I would absolutely hate such a feature. To the point I'm quite certain it would ever prevent me from buying such a game.

No it doesn't, for MELEE combat, that's the entir epoint of this thread, MELEE combat, which is the worst part of TES games in terms of gameplay/fun/depth.

Having a lock on for melee combat does not mean it's a free "hit" with auto aim. All they need to do is have it as such that various moves you do have varying animation lengths/times to do, so power type of attacks take longer then quick attacks.

Now when you hit the buttons to do these attacks, while you have a target locked on, the animation (once you hit the button) play sout ONLY in the direction you were aiming/facing at that time. So if the enemy reads your move (or vice versa for you vs the enemies) you can quickly time a good dodge/roll out of the way and counter.


I just don't see how ANYONE can play a system with this that works well, Severance, Dark Souls, etc and then say TES combat is more fun, more in depth, and takes more "skill," that's absurd.

This opens melee combat up to a LOT more depth, allowing full 360 degrees of motion around a target while keeping you focused on them so you can time dodges, blocks, moves, in a much much more fluid manner then the clunky combat we have now.

I'd like to know how you dodge things, becuase last I checked there's no roll, sidesitep, or dodge in teh game, just the usual move about while you hap hazardly swing your weapon away that looks wonky as hell.

I just told someone yesterday that Blade of Darkness came out in 2001 and its melee combat was far better and more intense than Skyrim's. So I agree.

PC games NEVER need auto-aim or lock on.
For consoles I do prefer it, but that's because I svck at aiming with a gamepad. So I'm just happy that this is one feature that isn't in just because console users want it.

Personally, I think we don't necessarily need a lock-on feature.

Things that I believe we need, in order of importance.

Dodging mechanic. And by that I do NOT mean rolls. Just a quick way to step backwards and to the sides.
Basic locational damage: not necessarily the head but "blows to the back to more damage" would complement the dodging mechanic very nicely.
Recoling mechanic: a way to kick to create some distance between we and our enemies

Play severance, which IMO still to this day stands as the game with the best melee combat system, then tell me that it would work fine without lock on.

When using lock on you open up a whole area of things you can't do without it.

The ability to dodge in 360 degrees, to circle strafe while using the mouse for combat instead of constantly dragging it abou to realign your sight. IT just looks and feels more fluid and natural.

Two things I think should be changed:

There needs to be a way to identify NPCs for a distance... I don't want to accidentally kill an innocent person on a hill, but I don't want to get close enough to identify them, only to have them be a bandit and lose my sneak attack bonus.

I really wish that strikes were animated better, I can never tell if I'm actually hitting the enemy or not, more often or not I'm not even looking at the enemy, but at their health bar. At least an audio cue that I"m hitting them, similar to when I bash them with my shield.

I don't think geckoman is trolling. I agree with him. I kind of like relying on your skill to aim and swing and follow your opponent. Target lock + shield and magic or shield and 1 hander = easier. a lot easier.

This is my biggest gripe with the melee combat right here... the game doesn't react to combat. You swing and swing wondering if you're even making contact, but then see the mob's life is halfway gone? Oh, I guess I did hit it then. The only thing that responds is when you hit a shield-block and your controller vibrates. Melee just feels lifeless to me. Worst part of the game, IMHO. They really should've taken a pointer from Dark Souls on how to make effective combat. DS combat + Skyrim's world would truly deserve a 100% review.

Seriously? Here's how a lock on battle would go for my characters:

Walk up
Lock on
Spam Flames/Sparks/Frostbite until dead.
Loot
Laugh all the way to the bank

Im really curious where everyone has played those magical real-life-like combat simulators! Can anyone point me to them? Because I have yet to see one!

What i meant by this is: Combat is floaty and not reactive? Compared to what? You all talk of Dark Soul as the all-end of melee combat.... if you like arcs of attack that are 3x bigger then the actual weapon (or simply ridiculously oversized weapons), targets that literally fly away at a poke and asian-style animation based combat, then sure............

I'll stick to my floaty sandbox ktkx.

Not saying that skyrim's combat couldnt be better, but its not half as bad as you make it sound.

P.S. you argue that TES is not realistic because sometimes your arm weapon wont react in fights, but you advocate a game where you get to throw yourself around and roll like an acrobat all day in full plate armor with a shield.... LOL?

How could you have a lock on system for melee only?

I guess you could make it a very short-range lock-on? Would that be workable?

Because, as others have said already, a lock-on system for magic and archery would svck ._.

This.

Quite simple actually, Bow equipped? No lock on! Melee weapon equipped? You can lock on



Yea! because you would TOTALLY be forced to use a lock on system, I mean God Forbid it'd be optional and for those that wouldn't want the benefit sof a well done one and more in-depth melee combat, you could simply choose not to use it, but that's just too logical, what am I saying.

I don't use magic, that doesn't mean I don't buy the game because it exists in the game.

Oh. god. no.

Even thinking about it makes me angry. Combat without lock is part of the TES feel for me.
It really captures that 'in the moment' hectic feel of combat, and and locking would just dumb it down.
Also, archery would be astronomically lame with any kind of locking.

Yeah, because lock on made Demon's Souls and Dark Souls soooo easy, oh wait....

Never gonna happen and shouldn't happen. I love Dark Souls and they have lock on for a very good reason. A reason not present in Skyrim. The "jankyness" as you put it is mostly due to poor animations and poor NPC combat AI.

If melee gets lock-on, caster gets lock-on and spell-tracking to be fair. Try hitting a DISTANT AND MOVING foe with fireball of the size of a bullet.

You are asking too much, it should be the player who makes sure the hit lands where you want it.