I prefer Oblivion's style, and it does implement character skill just as much as Morrowind. The differences are skill and fatigue in Oblivion affect how much damage one can give to an enemy rather than determining one's chance to hit or miss, various attacks can affect an enemy in different ways, being able to choose when to block, and an overall smoother and more satifying combat experience. It also makes learning how to use a low level skill by use rather than by training a more viable path due to actually learning with each attempt at an attack/spell instead of just on a rare occasion(when they hit, in Morrowind). I prefer always hitting while swinging in my enemy's direction with skill affecting damage rather than a chance to hit. Where people get the "it's based on player skill, not character skill" notion, I do not know.

I liked how [Morrowind's] combat system lent importance to fatigue and agility, attributes with relatively little use by comparison in Oblivion. Whilst it may have seemed confusing at first, by the third or fourth level most of the missing could be shrugged off. I like to think of it that whenever your weapon passes through your target, perhaps your character has fumbled their weapon due to their lack of expertise. Maybe your enemy managed to maneuver out of the way of the swing, because you have not yet mastered the balance of your weapon and thus cannot strike quickly. Since Morrowind is, well, Morrowind, there are no animations to serve as visual indicators for these sorts of things, but with a bit of imagination a fair bit of the missing you encounter at earlier levels can be forgiven. I also found the directional movement attacks to be a pretty interesting concept, so long as you had enough room to maneuver around in.

I personally don't care much for Oblivion's combat - though you may always land a hit, the combat itself feels too responsive and player movement too "locked" for my tastes. Power attacks are annoying - charge, and it takes you a second or two before you can move again. Block an attack, you reel back and don't have time to counterattack. Run away, you're flinching half the time (moreso than in Morrowind) and can never get away. You have no idea how many times I would've avoided death if I had merely another second or two to react. Instead, Bethesda has to gloss the entire system over with view bobbing and character movement. But that's just me - I greatly preferred Morrowind's "weave in, weave out" approach.

Morrowinds. I prefer character skill over player skill in my RPG's. There's been polls like this. Oblivion wins these. :sadvaultboy:

Can you honestly not see any of the glaring problems Oblivion has? You defend Oblivion in places that just shouldn't be defended. Oblivion is far more player based than Morrowind, but that's not nesseccarily a bad thing. It depends how you like your games. I prefer character skill. So, I prefer Morrowind.

Oblivion, just like Morrowind, and just like every other game in existence, has flaws.

And, actually, TES in general has pretty rubbish combat in comparison to other games. But, to be fair, it's hard to create a good first person fantasy game with good combat.

Defending Morrowind in places that it just shouldn't be defended include its combat system, yet it's defended there, under the guise of "more character skill".

More player based does not mean not character skill based. Defending Morrowind in places that it just shouldn't be defended include its combat system, yet it's defended there, under the guise of "more character skill". Feel what you want, but it's just a crappy system for a first-person, real-time game of any kind, in my opinion.

Calling Oblivion character skill based is ridiculous. The skills determine hardly anything. There's more damage done, sure, but lockpicking is actually easier to do manually than to find more lockpicks to replace those you broke with 100 lockpicking. speechcraft is just completely irrelevant. I don't know of anything, other than armourer/alchemy that has a real impact with higher skills.

And, I can kill anything with any level in a wepon skill, because everything levels with me. Once I start to do more damage with my higher skill, the enemies that spawn have more health, and it completely cancels it out. The only thing that really makes me have an edge over an enemy is a better weapon.

Again, being player based isn't a bad thing, it's entirely dependant on what you like. Just, calling Oblivion character based is ridiculous.

And I was defending Morrowind? I believe my post was the first one, other than the OP. No one was there to make me want to defend the game.

Calling Oblivion character skill based is ridiculous. The skills determine hardly anything. There's more damage done, sure, but lockpicking is actually easier to do manually than to find more lockpicks to replace those you broke with 100 lockpicking. speechcraft is just completely irrelevant. I don't know of anything, other than armourer/alchemy that has a real impact with higher skills.

No, Oblivion is character skill based. From the UESP:

Damage = BaseWeaponDamage * 0.5 * ( 0.75 + Strength * 0.005 ) * ( 0.2 + BladeSkill * 0.015 )

is the basic formula for damage dealt per normal strike with blades in Oblivion. A Daedric longsword has a damage value of 24. Plugging that into the equation and assuming one's strength is 50(just for an average number) while their blade skill is 10, we get:

24 * 1 * 0.35 = 8.4

Hey, I got seriously good at that minigame, if it could be more like Fallout 3 were you couldn't pick a certain level lock until you were said level, then we both win right?
Oh and other than armourer/alchemy there is magic being as you CAN'T use certain spells until you meet the level requirements.

And acrobatics has been the same as ever, except the level perks of course.

My first pole! :foodndrink:

Hey, I got seriously good at that minigame, if it could be more like Fallout 3 were you couldn't pick a certain level lock until you were said level, then we both win right?
Oh and other than armourer/alchemy there is magic being as you CAN'T use certain spells until you meet the level requirements.

Which is cancelled out by the fact that one you've got your level up to do more damage, the enemies have gotten harder.

I disagree. I hate the level requirements. Seems like a cop-out, imo. In Morrowind, even if your lockpick is level 10, you can still attempt a level 75 lock, but the chance of failure is super high. However (and I have done this) if you have enough lockpicks and stand there lockpicking long enough, I mean a really long time, you really can open a level 75 lock with level 10 lockpick skill.

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Creatures Some are replaced, but many stay where they are and only a few actually scale to your level in a way that doesn't allow surpassing them. It's not cancelled out, it's more like "hurry up and get stronger or we're going to surpass you and kick the crud out of you", for only a few of those few that actually scale. Oblivion's creature spawning list is a lot like Morrowind's, almost identical, even. The difference is that the creatures that do get replaced in Oblivion are replaced but typically with a different looking creature, not just the same thing with a disease or blight disease. The spawning is very similar and only those few creatures marked by an icon in that list actually scale to your level.

I prefer Oblivion's. Morrowind was more skill based, sure, but it took it to ridiculously extreme levels. My current character specializes in short swords, and can defeat enemies just as well as one can in Oblivion at only level 6. However, if I were to use absolutely any other weapon, or even attempt to use magic, I would miss miserably, never landing a blow while I was slowly defeated. I'm sorry, I like skill based systems as much as the next guy, but Morrowind was way too extreme. Oblivion isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. You can't just take pick up an Axe for the first time, after leveling up anything but Blunt, and expect to deal a lot of damage. You'll still do damage, but you wont do nearly as much damage as you would with a weapon you're proficient in. I like that system. It's much better, in my opinion, than being a super powerful player in Morrowind that could die at the hands of a mudcrab if he doesn't have any short swords in his inventory. Obviously this could be avoided by investing in other skills as well, but my point still stands.

I always thought that "lock is too complex" meant it was impossible to pick. but, even so, I agree with you. Most of the game follows this rule.

No, no, my brother taught me this actually.

It will say "lock is too complex."

Then, after a bunch of tries, it will say "lockpick failed."

Then, finally, "lockpick success." You just have to be real patient.

P.S. and Ondusi's open scroll is a much more practical strategy. I just mention this to point out the coolness of Morrowind's lockpicking skill.