Time to gather your strength. (Revisited)
A new approach to benefits and penalty of skill levels when in combat.

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Morrowind and Oblivion approached the combat, and the benefits of having a high level attack skill, or penalty of having low level attack skills in different ways:

When designing Morrowind, like its roots that was in old school table top RPGs, BGS decided to use dice rolls and chance to hit, so when you cast a spell or initiated an attack with a sword, you had a chance to fail, so the spell could fizzle away, or the sword might go right through the opponent without any damage dealt.

This approach could be frustrating for people who were not familiar with those old RPG games, or did not like the dice roll idea.

When designing Oblivion, they decided to experiment with other approaches for the attack skills, but they differentiated between spell casting and physical attacks, so when you cast a spell, your skill level decided if you could even cast the spell or not, and if you are able to cast it, how much magicka it would cost you to do so.

For physical attacks, they decided that all the attacks hit the target but proportionate the damage dealt with the skill level.

This approach was more successful, but some old school RPG fans liked the old approach more, and did not like the new approach, as it did not feel right for them, and could lead to some long fights, and involved player skill more than character skill.

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The new interview with Todd Howard, confirmed our speculation that they are open to new radical approaches, and in each generation of the series, they have experimented with radical new approaches and some of them have paid off quite well, if not all of them.

For the problem above, I suggest a new radical approach that can potentially satisfy both groups, as it approaches the problem from a new angle that could lead to results similar to a combination of both of those approaches, if the means to reach such a result is quite different from both of those approaches.

And this approach would introduce a new mechanism that puts the player in total control of the result, but on the other hand, make the character skill a more deciding factor again.

Does it sound too good to be true? Just wait and see for yourself!

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First of all, I wrote this text assuming there is no character attribute in Skyrim, but this might not be the case, and if I were proven wrong, the solution would be a simple one, and we can add the effect of attributes to the effect of skills in the formula.

Secondly, this is a universal approach and unifies the mechanism behind both physical attacks and the spell casting.

Thirdly, this formula do not differ between using one hand or two hands when wielding weapons or casting spells, and can be used both ways, but it can result in some weapons and spells to be one handed only, two handed only, or could be used either ways. Your skill level would determine how much you are successful in such attempts, except for bows that we are always forced to use by both hands.

Thus, this is a universal approach that encompasses all the offensive acts in a battle, and I have not thought about the defensive acts yet, so this should do.

Each weapon and spell should have a unified characteristic that determines its capabilities related to the skill level of the character, and you have to spend some energy to use them, stamina for weapons, and magicka for spells, and you can perform the attack with a speed that is determined by the type of the weapon, or spell, and your skill level.

This speed factor is the new approach, which lead to results that are like a combination of both the previous approaches.

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In order to avoid duplicate sentences, from now on I only describe the formula for weapons, but the spells are all the same, and you can just replace weapon attack speed with spell preparation speed, and stamina usage with magicka usage, and the rest is the same.

Each weapon has a skill level range of effectiveness, and some speed factors, damage factors, and the effect of using both hands instead of just one hand, like this:

Nordic long sword:

• Stamina per second: 3.3
  
• Min Skill: 35
  
• Min Speed: 45%
  
• Max Skill: 50
  
• Max Speed: 80%
  
• Attack Threshold: 60%
  
• Threshold Power: 30%
  
• Two Hand Factor: 160%
  
• Damage: ...

I'll describe all the above values, but first I want to describe "Two Hand Factor".

This is the value that defines if a weapon or spell is "One Handed Only=1", "Two handed Only=2", or could be used in both modes, and in this case, it defines the skill level ratio that two handed mode has over one handed mode, so if you have "blade" skill of 25 and use that nordic long sword with two hands, it assumes that you have the "blade" skill level of 25*160/100=40 when calculating the attack factors.

From what I we read in the latest GI story about the Skyrim engine, we got a hint that the melee skills are devided into "one handed" and "two handed", and if that's right then the chance that we can switch the weapon usage between the two modes is greatly reduced, so the parts that are related to this feature can be easily ignored, but it might still be useful for spell casting.

When you attack with a weapon or spell, it takes some time to charge the attack, so while charging the attack, you are raising your weapon, or gathering your magic power, to start the attack, and this is shown in a predefined animation sequence.

