Skyrim Weapon Skills
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 2:39 pmI'd love to see a less simplistic weapon skill system in Skyrim. Having daggers and swords of all types being represented by one single skill felt very wrong to me in Oblivion. I practice european medieval fencing in real life, and so I know that fighting skills translate to some extent between one-handed and two-handed swords, but even so the intricacies of the techniques are quite different.
In gameplay terms, I would like to make a meaningful choice when I specialize in a certain type of weapon. This would result in a greater character variety, where playing a thief (blade user) plays very differently than a warrior (also blade user) in terms of equipment, "moves" and visual style.
I'd also like more weapon variety: crossbows, thrown weapons, and polearms... maybe even some exotic stuff like chain weapons, wrist blades, steel fighting fan and garrotes.
To ameliorate the effect of so many different weapon skills, I propose grouping them in families: For example, Long blade, short blade and daggers go into the "blade" family. Axes, hammers and maces into the "hafted weapons", short bows, long bows, crossbows and thrown weapons into the "ranged weapons" family and so on. Then, individual weapon skills are calculated the sum of the family base skill and the weapon specialization. When using weapons, experience goes half into the base skill and half into the specialization.
This way we avoid oddities like a long blade master who can't kill a rat with a dagger, and at the same time allows us to choose meaningful specializations. If that means that I can't just pick up and use any sword at all that I happen to stumble upon, then so be it. If, as a long blade specialist, I happen to find the Mithril Short Sword of überness, I might not be able to use it to its full extent right away, but I won't be fully incompetent with it either. And if I have to train my character for it, then eventually it makes the item more special in terms of emotional attachment, and that's a good thing too.
In gameplay terms, I would like to make a meaningful choice when I specialize in a certain type of weapon. This would result in a greater character variety, where playing a thief (blade user) plays very differently than a warrior (also blade user) in terms of equipment, "moves" and visual style.
I'd also like more weapon variety: crossbows, thrown weapons, and polearms... maybe even some exotic stuff like chain weapons, wrist blades, steel fighting fan and garrotes.
To ameliorate the effect of so many different weapon skills, I propose grouping them in families: For example, Long blade, short blade and daggers go into the "blade" family. Axes, hammers and maces into the "hafted weapons", short bows, long bows, crossbows and thrown weapons into the "ranged weapons" family and so on. Then, individual weapon skills are calculated the sum of the family base skill and the weapon specialization. When using weapons, experience goes half into the base skill and half into the specialization.
This way we avoid oddities like a long blade master who can't kill a rat with a dagger, and at the same time allows us to choose meaningful specializations. If that means that I can't just pick up and use any sword at all that I happen to stumble upon, then so be it. If, as a long blade specialist, I happen to find the Mithril Short Sword of überness, I might not be able to use it to its full extent right away, but I won't be fully incompetent with it either. And if I have to train my character for it, then eventually it makes the item more special in terms of emotional attachment, and that's a good thing too.