VATS would have kept Lydia alive a few times because she got in the way of my blade.

Here is the reason why there is no VATS in TES. No locational damage, nothing to target.

If you really want the NPC to stand still while you hit them, just cast Paralyze.

Thanks for the feed back guy's, although some of you need to take a break and pound down a few. What I am referring to is the ability to target an opponent then engage that opponent, rather than wildly swing at them and hitting one of your followers. A bit like a Super Mario Brother arcade game now. A well trained melee fighter does not think out every move he merely engages the target and his training and instincts takes over automatically. An yes the magic system is very cumbersome. Call it MATS ... melee arcane targeting system. But ... I don't see Bethesda dong that.

see, now that strikes me as an idea that should be developed: target/single-out then fight them.

especially, since, hitting your friend is so common in TES.

edit: i'm always an advocate for futhering and advancing. combining rts, dice rolls and real-time, for me, should be the goal in rpg's.

Right, no locational damage, no need for VATS.

However the big question is: why no locational damage!

VATS doesn't make sense to me in an Elder Scrolls game. The technology doesn't exist. It could be tied to magic somehow, but that seems hokey.

But I see no reason why locational damage can't be in an Elder Scrolls game.

An arrow in the head should not do as much damage as an arrow in the knee!

I like to use the "slow time" shout, it is superior to vats.

the first time i used slow time i knew it wasn't developed properly.

I like VATS in FO3 and would like to have it in Skyrim for bows. In fact VATS was why I initially bought FO3, my first Bethesda game. Had it not had this I would never have bought the game. I've been able to get along without it in Oblivion and Skyrim, but not happily.

VATS is TES would not be viable in my opinion. The concept of VATS was to add a turn based tactical solution to an FPS action game. If you want turn based try Baldurs gate.
The skill which allows archers to slow time is as close to vats as I would like to go without spoiling the flow of Skyrim. If you're not an archer try the slow time shout.

vats in skyrim will not work because of skyrim. not, the system we call vats.

a system similar to VATS may make destroying ice wraiths as a mage or archer a little easier. However I find that dual casting a fireball works well.
Skyrim is already pretty slow, why bother with vats?

to further advance gaming.

edit: seriously, i can only imagine the greatness of one fireball to the head and 2 quick ones to the feet to slow down an enemy.

Firebals are an area attack spell. if you properly want to cripple an NPC you may want to use ice spike or lightning bolt.

Yeah, because they also have the giant wristwatch super computer. (sarcasm of course, there's clearly no VATS)

also VATS cripples maneuverability which is vital to any FPS game, especially Skyrim.

Just to clarify, I think we are over talking about implimenting VATS into Skyrim and what we are interested in is locational damage (IE damage arms to cripple combat effectiveness) and perhaps an auto aim ability (which svcks), I imagine such a mod would be very difficult to impliment and I doubt Bethesda would ever impliment these things.

No.

I agree with the consensus of leaving VATS out of TES. But it making it less real? Yes. Because shooting a frost bolt out of your hands or a stick screams realism

BUT OT: leave the VATS system to the Fallout franchise where it started. I didnt play the earlier releases, I started with Fallout3, so I dont understand the differences and such, but it doesnt belong in TES either way

As I recall in FO3 when you're swinging a melee weapons you can't target a location either, but it still works. Very handy when a bunch of tactical morons (like followers) are walking right in front of you while you're casting spells or shooting arrows or even swinging swords.

So the fact that there is no location based damage is not germane. They could still allow us to target an individual and then swing. They'd still need a way to regulate the number of swings though, like action points. Not a perfect fit but by no means impossible. Especially as these are the people who actually did this in FO3 and they have access to all the existing code.

MACS - Magically Assisted Combat System, maybe? Or Battle Meditation