I think blunt weapons such as maces and war hammers should have the ability to ignore armor to a certain degree based on the quality of the weapon; they should also have the ability to destroy or damage armor and other weapons. This way, players will have more choices in choosing which weapons are best for their play-style and/or character.

I myself prefer blunt, but that is because I understand the damage they do much more then your average game player, they wanna see blood and cuts, where I want to know that I just drove half the brain case into his brain, or broke 3 ribs and the jagged ends have punctured the lung and are now making him freak for air, as well as hurt 10 times more then a cut.

Common sense finally!

I'm guessing the use of a blade suggests greater skill while the use of blunt suggest less skill or artistry in combat, just kinda crushing things. Probably isn't true, but that is the way I see it. If I'm good at blade, I'm actually good at something. If I'm good at blunt, I kinda see that as me just being stronger. :shrug: Still, I use blunt sometimes. I'd say I'm about 50% Unarmed, 30% Blade, 15% Blunt, 5% Archery. This could change greatly in Skyrim though.

I hate everything with a blade. Swords are too mundane and generic. :meh:

Melee staffs are even better than maces, but oh well. The day Bethesda adds more weapon types, right?

I'd exclusively use blunt weapons if I could wield a bread mixer.

Broadly, I think that swords are just more appealing. We have a long history of romanticizing swordfighters, while blunt weapon users just haven't caught the popular imagination.

In Oblivion specifically, blunt weapons are gimped overall. There isn't a blunt equivalent of a dagger at all. War axes and short swords do the same damage, but war axes are slower and heavier. Maces and longswords do the same damage and have the same reach, and maces again are a bit slower, but at least maces actually weigh a bit less. Claymores and battleaxes are completely unbalanced - they have the same reach and damage, but battleaxes are slower AND weigh more. Then war hammers are on their own at the other end - there's no blade equivalent to them. So strategically, even if one wasn't already inclined to use bladed weapons, they have the advantage. And there are many, many more unique bladed weapons than there are unique blunt weapons.

Personally, I don't have a real preference, but that's mostly the way that I approach the game. Any preference I might have doesn't count for anything - it's all about creating a character and figuring out what that character's preferences would be. I have dozens of Oblivion characters, armed with all sorts of things, just depending on what seems appropriate to the character.

Though in pursuit of that, I've also gone through and done my own weapon balancing mod, just to fix some of the things that Beth did. In mine, for instance, war axes are still heavier and slower than shortswords, but they do more damage. Maces I've left alone - I don't like the way they're set up in Oblivion, but they are at least fairly well balanced with longswords. I'd rather they were heavier and did more damage, but they're the weapon of choice for NPC spellcasters, and I assume that's part of the reason they were made lighter. Battleaxes have been completely changed - they have sllightly less reach than a claymore and weigh more, they have the same speed and they do more damage.

I would think that if the weapons were actually balanced better in the first place, and if there were more unique blunt weapons to be had, more people would use blunt weapons. But even then, blunt weapons just don't seem to fire the imagination like bladed ones do.

well in skyrim the weapon classes are one handed and two handed (maybe dual is seprate?) so you can switch between sword and mace and axe because you have the same proficency with all but they have diffrent effects and perks. really looking forward to this system

i was about to suggest you play morrowind got the wrong immage not shurikens you want teh chain link mace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5g1msRS6bZ8

this is amorning star (go about half way through vid 1st half is just the box it comes in i guess)

(tho id like to find a video of where its actually being used :/)

I usually use bows and short blades... But, my warrior classes all generally use blunt weapons... And, I indeed love the maces :tongue:.
As you can see from 0:39 to 1:28, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6VTci1Bunk are evidently trying to give us their opinion on the matter...

If my character wields the 2h axe/mace the way they should I'll use them. There's no way you can hold such an unbalanced weapon the same way you wield a claymore.

Bethesda has never made heavy, blunt weapons feel satisfying. The reason for this is that they swing way too slowly.

In contrast, the Condemned series handled heavy melee weapons much better. It took longer to heave back a heavy weapon, but the swing itself was still fast. When your sledge hammer connected with a foe, it felt like a really meaty impact.

Gravity is on your side when you're delivering the swing. The weight should effect raising your weapon, but the swing itself should *never* feel like it's going in slow motion. OB's heavy weapons felt broken in this regard, and we can only hope that this has been fixed for Skyrim.

i dont think that axe should be in blade type, cuz its heavy and has impact such as a blunt weapon.. i prefer them to be blunt because it makes more sense also in orcish/dwarven style, can you even imagine orcs and dwarves being better using blade weapons? B)

i always go with a long sword due to the fact that in real life i train with one as well as the katana but my in game reasons are that they are faster then the the blunt category and i prefer speed as oppose to brute force

Well since I play modded Oblivion, weapons have various additional effects like they was added with perks in Skyrim, as well modded Oblivion have feature like bonus/penalty to weapon speed based on skills, fatigue, speed and Strength versus weapon weight and lengths, weapons have inertia and momentum so attributes have real impact on gameplay since low attributes will not allow you swing with weapon on full speed but if you are powerful enough you will receive bonus to weapon speed, the same goes to NPC so warrior become more interesting in combat.
For example in powerful hands of Orc warrior warhammer is much deadly since it faster, so slow blunt is also more interesting become.

This is an issue I've tried to deal with when rebalancing weapons, but there's just no way to do it satisfactorily with past games.

In fact, there are at least two different aspects to weapon speed, and they can't both be accounted for with a single speed attribute attached to the weapon. Bladed weapons, in general, are quicker, while blunt weapons, in general, actually swing faster, but that only once they get going.

It's straight physics - a blunt weapon, in part because of its weight and in part because of how that weight is distributed, will require the application of more force to get it moving in the first place. But once it's moving, the additional weight and the distribution of that weight means that it will accelerate faster and end up moving at a greater speed. A bladed weapon, on the other hand, being a bit lighter and having its weigh more evenly distributed, will move at a more constant speed. Its lighter and more evenly distributed weight won't lend itself to great acceleration on the swing, but it will also make it easier to get it moving in the first place and to redirect it after a swing.

That's something that I too would like to see addressed better in Skyrim, but I'm not sure if it will be. I've pondered different ways of doing it, and it seems to be one of those things that would actually be quite a bit more difficult to implement than it initially seems.

Sure would be nice though.......

My character that I'm playing now, that I will carry into Skyrim, Reinhardt, a Nord, primarily uses battle axes and only uses big Claymores for Blade. I used blade exclusively beforehand hough.

Big Head knows a secret about blades. Point them out, never in. Blade is out - poke, poke, poke!

I prefer swords to blunt because they are lighter, and faster to swing.