About the Big Total Conversion Mods like Skywind/Skyblivion

[thesheeep]

Nothing wrong with the Morrowind combat system.
It's actually the last of the series to feature RPG combat (indirect control, your character does the attacking) instead of trivialized action combat (direct control, you do the attacking).

I wish more games would feature Morrowind style combat. Or both variants, as it would be very easy to implement both (just set to-hit chance to 100% in case of action combat mode).

There might be nothing wrong with the system on paper. In practice it's not suitable for the medium of a FP action rpg. Ask anyone what's the first thing they could change about morrowind and the answer is almost invariably the combat because it feels odd and is boring/ involves no player skill which is absolutely appropriate for a classic turn based rpg but TES really isn't that and thus it feels wrong.

I couldn't disagree more.
It only feels wrong if you do not understand what is happening on the screen. I understand perfectly what happens on the screen, and that it isn't me making the attacks, but the character - I just click the mouse to give the attack command, aimed roughly at the enemy. Which is the very core of being of an RPG and the prime distinction between that and an action game - abstraction. And as soon as you grasp that, and also enjoy RPGs more than action games, Morrowind's combat becomes the best of the series.

Just because you look through the eyes of the character, doesn't mean you are the character. It's still just a "puppet" in your hands, just as it would be in an isometric game.

Of course, some parts of Morrowind combat were undeniably clunky. Like unclear hit/miss feedback and ranged aiming being weirdly FPS-like, but that's just graphics/UI, not down to systems.

And honestly, "ask anyone" just boils down to what most people prefer. And that is usually just the lowest common denominator and has nothing to do with quality design.
It's like asking people if they'd prefer to read Harry Potter or Freud.
I'll be honest, I'd pick Harry Potter, but when it comes to games, I'd pick the Freud variant.

I'm partial to the idea that it would be more enjoyable with more dynamic animation and better feedback but I still think it is all wrong for the type of game TES games are

Well... certainly wrong for the type of game TES games are now, which is just action games with a thin layer of RPG on top, boiling down to little more than dress-up.
But I can easily imagine a true RPG with an (improved) style of Morrowind-like combat, for example also including pausing the game to aim and select shots/spells/etc, queueing of actions, and others.
And as I said, making this more action-like to appease a larger audience would be trivially easy as all that is required is removing the to-hit check. It's what I would do, anyway. Giving options as long as implementing the option does not deter too many resources from the core game.

 

[MpuMngwana]

And honestly, "ask anyone" just boils down to what most people prefer. And that is usually just the lowest common denominator and has nothing to do with quality design.

I feel you, bro. Last week I went to a nice restaurant and ordered a piece of shit. But the fuckers were pandering to the lowest common denominator and insisted on serving me food, so I stormed out in rage.