There you are, outside Bruma about to be charged by a horde of Daedra. Martin leads the charge as the Bruma defense alliance attacks. While trying to fight a Dremora several Bruma guards get in the way, you end up accidentally slashing one to death. The others scream "MURDER! MURDER!", but don't do anything so you shrug it off. Upon emerging victorious from the great gate and listening to Martin you think it's time to continue the quest. Nope, the hero of Bruma who stopped the Daedric invasion is greeted by, "STOP! YOU'VE VIOLATED THE LAW...". You check your bounty to see that the accidental killing before counted as a murder and assault.

For combat in Skyrim that involves having npc allies with you I hope that there are some fighting mechanics that help prevent such friendly fire incidents. Perhaps a lock on target system so my attacks only hit the intended enemy, though that would make archery way too easy. Maybe with the newly improved AI friendly npc's will know not to jump in the player's way or each other's, also not damaging each other too. Or the new AI can recognize and forgive what it believes to have most likely been accidental friendly fire. If there's going to be large set piece scripted fights in Skyrim then I hope Bethesda has addressed this issue already. Even if there aren't any large battles some changes should still happen, trying to fight a highwayman whilst an Imperial guard was wildly running around him slahing and not hitting the guard was frustrating.
Share your ideas and info about this matter below.

Its been revealed that there's going to be "magnetism" in your attacks to draw them to your enemy rather than your ally. This is not to say that you can't attack your allies entirely, you just can't do it accidentally.

Amen.

There's an aiming mechanism now. No details on how it exactly works yet.

It is really great to hear that they are doing something about the "friendly fire" problem in Oblivion.

That was probably the single worst thing about TES IV: Oblivion for me. Even worst than the leveling system. At least you can improve the leveling system with mods, but you really can't do anything about "friendly fire"

Fallout 3 mechanics is better. Hopefully Skyrim will have fully addressed this major issue.

That and allies being way underpowered compared with enemies leads me to want to completely avoid companions or allies in TES IV: Oblivion. Which is a waste.

Pshew.... no kidding.

I have absolutely no interest in melee companions, for exactly that reason. The last thing I need is for my ally to step directly in front of me.
And mages aren't any better really, but in the opposite sense - I don't need to get hit with another fireball, thank you very much.

The only companions who are relatively useful are archers, and those only if their AI is set to favor sneaking and to get them to switch back to their bow whenever they can. Otherwise, the first time they get challenged, they switch to a melee weapon, and then they're just another ally stepping in front of me.

Indications are that there will be more quests involving companions, so I can only hope that their AI has been markedly improved. If not - those will likely just be quests that I'll try to avoid doing.

I dislike magnetism. Ditch it. Root it out. Mod it out.

I think that this problem can be remedied by allowing NPC's to take a certain amount of hits or damage from the PC before they accuse you of attempted murder and the same can apply to battle situations involving accidental casualties. Magnetism may cover weapons but what about AOE spells?

I'm not sure I like the sound of that. It certainly reduces the need for developing your skills and reactions if the computer is going to be aiming for you. I'll have to see how that works first, but it may be enough for me not to buy the game. I don't want to have my hand held while I'm in combat. I think they should just ignore friendly fire situations if you're dealing with a common foe.

Well actually Oblivion shows great improvement over Morrowind in reaction on friendly fire,
npc count strikes, with enogh disposition NPC yield, before player always need to have calm spell or use console to stop combat.

But there can be different way to fix friendly fire without using of "magnetism" but it involves scripting
What we know about friendly fire mechanic?
Ownership on creature protect from attack from thats creature from friendly fire, but we can set ownership to all because thats will be mess even more

So if there is count for number of assault we can reset it to lower one with script in certain conditions like there is more hostile actors around target NPC, Actor from the same fraction thats target has, target has high disposition toward actor, if such conditions work then script reset friendly fire counter for target, but target will still suffer damage from attack, if add additional scripting we can nullify damage from accident strike, for protect from mass murders without consequences there can be cooldown between resets.

