No matter your style of combat, battles will be more mobile, but with fewer cheap tricks to cheat the system. For instance, the old backpedaling approach just wont cut it. “We’ve really slowed down how fast you move backwards.” Howard says. “So a guy will be charging you, you cant just back up from him. In Oblivion, you stepped backwards at the same speech you ran forwards. The biggest reason we changed that was a visual one, in third person it just looked awkward.”



Thank god, because I think this was one of the biggest flaws in Oblivion's combat system--backing up to avoid attacks instead of more emphasis on blocking/dodging blows. It made the combat look really weird too. I really want to see a video now.

I wouldent say it was the biggest flaw in the combat system but it did make things cheap. Now you have to commit to the fight if you get up close or you have to turn your back and run away leaving you open to attack. This adds more depth to the combat and I welcome it.

Now we'll just have to resort to standing on a large rock :ninja:

or hoping NPC gets caught behind a rock

I love this change. Dark Messiah had this feature as well, and it worked brilliantly.

I would like to see how much slower they made backpedaling before I form an opinion. If they slowed it down by how much I think they did, then, well, they went the complete wrong direction with it. Backpedaling exists already, people have used it in real combat. It's not cheap. What WAS cheap was being able to backpedal forever while pumping arrows into the people chasing you. Infinite backpedaling was cheap. I think they should have made it so you could backpedal as fast as you could go forward, but after 3, maybe 5 seconds of max speed back pedaling you would fall over backward. I also think it should drain fatigue much more quickly. To avoid falling over, you could backpedal more slowly, but as you increase backpedal speed your fatigue (or stamina) drain increases exponentially. This would allow you to back pedal very quickly in short bursts to dodge attacks, while preventing you from exploiting it.

It's a welcome change.

Now, if I'm outmatched in combat, I can't just run backward and fling fireballs at my target. I actually have to turn around and run. And with sprint, I imagine it will be a very intense experience.

I think the change is needed. I hope though the change isn't in a vacuum. Having to lob 500 fireballs into a enemy to kill it kind of caused the backpedaling issue. When I have to burn my mana bar, wait for regen to throw more spells to kill a single foe you kind of need to run backwards lobbing spells. Which also spawns alchemy abuse issues etc.

I can see it being walking speed.

I tried the whole backpedalling while shooting arrows once - ran into a bear