Yesterday I downloaded Arena and Daggerfall, and I have to say that they both have better combat systems then both Oblivion and Morrowind. In TES 1 & 2 you can hold down the attack button (right click) and can swing your weapon in any direction you want and can even thrust. This gives a much more realistic feel to combat, even though the graphics and blood effects look terrible. In Morrowind there was Directional combat, but there was only three directions you could swing, side to side, up and down, and forward and back. Not only that the direction you swung wasn't determined by the mouse it was determined by the direction your were walking, which makes it really hard to hit things because the enemies usually stand still while fighting. In Oblivion with the expectation of the power attacks, you could only swing side to side. If it weren't for the cool looking graphics and blood effects, that fighting system would have been considered the worst combat system they've had up to date. If the game developers really want Skyrim's combat to play and look well they should bring back the directional combat that the first pair of TES games had. In real life you can swing your weapon in just about every direction, and when you can't in a video game it just looks rigid and restrictive. The only problems with Arena and Daggerfall's combat system was that it was unclear if attacking form different angles had any effect on the enemy. The games are also slow to respond to your controls, there's not much stats on the weapons, and it didn't look flashy because of the graphics. With today's technology directional combat would make fighting much more intense, realistic, and cool looking. As well as making the combat look less rigid, more exciting, and give the players complete control over how they attack.

And how are you going to change directions of your attacks while fighting?

Exactly. We have severe button limitation on the consoles, and even though it would work on PC I'd rather not. I have played Daggerfall and the main thing that svcks about it is having to repeatedly adjust yourself to the enemy to even make things connect.

You hold down the mouse or attack button and swing as you do in TES 1 & 2, but this time you can move while swinging by using WASD.

But my point still stands, if you aren't looking straight at the enemy you will constantly be readjusting where you are looking. It worked on the old games because you didn't have to worry about blocking, or enemies moving away from you so you only had to run up to them and hold the mouse button. I hope the AI is better than that on Skyrim.

On consoles you would hold down the trigger and swing using the anolog stick that controls your head. This system would also work perfect on Konnect and Move. The second problem you mentioned is due to the fact that the game is old. A newer game would not have that problem.

The problem would be that you would need to constantly readjust where you're looking.

I think that could be solved by having your head lock on the enemy, sort of like a aim assist.

Kinect. DUH. 'Cause all gamers want one thing: to have to constantly move around to efficiently play the game we want to eat, drink, sleep and... well... nevermind what else.

Oh wait, I forgot my personal distasteful opinion of kinect.

So disregard my idea. It is THE STUPIDEST IDEA I'VE EVER HAD... God. I'm such a n'wah.



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In truth, I think anything involving Kinect, EYE, Move, or whatever the XBOX equivalent of Move is, is a terrible idea. I want to game for months straight. I definitely don't want to exercise doing it.

However, it is a good IDEA for TRIAL. I've never TRIED it, so I have no idea if I'd like it. It seems cool, mainly since I'd chop watermelons into nvde sculptures of Vivec, but it seems like it would be extremely difficult on console. Try it with another, less godly game.

Also, my HTML might be rusty..

Please take no offense at my obvious hatred of making games healthy activities...

:bolt:

EDIT: I should explain that what immediately came into my head was the introduction of kinect or such to the game, and that's what sparked my mention of it. Also, I meant a trial for directional combat is a good idea for a trial, not kinect or otherwise.

I understand a lot of your concerns. How the control scheme would work is clearly the biggest hurdle to this. For that reason it probably won't be in Skyrim. Not that it couldn't work. If you can't chose the exact angle that you want to attack form, at least make it so you can swing your weapon in different directions. Oblivion's combat looked so stupid. All you can do is click and swing your weapon back and forth endlessly. Every attack looks the same, fells the same, and deals just as much damage as the last blow. There's no thrusting or upper cuts, and you can only swing down using a power attack. It's absolutely boring. The fact that the enemy barely reacts to being hit doesn't help. If Skyrim's combat acts the same way, I'll be falling a sleep within minutes of starting the game. You should at least have the ability to swing in multipliable directions and the more freedom you have the better.

Oblivion combat wasn't that bad how you described it. You had to look out for openings, caused by recoiling either due to your attack or the their attack on your shield. Also If you were low on health you had to move away dodge away from strikes, and attacking with spells from afar.
Also it's way better than Morrowind, where your only input was getting close to the enemy and pressing the left mouse button.

And, yeah this fight system wouldn't work. For one I hate using the mouse for something other than looking around or moving the cursor. Second, it doesn't include dual-wielding, blocking, and spellcasting, as they worked completly differently in Daggerfall.

You could swing in different directions in Oblivion iirc.

Like, moving forward back or side to side changed it.

But, i might be mistaken.

For power attacks yeah but not really on basic swings. The combat system the OP is talking about is you actually controlling what direction the sword swings by holding a button and moving the mouse or anolog stick a specific direction.

Ah. I couldn't remember. And i really don't see how that could work with the whole dual wielding. But, i suppose they could probably figure out a way.

I'd want a classic option if they did though. Might not like it.

:spotted owl:

With dual wielding the game could just alternate which sword swings next. Or they could make so you hold down the left mouse button for your left hand, and right mouse button for your right.

Yeah, it could work. But what about for the people that play with consoles?

I'd love a gaming PC just for this game, but that isn't going to happen haha.

It would be the individual triggers on a console. Forcing you to alternate sword swings would rob you the point of dual wielding. But even then I still wouldn't enjoy it much.

This has been done in mount and blade and works perfectly.

No... just... no... That would only work if there were a lock-on ability like Metroid Prime, but even then, no.

you should play mount and blade.

Yeah, I can maybe see that for computer, but how could you possibly do it for consoles? If they tried it, it probably wouldn't work too well. And they certainly can't make that for PC and not the Console versions of the game. PC version is already better, with modding and such. Unfortunately, my computer probably isn't good enough for it, as I'm sure many people who want Skyrim's aren't. We're already at a loss, this would just be unfair.

Good thing we don't have to look up for those silly dragons or turn around when that mudcrab is nibbling our bum.

i hated morrowinds combat with a passion..OB was way better

so consoles are the reason we don't have directional combat?

No, directional combat would svck even on PC.