Why? Isn't there a greater difference between using a mace and a sword than between using chainmail and plate? I would guess it's gonna be 1-handed and 2-handed too - or something to that effect -- but also no armor skills.

I think they are saying that one-handed weapon perks generally fall under the "combat banner", but the perk for daggers falls under the "stealth banner".

Oops!

This one is awesome, reading!

Now you got me wondering how hand-to-hand combat will work...

What if I equip a short sword on my right hand, and instead of blocking with the sword I can punch with the empty left hand?

You CAN equip a weapon to your left hand for the person that asked. You can equip weapons/spells to either hand.

Missed the boat. As did I as he linked the article on page 9 and I didn't see he had edited it lol.

No, maces and swords apply pretty much the same principals, you just have to follow a sword strike with a pull to make a cut.

The only armour I've ever fought in was a chain shirt, so I can't really say much about it.

Edit* I've never fought with an axe either, that seems like it might be a bit different too, but only because of the way they would interact with shields.

Arrows were pretty expensve back then, so I like the sniper feel were going with

Make every shot count. Oh yeah..

So, lighting drains magicka and frost drains speed. Does this mean that pure 'Drain' spells will be eliminated? Considering Bethesda Occam Razoring their games with each new title, that's very possible.
But otherwise I'm very pleased. They really do learn from the modding community - overall magic seems to be much more fun to use now, and of course everydoby remembers Deadly Reflex - it seems they got some inspiration from there, too.

I wonder how this'll be explained (if at all) in-world, though. If I can walk into town and buy a gigantic nordic silver claymore, I'd be surprised if iron broadheads and raven-feather fletching were a highly limited resource...

Or perhaps the number of arrows one can carry at a time is what's meant?

I think that Combining is referring to using 2 offensive spells together (like fire and Frost) and casting them so that they are 1 spell, you can have 2 spells equiped but they can only be used one after the other

I don't mind if the arrows are harder to get but if they do that, then the Arrows have to be more powerful then they were in Oblivion.

@Adragas I dearly hope not. I mean, magic is more tactical now than before, but this is the perfect excuse for them to water it down into a rock-paper-scissors affair. Now instead of having to plan ahead with various Drain/Damage spells, taking into account attributes and skills, we're just going to be firing off any lightning spells we want on magic users to get the same effectiveness?

So we can equip two separate spells but can't cast them at the same time correct? To cast at the same time they have to be the same spell?

I hope so, only the drains spells in Oblivion made up for 5 spell effects out of the 81 base ones. With 85 spell effects, and all those useless spells out I'll be very happy!

Exactly, not many people took an arrow in the chest/neck/face, turned around, and yelled "I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than you"

I didnt really 100% get the Melee and I just didnt read anything else because I am a melee only person but from what I did get it seems like it is improved on alot

Axe, Blade and Blunt are replaced by One-Handed. Add in Light and Heavy Armor and your back to 18.

By and large, this sounds good. Lots of improvements.

As for disappointments, there are things where one might have hoped for an improvement over Oblivion, but at least Skyrim won't go backwards - for instance, spears and throwing weapons.

But the biggest concern to my mind is whether we'll be able to make custom spells. I don't think the importance of spellmaking should be underestimated for mages and magic/combat hybrids. I know that one thing I relied upon with my magic/combat hybrids was being able to make carefully balanced crowd control and combat support spells, where the duration/magnitude/mana-usage was specifically tailored to the sorts of enemies I expected to face, the amount of melee damage I'd expect to do, how long I'd expect the fights to last, and how much mana I had. Not being able to tailor spells to your combat style may mean a lot of extra micromanagement with potions, needing to run away and reengage, and so on.

I guess what I'm hopeful for is that either custom spells are still in, or perhaps Bethesda have found some other way of achieving similar effects. It sounds like you can, in a sense, customise a spell by the way you use it - you can customise the fire spell by using it as a fireball, a flamethrower, or a defensive ward. Perhaps other spells will work similarly? For instance, depending on how you use a Demoralise spell, you can alter its area of effect and duration?

best update yet

Honestly, I wouldn't mind. I never used them in Oblivion because while it was more expensive to make a damage spell I didn't have to kill them before the effect wore off. If you use drain health and it wears off they get it all back and that made me sad face.

Uhhh... :unsure2:

Looks like I'll need to brush up on my Destruction and Alteration :sweat:

I guess the best we can hope now in terms of magic system is a really awesome Creation Kit to bring back some old magical effects in. I doubt it will be too difficult to bring back drain spells, for instance.