If that were true they should have foreseen the same problem with bows and arrows... and yet they are just recently realizing that now from a mod even.

Bows and Arrows are a different matter. Ranged combat is meant to keep at a distance to fight with. They had some issues with ranged combat and back pedaling which they fixed with Skyrim but they said they liked a mod and the incorporated things from it, not that "OMG, this mod fixed ranged combat and showed us that we were wrong!" when ranged combat was fine, now it's got more power behind it and takes longer to draw your bow. With that, they had to make another feature that allowed for them to open a gap between the enemy and themselves because that mods concept made ranged combat flawed with the slower backpedaling so they gave bows a bash so that they can stagger the enemy and give themselves room to get some distance and shoot at them again.

And now that that issue has been resolved it's very safe for spears to come back right?

That's up to Bethesda really. I'm sure if they tried they could sort something out.
a medieval spear is pretty much a knife/shiv with some sort of extended handle for a longer range to stay out of the other guys range

My understanding is that one the reasons spears were deleted from Oblivion is because they require entirely different animations than weapons that are swung, which is expensive from a game-development perspective. They would easily be located in the two-handed category that will be in Skyrim.

I am really hoping there are spears in the game, and am starting my first Morrowind playthrough this week (once the ordered game arrives) at least in small part so I can use a weapon I have never been able to try before.
:toughninja:

I think enough people complained about spears to warrant their inclusion in the game, with a few users (Broken-Scale included) being incredibly adamant and persistent. There is really no reason for there to be no lances in the game, they just make sense (in fact I think they make more sense than dual wielding, but that's just me). Spears have been some of the most simplistic and widely used weapons throughout human history and have already been included in previous games, so yes I am fairly positive they will make a return.

As for this hilarious debate about "most used weapon in history" I'm pretty sure that guns beat everything else, apart from perhaps knives. They ain't been around as long as swords and spears, but with so many people around, and mass production, there's got to have been more guns than any other weapon (apart from knives).

So, if "most used in history" is an argument for inclusion in Skyrim, then guns in Skyrim!

:D

There was an ATM machine at the back, an ATM machine.
(ATM machine=Automatic teller machine machine)

Nah but really. Spears would be real nice.

Actually, spears were only in Morrowind. Arena and Daggerfall didn't have them, either. What made you think they did? However, where are all the people complaining about how flails were removed in Morrowind?

I was bored and decided to grace this dialogue with http://tinypic.com/r/28ltoxs/7.

Nay... It's a paintbrush, right...?

Flails would be SWEET. I too forgot about flails in daggerfall (never played arena). The flail swinging animation would be pretty hard to look real i imagine though.

physics

Dude, there were flails in Daggerfall? Okay, flails are almost as cool as spears. They should be added in too, if possible.

It'd be really awesome if tehy made spears, or polearms fo any sort, such as a halberd, but the game will still be amazing with out them.

I just really hope they are in the game.

Nice straw man argument, but I'm pretty sure when people say "in history" they mean in the historical (ie not modern) era. The advent of guns being one of the hallmarks of the modern era. It's not just a function of how many spears/vs guns. In terms of time alone, spears have been used for at least 12,000 years, at least, compared to 500 for guns.

I can't provide a source, but logic alone dictates that spears were the most common weapon. They're cheap, fast, have range, pierce, work well in formation, stand up to cavalry, combine naturally with a shield, and comparatively easier to learn to use. However, we should distinguish between battles and the personal combat that takes place in TES. Most armour in TES is plate, so we should be seeing maces, pickaxes, other polearms, and two-handed swords being used - and no shields (if there is ever a realistic damage model).



There is no logic to this statement. If you were going to war, why would you go poorly skilled and equipped, or take poorly skilled or equipped men? Common soldiers were very often professional or semi-professional.

Nevermind. :blush:

Cannon-fodder my good friend. Someone's gotta eat the arrows. :fakenopic:

Shields and padded jacks largely take care of arrows. If you took cannon fodder to the field, you'd have no-one to work your lands in the coming years.

Sorry about that. I need to go to bed.

In a Time Life book on military history I have, it says... "For some 70,000 years [until the advent of the bow and sling around 10,000 BC], the principle means of dispatching quarry, animal or human, had been the spear. A versatile weapon, it could be used for either thrusting or throwing, and with its wooden shaft topped with a needle-sharp point of flint or bone, it was capable of penetrating the toughest hide."

Not to mention the subsequent power of Greek hoplites, Roman legionnaires, mounted knights using lances etc etc.

Juano hit the nail on the head with the economic argument - if you want 10,000 soldiers spears are the cheapest way to equip them with weapons. Those that could afford it would carry swords as secondary weapons.

I said it before and I'll say it again:
It saddens me that this is even a debate. A fantasy RPG consisting of medieval weapons, and there's a question whether to include the most widely used, basic weapon in human history?
And what's with all the arguing? Who cares whether spears were THE most widely used weapons (which they almost certainly were)? If not THE most prolific, then definitely in the top 3.

I want my Spear of Bitter Mercy back

Oh of course. I'm just parodying the debate - because it's really hilarious to read all these amateurish BBC documentary style posts about weapon usage in antiquity, as though this has a whole lot to do with TES.

By all means, scream at the devs for not putting spears in, but this pseudo-intellectual debate about the necessity of them is risible, at best.