Yeah, Perks kinda svck. In MW2 they were pretty cool as they were equalled out by other Perks, but Black Ops svckED with their Perks, ugh. I like the way things are in Oblivion. I'm not liking much about Skyrim that I'm reading. Now, of course, I'll have to play it to make any kind of real judgement...

Wait, this is a joke right? We're talking about a video game here.

well since they don't have weapon specific skills, they should at least call it something different than "blunt".
maybe "heavy weapons" or something?

Agreed.

I know! Oblivion's system worked fine, you level up by using skills/weapons/magic you get enough level ups in the skills, you get an actual level up and upgrade your strength, stamina, magica, endurance, acrobatics and some other stuff. Why are they changing it? The only change I've liked is that now any skill advancement can help level you up, noy just your major skills.

It's no more realistic than suddenly gaining any new ability or perk.

As far as a justification, it could just be that he's become skilled enough at combat in general, and fought enough swordsmen, that he's picked up a few of the basics in the use of that weapon.

Of course, you could use an Axe the whole way through and advance your sword perks, but that would be an intentional immersion break and so is negated by common sense.

totally true, (my mistake for using the word "unrealistic") and obviously I would learn no more about using a sword playing any TES game than if I sat on the couch and did nothing. my point is that it would have cost them nothing to not cut any of the skills. the people don't care that they were cut wouldn't care and the people who like the skills will be happy. it seems so needless to completely alter the skill system ever new title. change is good, but change something else, constantly changing parts of gameplay over and over again isn't necesary. change the things that were broke (which they seem to be doing for skyrim which is nice) but at most improve what worked instead of scrapping it completly.

I think time should be spent elsewhere, other than the combat period, it was fine in Oblivion. I known how to fight in Oblivion. Sure, I don't like the constant whacking with weapons, but the enemy DOES block, and they DO get staggered. I'll block which makes them recoil, then I'll strike and block again. Except for some realism issues, I'd say it's fine the way it was in Oblivion. :shrug:

No flame taken Also wanted to clarify when I mentioned sword and axe above I was talking about one-handed swords and one-handed axes. Of course the larger axes would be considerably different. But I agree for the most part. The weapons are completely different but training in one aspect of armed combat will greatly increase your ability in another. And that's why I agree to them combining axe and blade and use "one-handed" and "two-handed" skills instead. I didn't say that a master swordsman can be as good as a master axe wielder, just that training in one aspect of combat will improve a person's ability to learn another(it doesn't make you a master at it, though it does help your ability to learn in that discipline) As is with most forms of combat, ie. martial arts. Traditional boxing skill will help a person learn muy thai skills easier(but that person won't be as good as a person that trained all their life doing muay thai) See what I mean?


Agreed 100%. I mentioned this above as well. This is where perks play their role. Perks let you specialize between axe, blade and blunt. So with perks, we no longer need individual skills for axe and blade. And instead ties them together in a manner that is more realistic(My point is, with perks you don't need separate skills; similarly, without perks you'd need separate skills)

obviously keeping combat COMPLETELY the same is not great, and being able to equip specificly to each hand is exciting (for good or bad) but there is no need to throw out several skills that many liked and replacing them with a genericly named skill. it has the same affect as it was in OB, which is the point. this change hasn't changed any thing (we can still use the weapons). so why did they bother making the switch if it doesn't really change any thing?

A third time, agreed.

Really? That's great! The Oblivion way didn't make sense :S

Actually no it didn't, because it allowed weapons that didn't fall into a predetermined weapon class. Like an axe is half blade half blunt, a falchion is half blade half axe, except it has no class - or skill. A blade could have excellent cut (slash) whereas an axe could have lower cut and more blunt (crush). Picking up a falchion if you have perks for both blade and blunt let you utilize these with more effect, but you won't be able to reach the full potential as a swordsman or a mace user. You get to be a better allrounder, but suffer from lack of specialization. An athlete may continue training as a swimmer or a runner, and he can get to become good at both, or really excel in one sacrificing the other. Works in real life, works for me as a game concept.

I prefer "jack of spades, master of none" over "master of everything".

One thing though, level ups should take a week to simulate the studying of the perk you choose. Also acts as an aid to advance game time, which can be used for other purposes.

I think the way the game is handling weapon skills is good.

It's not like you can know how to use a sword effectively but not an axe or a mace. They are all melee weapons, and they are all uses roughly in the same manner. What should be different isn't how the character handles them, but what those weapon types offer in combat.

there has not previously been falchion's (but I always applaud the addtion of more weapons)

the thing is tho, you could be the jack of trades in OB as well as master of everything. you had a choice. now you can more easily be a jack of trades, but there is no reward for being master of everything.

Ultimately at first I believed that this change would reduce the use of weapons but I am not thinking that now. now I am just confused why all this effort was put into a redundant change. we could have had perks and left blunt and blad separate.