The attack threshold defines the percentage of the attack sequence that have to be completed before we can launch an actual attack at the opponent, and if we release the attack button before that, the attack fails, and after that depending on the percentage of the attack sequence that is completed(charged), we deal a specific amount of damage.

If we release the attack button before the attack threshold is reached, or we are otherwise interrupted in the attack sequence, like if we were attacked and had to change to defense sequence, or were thrown out of balance, then the attack fails, or the spell fizzles away.

If we release the attack button at the exact moment that we reach the attack threshold, like the 60% of the example, we would deal 30% of the damage potential of the attack, but if we keep charging the attack to it's full power, we would deal the full power of the nominal damage of the weapon or spell.

But for people who do not like to have a failure chance, there can be an option that a single tap on the attack button, always charges the weapon to the minimum charge for attacks and starts an attack action after that, so with a single tap of the attack button, you raise your sword and deal a light blow.

The skill range and speed percentage define the speed of an attack animation related to your skill level, so if you have low skill level, you perform the task slowly, and if you have high skill level, you do the job swiftly.

This speed factor, defines the time it takes to charge an attack, so less skillful attackers give the opponents more time to be prepared for a defensive act, but you could attack without fully charging the attack to deal swift but less effective blows.

Or you could use your both hands with the weapon to gain more speed, (because of the equivalent of more skill), to be able to deal full powered attacks more swiftly, and this applies to spells as well, so you could gather your magical power more swiftly if you used your both hands when casting the spells.

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I want to describe the skill requirements and the speed of attacks, and here is another example to have the numerals nearby to look at:

Elven long bow:

• Stamina per second: 4.2
  
• Min Skill: 40
  
• Min Speed: 50%
  
• Max Skill: 70
  
• Max Speed: 80%
  
• Attack Threshold: 80%
  
• Threshold Power: 60%
  
• Two Hand Factor: 2
  
• Damage: ...

The two hand factor of 2 defines that it is a two handed only weapon, so it can not be used by one hand only.

Charging the attack means pulling the bow string to it's limit which would be when it is 100% charged, but you could release it as soon as it is 80% charged to deal 60% of the damage potential, which is not good, and it is recommended to always fully charge the attacks.

Minimum skill requirement for using the bow is 40 Marksman, so if you have lower skill level you are going to have quite a nice time trying to charge it to its full potential, but in that skill range, i.e. 40-70 Marksman, you will use it normally, but after the marksman skill level of 70, you gain no additional advantage using that bow.

So if you have skill level of 40, you perform the animation sequence of drawing a bow string with 50 percent of its nominal speed, and if you have skill level of 70, you draw the bow string with 80% speed of the speed defined in the animation of drawing a bow string.

if you have the skill level of 50, you speed percentage is calculated like this: 50 + (80-50)*(50-40)/(70-40) = 50 + 30*10/30 = 50 + 10 = 60.

So you would draw the bow string with 60% of the nominal speed of the animation sequence.

But if you have skill level lower than the minimum required level of the bow, for instance 12, your speed is calculated like this: 50*12/40 = 15, so you would draw the bow string with the speed of 15% of the nominal speed of the animation.

It would be painfully slow, and your hands would shake like a dancer's belly while you are drawing the bow string, so you are better off with lower level bows that are swifter in nature, and require less skill level to be able to use them swiftly enough in battles.

But if you are ready to wait for the full charge of that elven bow with those shaky hands, you are going to deal really nice sneak attacks with that bow, but be sure to make a one shot kill, or you are going to fall off to backup plan soon.

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By this approach, the character skill level is important because it defines the speed that you can charge the attacks to full attack, but the implementation of that charge is in the hand of the player, and he can start the attack anytime the charge has passed the "attack threshold" percentage, and deals swift lighter blows, or slower heavier ones.

The dice rolls come into action when we are deciding if the opponent has the chance to retaliate, or not.

And the charging percentage can be shown by a slick filling bar at the side of the targeting cross, so that when we can release the attack button.

You have a chance of failing, because you can release the attack button too soon, or you are dealing slow blows and give the opponents time to dodge, parry, block or otherwise negate that attack.

But the more skillful you get, or if you revert to two handed mode, you can deal more powerful blows swifter than before, and give them no time to defend themselves.

And the swifter you perform the attack, the less stamina/magicka, you spend during the charging time, and you get less tired/drained with each blow/shot/cast.

