Like absolutely nothing.

I like the idea of the weapon looking normal until it strikes something, or maybe flash occasionally.

A fantastic idea. Ading runes to a sword which speaks of the magic in it. I would love to see this.

just so long as they dont give the weapon a wierd colored oil slick like effect its all good

i think the enchanting glow/outline in oblivion was pretty good actually.

Morrowind's was just horrible looking all around. It looked like someone mixed the contents of a glowstick with oil and then coated the weapon or armor in the resulting substance. However, Oblivion's was just dull. All it did was create a faint outline that didn't even seem to show up half the time on armor. Boring.

I like the Two Worlds 2 example for weapons though.

Yeah, I totally agree. Runes would be great. Subtle effects upon striking would be okay. I'm just hoping I don't get a weapon that looks like a crayon, because it's enchanted. I don't like the changes in color, nor do I like the shiny effect. So, runes would be great.

REALISM


fire spells should make the blade glow red as if it were heated, very strong fire enchantments should glow white and then blue .

ice enchants should make the weapon look like it has been in a snowstorm/ the blade should look frozen

with electricity the weapon should not change in appearance, but it should make a little lightning when used

I still find that way too much.
I want really subtle enchantments.
Or maybe they should only "activate" in combat?

THIS!
makes me think of the lord of the rings, how frodo sees things in its "true" form when wearing the ring. For example his blade has red flames, and he also see things that are invisible.

It would be a great way of showing if the weapon has enchantment left in it, so long as the fire within it burns and casts flames out of the blade then it has enchantment left, but when it turns into normal/shallow looking you know it is empty for now. And while we are at it, bring back recharging enchantments ala morrowind to weapons, the enchantment system on armor and clothing was silly imo but it works on weapons. I can already imagine having the sword drained of elemental power, only to suddenly burst to life in my hands! Whahaa!

Weapon enchantments should have one material effect and one surrounding effect (all optional, you can choose to disable the visual effect when you enchant), to allow combining enchantents visually. Using a sword as an example:

Weapon material effects:

Red-hot blade (Fire Damage)
Frosted blade (Frost Damage
Electricity running along blade (Shock Damage)
Rusted, pitted blade (Damage/Drain Health/Magicka/Attribute, Disintegrate Weapon/Armor)
Glowing blade (white for Light [weapon illuminates area like a torch when drawn], purple for Burden, green for Paralyze, blue for Demoralize and Silence, red for Soul Trap and Weakness to ____ )

Weapon surrounding effects:

Fire surrounding blade (Fire Damage)
Icy mist (Frost Damage)
Arches of electricity rising off the weapon [like the two at the top of this picture: http://tesladownunder.com/Open08TeslaPeterRod.jpg ] (Shock Damage)
Blade coated in a dripping ooze (green for Damage Health/Fatigue, blue for Damage Magicka, red for Corrode Weapon/Armor, purple for Damage Attribute)
The above also appears on Poisoned weapons, with the same colour effects
Blade surrounded by coloured fire (green for Drain Health/Fatigue, blue for Drain Magicka, purple for Drain Attribute, white for Turn Undead

Edit: Also I like the idea of the magnitude of the visual effects depending on the power of the enchantment, and the remaining charge of the weapon. For recharging weapons, I thought it would be a good idea if you could passively recharge your depleted enchanted weapons by holding them while your magicka was full. You channel your magicka into the weapon through your hands, at the rate you would normally continue to recharge magicka in your body (with a modifier based on your Enchanting skill). So with an Enchanting skill of 64, your weapon would recharge at 0.64 of your normal magicka-recharge rate, if you were holding the weapon and your magicka bar was full (ie you're bursting with magicka).

For Battlemages who make use of enchanted weapons, this would mean having to find a comprimise between using spells and recharging their weapons during long fights, and since battlmages ususally have high Willpower, their weapons would recharge quickly). Pure warriors would rarely use spells, so would benefit from longer periods of recharge during battle, but would probably have lower willpower, so the rate would be lower.

I myself am a bit of a detail oriented person when it comes to visuals, so in my minds eye a wielder possessing say, a magic blade enchanted with a flame enchantment would draw the sooty blade from its scabbard and after a second one might see red glowing runes dance up the blade from the pommel and upon reaching the tip the blade would burst into flame sending wisps of smoke and heat distortions forth. When striking an enemy the flame of the blade would momentarily course from the blade to the enemies body or clothing igniting them for a second or leaving a wisp of smoke and plumes where struck.

A frost weapon would be drawn forth with a scraping shrill as the icy blade is freed from the scabbard after a second the blue glowing runes would fade in from black and cause the blade and wielders gauntlet to frost over like steel left out in the winter snow. a slight white aura with tiny snowflakes permeates the blade. When an enemy is struck a similar effect would occur the frost from the blade would pass from the weapon to the area of the enemy where struck be it weapon or armor causing small areas of ice and steam to form.

A Shock Weapon would be drawn with runes slowly crackling lightly and then increasing until the blade is crackling wildly with spidery bolts and surges which dance and reach out towards any nearby metals the hum of electricity and small zapping sounds issue forth.


I personally wasn't very pleased with the enchanting system in oblivion i felt the effectiveness of weapons was too limited and charges were drained too quickly to make them fun. what i would like to see are more specific uses for the enchantments such as :

Fire enchantments more useful against leather armors, creatures of Frost and Undead, and combustible materials.
Frost enchantments more useful against an enemies Weapon or shield making them more brittle and prone to damage or breakage from successive strikes, creatures of fire
Shock enchantments more useful against metal based armors, creatures of stone or steel, igniting combustibles or a momentarily interrupting spell casters as they are zapped.
Acid enchantments more useful against unarmored Creatures and placing a weak damage over time effect on the victim as the acid eats away at their flesh that grows in strength with each successful strike.
perhaps also adding holy or unholy enchantments only available via questing from Daedra shrines. either dealing damage or weakening effects to undead or Daedra.

not to sound like a complete dork but i have been playing table top role playing games since 1989 and have given this genre a ton of thought. it takes both an artistic mind, a bit of acting, great detail, imagination and a lust for a perfect effect to keep the players and yourself content. Id love to share my views anytime, if anyone needs an idea just ask.

This.


Nice. I'd love to see these, although I don't think that the devs would implement this in any way to the game at this point of development.

Yes enchantment looks good, Daggerfall enchanting glow was also good in Morrowind thats plastic look was bad, oblivion was better but shaders need some tweaks from mods
BTW
Ahh Two Worlds 2 was great improvement since from first Two Worlds game,
Divinity II - Flames of Vengeance was also good, but Arcania was horrible, interesting how much Skyrim will better?

I hope we'll be able to enchant a weapon so that it can serve a second role as a torch for example, like the Trueflame from Tribunal.

The one thing in oblivion was the fact that there was only on enchantment allowed on armor,
In skyrim you should be able to add more enchantments depending on you effectiveness in enchantment what do you all think. :foodndrink: