Sometimes I think that what they failed with in Morrowind (besides poor or non-existent animations) was lack of implementation of relativity to MW's combat system. Supposing that other aspects are even (stamina, Luck etc.), if you have 25 in Longblade skill, but your enemy has 25 agility, then you are more or less even and that means that hit chance should be somewhere around ~50%, but only against that enemy. On the other hand, if you try to hit an enemy with 100 agility while having 50 in Longblade, then your hit chance should be much lower, despite the fact that you have higher "nominal" skill. Big "positive" difference between your skill and enemy's agility could result in additional damage, e.g. when you have 100 in Longblade and enemy has 25 Agility, then you could strike with increased efficiency. This would pretty much solve the mudcrab problem if its statistics would be balanced - sure, you have 5 in Longblade, but that mudcrab has only 10 Agility, so your hit chance is not that small...

I still prefer mixed approach, however, as described in my previous posts.

I preferred Morrowind's magic system and Oblivion's melee system. Also, this is just a graphics thing, but it was awesome in Oblivion being able to light people on fire. A compromise between the two would be nice.

Personnaly I'd like a system based on Morrowinds but with better animations, for example, when you begin the game your sword strikes are sloppy and a little slow. When you miss your enemy you can see that you missed becuase your strikes are slow and sloppy or your opponant dodged or both, but it should be something you can actually see happening on screen. As your skill with the blade increases your strikes should become less sloppy, sharper and faster until eventually your strikes look fast and clean and smooth and you hit your enemy much more frequently and it's harder for them to dodge you. Perhaps the way you hold the blade could subtly change as your characters skill improves and the stance of your character could also change (when viewing your character in 3rd person with weapon drawn). As a previous poster has wrote, I think blade skill should determine parry skill and block skill should only affect the use of a shield.
It would be nice to see more variation in weapon swings as well. If you're playing as a pure melee fighter than it gets quite tedious when every battle is very similar as you simply strike right, left, right, left so on and so on with identical strikes as you hit the attack button/mouse click repeatably. Sure you can vary it with power attacks in OB and stabs in MW but it would be nice to have more variation in strikes and swings possibly have some sort of combo system? Not the sort of combos you'd get in Soul Calibre or some other beat 'em up but say if you attacked with 3 or 4 strikes in a row or in a quick succesion it'd be nice if your character varied his strikes. Or maybe a system that made it a little easier to combine basic strikes with stabs and back strikes, power attacks etc.

Wait, what? I thought you was hatin' on Morrowind's miss system. I completely agree that Oblivion's blocking needs to be skill based. I'm not too sure what I prefer in regards to manual blocking, but I agree that it shouldn't be so easy to block me. Though, in Oblivion's defense (have I said that before? ), the enemies do level with you. and have a higher block level that allows them to block easier due to it. But, I should be able to overcome them often, still.

What I think could make everyone happy, in regards to manual blocking, is make manual blocking ala Oblivion in the game, and the longer I have my shield / parry ready, the more my chance to successfully block drops. If I time my blocks perfectly, I will 100% block every attack on me. This also stops me having to stop combat for 5 minutes while the enemy annoyingly holds a shield infront of his face. Of course, I could block better when I have the shield up for longer with a good block skill.

The poll is missing a option for "neither" or "other" since that would be my choice, I would suggest a system that while it leans a bit more towards Oblivions is different in a few aspects.

Goblins can surpass you really easily once your on a higher level...
Made no sense. Their smelly, ugly, mongrels!

Or when they hold up a FREAKING DAGGER. Blocking was bad in Morrowind and is still bad in Oblivion.

It would also be nice, for Aesthetic reasons, that Arrows didn't go all the way through the sheild and armm but impacte just on, slightly through, or bounce off the shield.

Different types of shield like light and Tower shield, would be nice as well.

Dependant on the Shield. If I'm holding up an ebony shield, arrows should rarely go through the metal. If I'm holding up a wooden shield, arrows should frequently get stuck in. A simple dice roll to determine.

yeah thats what I meant, I was also thinking Ebony when I wrote bounce off, too...

It would be nice for armors as well.... Wait they should make so that, depending on what armour or weapon being usded depends on its effectiveness. Like if you weild an Iron sword against Ebony armour you will do nothing or next to nothing for damage. However and ebony sword against Iron Armour, basically, is super effective.

Introducing some "armour penetration" value to weapons would be generally a good idea. A warhammer may be less damaging to an ogre than a claymore, but if you want to penetrate heavy armour of a given enemy, there this is your best choice. A sword may be more effective against unarmoured opponents than a mace, but again, if you really want to penetrate daedric armour, then bring a mace, not a sword.

Besides AR, armours could have "damage threshold", i.e. any damage under a certain threshold would be ignored, but your armour would still lose durability.

It is "which do you prefer", not "what do you want in TES 5". This is just to gather info and suggestions to better improve the combat for TES 5 and future games.

Which is why more options should be added. I'm sure that most of us like elements of both systems and the poll is too rigid to show that.

Most of us aren't to familiar with Arena and Daggerfall, So I didn't include them. I am asking which current system your prefer, not theoretical. If I had an "other" option everyone would pick that and we get no real feedback other than "I think TES 5 battle system should be like...". The object of this pole is to look at the current ones and suggest improvements for future games.

Thats why I said "which do you prefer..." rather than "what do you want to see in TES5".

Improve is they key word, I would NOT speak for any of them since I think BOTH where badly done and an improvement would be to make something different.

Oblivion's was better but it was kind of ruined by the crappy level scaling of enemies. Its as simple as that.

I always take the actual players skill over in game character skill for any game. I hate JRPG's and actual player skill being a factor adds immersion because you are actually affecting the combat a lot more.

Oblivion wins.

They are dodging. That is what the "contact without damage" is supposed to represent. They just didn't implement it too well, so you don't see the enemy dodging and blocking, and whatnot, but they are.

:slap:

How dare you compare a brilliant game like Morrowind with a horrid game like Final Fantasy?

Final Fantasy is a great series, not as good as TES though. Plus they are UNCOMPARABLE. The only series I have played that can compare to TES is Neverwinter Nights.

I would go on a rant saying everything I dislike about Final Fantasy past the 6th game, but http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1569-Final-Fantasy-XIII video explains it all.

I LOVE zero punctuation so much. That guy is so funny. He has nothing but compliments for Fallout 3 and Oblivion.

PS I still love Final Fantasy.

Apparently Portal is still his favorite game.

Anyhoo, on topic...

I love Morrowind's style, but it's in desperate need of a dodge animation.

I prefer Oblivions by far, although I do like that magic could fail in Morrowind.

My love for him has just dropped.
I played portal and liked it, but, gosh, I used to know someone who was obsessed with portal and haddn't even PLAYED the game or had any familiarity to the game aside from the song and a flash game.

He liked the puzzle design and dark humor, I doubt he could care less about cake and "still alive" fanatics.