In Morrowind there were more weapon skills than there were in Oblivion, and it seems to have been boiled down even more in Skrym. The one-hand / two-hand idea is nice and simplifies the game, but I'd prefer a system such as this:

Divide every weapon skill up as much as possible (axe, mace, hammer, blunt, dagger, shortsword, longsword, greatsword, shortbow, longbow...) Have more skills than necessary. This alone is more clumsy and less accessible, but to fix that, you tie skills together so they they can level each other up.

It would not make sense that as a get better a short sword that my skill with longsword would not also improve. Each skill could be tied to other skills and for every point you increase in a skill, its related skills would go up .25 to .75 a point (based on the level difference)

So if you only ever used a long sword (lvl 100), your other sword skills may be at 40-60, and your heavy/axe/blunt skill would be 30-40, while your bows skills would not have increased at all.

I know this will never be implement, but is just a thought. Anyone else like the idea?

I like the current system.

I don't know. You might be overlooking the role that perks will play in character development. I think it will make things pretty diverse and satisfying. It would be one thing if all there was were those very general skills. But I can't wait for some perk details to be expanded on. I think that's the solution.

Yea, you have to account for the perks.

or how about instead of cluttering the list with useless skills we specialized one specific skill

Your post left me confused and disoriented. But I like how Beth is simplifying it and just going with 1-handed and 2-handed. And there are perks for each skill that lets become more focused in swords or axes or hammers or whatever so that kinda takes the place of that a bit. Plus I usually just stick to one weapon type so I would want that one weapon to become as good as it can get, I don't really care if my skill in other weapons is lacking.

nah i like what bethesda is doing now.

That's way too much separation. I wouldn't take it any farther then Axe, Blunt, Blade. Hammer and Mace different skills? WTH.

Firstly, short sword and longsword combat is different. Secondly, as Todd noted, there is a larger disparity between two handed weapons styles and 1 handed than ax vs. blunt vs. blade styles. Thirdly, the point was to reduce the number rather than increase them. Why do you need more skills?

This "more is better" and "more is instantly deeper" thing start to annoy me.

The current system is pretty much this. You have one generic skill that conveys most of the weapons, but you can specialize on your main weapon type with perks.

No, bad idea.
It just about limits you to using ONE type of weapon only, and that is horrible for the whole 'do whatever you want, be whoever you want' feel to the game. I would feel so restricted in terms of gameplay.

I like the idea myself. I'd like to see a game in which one could specialize in a particular weapon - not just a type, like one-handed or even blade, but a specific form, like dagger- and be rewarded with a skill level that isn't available to anyone who doesn't so specialize. The trade-off for that would be to only gain minimal skill, if any at all, with other weapons. And I like the idea of weighting it to related weapons - the dagger specialist would gain some amount of skill for short blades, a lesser amount for long blades, very little for claymores and none at all for anything else. That sort of trade-off is exactly how you define a character in a roleplaying game, and if you decide you want to do something else, you create a new character who does something else.

However, that's not going to happen in a TES game. They're obviously moving toward making it so that anyone can pick up any weapon at any time, always hit with it and always do maximum damage. So be it. That's just another thing that the revolutionary game to come - the one that will be to RPGs as Daggerfall was so many years ago - might do.

The new system is brillaint .. provided that it's done right. Learning to fight with a sword will help you with any other weapon to some degree, so bundling the skill set makes sense - provided that perks provide the promised specialization. Besides, if perks are moddablethena whole new world opens up.

We'll see when it comes out.

Why stop there? You could have separate skills for left and right hands (dual-wielding and all!). Two-handed skills could level up the dominant hand skill primarily and the off-hand separately. It could even be further divided into finger skills. For example, a katana is usually held such that the least pressure is on the dominant index finger, which acts more as a guide. So, Agility could govern the Katana Dominant Index Finger skill, while Strength handles the other three with increasing influence down to the pinkie.


So, in other words, the perk system. Provided they handle it the right way.


Yes, because weapon skill and Strength had absolutely no bearing on weapon damage.

Oblivion: 2 skills = Blunt and Blade

Skyrim: 2 skill = One-Hand and Two-Hand + Perks trees that specialize in axe, mace, or sword(maybe more).


The opposite of boiled down/simplified.

Your idea is valid, and i really like it, but this is too much programming. i think, u know how lazy these programmers are

Well there will be one handed and two handed weapon skills and perks what will describe how well you skilled with specific weapon type, question in number of such perks and can we add new ones to really make weapon specialists with them.

Or instead the more specific skills are actually subskills (aka perk lines) of the major skills?

Umm.. Perks? Yes perks are a very good way of specializing into certain weapons, instead of having 100 skills in the game, thank you.

Yeah, Bethesda's current setup makes more practical sense. You have your fighting-style foundation of One or Two handed preference, and then you perk to your preferred weapon. Sure, you could nitpick and say "How do I magically get better mace skills" but I'm not going to.

Basic one or two haned with perks to specialise sounds fine to me. Much of the skill involved in hitting an opponent in melee involves to the ability to read and misdirect him, things which are independent of the weapon used.