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Let me describe how it can imitate both Morrowind and Oblivion approach:

Spell casting:

Oblivion: When you are charging a spell, the swifter you are able to charge that spell to cast, the less magicka you spend, so higher skill level reduces the magicka cost.

Morrowind: When you are charging a spell to cast, the swifter you can charge the spell to cast, the sooner you pass the attack threshold and the less chance there is for your attack to get dodged or interrupted by the opponent.

Edit: higher level spells could require higher level skill levels for minimum requirements and casting them in lower level skill levels could take a lot of time and when charging a spell, when it takes longer than a second or two to charge, there can be a chance of spell failure at any moment, and if your spell fails before you reach the attack threshold, your spell fizzles away, and if your attack fails after you reach the attack threshold, you release the spell prematurely.

This can imitate both Morrowind's spell failures and oblivion's skill requirement for higher level spells, a bit.

Melee weapon:

Oblivion: When you are raising a weapon to attack, the swifter you are able to raise the weapon to attack, the sooner you can reach the higher damage point and can sooner deal the higher damage blows, and spend less stamina doing so.

Morrowind: When you are raising a weapon to attack, the swifter you are able to raise the weapon to attack, the less time you give the opponent to negate your attack by any means, and here comes the effect of those dice rolls, when deciding if they can negate your attack.

Ranged weapons: Just like the melee weapons, with the note that for Crossbows, the speed factor affects the recharging animation, not the actual attack.

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Here is a scenario that shows how this system works for a mage, and how switching to two handed version of a spell helps him:

My newbie Altmer mage, Astarias, has been happily blasting away those rats and bats with his trusty "Spark" spell while holding a small shield in his left hand for when he was attacked to fend off the blows.

His destruction skill is developing gradually and now he can afford to return to his mentor and try to learn the spell that he always wanted to try, "Lightning bolt". He is too excited and cannot wait until he meets his mentor, so he waits until "Master Haarthriff" returns to the guild and approaches him excitedly to ask for the lesson for the new spell.

The good master informs the impulsive apprentice that it is too soon for him to be able to practically use that spell, but Astarias insists, so he tells the apprentice to stand in front of the dummy, and starts the lesson.

After the lesson, Astarias runs to the sewers to try the new trick on the rats there, but in his first try, he finds out that he has to switch to "Spark" before he was killed by those pesky rats.

After that he refreshes his health and magicka pool, and tries to follow his mentor's advice and put away the shield, and use both hands for the new spell, and approach those pests stealthily, and try to blast a few of them with a well-placed "Lightning Bolt", and then switch to the old formula, of "Spark" + Shield, and finish the job like before.

And this strategy worked, but if we want so understand why this strategy worked, we should look at some numeral examples for it.

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The good suggestion of .bob. about changing the linear formula to an exponential one set me off to some calculations and here is the result:

• Energy Drain: Dr. (Stamina for physical attacks, and Magicka for Spells)
  
• Min Skill: S1
  
• Min Speed: P1
  
• Max Skill: S2
  
• Max Speed: P2

I decided that for the skills lower than S1, we can calculate their speed percentage by this formula: [P = P1*(S/S1)^2] instead of [P = P1 * S / S1], and this new formula increases the difference between low level and high level spells, and rewards any skill advancement more than the last formula. Thanx .bob. :goodjob:

As for converting the upper formula to inverse exponential, well, I finally got that formula, but it became too complicated for me to explain here:

P = P2 - [S1 * (P2 - P1)^2]/[2 * P1 * S + S1*(P2-3*P1)]

And in this formula I ignored max skill level, and P2 is the speed limit, when skill level (S) goes toward the infinity.

So if we stick the two parts of the formula together it becomes like this:

• S<=S1:
  
• P = P1*(S/S1)^2
  
• S>S1:
  
• P = P2 - [S1 * (P2 - P1)^2]/[2 * P1 * S + S1*(P2-3*P1)]

And the resulting formula is a perfect curve from skill level 0 to infinity, without any breaks and sharp angles, but for simplicity, I decided to stick to the old linear formula for the skills above the minimum requirements.

So the final formula is this:

• S<=S1:
  
• P = P1*(S/S1)^2
  
• S>S1 , S
• P = P1 + (P2 - P1) * (S - S1) / (S2 - S1)
  
• S>=S2:
  
• P = P2

Which has sharp angles, but it is much easier to understand.

