I remember Todd saying that the combat system uses 'magnetism'. For example when you have a companion and you're fighting a group of bandits your weapon will, for use of a better phrase, 'be attracted' to the bandits rather than your companion, to reduce the risk of friendly fire. This is obviously great, because that was an issue in Oblivion. Whenever a companion runs in front of you while you're attacking a creature, you never hear the end of it... :toughninja:

After watching the 3rd part of the E3 demo voiceover thingymajig, at the part where Todd is going mano-a-mano with the giant, there's a point where the giant is going to swing it's hammer down on Todd's head. To counter this, Todd blocked. What's really interesting though, is that the shield was actually raised higher than normal to protect Todd's holy noggin'. So what I'm getting at here is: Does this mean that magnetism is not only for offence to prevent friendly fire, but also for defence to block attacks from different angles? If so, awesome! :celebration:

Or am I getting a little ahead of myself here? :spotted owl:

Its like CoD auto aim but on a lower level. Both OB and Fo3 had this to some extent.

Magnetism makes you longer.

As long as the "camera" isn't attracted to stuff... I hate being locked in place.

What your seeing there is the Havok Behavior animation blending engine altering animations to compensate for differing sizes of enemies. The block would have been lower if Todd's opponent was the same height as his character.

so does a rack.

good i was always accidentally hitting or killing allies on oblivion

I'd say pretty much this. Love the addition of magnetism, the amount of times I used a power attack, only for my companion to come from nowhere and run in front of it... :rolleyes:

*So and so is dead* body ragdolls into nearest chasm. As annoying as it was, I couldn't help but giggle at the ragdoll effect.

I Hated that in Oblivion, especially with the KOT9 DLC, *Fights Aurorans* *Kills Knight by acciden* *message appears*

"YOU ARE NOT WORTHY"

Swear I can hear Michael Jackson singing. "You are not alone......."

Ally: "Help! Assault"
You: "I was aiming for the Scamp!"
Ally: "Die cur!"
*(Name here) rejects your yield*
You: "... Fine, you'll just have to die."
*20 seconds later*
Guard: "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
You: "Oh son of a..."

This happened sooo many times :biggrin: Part of Oblivion's charm.

Magnetism is just to stop you from accidentally hitting allies, what would be the point in also having that for blocking? In case you accidentally blocked an allies attack on you?

I'm talking about when an enemy attack comes from above you, like the fight with the giant in the E3 demo. The shield was raised above his head to block the attack, but the camera didn't move.

I understand what you meant, but even if you didn't raise the shield above your head you would still block the attack. The only reason they'd make you raise the shield above your head is to look better, if Bethesda didn't have it in there wouldn't be any gameplay effected.

thats an interesting blocking system. i sure hope it works that way.

Like someone else said, I believe this is just havok behavior animation blending. Here's a video that shows some features:

http://www.havok.com/index.php?page=havok-behavior

i dont care for magnetism, i would rather the AI not be fond of jumping in the line of fire of the strongest spell/echantment i manage to use then blaming it on me