blunt and blade

The lists that have come up so far looks promising and very likely, I think. Here's what I assume they will look like:

Combat:
Unarmed
One-handed
Two-handed
Shield/Block
Armor (Heavy and Light merged)
Smithing (merged with Armorer)

Magic:
Alteration
Conjuration
Destruction
Enchanting
Illusion
Restoration

Stealth:
Alchemy
Acrobatics/Athletics
Sneak
Security
Marksman
Speechcraft (merged with Mercantile)

I think these are both very likely choices. And I think both could work well. It just depends on what combining the developers did. Personally I suspect "armor" has been combined, but that is nothing more than a wild guess that makes sense to me, but perhaps not the developers.

going with this one.

I only didn't combine armour because I wouldn't see point in a lone armour skill either it defines something or you just need FO style values for it, which I don't think they will do, I can see a stealth/thievery skill that contains lock pick sneak and pickpocket just because if you pick locks you wouldn't mind sneaking and if you sneak alot but don't pick locks, cuz your a good boy, well you dont pick locks, it causes little conflict. charisma skill for mercantile and speech craft as they make sense, and a athletics skill that covers all types of movement again makes sense.

If they combined Heavy and Light Armor to one skill, and used a perk tree to distinguish then there could also be a branch for Unarmored.

For those crazy folk that decide to fight without armour........

I think most of what you say is quite accurate. A single class for armor, with perks for light/heavy (and perhaps even unarmored) would work. A single skill for sneak/lockpicking/pickpocketing would work. A single skill for Mercantile and Speechcraft would work. A single skill for athletics/acrobatics makes sense. However, if we combine all of those, we don't have *enough* skills!

My bet is still that separate skills for sneak and lockpicking is in, but that is just me.

Like Monks

You know, there is always the possibility that they could raise the number of skills past 18.

Just saying.

Heck, if they combine the armor skills we might even get medium armor back too.

I have a hunch that if they include Unarmored it'll be with Hand-to-Hand in some sort of martial arts skill. Nothing to support this, but it makes sense to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JgMmj4XnEI

If my character can't pull off those animations I'm going to be sad....all of them....... :ninja:

So which ones were removed out of mercantile, speechcraft, acrobatics, and athletics? Another one had to of been removed too because they added enchanting as a skill.

This is another pretty cool video on a Monks...
Made by National Geographic

Check this link out if you truely doubt Unarmored/Unarmed combat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qHL2PSpecI



Same Link in full text.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qHL2PSpecI

Acrobatics is gone in all forms, it will not be combined with anything. The developers stated how silly of a skill it was.

They are probably going to be done like weapons: armor may be governed by a skill, but what you really want are the perks associated with different armor types, and that is what makes you specialize.

So six years ago nothing was wrong with it but now its silly?

Sure...
I'd like to know where you got your source.

As far as what i've been told acrobatics has been merged with athetlics, but again your source please?

I vaguely recall reading both acro and athletics were removed, something about the jumping to gain level... :confused:

Mysticism was the silly skill. Redundant form of magic about magic



So they got rid of Mysticism.

Well speechcraft is highly likely still there, because in the GI screenshot that shows some of the skills there's a skill that ends with the letters AFT.

I think the real wildcards here are the armour skills, and hand-to-hand. I think this is really the main source of uncertainty - whether hand-to-hand will get its own skill, or whether the armour skills will be combined.

My bet is that the armour skills will be combined, and that there'll be a separate hand-to-hand skill. My reasons for thinking this are to do with perks - it just looks to me that hand-to-hand has more opportunity for a richer perk system than having separate Light Armour and Heavy Armour skills. Within a Hand-to-Hand skill, there could be perks for damage-dealing moves, perks for knocking away an enemy's weapon, and perks for evading an enemy's swings (Acrobatics isn't needed for dodge perks; jumping will be governed by its own perk tree in the combined Athletics/Acrobatics skill). As for a generic "Armour" skill, there'll be separate perk trees for different types of armour.

So that's why I'm also going to agree with this suggestion:

This is what I think too.

They want a skill to yield gameplay, and I don't think light armor and heavy armor yields enough gameplay to be separate skills, but security and sneak are completely different, so I would imagine that those are still kept separated.

My guess as well. Define your armor type with perks instead of a skill, and merge Athletics and Acrobatics into one Stealth-skill. The Warrior should be well-armored and the Thief should be agile, after all.

My opinion on the 18 skills are:

Warrior
-one handed
-two handed
-shield
-smithing
-heavy armor
-athletics

Thief
-archery
-alchemy
-security
-speechcraft
-light armor
-sneak

Mage
-enchanting
-alteration
-conjjuration
-destruction
-illusion
-restoration

You have to be pretty athletic to dual weild weapons,which is why I have it in the warrior class.Most people tie athletics in with thief,but I feel as if sneak does the trick for that class.Also you may notice that I have removed hand to hand which is what the developers are probly doing as well,as it is the most useless skill ever.

Now, tbh, I don't the hand-to-hand was bad at all in the FO series. You guys can't think away from that series much. The FO series refined the gap between the Oblivion engine and the new engine. I think hand-to-hand will be a skill on it's own if they can make some believable hand-to-hand weapons, maybe. Or not make it look like two swinging tree limbs in the shape of fists. Hand-to-hand is gonna be fun in Skyrim.