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As for our Astarias example:

Spark:

• Magicka per second: 3
  
• Min Skill: 5
  
• Min Speed: 30%
  
• Max Skill: 25
  
• Max Speed: 90%

Let's assume that Astarias has destruction skill level of 15, so his casting speed would be:

P = 30 + (90-30) * (15 - 5) / (25 - 5) = 30 + 60 * 10 / 20 = 60%

So if the normal casting animation takes 1 second, in his current skill it would take 1.67 seconds to cast a Spark, with 5 magicka cost.

Lightning Bolt:

• Magicka per second: 4.5
  
• Min Skill: 30
  
• Min Speed: 40%
  
• Max Skill: 60
  
• Max Speed: 80%
  
• Two Hand Factor: 160

If we calculate this spell with Astarias's current destruction skill level of 15, his casting speed would be:

P = 40 * (15 / 30 ) ^2 = 40 * ( 1 / 4 ) = 10%

So it would take 10 second to cast a lightning bolt for him, with a good chance of failure in the middle, and 45 magicka cost.

But if he used his both hands to cast the spell, his combined skill would be 1.6 * 15 = 24, so his casting speed would be:

P = 40 * (24 / 30 ) ^2 = 40 * ( 0.8) ^ 2 = 40 * 0.64 = 25.6%

So it would take 3.9 seconds to cast the lightning bolt spell, with much smaller chance for failure in the middle, and 18 magicka cost.

Or we can say that as he is using his both hands, so he is using more magicka and we should multiply 18 with 1.6 thus he would use 28 magicka, and it seems more reasonable.

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OK, this is the new version which I revised after reading the latest GI article about Skyrim engine, and a good suggestion from .bob. and I hope to see something similar to this in Skyrim jk

Well, to me reading this is all in theory. I would need to see it in application. I'm used to both the D&D style, primarily 3 and 3.5, and the oblivion style. Personally I'm more of a fan of the oblivion style though I do miss the "miss" "hit" from D&D I really just don't see how the two could co-exist.

I'm surprised more people haven't commented on this post. Sorry I know you worked hard putting your thoughts down.

Don't be, I do not mind, as I know reading and digesting all this information takes time and most people do not bother, and just select the choice that they have tasted and liked before, hence the "Oblivion" dominance.

I'm sure if/when more people bother read the text, we might hare more people who select the new approach.

I liked both systems actually. I liked morrowind because it had that RPG feel to it, yeah. the thing I thought was lacking was animations to go with it. I could understand I missed a strike, but have the enemy dodge it, or block it, and I'll understand.

But I really prefered Oblivion's one, as to me, combat is brutal, raw, and devastating. Combat is disorienting. Well Oblivion was the closest to that for me, and from what I hear about Skyrim, they'll make it even more brutal, by adding shield bashes, dual weilding and stuff like that.
I just hope that they'll add counter-attacks/parries. now THAT would make me happy. Though I doubt they'd do it... well, one can always dream

Your system is good, being based on charge times and all. I can definitely see it being implemented in a game. The only thing I'm not so fond of is that, in reality, yes there are normal attacks, but most of the times you're trying to shake up your enemy to open up his defense, or even parry a blow he did and hit him during the times he takes to recover. You wouldn't believe how many hits it can take before you actually use the blade of a sword.
Although I acknowledge that your system isn't made for total realism either. which I understand, as TES is an RPG' not a simulation lol.
but yeah, it's a good system

Wow. Frankly I didn't think your idea would be all that amazing, but it is! I like it waaaay better than I thought I would. Its one of the best ideas i've read on this site in a very long time. I enjoyed the action-ey feel of Oblivion combat, but I am an RP-er before all else, so character skill was always more important to me than player skill. I feel like your idea is more realistic too (at least for the bow's and magic...you don't really need to "charge up" sword attacks very often.)

Can someone please explain this to me? I'm so lost its not even funny. :mellow:

I don't like the idea for 2 button presses for one attack.

I would just like it to hit with some of this in account and then a dice roll that mimicks our accuracy versus their agility in avoiding.

If it fails the attack misses completely like a magic failure, but if successful it will now calculate the armor / weapon damage threshold. And cause or not cause damage depending on which was higher.

Basically.

Press attack button

die roll for a miss/failure

Then calculate DT/DR or whatever calculations you have with shield spells/abilities or perks.

initiate damage or not to enemy.

