This seems obvious, but, sense we now have the hole "one-handed and two-handed" skills, spears should make a comeback, as well as halberds and any other type of pole arms. Spears could fit into both two-handed and one-handed (with perks to advance your skill in either style). But anyways, there should be many more weapoan types in Skyrim, if Beth misses this chance, well, that'd be pretty stupid, no?

EDIT: Post any and all types of arms you can come up with here.

Maybe so. I probably wouldn't use them though. :whoops:

:ahhh:

They'll be in for sure, whether Bethesda decides to put them in or the modding community, either way they'll end up, if not at release due to Bethesda, then modders will get them in. Let's just hope that when they do get modded in, if need be, they work just as well as the other weapon types.

I 'm not too worried, by the time I need to play through the game with spears I'm sure that a modder will have implemented them.

"Not in the traditional sense".

I think it's not so much a skill issue as it is one of animation. Spears and other like polearms are used differently than axes or the way two handed swords are used in games, you don't sing them all over the place. So if they added them they'd want to add all new animations that would only really work for one weapon type, whereas the current animations (I'm assuming) work for all two handed weapons. This is probably more of an effort now because I think they're doing mocap on all the animations. That aside I would love it if spears were in.

Actually, the real issue with animation is the fact that they have to include not only attack and and power attack animations, but also recoiling, blocking, and -- this is the big one -- sync kills for every last creature in the game.

i think that if they made it so that you could not put spears in your inventory (backed up by how long they are) but gave some humanoid enemies spears then bethesda would avoid having to animate the deaths of every enemy via spear or have to model lots of spear variations but would please many people...

perhaps you could pick spears up but not carry them for a long time/holster them... like assassins creed? (they were the best weapon in assassins creed but you could never keep them)

Right yeah I didn't even think of all that, there's probably idle animations and running animations for all the weapons too.

i love to use spears in any game

Only time I liked using a spear was the Zodiac Spear in FFXII. I did one playthrough with that.

If you can use a spear, you should be able to throw the damn thing at something now and again...

and you should be able to have other people with spears form up into some kind of formation to fight against you, as opposed to just run blindly in and poke, poke, poke, in a disjointed mess.

Myself, I'd prefer the throw war-axe/throw dagger perk. though I doubt that would be included...

And that's exactly what I'm thinking about short swords, daggers, small axes... Honeslty, it isn't that hard - throw an axe into someone in 3..5 meters ahead. You've got BIG target, MASSIVE piece of bladed steel (comparint to arrows, for example) - what's the problem with killing someone that way? BTW, it looks quite cool

A perk "throw weapon" in one-handed perk tree would be perfect, but it requies a bit of work with, well, throwing (animation, separation of player/weapon link), flying (it'll had to spin a lot during flight, and there could be some issues due to "wrong end hit" situations... If they've got physics-based damage model (which I think they tried several times, but throw away 'coz it's too realistic), then it is a bit less work), finally the most badass is NPC usage of an ability - it should has some sort of "desperade/confidense"-meter, so in extreme situations ("I'll kill hit with one sword thrown!" / "It's my last chanse, throw - then run if it wouldn't kill him") it could use this trick...

Yes, I want this... But that's a lot of work for dev team, so I kind of "dunno". Honestly, I prefer them to spend one week for this feature rather then spend it for more quests... I do believe that we'll get plenty of quests, but there'll be always some way to improve gameplay - that's how the whole TES series works as for me...

Why do people care so much about spears?

Because some of us really enjoyed using them in Morrowind, then got the short end of the stick (bah-dump-bump-ting!) in Oblivion when The Todd's pathological need to remove things kicked in and they were "streamlined" out of Oblivion.

They had a spear/halberd in the concept art, so i'm pretty sure at least one spear weapon will be in the game.

I sure hope Bethesda defines each weapon with its own set of animations, comparing it to other competing titles it is a major missing component.

Instead of the old whatever fits in your hand can be flailed about at anything in front of you weapon system (excluding bows and staffs)
They need a unique animation for each type, perhaps even more then 1 depending on your assigned style
i.e. 2h Swords - Katana types are wielded and animated considering the Slashing, Thrusting and Blocking.
- Claymore types are wielded and animated considering they are much heavier, and rely on powerful heavy strikes.

1h Swords - Rapier type weapons involve thrusts and parries etc.
- Short Swords use a lot of swift attacks
- Long Swords are balanced between swift and heavy attacks.

IMO if Bethesda were to implement such features and hopefully do a complete overhaul of the dodgy combat system, I wouldn't mind waiting an extra year if I knew it was gonna make me blow my load every time I was involved in an in-game fight

Haha yeah! It's very wishful thinking. I'm not going to try to pretend I understand the animation behind it. However, when you consider the complexity of the mocap in Lord of the Rings, I see how it could be done.

Lets just assume that they spend a week doing it.. If it was me, and bare with me in terms of units.

They make the initial speed such that when thrown over a flat service from [average race height]m high , the weapon travels 30 meters before hitting the ground
It can't be spammed. If the player is facing an enemy within 30m (for axes) or 20m (for knives) and power attacks, then the player throw his weapon. (Or would you prefer it to optional with a chance of players spamming it, in which case it won't be very powerful for balancing reasons, I imagine)
Axes will rotate once every 30m. Knives won't rotate or will rotate very fast. Further along the perk tree the axe will rotate once every 15m if the enemy is within that range. The wrong end hit results in a stun effect with low damage, the right end hit results in high damage with a little staggering effect. Maybe rather than the complex rotation, the axe/knife appears to be rotating but in fact the final damage relies on a probability calculation? (5% lethal, 95% non-lethal)

I can't decide whether I'd make it a killing move (i forgot the term, sorry) or a normal attack

I was playing Oblivion earlier and messing around with the staff of worms when I realized the staff animation could be used for a spear. Just a thought.

Spears, who cares about spears ... I would love to see realistic one and a half handed swords and scimitars ! Like a reallife Katana.

OH MY GOD

You don't think that "Not in the traditional sense" means ....

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mages staffs were cool, but they weren't a spear!!!

The other thing is, dragons! An article I read implied that dragons attack you from range before you bring them down to the ground, so if you aren't a bowman or a magic user, you can't bring them down to kill them unless they fly too close to the ground.... So a weapon with a long reach is a necessity for the role playing crowd. (Unless they do dive bomb you so that your shortsword can reach them). Or was that just the preview talking? Time will tell, but I'm keen for spears.

Animation is the least of its problems, the whole implementation is the problem.

If they put it in they should make it more than what it was in Morrowind, a dagger on a stick, the same weapon as everything else, except with longer reach.
One of the problems I can see is the reach. Realistically, a spear should be useful when there's a distance between the spearman and the enemy, if the enemy steps beyond the spears reach, you wouldn't be able to hit them. Now I don't know how can you implement this in a first person game, especially in a way that it won't make it annoying.

Have I completely misunderstood you? If the enemy steps beyond a swords reach, you wouldn't be able to hit them.... So... you move so they are within your reach... seeing as the AI charge like mad, that's not difficult... are you talking about close quarters combat? Well then you'd fight with a short spear like you would with a quarterstaff I'd imagine...

I so wanted a http://www.mtholyoke.edu/org/naginata/naginata1.gif it looks very Elvish and could have been wielded almost as a two handed blade. I'd be happy to take on a giant or a mammoth with a spear - not so sure about using a dagger on a big beast