Do you feel the combat system in Skyrim was a step up, a step down, or just a casual step in the same direction as always?

I personally feel it's a shame that the combat system hasn't been innovated further. I keep dreaming of how the game would have been much better if acrobatics was still in the game. Imagine if you had interconnected perks.

I'll put forth some examples off the top of my head..

Acrobatics 50 / one handed 50.

Lets you do jump attacks.

Acrobatics 90 / one handed 90 / sneak 90 / light armor 50.

Lets you spring from a crouching position, pouncing onto an enemy that hasn't detected you.

Alchemy 50 / sneak 50.

You can create smoke bombs.

Smithing 50 / Athleticism 80.

You can create caltrops.

Destruction 90 / Alteration 90.

Your flames spell now works underwater and lingers on for a longer period (a bit like napalm)

Destruction 100 / Two-handed 70.

Twohanded weapons you use are now infused with your most used destruction affinity (frost/fire/electricity).

I'm sure you guys can think of hundreds of combinations.

But my main point being; do you think this could add depth to the combat, and I guess every other facet of the game?

I hear its much better than the system in Morrowind/Oblivion.

It's a step in the right direction. Though I will say, while I liked what they did with magic... I also disliked. In practice, it's really nice. But I yearn for a return similar to Oblivion. I don't like spells to take up a hand as a weapon. I'm not sure how they can accomplish this though...

Also, the favorite system desperately needs to be refined. and the hot-keys for consoles or anyone who uses a joystick needs to be revamped or something, because Skyrim was atrocious in this regard. Having to go through the fav menu mid-combat to switch spells(and equip a specific one to the RIGHT hand) is a real pain.

Other than that, Skyrim's combat was easily the best.

Skyrims combat is 10x better than oblivions combat.

The combat itself is much better than Oblivion's. However, I do miss the Acrobatics skill. Being able to level up running & jumping to the point where you were an NBA player mixed with that Olympic sprinter Bolt has great. Maybe that can be brought back into TES VI.

I prefer Skyrim's combat to Oblivion's combat. I prefer Oblivion's combat to Morrowind's combat. I can't stomach Arena and Daggerfall's combat. So I think the series is improving.

If there was a way to stop leveling certain skills then I'd be ok with acrobatics and athletics. I hate acrobatics and athletics so I would want to stop those skills from working and leveling.
jump height is already too high. running speed (not sprinting) is too fast.

The first time I heard of skyrim combat I was like:

"Wow you can all sorts of cool stuff. Only sky is the limit"

In game:

"Aw my head! I'm pretty sure sky used to be higher"

In Morrowind I could jump over the game world.

Yeah, but that seems to be very defensive of the meager progress that the combat system has seen so far.

It hasn't progressed far enough, it's stiff, dull and not engaging at all. It is so limiting in it's variety and there is so much more that bethesda could easily implement.

Skyrim's combat is a step sideways.

How about just scrapping the whole notion of acrobatics necessarily increasing your jump height that drastically. If you ask me, acrobatics isn't about being able to jump high although that may be a small shard of its' definition, what it is really about is maneuvering, wall running, jumping onto a wall/surface to thrust yourself higher, recovering from falling/landing, being able to take less fall damage.

I mean, acrobatics could mean a great many things other than just jump height and that goes doubly for athleticism.

I wont want to take less fall damage. If I fall from a hight that I could die but then get a perk that gives me a chance to survive that fall, I would hate it... It would be too unrealistic. yes I know TES is fantasy but it still needs to have some sort of realistic things.

Skyrim's combat is one of the few things I can honestly say I didn't have any major issues with. While it is still in need of improving, it is a step in the right direction...now only if they'd do that with their writing.

I wouldnt know as I haven't really played any other ES games aside from Oblivion for a few hours. I hate to use other video games for comparisons but its like the Final Fantasy franchise. No two games are the same and every game is different from the battle system to the way you level up, as it should be. If all the games were made the same , that to me would be the making for a boring franchise.

I changed my mind about that paragraph. I took it out, but you'd already quoted it!

I agree with you that combat hasn't progressed far enough. And also that there is not enough variety. We do a lot of combat in Elder Scrolls games. They have always been hybrid action/roleplaying games. And anything we do over and over again, hours at a time, is going to feel a little dull after a while. That's just how the human mind works.

