spears-
spears should be the most versatile weapon ingame. spears should have very powerfull heavy attacks and very fast quick attacks. spears should be throwable. there should be one handed and two handed spears. with long reach to keep enemies at bay, devastating attacks and the ability to throw the weapon, the spear may sound overpowered, however the spear should be very easy to block. any opponent with a shield is a threat, but otherwise a great all rounder

halberds ( a spear combined with an axe)
halberds share all the strengths and the weakness of a spear, however, the ability to throw the weapon has been swapped for a better swing to allow a single player to hold of multiple surrounding enemies. there are also no one handed variants


2h warhammers are very slow, one swing of the warhammer will come after two or three stabs from a shortsword,and the warhammer is very hard to block with. however the great strength of these weapons should be that enemy blocking having very little effect
battleaxes should be like warhammers, only slightly faster, slightly better blocking and almost as effective block breaking

war axes
war axes can be thrown, they can be dual wielded, but they are slow for a one handed weapon and thus are more easily blocked
maces are the fastest blunt weapon, they are also cheap and are good for enchanting. the drawback is the weaker fast attacks against armour


swords

claymores are faster than waraxes and have a better block, but they arent as effective in block breaking. the large swing and good lengh mean this badboy can hit multiple enemies at a time.

shortswords/wakashi are very fast, can be dual wielded, are very good behind a shield, good at blocking on their own and are a great all round weapon, but they do nothing against shields and have poor range, they also dont go fantastic against heavy armour. wakashi are faster but weaker
longswords are much slower, have no ability to dual wield but have a good block and decent range

daggers can be thrown, can be dual wielded, are very fast. at a low skill level blocking is useless, at a high skill level blocking surpasses many other weapons with the daggers speed. daggers are also very, very light and dont make the player much more visible, stealth kills are also faster



ranged:

short bows are fast, yet arent as powerfull
longbows are powerfull but slower to reload
crossbows are accurate for people with low marksman skill yet very slow to reload, at higher levels they are MUCH faster to reload. power does also start high yet not scale big.
shurikens can be thrown very fast




other notes
glass weapons are much lighter and faster than their weapon class should be
upon throwing a weapon, another will be drawn
any weapon that is very similar to another (a daikatana for example) will be very simmilar (to a claymore)




if a system like this would be used then combat would be more diverse

Agree with the spears bit. The most widely used melee weapon in history! You could throw'em for a one time devastating attack, but you couldn’t retrieve them until combat had ended.

Too tired to read the rest brother :thumbsup:

If you are asking...should this game be Monster Hunter...then the answer is definitely not! (and I like Monster Hunter as well, I just don't want this game to turn into that style of game).

I agree with the general principle - weapon should be different, and should feel different, but I'd add somethings to the "how".
1. The social aspect - unless you are a well know hero or a member of the guard you should not be allowed to run around the city with the war hammer equipped. Small weapon, as daggers, can be concealed, so they may be very useful for city based quests. Weapon on display should always influence how people react to you - majority of NPC should be wary of you if they can see that you are armed to the teeth, so charming them should be more difficult, some may even refuse to talk to you at all unless you look more or less harmless. Guards should watch the armed person more carefully This would make dagger really useful for thief, agent, and all socially orientated classes.
2. It's not only weapon but how you use it. I think we should be able to learn different fighting styles, that can use the same weapon for different things, and relay on different attributes - some styles utilize more force, and other styles your character speed and agility. And that should be the main strength of swords - versatility of fighting styles. I mean you can't get around the requirements of strength for a hammer, but with sword there are dozens of well known ways to wield it - for single attacks, crowd control, using you speed or your strength, that the reason for the popularity of swords - the are versatile, while other weapon is more task orientated.

I'd like to see other throwing weapons, a few throwing hatchets would be cool, just sinking one into a zombie's head would be quite cool

People underestimate the power and versitility of the sword. How they're portrayed in movies and video games is a poor representation of how they were used. That's why they, too, were heavily used. In most cases a spear doesn't stand much of a chance against swords.

i think with higher strengths and advanced training long swords and axes could be duel wielded with a trade off to defense to be more of a berserker style of fighting. other than that i agree with the op. weapon types should definably be broken up again like in morrowind.

the thing i disagree about spears is... at least two handed, they would be a little slower to swing and stab, wouldn't they be?

The problem with spears being the most versatile/powerful weapon is that, in reality, they were only commonly used because they were cheap as hell and easy to learn. Swords were much more effective weapons, but they were a great deal more expensive and difficult to learn to use, so spears were commonplace.