Thanks for the praise, and by charging up a melee attack, I meant the time it takes to raise the sword over you head to the optimal attack position, and you could always raise it less and deal less damage but a bit more swifter.

@mumatil

I did not mean pressing two buttons, just pressing one button and releasing it when appropriate, just like the current power attacks in Oblivion and even Morrowind.

Then that would be fine then.

Ah ha! One thing that Morrowind fans and Oblivion fans can agree on lmao.

Thats a very well thought out idea, i like it :thumbsup:
Im someone who prefers the morrowind combat system, but this idea is great, a bit of both.

Let me describe how it can imitate both Morrowind and Oblivion approach:

Spell casting:

Oblivion: When you are charging a spell, the swifter you are able to charge that spell to cast, the less magicka you spend, so higher skill level reduces the magicka cost.

Morrowind: When you are charging a spell to cast, the swifter you can charge the spell to cast, the sooner you pass the attack threshold and the less chance there is for your attack to get dodged or interrupted by the opponent.

Edit: higher level spells could require higher level skill levels for minimum requirements and casting them in lower level skill levels could take a lot of time and when charging a spell, when it takes longer than a second or two to charge, there can be a chance of spell failure at any moment, and if your spell fails before you reach the attack threshold, your spell fizzles away, and if your attack fails after you reach the attack threshold, you release the spell prematurely.

This can imitate both Morrowind's spell failures and oblivion's skill requirement for higher level spells, a bit.

Melee weapon:

Oblivion: When you are raising a weapon to attack, the swifter you are able to raise the weapon to attack, the sooner you can reach the higher damage point and can sooner deal the higher damage blows, and spend less stamina doing so.

Morrowind: When you are raising a weapon to attack, the swifter you are able to raise the weapon to attack, the less time you give the opponent to negate your attack by any means, and here comes the effect of those dice rolls, when deciding if they can negate your attack.

Ranged weapons, just like the melee weapons, with the note that for Crossbows, the speed factor affects the recharging animation, not the actual attack.

Edit: Thanks, sicklecell.

It's a bit too late for me to be able to fully wrap my head around what you are proposing, I'll try again tomorrow.

My personal preference for 1st or 3rd person games where the player directly controls a weapon is that player skill determines to hit probability within limits defined by character skill, though these accuracy limits are more applicable to ranged weapons than melee. I'm not such a fan of die rolls, I think they work better in the isometric style game where the player doesn't have direct control of the weapon. The exception to this is critical hits, which I'm fine with being open to chance.

Personally as much as I enjoyed both systems for different reasons, the major thing that I disliked overall was that they played out the same wayy.

Morrowind at low skill level it was "Miss miss miss hit miss miss miss hit hit miss hit dead". You were worried less about maximizing your damage and wanted to attack sooner due to your expectancy to miss versus actually landing a blow. Metaphorically speaking the misses made it feel like chewing away at a huge HP bar.

Oblivion it was "Hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit hit dead." You were worried about a few more things as you had to determine when's a more appropriate time to power attack and block, but for the majority you were literally just chopping away at a huge hp bar.

So really, what makes combat more interesting is to make it lethal and visceral. So far it seems that's the way they're going about it. Deadly Reflex actually made me worried about blocking too soon, when I should seek an opening to strike and how, and take any advantage I could find while leaving as little as possible to be exploited. Knowing one good knock down could be over for you just added to the tension and immersion. That's something I really hope they get right with Skyrim. So really, that's my main concern. If they want die rolls (with necessary animations so it doesn't feel as static and bland), or if they want to keep it more Oblivion esque, I'll take it as long as they deliver on that tension factor. Make the blows really feel heavy, and dangerous.

Well, I have not thought about defense mechanism yet, and this thread currently covers the attacks only, so yeah, it can not cover all your worries, but in this method, you can define if you want to deal heavier attacks with the higher chance of getting negated, or deal swifter but lighter blows, with the advantage of giving the opponent less time to decide what to do.

As for huge health bars, I have dealt with that problem in my previous posts, but it is too late to search for them.

Hopefully I will integrate those solutions with this one later.

Definitely keep working on this and keep a permanent record of it on your computer. It's brilliant and if it can be made into a mod then it should be.

Thanks, I'll be working on that.

Well, after reading the latest article, I changed the OP a bit to acknowledge the probable merge of melee skills into "one handed" and "two handed".

This new info truly minimized the chance that we could use weapons in both one handed and two handed modes, guess why?

