They wouldn't make concept art of anything if it wasn't in the game in the first place.

That's not exactly true. Plenty of Concept Art is created only to never be used at all. In fact, MOST of it early on is iterations. A little bit more like this, a bit less like that. Later on, the art defines itself for and becomes a part of the practical design but HUGE amounts of it is never formally used.

That said, this video was intended to showcase the art in the game, a mere nine months before it ships. The images they showed today were specifically chosen to given us a feel for the game. They are actively holding out on showing the game in action, so these little bits are designed to wet the palatte.

A good base example is the Troll. He looks quite similar in-game to the concept art. It's not exact but it's clearly the design they went for.

i think its even better than morrowinds system. imagine youre super good at fighting with a one handed sword. wouldnt it be kinda weird if you totally svcked at fighting with some other one handed weapon? of course you wouldnt be just as good, but youd be better than someone who didnt know how to fight at all. with this system you could pick one handed as skill, sword as perk, use swords but still be able to fight with one handed axes with decent efficiency. i like it

and i think all the art indicates polearms and/or spears will be in the game. would be somewhat mean of them to show us this otherwise, get our hopes up.

I'm inclined to think that the concept art showing multiple halberds is some sort of positive sign that we'll get some halberds/spears in the game. Hopeful :fingerscrossed:

But just to stoke the fires of pessimism, recall this concept art for Oblivion: http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0/3318/338913-screenshot2_super.jpg

Looks like the Iron Halberd from Morrowind. keeping my hopes up for polearms, don't even care if it's a separate skill or not anymore.

The reason I doubt they are in is because of the logistics of having it in the game-polearms or spears.

A) Where is it stored when you aren't using it? Maybe they assume that hiding a spear in your backpack is too much of the imagination to be realistic.

B) How would spears be very useful in close combat, which constitutes a large portion of the game. Spears and polearms were generally anti-cavalry weapons, although I see their use against monsters.

C) It would be hard to animate a battle sequence with polearms, which would restrict player and attacker movement because of their length/bulkiness--messing up animations and stuff.



Well, I hope they are in, because they can fix these things, but I know this is what makes them rare in video games. In Assassin's creed you could pick them up but not carry them with you as a main weapon.

People sure do love their spears round here.

Has anyone seen any actual spears(pointy ended sticks) excluding halberds and the like? We might not see actual spears because there isn't much you can do with a spear besides straight stab. They'll likely go with halberds because you can swipe horizontal and vertical with them as well as stabbing aka more interesting. Who knows though.

I'm not at all saying I'm against spears I would love some spear combat. I'd actually like spears to be one-handed so you can use a shield with them and be Spartan like. Here's a video of an awesome looking spear mod for Oblivion. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8TI8-opic they should handle the spears similarly. Maybe lose the over-the-top spinning though lol.

When I clicked on OP's link, that fake security virus that tells that you have a trojan virus, but when you hit "OK" it actually shut downs your real anti-virus software, started downloading on my computer.

Did anybody else get that too?

The OP just needs to change his/her link to the direct link to the image, so the ads and pop ups don't get in the way.

Interesting point, but if Bethesda were going to consistently apply that reasoning, then you might argue that they should also exclude axes/maces, since there isn't much you can do with them besides swing from one side of your body to the other....

Of course, there are arguments to be made that there's more to be done with an axe/mace. Put a spike on top and you can thrust with them to do damage. But similarly, you could imagine someone flicking the butt of a spear in a circular motion to do damage.

It's really hard to say at this point. It really all depends. Some pole-arms are more like spears, some are more like axes. In Morrowind they were lumped with spears. This was fine because each weapon in Morrowind had different damage points for styles of attacks. So while an axe might do 20 chop damage and 0 thrust damage, and a spear might do 20 thrust damage and 0 chop damage, a halberd could do 10 thrust and 10 chop.

Oblivion scrapped that system. So now what? Most of the ones I've seen are more on the axe-y side.

+1

Very true but generally a side-to-side motion of an axe is more interesting and fluent than a thrust. But you're correct... To be honest, I would love if they added 1-handed spears with the only offensive technique is a thrust or joust. It gives more meaning to use the spear over another weapon, and vice versa gives you reason to drop the spear and pull out that sword in your sheath(similar logic behind the improved bow, sometimes you either have to retreat away or drop the bow and pull out a sword) Just like magic there are now positives and negatives to using a certain weapon.

