I still think their on the table as of yet so there's hope but who knows.

Spears as a thrown weapon and types of them as thrown along with normal held weapons were seen in Fallout New Vegas and the Dead Money dlc.

What it says is potentially the mechanics are being a tough time for Bethesda and they don't want to say their in and when the game comes out say that spears weren't put in due to "technical issues."

Aside, I don't think bagging on Howard or the team respectively will accomplish anything. They already know the things everyone's been clamoring for. Their not stupid in that regard, they know what their fans want but don't exactly sway that way.

But I still personally suspect it's less about Todd staying true to Conan, and if he and the team is that's their right since this is their game, and more about having a hard time -Implementing- spears and every attribute that goes into putting it in the game. Hopefully they have luck getting them working and ingame.

Yeah, but this again, applies more to real life than The Elder Scrolls (Which I see you pointed out might be the case as well) - In TES, the wars aren't often fought with cavalry at all. Mostly footmen and mages.

Ah, we're good fella
Nothing quite like an internet argument to spruce up a lunch break.

Spears are also slashing weapons. Basically, they're just a blade on a stick. Like swords, you can poke (thrust) and you can slash.

Also, the carnassials aren't used to kill prey, they are used for shredding the flesh to eat the prey that was killed with the bites from the canines (either suffocation, blood loss from many wounds, or a kill bite to the back of the neck) and claws (if applicable).

The way I took it is that they are in it in some form. He said not in the traditional sense, which could be seen as a throwing weapon.

Instead of worrying about spears 'in the traditional sense' being out, I would rather like to know what is in. One handed has at the very least, daggers, war axes, maces, long and short swords, katanas, clubs, and possibly cutlasses. Surely two handed must have more than battle axe, warhammer and claymore, with a possibility of dai-katana?

Yeah, this is the case with most of the questions asked in the Podcast really.. The answers was mostly "No Comment", "We're working on it" or "We're experimenting with it" and such...

I guess we just have to wait a little longer for more information.

1. Your right, all the things you can do with a spear you can do with a polearm, but it's not the same the other way around. Also, Polearms have a cutting edge to them but not most spears have a cutting edge to them. They may have a barbed head but they in no way have a "cutting edge". There is a big difference between a Pole arm and a spear.

2. Your right, with spears, it will just be a blunt swing that will most likely not do any damage other than to stagger someone.

3. Spears are not really that fast. They are faster than a pole arm a bit but most weapons are much faster than a spear thrust. They have a reach and poking someone at a long range to the point they can't get to you in the game does not make for good gameplay, it just makes for your character being untouchable.

4. I don't see how a spear fight is more dynamic. Poke, poke, block, poke. Everything you have to do for a spear fight and more must be done in a polearm fight. This is a polearm fight : Swing, swing, block, stab, swing. There is more diversity in the fighting with a polearm and a spear.

5. I'm sure you can fish with a pole arm. Also, polearms can be used for cutting ropes or small trees. Have you ever tried to cut a small tree down with a spear?

That's lazyness only...

Now that we have no weapon skills other than one and two handed it's just a matter of an animation pack.I bet even a modder will be able to pull it off later.
And just because of that,I'm not excited about this news.

After all,we fear spears so much that we erase them even from the concept art :teehee:

I think we will manage :bonk:

They are too lazy to make spear attack anims.

What about Animation Packs?? We haven't seen any animations yet, and polearms may be in, so why are you even talking about that yet?

I doubt it got anything to do with laziness as well, as if it was, they would probably still be using GameBryo^^

Deadlines are deadlines.Spears are not the being of Skyrim. It's hard to attribute their (likely) nonexistence to developer laziness when they're crafting everything else that will fill the void, and not just the tools of the combat mechanics.
Would they be nice? Hell yes. But it's not the apex.

No. Spears are a pole with a tip, usually barbed. Pole arms have blades at the end of the pole. I think people are confusing spears with polearms. Polearms are in Skyrim, not spears.



I never said anything about carnassials >.> Carnassials are too far back in the mouth to be the cause of the tearing. Canines are the teeth that usually rip in mammals. Then there are shark teeth and so on.



The key word there is "later". Of course us modders can do things later, because we have all the time in the world. Someone can do anything given enough time, something that the actual game developers don't have time to do. People need to stop thinking that game developers are just lazy and they can put whatever they want in with ease and no time. You have to realize when mods are made, they are made from thousands of modders with infinite time. Modders can have the game have whatever they want in it but people need to realize that's because they have MANY TIMES as many people as the dev team and far more time than the dev team does to put effort into any one thing.

