I would hate to see Skyrim flooded with to many weapon/armor varieties. Crossbows are most welcomed, but spears would make so much more sense.

Simply, Yay!!!

Spears! Please Beth, a lot of people want them. You made them in the game jam, can you not just give us them?

As Hagal said a few posts above, evidence of the Snow Prince means that, almost certainly we'll see spears.

Yeah we probably will.. in DLC02: Snow elfs and Spears!..But if its in DLC01... that would be totally awesome!

I'm amused by all the sentimentality over Morrowind's crossbows, spears, and thrown weapons. They were almost totally useless window dressing.

Those were fun but maybe a bit over the top. There was a great mod that added an archery shop to Balmora with many more AoE arrows, pimped out bows, and even designer quivers.

They were useable weapons that make sense in a medieval/fantasy world. Hardly useless, and even less so window dressing so not sure what game you were playing.

I'm amused by all the disregard over choices being taken away. The only reason crossbows, spears, and thrown weapons were 'useless window dressings' is because Bethesda made them so. Some people really like crossbows, and maybe they fit the playstyle of their character much better than a bow and arrow would...but Bethesda only put like two crossbows in Morrowind. They weren't really a viable, end-game option but they were fun to use. Same with throwing weapons. Spears are viable enough, but the 'best' spear in the game isn't as strong as the 'best' sword. You can apply the same rationale to mysticism, mercantilism, medium armor, and speechcraft...if Bethesda fleshed out, or put the effort into making interesting uses for any of these skills, they would add so much to the game.

If you want to streamline the game down even further to just three skills: 'Weapon Skill', 'Armor Skill', and 'Magic Skill', in time for Elder Scrolls VI then I guess that's your business, but I want to reverse the trend.

I want there to be lots of new weapons, throwing weapons, hand to hand weapons (e.g. knuckle dusters), clubs and so on.

Bring back whatever you want as long as it's not mithril. The sight of mithril makes me want to punch a baby.

I was playing a game called Morrowind where thrown weapons were too weak and scarce to be practical while crossbows bolts were likewise scarce and the crossbow itself was inferior to all the mid range and up bows. That's the game I was playing. Like spears, these things added to the atmosphere of the game but not the actual gameplay. I'm all for variety, don't get me wrong. You should have seen my house in Balmora (more of a private pub, really). I had all of the more interesting examples of these things on display. When I went adventuring though, I took along my bow and sword. I experimented with these other things and found them to be inferior or impractical.

And that's kind of the point.

They add a lot to the atmosphere (spears/halberds alone were, frankly, a larger part of ancient and medieval combat than the sword ever was), and that alone is worth the inclusion. But, it's up to Bethesda to take the extra step and make crossbows and co. worthwhile from a functionality standpoint as well.

It'd be nice if I could equip throwing weapons in my off hand, allowing me to attack enemies at close range and at a distance. Effectively like what I a spellsword might do, but substitute range weapons for magic.

Never in my 2000 hours of Morrowind play have I ever ever never ever used a throwing weapon or dart. It's just pointless, it does little to no damage, and it is absurdly inaccurate. It's just pointless. The only reason to use darts or throwing stars in Morrowind was for RP playstyles.

So no, I don't want them back.

Would you have used them if they were accurate, and did appreciable damage?

Okay, we're done here.

Yes. We should also remove swords and maces because those are simply copies of axes.

Would crossbows have been seen as "inferior to midrange and high range bows" if crossbows actualy had midrange and highrange versions?
Furthermore is not the mechanics of the crossbow different from the ones of a bow?
Is not a spear a different weapon than a sword? At least much more so than an axe!

Darts are one handed... and now we have dual wielding. Understand where i am going with this?

Go outside right now and try throwing a baseball with your off-hand. Tell us how well you can do it.

I'm ambidextrous and can use my left hand almost as well as my right. My father is completely ambidextrous and when we used to play catch he'd switch hands for each throw and could put equal power behind the ball no matter which hand he used. This practically goes to the core of the character creation system (despite what Bethesda does to try and butcher it). Using a sword in one hand and throwing stars in the other hand, effectively, is as much a skill as using a sword and shield. It takes practice, but I'd imagine you could get pretty good at it...like anything else in Elder Scrolls.

I might like them if you couldn't lose them permanently. It wasn't much fun to get some special throwing stars, use them up and then they're gone (or more likely, leave them in your house forever to avoid that).

If you throw it, miss, and lose it in the grass that's just how it goes (maybe a detect item spell could come in handy though), but I don't think they need any % chance to be recoverable or not from a successful hit.

Go outside and try to swing a sword with your off-hand. Tell us how well you do it.

If your argument is that there should be off-hand penalties then I 100 percent agree with you. I'm not sure why you'd want to outright deny players the option, however.

Yes- I still baffle myself. Why is my character carrying a steel weapon and a dwarven bow- everybody knows daedric hits hardest, matter of fact since daedric is best everything else is just sentimental midrange windowdressing..

This argument seems strangly familiar.

Variety is spice, i would and did trade
In a longsword for a shortsword even though there is not technical advantage to doing so.

Somehow all my characters never ever met a guy in full legendary daedric plate with a daedric claymore of 50damage fire/paralyze- not in all their time in the lands, i doubt they ever will.. Somehow..

First, barring any actual negative modifiers being introduced, there are no true off-hands in Skyrim. Everyone is equally ambidextrous. So, in all likely hood I would have no preference for which hand a weapon rests in as they're just as effective either way. I used the term only to distinguish between my primary, sword-wielding hand and my secondary, throwing weapon-wielding hand. My point was that a throwing weapon need not be independently effective to still be useful. Poisons, on their own, are generally ineffective. You must couple them with other skills and abilities to make any use of them. In that sense, throwing weapons act as a compliment to your other combat skills rather than a replacement.

So I'm still not understanding your point. Do you feel that players should not be able to equip weapons in their off-hand? Or do you feel they should be able to, but ought suffer from negative modifiers to damage/accuracy?

I have split out some very rude posts from this topic. Stay civil and constructive, and just hope I don't get called back to this thread.

So what do you guys think of having the other things like throwing stars/darts making a return?

Knives aren't meant for throwing. It's hollywood fiction.

I wouldn't mind seeing pole arms though....spears in particular.