im not concerned with Spears and crossbows, Im concerned with unarmed weapons, adn retrievable throwing hatchets.

HAHAHAHAHA

Stopped reading right there.

Spears were NOT popular in Morrowind and were consistently the lowest voted for used weapon in polls. Bethesda claimed they removed them in Oblivion BECAUSE no one used them. Anyone claiming spears were over powered (they consistently had the lowest damage among weapons) never handled the Sword of White Woe or Sunder.

Can we have a unique (1 of a kind) "repeater" crossbow like Van Helsing's?

Honestly...

I heard Dragons where in this game, 1st thought was wheres my Spear!

>_<

I feel like some people didn't actually read the OP, just saw the word "spears" and went OMG I WANT SPEARS WHY WON'T YOU LET ME HAVE SPEARS.

Umm maybe because I own a crossbow? Not to mention I'm sure if you go and google crossbow you'll get some kind of SPM rating which is probably two or three SPM.



Don't need spears, you have polearms, gratz, you have what you love and it's balanced by having to swing instead of stabbing to lock enemies down so your invincible like in Morrowind.