Did you actually ever see a real spear tip? Even the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mesa_Verde_spear_and_knife.jpg already had short blades on both sides. The modern ones, like the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M9_bayonet are basically a special version of a knife, with quite an edge to them.

Seriously: Inform yourself first. The distinction between "spear" and "polearm" is more about its intended use (hunting and other tools vs. fighting people) than the exact geometry.

Because you're not a fan of spears, duh.

If you were a fan of something they took out of the series, from a previous game... you'd probably be bummed too.

If the new engine's Creation Kit allows us to add skills (as Todd said in the GI Article "Adding Skills is easier for us"), we'll be fine.

Adding skills (or skill like abilities i.e. unarmored mods) was like pulling teeth in Oblivion though.

Well,your post does make sense in a way.
But I guess an average slash animation can easily cover up Claymores,War Axes and Warhammer.But not spears.
Now this makes me worry.It may not be as easy as I thought.

Oh damn...


Note: There is an animation mod for Oblivion that changes animation for every school of weapons,so I guess it'd still be possible but it's unlikely to come out in the first year after the release...
Relative Mod:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE_rsWl7yjI&feature=related


EDIT: As for deadlines,it is going to be extended anyway,and it's not like we put those deadlines.They announce them and we wait.
Just tell me it is worth the effort to add "sprinting" to the game when you can already run...-_-;

You said tearing and shredding teeth, and that's what the carnassials are. The canines are for biting in and holding the prey, they aren't for sawing or shredding - they have no scissor-action to do that. Shark teeth have many different shapes; some are needle-like (for impaling and pinning prey, while others have saw-like edges that can shred and saw into flesh when the shark moves its head). Crocodile teeth are all pointed (like canines) and they do not shred or tear (that's why they use the death roll when opening up a carcass: the teeth pin the flesh, and then it twists around and around and the twisting forces the meat to separate).

I suppose the canines can tear, but only in conjunction with the appropriate motion from the predator's body (i.e. pull backwards to pull away at the prey's flesh with enough force to rip it).

Yeah, that's a barbed tip, not a bladed edge, please inform yourself first..... Spears are technically a type of polearm yet the majority are actual bladed edges attached to a pole. Usually when people think of a polearm they think of the bladed edges and spears are not one of those.

Bayonets are knives you fashion to the gun, not a spear. So don't get all elitist on me when you obviously don't know the distinction between a bladed edge and a barbed tip.



Canines do tear and shred. If you haven't seen a dog shake their head furiously when trying to kill something, they are trying to tear their prey enough to cause lethal damage.

But we don't even know if those weapons have the same animation, and most likely they will have different ones. (Animations isn't connected to the skill, but to the weapon.)

The vast majority of kills caused by animals with sharp claws (big cats), are actually thanks to their teeth. The claws simply are good at latching on, in which they will drag the prey down, then kill it by biting down on its throat with its teeth, either causing it to bleed to death or holding its throat closed until it suffocates.

That and the fact that whatever spears/spear-likle weapons are included will not have their own skill, but will fall in the two handed category. That's how I understand it.

Well, maybe they could get around that issue by making the spear itself being relatively faster to broke down in comparison to other type weapons, or prone to be disarmed, or even having a risk to staggering yourself instead when it clashes with larger/heavier weapons...

edit: That aside, I recall that they wanted to make each types of melee weapon to have unique additional effects assigned to them, which would be tied to each corresponding perks (chance for critical damage fore blades, bleeding effect for axes, and chance to ignore armor rating for blunt weapons, etc). Now if we're to suppose that polearms/spears to be in: what additional effects would they have? Longer reach doesn't really count as claymore has it too (especially the way it is commonly portrayed in video games, which is hugeass), not to mention that it was actually most effective as a piercing weapon anyway so it kinda overrides the role of spears as the pokey-poke weapon in that regard.

Well, I am currently playing Morrowind for the first time and I get to play with spears there. With spears you want to always use best attack, because it is the only really effective attack. Other combat forms are more dynamic. That said, I *am* using spears right now as my primary melee weapon and enjoying the experience.

Now one benefit of *not* having spears in Skyrim is that my weapon choices will be much simpler. Of course, that is why others are unhappy about no spears. But me, while a little disappointed, am not particularly sad. Just better informed.

We also use crossbows. The current version is called a firearm.

A bayonet is not a spear in the classic sense. Same concept, different implementation.

Pikes are also not spears. Different. Weapon.