I would like to see a greater diversity in pole arms and hammers though. Real war hammers were not the massive, lumbering hulks that we have seen in previous games. They were one-handed weapons that were used to puncture armor and helmets. Very effective. Poleaxes would be cool too. (Or Bec de corbins)

This is what I think. You use weapons of similar types the same, Swords as swords, knives as knives, clubs as clubs, ect. but depending on how good you are, and who you train with, what you fight, you fighting style will change?
Besides, its a good chance that you will be able to add new animations to separate weapons anyway with the new engine.

...what is a "wakashi"?

do you mean WAKIZASHI?

would there even be any akaviri weaponry in skyrim?

morrowind had tons of katanas, dai-katanas, wakizashi, tantos... but oblivion only had akaviri katanas, thats a pretty big decrease, i expect to see none in skyrim, unless they include one or two akaviri weapons as unique weapons you can find hidden in the world somewhere.

Shuriken aren't so much a weapon as it is a tool for distraction. You might kill a rat with it or a dear given enough time, but against armor? No way Shuriken should have the same exceptional low yield as bows, but I guess both could be poisoned and wait for that good hit that finds the spot. Shuriken and throwing knives should have a special skill, throw. And daggers should have a special skill, daggers (short and long blade, as well as two handed should also be separate skills). However, shuriken and throwing knives can also be used as daggers (although cutting instead of stabbing) when up close, making it much easier to find the weak spot for poison to work. Similarly, daggers can be thrown. Long blade/spear and two handed are also skills that works kind of hand in hand. You have one and two handed long blades, as well as spear (actually also have throw ) which is one handed and large two handed halberds.

So, I love the idea, but it complicates skills more than I think most wants, and goes heavy against this simplified mainstreaming that goes on.

But, naturally I also hope we get mounted combat (and, knowing myself, evasion ). So spears and halberds should have a significant bonus against mounted combatants (halberd against the unit, spear against the mount). And if all you have is a dagger while mounted, you won't have the reach to do anything against anyone. So now bows become useful against the mount at least (unless they have horse armor ).

Means a lot to be created though, like tables and databases etc. Poor guys doing it

You do know Zombies can be headless... didn't you ever fight any in Oblivion? I know I sure did... yesterday, in fact.

spears are much, MUCH longer than swords. it doesn't matter how good you are with a sword when 100,000 men with spears twice as long as your sword are charging at you. with a sword you can block a spear but you can't retaliate without being very close. the romans had swords and spears , but the spears were their weapon of choice. with the advent of halberds and gunpowder, spears became obsolete, as they could not slash an enemy as well as a halberd. a halberd is essentially what was described by OP and should not be overcome with DERP SWORDS ARE BETTER THAN SPEARS. try pitting a fully trained claymore wielding knight against a fully trained halberd wielding knight.

the only disagreement i have is that short-swords don't have a stealth bonus. you can hide a short-sword in a jacket. that's my only problem. i don't think duel-wielding is a good idea unless you take off-hand weapons into effect. you would have to say which hand is stronger, yet if you swing a strong blow with your left hand, even tho you are right handed, your next right-handed blow will be off-balanced and do less dmg. too many factors to deal with duel wielding ATM.

good post OP!

Well. 100,000 men charging you with rubber chickens would probably have the same effect. One on one, the sword is a better weapon. All you have to do is parry the first thrust and then run inside it's effective range. And actually...the Roman gladius (sword) is what made them as effective as they were. It was short, thick, and sharp. You could either stab a 3 inch wide hole in somebody, or if you were close enough, use it like a cleaver to remove limbs and heads. The spear they used most often was the pilum, which was thrown. The Greeks may have preferred the spear, but this may be that the origin of Greek warfare were territorial disputes between city states, and they combat was not meant to be entirely deadly. You'd meet on a field, poke each other, and one side would give up.

However, the spear is definitely a underrated weapon, particularly in TES where they cut it from Oblivion. The most prolific weapon in the history of mankind? Really? As you say, their length can keep an enemy at bay -it's especially good for hunting- you can throw it, use one or two hands. They are cheap and light and go with every outfit in your closet.

We need playstyles with weapons.
Why should a war hammer feel like a sword which feels like a dagger?

Well there's your problem!

But yes, I agree with the rest of your post. Spears are one of the most prolific weapons because they're simple to make, simple to use, and effective.

Despite the OP saying that spears need to be thrown, I agree, but I think that everything should be able to be thrown (of course, that doesn't mean that it will be effective).