Having it based on stats and character building is fine but you need to balance character building with fun. I have this problem with low level DnD combat too, swinging a sword shouldn't cause me to miss 100 times. A miss here and there is reasonable but hitting 1/20 times is just frustrating.

The least Bethesda/modders could do is something like Gothic. If the sword connects it does damage period. The RPG mechanics come into play with how well you handle the sword (combos and literal swinging of the sword) and how much damage you do. You get character progression and a stat focus without causing major frustration to the guy trying to roleplay a paladin who has wielded a sword/healing magic his entire life but is refining his skills now.

To each his own with our preferences I guess.

Realizing I could climb any wall in Daggerfall. Any. Wall.

Realizing I had spent 10 hours dungeon crawling in areas totally unrelated to the main plot in Daggerfall.

Realizing just how complex and subtle the anthropological elements of Morrowind's main plot were.

Amen.

I loved getting lost in it. The music, the weather, the darkness in the caves near the end that got so scary for me I enchanted a ring with light...great atmosphere, huge and interesting world, near perfect game. I wasn't overly impressed with the conversation system/side of the game.

While not one of my finer moments, I remember my first run through Morrowind, and finding the Scrolls of Icarian Flight on the dead mage just outside of Seyda Neen, and thought "Cool, what's this do?" Good Times....

I had a few in Oblivion

- Seeing the opening. Simply majestic.
- Seeing the Imperial City while climbing the mountains and then, from Cloud City. Beautiful. Felt like a reward for upgrading my computer (I'm just a sucker for breathtaking views, and seems like Skyrim will have them in spades).

Deciding not to play morrowind anymore.

Had just bought a set of sweet armour and a nice sword with ill gotten cash . I went to rob a light house and this old lady got pissed off and attacked me. I couldn't hit here and eventually she knocked me to the ground and very slowly killed me with her bare hands with me being unable to do anything about it.

Delixe wrote:
"Modding Oblivion so much that it wasn't an Elder Scrolls game anymore. WIN!"


I went in the other direction, I modded Oblivion to turn it into an Elder Scrolls game >.>


As for Morrowind, I love nearly everything about it, and I've never once understood the issue people have with the combat system... Personally, very much I prefer the melee combat in Morrowind to that in Oblivion, which I find rather disorienting...

If you were RPing, you'd think: "Oh well, shouldn't have bought a weapon I can't quite handle and attack that kung-fu hag from hell!"

Playing Arena for the first time was pretty impressive.

The random nature of it meant you could get some amazing items right from the start. I once save-scummed my way to a full suit of elven/dwarven armour, and even got a wand that destroyed walls.

Of course.

Some people want that action combat in their real-time RPGs and some people don't. Personally I like both methods for different reasons. Oblivion's heavy and visceral action combat is indeed a good time but Morrowind's combat is equally well done for me because it concentrates on roleplaying. Similar to how I enjoy Mass Effect 2's purely skill-based shooting but also love Deus Ex and Alpha Protocol for their stat-based aiming systems.

Obviously a lot of people only like one or the other though.

Oblivion: Messing days with Oldblivion just to get the game running on my FX5200. Wonderful feeling, once I got the game running with good fps. :)

Morrowing: Installed it... Uninstalled it. I was kind of spoiled by Oblivion's beauty. :)

Oblivion: Having a great time with the game... Taking a break for a few months... Installing many mods... Realizing how empty the vanilla actually was!

I pretty much exhausted Morrowind. I did damn near everything you could with that game, save for a few of the more obscure Easter Eggs. Flying around with unique armour and weapons swooping down on unsuspecting enemies is definitely good times.

There's a hell of room for improvement with it, even if it 'works as intended'. Just because it did what they wanted it to doesn't mean they didn't set their sights too low or that gamers should be content with that. I won't go into the flaws with it as those are pretty abundantly apparent to all concerned.

Well I was speaking directly to it being stat-based, where a hit might mean a miss, which is what his issue seemed to be. I don't think that is a flaw at all from a roleplaying perspective.

Now if you want to talk about flaws within that then yes, there were some.

Even within that focussed perspective on that particular aspect - a hit should still be a hit. Just connect and not cause damage. But it should have some noticeable impact on the target. Either that or they dodge or shield themselves from the blow.

They might not be affected in terms of health. But they should be... inconvenienced by the fact that you're swinging a bloody big bit of sharpened steel at them, if you see what I mean. Equally the fact that you're doing so should mean you're that much more vulnerable to counter attacks.

You might want to keep the whole dice rolling aspect of the combat there. Even if it was just something born out of the limitations of the pen & paper RPGs of old (along with everything stat based, really). But that's no excuse for not better incorporating it into a computer game.