I think the fact that combat can start to feel dull at times is not a reflection on combat mechanics so much as it is a reflection on the fact that there is so much combat. I would like a game with a little less combat and more social interaction between player character and NPCs. I would like non-violent ways to complete quests. I would like Speech checks to avoid combat altogether. I think if some of this was implemented, combat would not feel so dull.

A skilled parkourist, or acrobat is able to dampen the shock of hard landings by how they land, absorbing a lot of the energy in the landing by using their limbs as "springs" they can avoid injuries where a completely unskilled person would perhaps just fall flat on their [censored] or land with their legs straight, risking their legs in the landing.

I agree but I feel both of these need depth, this is a triple A game after all. Why compromise one for the other when we can advance both and indeed if anything isn't that the purpose of triple A games? they should push the envelope, they should be at the cutting edge of gaming. Something that the TES combat system certainly is not.

I don't have any issues with Skyrim's combat, it is one of those things I think Skyrim improved on a ton!

I agree with this. There were ways to avoid combat in Morrowind with magic and speechcraft (calming an opponent long enough to bribe or admire their disposition high enough so they would stop attacking you and be permanently friendly). It would be nice if they reintroduced a more modern way to do this. In Skyrim you can calm, but its effects are temporary, so it is not a good solution to dealing with a bandit cave. It does work on wildlife though and I have characters who generally don't kill bears and such, preferring to just calm them and walk away.

I agree, illusion should also be presented as a dialogue option. And there should be more circumstancial dialogue options dependant on character qualities (race/gender/skills/perks/quest progression/specific actions taken) There is already a little bit of some of these things in Skyrim but there could certainly be a lot more.

-edit

Also a lot of the basic functionality of illusion is manipulation of people, I would argue that it is the most deceitful school of magic in TES and that deceptive side of it is very under-represented in Skyrim. I would love to solve larger conflicts with magic, imagine if the entire civil war had been avoided with a cheap spell? Doesn't that speak to us as humans in a way? regarding morality, free will, manipulation..

If you ask me, that kind of manipulation would (in my opinion) be a crime comparable to assassinating the emperor. I think that is a really entertaining thought, and engaging on a roleplay-level, and because of jedi mind tricks and all that..

To the OP: Overall, I like the combat in Skyrim, but I do miss acrobatics, particularly as you have noted, the ability to attack while jumping or falling. I agree with your points on how a skilled acrobat would be able to reduce fall damage and I like the springing sneak attack idea. They have charging power attacks, so the springing sneak attack would not be that much different.

The only thing I would not like to see is a system that incorporates a bunch of complicated button presses to unlock combo attacks, like they have in God of War. I would not want to see anything that seems too artificial or gamey.

How could you attack when jumping or falling when you would have to concentrate on your landing. I am glad I cant attack when falling because you would probably lose your balance or land wrong if you attacked in mid air.

Well, if you were an acrobat perhaps you wouldn't have to worry about such things, but since you obviously aren't an acrobat and are seem very much against the idea of acrobatics I guess you can just not do it then?

Acrobats have a much higher awareness of where their orientation and placement of their limbs in the space they occupy (spatial awareness) and as such they don't have to dedicate as much of their concentration to things like landing properly, or losing balance, it becomes instinctive to them, meaning; They can actually dedicate their minds to other things such as sliding a blade into the soft parts of an enemy while descending from a leap. But I suppose not being an acrobat you could always just... you know.. not be able to attack while falling? and by your tone you seem to be quite content with that proposition.

Um . . . have you ever seen a martial arts movie? Those guys attack while jumping or falling all the time. You have never seen a guy jump out of a tree and stab someone underneath on their way down?

I used to fence in college and we had an attack called a balestra which was a jumping attack.

With enough skill and agility, you can concentrate on your landing and attack at the same time. After all, landing is primarily done with your feet and attacking is primarily done with your arms.

Movies are [censored] when it comes to things like fighting.
I dont mean like a 3-5 foot jump. I mean things like a 3+ meters drop. you cant attack and concentrate on landing at the same time.

In a game where we're shooting lightning out of our fingertips and wearing bikini armor - I really don't see the point in making combat overly realistic.