Hear me out before trolling,

If i pick a sword in real life it doesn't mean i can instantly hit anything straight away, like in Skyrim but i will miss a lot of my strikes like in Morrowind.

Also with blocking but not quite as bad they replaced not blocking anything with still taking damage.

These are my thoughts i would like to hear yours.

I agree, with better animations it might have made more sense in MW.

But it was too tedious for modern gamers (not hating, just stating a fact)

In theory. But the big problem with Morrowind's combat is that using this principle it never really feels like you're actually fighting. Just watching a shoddy animation as the game number-crunches in the background. It damages immersion in my opinion.

I'd much rather that at lower levels you did less damage with sword attacks, or were blocked more often, than bring back that terrible game mechanic.

Dice roll mechanics aren't realistic. You don't just roll a dice to decide whether your real world sword hits anything after a real world swing. Whether you hit anything with a sword in the real world depends on your skills wielding a sword, your skill at striking an opponent where it hurts. Which means skill based mechanics are actually more realistic.

So no. I love Morrowind, and I'm not bothered by it's dice roll mechanics, but it isn't realistic. Not at all.

It is an un realistic representation of a realistic concept.

i still think you could have missed at least a little bit in skyrim

No. Morrowind's concept was dice roll mechanics, which is far from realistic. Character skill based mechanics are much more realistic. (And more fun imho.)

If Morrowind was turn based, or from a third person tactical position. LIke say Dragon Age or the old Baldur's Gate games. Your argument might hold water. But when your directly controlling the attack with a sword or the aim with a bow if you hit you hit. No hidden math.

but somehow i still love playing morrowind and 'swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh thwack' aha got you once

Agreed.

And a game using dice roll mechanics in the background is always painfully obvious. It's the biggest reason Morrowind has aged so badly, in my opinion. I can suffer dodgy textures and meshes, but the combat really does the game down.

This.

At some point, it's a game, and should be fun.

And getting carpal tunnel from constantly mashing the mouse button dozens of times just to hit a rat or a squib gets incredibly tedious.

If you hit someone in real life with a sword, I'm pretty sure you don't miss him/her because a dice tells you to do so.

aahhhh the squib

But that's also part of the problem. Got you once. Not hit you and barely scratched you. Performed an attack and it missed seven times in a row. Then I DID hit you and it didn't feel like it did any damage. And repeat.

but it went both ways

archery made a lot of sense though

I get far more enjoyability out of a guy blocking me over and over in Oblivion or Skyrim because it feels like actual combat. Even at lower levels when my character is still rubbish.

I agree with the OP to an extent.

At first i couldnt get on with Morrowind after going to it from playing Oblivion, but it grew on me, and i thouht the fact that you might fail casting a spell etc... added to the realism, as you'd expect not to be able to cast spells perfectly to start with. And as you get better in the skill, you can cast spells more consistantley with was an enjoyable goal to work too.

It may not be 100% realistic, but i think the concept makes sense.

I think how much you miss depends most on what armor the other guy is wearing. I did SCA combat a few times when I was a kid, which tries to simulate shield+heavy armor combat. You tend to hit but get blocked. In kendo there is also a lot of blocking. In fencing you get parried, for fighting with a light weapon and no armor you dodge more. But spear fighters in Africa or Papua New Guinea also use a shield quite often. The best way IMO would be to put in a dodge mechanic that was mainly based on armor weight, if you wanted to be realistic.

hand-to-hand took away stamina and knocked them down as well

If you have a sword and you are in range of your opponent, it's actually very hard for you to completely miss, even if you're crap at using swords. You may do very little damage however, if you've never used a sword before.

Therefore I think Skyrim's mechanics are both more realistic and more enjoyable, gameplay wise.

Spell cast failing I wouldn't mind seeing make a return.

In the case of magic I actually agree with you. Maybe not quite to the crazy extent that Morrowind had at lower levels, but failing to cast should really be a possibility. It would certainly be interesting to bring this back in future games. At the lower levels, and certainly trying to cast high level spells.



Maybe. But as you say, Blocking is the bigger part in close quarter fighting. I think both Oblivion and Skyrim deal with that pretty well. At close quarters a guy with a Shield DOES block a lot of your blows in Skyrim, and only enchanted weapons truly break that deadlock sometimes.

A specific dodge mechanic would be great if the game still had spears and the like. But I don't think we'll ever have those back again.

and cliff racers

Aren't they only supposed to be native to Morrowind?