One thing that I was thinking about was,"What would make this game more realistic, then i thought of something. When in combat with someone in Oblivion, i noticed, as everyone did, that when ever the enemy holds up their shield, it deflects the blow even if you swing at a non-covered area. So one thing that could make it better is to make the NPC's actually have to block the attacks intended hit-spot instead of just holding up the shield and blocking everything regardless of its intended hit-spot.

Secondly,when attacking a foe, if your blow actually connects, the result of the blow should change depending on the weapon that is being used. For instance, if the player is using a mace, hammer, or blunted flail, the blow should do damage that more or less breaks the opponents bones. A sword or axe would just slice muscle and make it harder to move the limb in that way. Spears are obviously a weapon used for stabbing so that kind of explains itself as well as arrows, and halberds can either be used as a spear or as an extended axe.

Lastly, the fight should change throughout. If someone takes a blow, it should instantly alter the battle. By this I mean that the opponent should stagger backward a bit to recover from it and make it slightly harder to move that limb every time the limb is hit. But the most important part of this is adrenaline. If someone has taken enough blow the person will, undoubtedly, get angry and start to swing with more force than usual, making them harder to block. I know that this somewhat contradicts itself by moving slower than faster, but if you think about it, that's how it is in real life. And just like in real life, if you can overcome the opponents adrenaline even for a few seconds, the opponent starts to know that he is going to be beat, and basically fights back very slowly, or begs for mercy....Karma anyone...

These are just a few ideas that I thought of. Feel free to add to these, tell me why they won't work, or if you feel these are good ideas and should be added. Once again, just a few ideas.

A lot of nice ideas which would be nice to have, but if they apply to your enemies, they should probably apply to you too, and I can see how getting a broken leg while fighting every second Bonewalker would get pretty annoying.

I like the concept of your ideas but not sure about the practicality of them. I'm no developer but a combat system like that seems like it would be difficult to impiment in a cost effective manner. I think they have made improvements in the blow reactions depending on weapon type but don't quote me on that.

i think its possible the blocking hit-spot, i say that because for example armors and weapons have a specific hit area to decrease their durability .

Yeah these are good ideas but kind of impractical. I have heard that arrows will be more efficient (most likely a lot like how limbs and bullets work in Fallout), so there's a pretty good chance they'd find a way to include a limb system in Skyrim. Probably nothing to extensive though.

I don't think that's how it works, actually. I can't speak to armed combat with swords or other weapons, but when it comes to unarmed combat (hand-to-hand martial arts), I can tell you from personal experience that if an opponent takes enough solid blows he goes into shock. Another term for this is getting "punch drunk." Time seems to slow down, and it feels like you are moving around underwater. But you don't have to take my word for it--just watch any boxing match. After a fighter takes a few good hits, he does not suddenly get a burst of energy. Instead, he tends to cover up and tries to regain his strength and composure.

You will often see fighters late in a fight come out with a flurry of blows after just covering up and not doing much of anything. This is not adrenaline, though--this is the fighter digging deep for a last bit of strength and striking out in hopes of landing a blow that will turn the fight in their favor (and usually failing to do so because the flurry is so inaccurate, but occasionally it pays off). The adrenaline actually kicks in at the very beginning of a fight, and fuels the fight-or-flight response--if you're going to stand your ground, it gives you the extra energy to engage forcefully, and if you're going to run, it gives you that extra burst of speed to get away. Adrenaline is not like a power-up bar, where it kicks in after you take a certain amount of hits.

So, as far as realism goes, it would be more realistic to see NPCs (and players) becoming stunned after taking too many solid hits. In terms of game mechanics, I would reduce attack effectiveness (both accuracy and damage) by 50% or more, which would essentially force the NPC (or you) to either cover up/continue blocking until you shook it off or (more likely, since we're note in a boxing ring) try to flee.

They have said that combat will be more visceral (or something along those lines), so it will be interesting to see how this all turns out.

Thanks Suho for clearing that up for me, once more these were some things that just came to me, some were thought out more than others, that not being one of them even though I used "most importantly." I believe 100% that what you are saying is true, and i believe what you said at the end, more than sums up what i was tying to get across, thanks. If anyone has any other amendments to make, feel free to post them.

Also about the sword, mace and axe all doing different damages; Axes have bleeding effects, maces ignore armor and swords do..summin-er-other.

Swords can cause Critical Hits. (From Todd Howard's Q&A podcast)

Ill answer in an inverted way of how people usually answer: because they are unpractical, I dont like them. In order for me to like them, the have to be practical and make sense for a gameplay mechanic.