swords are supposed to be faster than the others but i feel that the combat i REALLY slow when im using my 2h sword. i don't want it to be as fast as a one handed mace but faster than its current state! at least fast enough so i won't get bored watching my character swings his sword in slow motion.

Here's a super simple solution:

In the console, type

"setgs fWeaponTwoHandedAnimationSpeedMult #"

except replace # with how fast you want two handed weapons to be (vanilla Skyrim speed is 1 I think).

I actually I like vanilla 2h speed. It feels realistic and heavy. When you swing it feels like you're swinging something heavy with a lot power.

But everyone is not the same, everyone like different things

swords shouldn't be this heavy and slow tho.. their shape cuts the air making it go faster than say.. maces. tho i agree they should be somewhat slow since they are still heavy.. just not THAT heavy

Agreed. Two handed weapons are very slow in Skyrim.

Neither 2 handed swords nor axes were slow weapons. A two handed sword weighed on average two pounds more than a 1 hander. The full range of techniques were available, both cut and thrust.

A two handed axe battle axe was lighter still, with a blade often only a few millimeters thick. To keep the weapon light the thin blade was wrapped around a central socket piece rather than fashioned from a single piece of metal with the socket bored out. These weapons were not crude, sharpened hunks of metal. They were well thought out and speed was paramount. A well swung 2 lb. axe head will cave in your skull just as surely as a 4 lb. axe head. Extra weight just meant being slower, which meant him hitting you before you hit him.

I know it's fantasy, but I just feel that the intelligence that was built into real weapons, and the resulting elegance of the design, is much more appealing than the huge fantasy blades that we are presented with. From a game play PoV, I want my opponents swinging two handers to feel more fluid and aggressive.

... yeah, what he said..

One more post: they were not heavy. They were not heavy at all. Unnecessarily heavy weapon = dead wielder. A one handed sword weighed between 2.5 - 3.5 lbs. A two hander from 4 - 5.5. A two handed axe 5 or less. They just were not heavy.

Our forefathers were not stupid. They understood that hitting the other guy before he hit you was important. In real life you didn't hit somebody 10 times to bring them down. One time usually did the job. That meant that hitting first was important. Lighter, faster weapons are more likely to hit first. They understood that 2000 years ago and made their weapons accordingly.

Waitwaitwait... do you want your swords heavy or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIKMPIFJkzk?

ETA: Better video with added double-kill action...

E=MC^2. Mass is important. Velocity more so. A 2 lb. axe swung at great velocity will penetrate a lot more than a 4 lb axe swung much more slowly.

Now those are the geeky arguments. I happen to prefer the look of a sleek weapon. I like combat to be sharper and faster, where a few hits tell the tale. I am not so into realism that I want every combat to be a single shot deal, but I also don't want to feel like a lumber jack hacking at a tree. That my preferences are somewhat backed by history and physics is just a bonus .

so we all agree (except that dude)! great swords and battle axes should be faster. and from what i understand it can be a very simple mod.

Slow 2 hander speeds are annoying to me as well. I've already put out a mod that changed all the weapon weights to more realistic values. Whilst I was doing that, I was also looking for the speed value that Oblivions CS had, but couldn't find it. SkyEdit has about a dozen unknown values for every weapon record, so it's likely one of those, but will take a bit of experimenting and trial and error to identify which.

part of the weapon's speed formula is it's weight? i thought so at first but i tried many weapons and they all seem to be the same speed

I don't know if there is a formula that takes weapon weights into account, or if it's a simple value that you can change. In Oblivion there was a simple value you could edit in the CS that changed the speed of the weapons swing animation. I reset the claymore value to something I felt was closer to what I experienced when I was doing longsword fencing. SkyEdit doesn't, as yet, have any specific speed value that you can change, but like I said there about a dozen values with an unknown purpose. We'll probably need to wait for the proper CK.

well some1 posted a console command so i guess there is no formula, just a base value.

just how easy can it be to make the mod? anyone?

Give me slow weapons but give me weapon impact! Duke Patrick/spookyfx, a modder who's actually extensively gone into medieval style fighting has said the weapon speeds are closer to reality than they were in OB so I'm actually fine with the speed (although the 2H hammers ARE a tad slow). What I want is for my target to feel it when I hit them. I hate that it doesnt even cause them to flinch, much more, prevent them from attacking or continuing their attack. If I'm able to time my slow swing to hit an enemy first, I'd like to be rewarded for it by stopping the enemy's attack or even causing a stagger.

Your speed with weapons should increase with your skill level.

use his mod and do a power attack, then.

and i think its still to slow

This.

The two handed axe or the claymore were terror weapons, intimidating, yet very inefficient, If you hit you killed, or at least disabled the enemy; if you missed the swordsman ran you trough. The spiked sledgehammer was mainly used to unhorse knights and punch trough plate armor when they were on ground.

Historically *swords* where what we RPG nerds call "short swords" today. A 4-5 ft long sword was used two handed and occasionally one handed, just like we use two handed swords in games. A two handed sword, as large as its wielder, was an open field weapon used to scythe away spear formations to make place for the own cavalry and to unhorse enemy riders. Like most polearms it was useless once the enemy came too close.

Not true. Two handers can be wielded effectively at close range depending on the enemy. A heavy armored shield opponent that gets close yes that's a problem but all weapons got their weaknesses.

I agree most two handed weapons were effective cavalry weapons and rarely used in solo combat on foot, exception being the Zweihanders etc that were deployed on open fields.

... ok

some say there were efficient and quicker, some say they were inefficient and slow

so basically we ask for a mod that either makes weapon speed faster for 2h - great sword and battle axe OR let them remain slow but make them hit hard, possibly staggering the enemy for like half a sec

the "Weapons of the Third Era" mod (http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3871) has battle staves which are fast two-handed weapons (albeit, with significantly reduced damage, when compared to heavier two-handed weapons).

Most two handed swords actually weren't any faster than two handed axes (they were generally both 0.7). Not sure if this was intended or not.

I made a mod for my own use that overhauls weapon speeds, including speeding up two handed weapons a bit. After seeing this topic I decided I'd go ahead and upload it to the Nexus. You can find it http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5172.

Please give me feedback, as I've just been using it for myself and it may or may not be very balanced, might contain bugs, etc.

ah it was you.. im glad my post made you share it with everyone but like i said in the comments and like you said as a reply, it only affects vanilla (and third era?) weapons.. and i use weapons from mods like the uriel sword

You are discounting the difference in center of gravity (or momentum) and differnce in rotational force required to move the far end of a a longer weapon. Weight is not the only consideration to be taken when thinking about or discussing speed of attack.