Although it's obviously a system hugely biased in favour of the player, I think Assassin's Creed has some of the best sword-duelling gameplay around. A lot more cinematic than a Morrowind/Oblivion style click-fest.

I vote option number 2. I liked oblivions combat system but felt that it got a bit repetitive. I have never played dark messiah but it had pretty bad ratings and although it looked good and realistic I felt that it would be over too easy.

It could always be made more fair if enemies dealt a lot more damage, they attacked together, and they could parry and do high damaging moves too.

I really liked the Oblivion style, but a few more tweaks, and animations would make it perfect !

Oblivion style, but with some changes (especially to the attack available with melee and how spells work)

Every time a combat thread, a bunch of people say they want realistic combat with dismemberment and blood and stuff, then other say they want realistic combat like Mount&Blade with different attack directions, hight damage and stuff. There's also a few others but what everyone's almost always missing is the damn movement system!

You want detailed combat, you need detailed movement. This means it takes a second or so to start running from a stationary standing position; less accurate, weaker attacks while running (speed from your movement may or may not compensate for the lack of force); running backwards is slower than normal and imposes bigger penalties. Also, an opponent on the move is more likely to be knocked down, running makes it more probable, especially backwards.
Dodge moves would become so much more important if the above were implemented.

I agree. I didn't think to mention it here, but I would prefer your movement to be dynamic. Also giving you at best very limited control over your movement after jumping.

This exactly. Agility should determine how fast you can run the first few metres. Low agility mages won't be able to dodge you anymore.

Also I think it should be possible to break through a block. It's quite realistic that an orc smashing a warhammer powerattack still fumbles after hitting some weak goblin's dagger blocking him. If the enemy can't block decently (thieves and mages in particular), then it should be possible to just smash through their block without too much problem, especially if you're using a blunt weapon. It would make combat a bit faster at least. Also let power attacks be more rewarding in general.

IIt's a good thing if there's more action in TES combat, as long as the success of your actions is still governed by your attributes and skills.

Oh and implement a jumping drop attack.

Dark Messiah was basically Oblivion's combat (never miss, block using RMB), but had Morrowind's attacks (type of attack changes according to the direction you move when you press the button, and you can hold the attck button as long as you like without the attack being released, like Morrowind's power attacks), Dark Messiah also had a kick button and an adrenaline bar that would grant you a really strong special attack when full.

I have to say that was a great system. Much more fun than Oblivion's and Morrowind's combat.

Edit: I think an improved Dark Messiah system would be awesome. Add the ability to miss, and to fail at spellcasting and it would be awesome.

I'll give this idea a forth nod. I like realistic combat, but not excessive gore. If I want to see arms cut off, I'll watch The Holy Grail.

I missed enough by attempting to hit ghouls with my staff when they were jumping all around me and when the power attack could make 2 attacks in row and the camera view swung when the weapon did. Great system.

I agree with the suggestion on movement, they really need to learn how to make all those animations fluid first before they think about combat. Jumping in an Elder Scrolls game is weird.

Personally I'd rather that Bethesda just thought outside the box and had a unique "combat style" in TES V, hopefully one that implements more strategy than Dark Messiah, Oblivion, or OwSM (Oblivion with Special Moves). Hopefully that way there would be more depth to the system than just mindlessly hacking at enemies until they fall, while at the same time potentially solving the problem of stupid enemy combat tactics.

Just as a proof of concept example, suppose that I want combat to be at the same time a) more fast paced and strategic and B) drawn out over a longer period of time. With a system like Oblivion's, Dark Messiah's, or OwSM, combat is still the same old hacking fest until one person drops dead, usually lasting no more than a few seconds. One solution to my hypothetical problem is to simultaneously increase the pace of combat while introducing tactical moves such as blocks, parries, dodges, lunges, sweeps, etc, which can be programmed as a sequence depending on what your opponent does: for example, one simple program could look like this:

if [enemy lunges] then you [parry with (blade)] and [jump (backwards)] and if [x] and [y] then ...

You would actually have to think about what kind of response you had in combat, and would then be free to execute manual commands that require your own intervention. Moreover, maybe the complexity of these routines is limited by your skill.

Also, about movement I think if it were an issue then Bethesda would just borrow some of the technology that's being developed for BRINK (which looks pretty amazing).

P.P.S. tell me if you think any of my ideas promote "special case" combat realism that requires devoting a lot of time to scripting a particular combat effect at the expense of developing richer game systems.

Mount & blade style with some additions would be great