Or as you said, if the spear is 2-handed then there are more options. Swing the butt of the sword around like a staff and do some Chinese-like fighting. Which is also fine with me. I'd prefer the 1-handed spear and shield combo but I likely won't use it too often so I'm cool with either.

The likely candidates for polearms include: halberd, glaive, danish axe(appears to be the style "the executioner" wields), and the non-bladed staves. Which are all the 2-handed style, instead of the 1-handed greek/roman typical spear.

Why on earth is the spear erased O_o

Exactly. And the devs have been showing off their concept art because they say that that is what is in the game. I love how the spears are edited out, or erased, in that picture in the video. Looks like the devs wanted to make that announcement on a later date

I wonder if there will be a difference between a melée spear and a ranged spear. I would love for my spear to be throwable so I can impale my enemy then run in for a quick neck slit or perhaps just one big decepatation.

Just because the concept art shows some form of polearm doesn't guarentee they're in the game, after all, things shown in concept art may be subject to change before the game is finished. I'm certainly not seeing the game won't have spears, or polearms in general, I'm simply pointing out that we don't have any assurance we'll see the m yet.

I hope so, as well as perks. And I think it would be nice to one-hit-kill certain enemies with the ranged spear, watch them die an epic death, and then have to pull the spear out of their dead body with the visible use of your foot to hold the enemies body down as you pull out the spear

First off they would not show us any concept art before release of anything that is not in the game.

Secondly, if anyone was actually listening to the video you would have heard dude say that Todd and himself both frequent the concept artist's workspace and turn around was very quick, that concepts go directly to modeling and into the game very quickly. Which means two things, 1) the concept artists are aware of the game's mechanics and create concepts that don't contradict those mechanics 2) the modeling and texturing are being based directly on the concepts and not just using them as inspiration.

Look....tod and other dev's read this forum,they will be quite aware of how much we like spears.
Now i may be wrong....but i think thats their sly/cheeky way of saying spears etc are BACK!...without confirming it properly.
There is obviously going to be staffs...and in my opinion a staff is similar to a spear if that makes sense.
Also what people are for getting to mention is the rare weapons ( spears ) that appeared in morrowind.
The falmer ,if i remember right used spears.....if you think carefully,there is quite a few reasons as to why they would add spears/polearms.
Forging: if you can forge a staff why not a spear...we can mine materials,chop wood etc.
My conclusion.....spears will be there

What makes you say that? There's concept art for Oblivion, featuring a town guard wielding a spear. (I posted a link earlier in this thread, but it's not hard to Google, anyway).

Now, maybe there are different circumstances - perhaps that Oblivion concept art was produced/released when Bethesda still intended to put spears in, or at least weren't aware that they wouldn't be putting them in. But it does seem like Bethesda have some sort of form for not putting things in the game which appeared in concept art.

(Just to clarify: I think this is a good sign as well, but I don't think its definitive. If you think there's good reason to think that the concept art is definitive, I'm sure lots of people would like to hear it!)

http://www.uesp.net/morrow/preview/sload.jpg Except as a soap ingredient!

Another thing i have just realized is: in the video it shows consept art for duel wielding too.
There is picture of a knight/warrior with his foot resting on a step or rock holding two swords ( or what appear to be ) over his shoulders.
My guess is that consept art is probably later game art that will make the game,but i see it as further proof that spears/polearms could be in.
But thats my thoughts on it.
Also.....did anyone notice the flaming arrow the archer was going to fire
Another thing i noticed in the video was,they said from something being concept to in game is quite quick because of the tools they use.
So spears could be added,if they are'nt there already.

Bethesda doesn't only improve their games over time by incorporating or omitting according to past successes and failures, they put that mind set into everything they do.

I mean c'mon it's plain to see how meticulously their media exposure has been laid out since FO3. Trust me every piece of concept art you've seen has been put in the game.

Think about it from the concept artist's point of view as well. Why have any concepts that were scraqed posted up on the wall for reference?