EDIT: There is example of similar mod, add quote marks to UESP info about friendly fire.
NPC Friendly Fire
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35257

But I think magnetism is also good idea if will work for NPC also, just need to wait release and see how it work in game.

just make sure you have a save before the fight starts

McCree, I found that at the Great Gate battle, and a few other situations, it was better for me to use Convalescence and Protect Other spells until I could run into the Great Gate. I had to do that exactly for the reasons you mentioned and I'm hoping it'll be better in Skyrim too. I'm not a great fighter but I am a healer and things get so chaotic in battle; I had to adjust what I was doing. One of the things I judge my success by in my game is how many NPCs survived a battle. It's important to me and it's how I play. Let's hope it works great in Skyrim.

:tes:

The thing is that it makes absolutely no sense that if you both are dealing with a common foe, the NPC should suddenly turn around and start attacking you instead. Essentially they are switching their alliance and joining forces with the enemy. They shouldn't be turning hostile until that enemy has been dealt with. Then they can take the time to call you on your attacks against them, if they so choose.

Magnetism simultaneously distresses and amuses me. With the addition of that, TES will have gone from a system in which your swings didn't necessarily always hit, even if they appeared to be aimed correctly, to a system in which your swings always hit if they were aimed correctly, to a system in which your swings always hit even if they're not aimed correctly. And all in the name of nominally improving combat and making it more realistic.

Saywut?


But I digress......

Thank goodness.

Thats better then nothing, but some scripting will be nice to see thats will be enhance NPC reaction on friendly fire like was described

I thought they mentioned that the "magnetism' will be slight. So if an ally steps in the arc of your swing and you are aiming correctly at your target you will most likely hit your target and not your ally. But if you are aiming off to the side where you normally would not hit, the "magnetism" will not be strong enough to make it a hit. It sounded like you still need to aim correctly to hit. Just that you will be less likely to hit an ally if they are in the way.

Thanks everyone for your continued input. Magnetism sounds like a great new mechanic to help keep your attacks where they show go as long as it's implemented correctly, I don't want marksmanship to be too easy. When you posted this I thought of the slight magnetism you get when an enemy passes your crosshairs in most FPS's today. Some of you my disagree but, as long as it's disabled for use with bows then I'd be totally up for it.

...i honestly can't count the times i was arrested in OB for friendly fire incidents...

i wish they would just look at what mount and blade warband does. i play with between 200 and 250 npcs per battle and how they do it is you attack pull up short of hitting a friendly npc. so if i try and swing my axe at a friendly the animation stops short and pulls back which is better than a weapon going through and magically doing no harm. i worry about the magnetism cause i HATE aim assist in games and i dont want my character visually missing a target but it still gets damaged because of magnetism.

in warband you could still hit friendlies with arrows but i never had that problem even in oblivion with its horrible companion AI. of course you learn to take you shots instead of just shooting arrows left and right another reason im glad they upped the damage and lowered the shooting speed of bows.

I don't think they'll always hit, the trailer showed several player characters blatantly missing their mark. In any rate, should add a lot to the game if done properly.

The Human Machine is thousands of times more complex than can be capture on screen. There's minute adjustments a swordsman can make even if the blow is committed, in order to adjust it's trajectory.

If that's how it comes off in Skyrim's Magnetism, I can't say (Probably not) but it doesn't really distress me in any particular way, though I do wonder how much of a pain it'll be in multiple-hostile encounters.

the friendly fire was annoying, especially when you try to help your conjured creature battle enemies, im sure bethesda will fix this problem in skyrim

I have had the exact same problem in the same fight! It won't really happen again because there will be "magnetism" which will somewhat help aim your attacks to hit your enemies.

That sounds like a good concept, but would that mean all friendly npc's are un-hitable? Some people in certain circumstances would feel inclined at times to kill a friendly or go on rampages.