Umm you did deal damage when blocking in oblivion once you reached a certain level (and no I'm not referring to shield bash).

Even a real world war hammer that isn't as large as a surreal fantasy game one exerts massive amounts of energy, if they didn't they wouldn't be effective weapons. Watch someone knocking down a house wall with a sledge hammer and you can just see how much energy is being imparted to the wall when it hits it. Now imagine blocking that, and I mean video game blocking where you just take it as opposed to trying to deflect it outwards away from your body.

Yes, you shouldn't be able to block attacks from certain enemies, a minotaur lord is a good example. The same should be aplied to dragons.

Well, axes and warhammers are more top heavy than swords, allowing a bigger umph when it comes to blows. Swords are generally more balanced, allowing one to have more finesse and easing up how to block, but loses its ability of not having such a crushing blow like hammers and axes.

if I were to take a hammer to a shield vs. a sword, the hammer would be much more destructive than a sword of equal weight. Same with axes. Same deal with harder armors.


Bleh, never got that high. But I'm referring to more of a combat move than holding your shield out, hoping someone hits you and you triggering the bash.

Also a sword blow is much easier to deflect away.

That too. But as I mentioned, a sword is quite a good weapon when it comes to defense, depend on the sword (in otherwords, I wouldn't expect good things to happen if one blocks with a katana or other thing blades). But a sword can be very effective against targets that are not as armored as someone who is decked out in full ebony. Also, claymores and other 2 handed swords tend rely more on weight than sharpness, but would be a more effective weapon to block with than an axe or hammer, whose wooden handle could break off into pieces.

Different kinds of weapons have very different affects on shields.

Most swords rely on strength rather than momentum, where the force of the blow is usually the strength of the arm swinging it, and is meant to be a cutting or dividing force on impact.

A warhammer or club, or to more a degree something like a morning star, functions through built up momentum and imparting the full weight of that energy directly into the target. Some may have spikes for penetration, but in general when the full weight of it is imparted into the shield, it imparts all that into the arm. Which yes, an attempt to directly block an attack like that would result in the shield smacking you in the head, pushing you over, serious arm/shoulder damage, or your shield (and possibly arm, shoulder, etc) fragmenting.

I think for blocking the key should be responsiveness. A light sword or knife blow may be fully blockable, but something heavy and powerful should be deflected away (this would be more difficult to recover from for the attacker and leave the defender ready for a counter attack as well). I like the way it was modded, a quick reflex allowing a full deflection and avoiding negative penalties. If the player is under heavy fire (lots of attacks or archers) they might need to hold their shield up, but this should be tiring and cause some residual damage.

However, considering the improvements promised to combat, including the way weapons are said to be wielded, I think there should be a real and thoughtful consideration towards avoidance (dodge) tactics versus block tactics. Once war hammers are coming in for the blow, they can't change directions. A full avoidance would be preferable.

Or having the shield skill to direct that momentum in a direction away. You're not blocking, you are redirecting. However, I will say a charged hit will be near impossible to redirect without getting hurt. It would be best to dodge the hammer, and smack the opponent's head with your shield, making them even more imbalanced, and come in with the kill.

Blocking with a shield against a sword should yield no damage, but should have very little (if any) recoil effect on the attacker.

Blocking with a shield against a blunt object should yield damage varying between minimal (a bandit hitting you with a warhammer) to substantial (a giant hitting you with a mace/axe/warhammer). Shields should also dent when hit by warhammers, get gashes when hit by swords/axes, and possibly be completely shattered when hit with a powerful strike from a mace.

Now, timing a block perfectly with your shield should not change the damage taken by you, but it should result in a little recoil from your opponent, giving you the opportunity to counter-attack.
Timing a block perfectly with your sword should result in some substantial recoil and a great opportunity to counter-attack.

Blocking with a sword instead of a shield should yield no damage, when blocking against another bladed weapon.
Blocking with a sword against a blunt object should yield no damage (unless you are seriously overpowered) and should result in damage to your sword/blade similar to that of a shield.

Also, there should always be the possibilty of being disarmed by a perfectly timed blocked or by a powerful attack.

Should be a skill component to the amount to damage taken, and to whether you block or deflect their blow, with deflecting being preferred to gain advantage by putting them off-stride.

Larger shields should block arrows, but not be magic arrow magnets.

Shields should block magic attacks, depending on material. A good metal or leather shield should block a fireball. The metal should do better against an ice spike, but the leather should do better against a lightning blast.

I agree.

But certain weapons like spears or axes should have a chance to go over or rip away the shield and ignore the shield resistance.

Also sicle swords would be cool.

Exactly. This is why they need to make it so you can dodge effectively. I don't want to just hit the "dodge" button and then the game decides where I should move, basically guaranteeing a successful dodge. I want to be able to control where I move to when I dodge an attack, and this should be effected by your player's agility/speed/balance. Also, they'd have to find a way where it isn't an abusable feature, so you can't just dodge and then attack, dodge and attack, dodge and attack until your opponent dies. Fatigue and attributes should greatly weigh in on this.

If you want real blocking you would need a more physics driven engine.
Because:


For that there would have to be different damage types, like blunt damage, piercing damage, and cutting damage.
Each blow would be divided into %'s of each damage. A sword, that is thrusting, might be 80% piercing 10% cutting and 10% blunt. If a shield were there, it would negate the piercing (unless it was enough to pierce the shield) and cutting damages, but transfer the blunt damage, which would be minimal.
A warhammer would be 100% blunt, a shield would transfer it.
And cutting damage is needed because chainmail would stop cutting damage, but transfer blunt (maybe absorb some of it for lighter armors, like fur) and piercing would penetrate it.

A system like this would be cool, to me at least, and far more realistic. But who wants to code all of that?
Although it could be done in a much less complex way, but thats no fun.

At least thats what I think should be done, but TES will never do it, its too far from the series.

Yes, yes, yes - demons souls had an excellent blocking mechanism. Fatigue was very palpable and needed to be monitored. Iw was quick to restore at complete rest but any action decresed its evoery rate and haing a shield up and attacking could not be sustained for very long.

I think that shields should have a combination of "damage threshold" and "damage reduction", so they should negate the damage taken to a certain amount and reduce the rest a bit as well.

Damage threshold should depend on the type and material of the shield, and damage reduction and the delay between the time that you press the block button and the time that it actually happens, could be related to your defensive skill level.

TES will do that! Because that is an absolutely amazing system and should already be implemented, because there ARE different forms of damage, and they NEED to be assessed differently.

Adding in this system would make the game so much more realistic and immersive, knowing that each weapon type really is different from the rest, and the effects from each are accurate.

+1 to you sir.

I hope that they have some shield shattering creatures in Skyrim that you have to try to dodge their slow attacks instead of trying to block them.

I think it should depend on the size of your enemy, the size and material of their weapon, and the strength of their blow. Sure, blocking a simple sword swipe from a High Elf shouldn't do much to you, but having an ogre smash your shield with a club should at least do some damage. Some attacks are simply better dodged than blocked, and I think Skyrim should reflect that with its blocking system.

I hate it when shields block all damage, esp when the npcs just keep blocking, it svcks, it makes shields to powerful and combat slower.

This.

And what BoredVirulence said about the piercing, cutting, and blunt. That'd be pretty awesome.