@ Mumatil Meh, I hate dicerolling anymore. Dicerolling really has become less and less needed in games now that we have the tech to no longer need them.

I don't hate dice rolls, but I agree they are becoming obsolete and should be done away with soon.

@Sphangne: Formulas like this always require a good deal of thought. It 'looks' good, but I'm not gonna say "omg lets trash beth's stuff and just do this". This should be play tested and reviewed thoroughly. Hopefully someone will mod this into a game (OB or MW) so we can see how it really goes.
Glad you put this up. Good food for thought.

One thing I noticed in specific I like about this is 'Stamina per second' or more specifically 'MP per second'. So an early frizzle isn't as expensive as a late frizzle. changing your mind mid attack (before you have commit fully) should be cheaper the sooner you make the decision to abort.

I'd like to see "min" and "max" [speed or skill] type equations be fleshed out more. If your going to put limits on how much skills can contribute (or requirements to how much skill they need) they should be exponential (as you approach the mins) and inverse exponential (approaching maxs) so there's not a "barrier" where you lose (gain) penalties (bonuses) for gaining 1 skill point. Did that make sense?
Also, saying "your too weak to use that" is unacceptable (If I can pick it up, why can't I swing it?), but saying "Don't use that high zook bow, you'll be more effective with this beginner's bow" makes perfect sense. Or "learn to use a mace, before you learn to use a flail."

If there are bastard swords, then I could see your 1-2 hand system working even if you don't. Why does 1 weapon have to go to one skill? Why can't you switch styles? Why can't ANY (most really) weapon be used either way? I can fit 2 hands on a pistol, I can use 2 hands with a butcher knife (Prolly not always a good idea in a fight; great for chopping stubborn veggies). Spears can be used 1-handed, but obviously easier with 2.

I pitched my idea in another thread a while ago. Long story short, Heavy Armor protects against sharp weapons better than Light Armor does. Light Armor is better suited for avoiding and absorbing blunt impacts.

Each weapon and each type of attack it has has a base damage, and it has a base "Dame type ratio," Those being Sharp Damage and Blunt Damage. Sharp damage is easily stopped by higher armor values, but it has a high damage multiplier for lightly armor (or unarmored) opponents. As such, sharp damage can be countered by good armor, and good use of blocking. Blunt damage doesn't have any raw damage multipliers, but it inflicts quite a lot of fatigue damage, and it's base damage can "penetrate" Heavy Armor since it relies on kinetic damage rather than sharp, pericing damage. Because of it's rough blunt impacts it does more condition damage to armor and weapons it hits, deteriorating their qaulity.

Higher quality weapons have better damage type ratios. As ratios get better the will gain bonuses to their given strengths. Where an iron dagger may have a 1:0 (1 sharp 0 blunt) ratio, a daedric dagger can have a 4:1 ratio since it's sharper and harder, it'll wind up doing more sharp damage against unarmored or lightly armored opponents, as well as more fatigue damage and block breaking (which will be effective against opponents with heavy armor).

Your skill in the weapon type will influence ratio multipliers for the ratios. Instead of the weapons doing more raw damage as you go up in skill and the weapon go up in quality (like Oblivion), they simply become more effective in combat; easily penetrating defensive stances or armor, draining more fatigue of the opponent, and doing more damage to their weapons and armor.

Yes, this gradual Stamina or Magicka usage, has this advantage when we fail in our attacks, or change our minds in the middle.


Yes it made a lot of sense, and I changed the formula for this good suggestion. Thanks. :goodjob:


Yes, by this approach, nothing is forbidden, but some weapons and spells are not practical to use.


Because we have "One hand" and "Two hand" skills, and those skills practically develop with no dependency between them, we can have high level skill in one had weapons, and low level skill with two handed weapons, and switching from one handed to two handed mode would actually reduce our effectiveness with the weapon.

What I mean here is, if you use a sword 1hnded it would be dependent on your 1hd skill. If your better with 2hnds it would be wiser to use a bastard sword 2hnded, because using it 1hnded would use 1hnded skill. Unless you wanted to use that other hand for something important enough that the drop in skill would not be that detrimental. Yes, I know the 2 skills have no connection. basically what I'm advocating here is a toggle switch per weapon to change how you use them and, thereby, what skill you're using.

Glad you appreciate my input. I haven't scrutinized your new formulae yet, but I'm glad you understand.

tl;dr