Any attempt to interject realistic discussions of pre-modern weaponry into a thread on fantasy RPGs is doomed to degenerate into /nerdrage, I’m afraid. Hell, I remember the vicious battles over the exact same things back in the pencil and paper days, with competing RPG systems purporting to offer the “most realistic” combat, complete with d100 percentile roles to chop off various body parts and inflict excruciatingly detailed damage. Ugh.
As Two Sheds notes, in a world with magic and dragons, there are other things to obsess over. All that’s necessary is internal consistency (and in that vein, yeah, a discussion of what you can block with, etc., does make sense).
What does AD&D have to do with Elder Scrolls?
But with only 5 months until it hits shelves (probably 4 before it goes gold) should they be that worried about letting people play it? Oblivion was buggy and the Fallout games were buggy to a point of taking away some of the enjoyment of playing (for me anyways) and this just makes me think that as far as they are reaching with Skyrim that it is going to be plagued by bugs when it ships.
Internal consistency and not making things that flout intuition without a decent explanation and terminology that doesn’t repurpose existing words to confuse people. I realize “glass” in Elder Scrolls isn’t the glass that we know, but why not call it something else? How lazy do you have to be? Don’t builders for castles and temples get confused with descriptions of glass windows? “Do you mean glass-glass or GLASS glass?”
You are spending way too much energy on this argument. When you play Skyrim, simply don’t block if you have a bow. Hotkey a sword/shield combo for when you engage in melee, and have done with it. Sheesh.
As I said, this is part of a discussion that I find worthwhile, though I don’t really have much of an opinion on it. True, I’ve always felt puzzled with Bethesda’s choice of materials, not only the use of stuff like glass, but the whole paradigm of linear progression of capability through successive changes in materials. For instance, I’ve never understood just why each of these materials is functionally better than the other. I’d probably prefer RPGs just use quality systems rather than materials. I mean, swords are usually made of, um, iron or steel. Increase the quality, let some be meteor metal or something, and of course you have magic but glass? Kinda dumb. Not that it bothers me much though.
Besides, with glass weapons and armor, when you’re done with them, they can be returned to the bottle drop off place for a nickel each.
Imryll
1587
Tradition? It might have been better had they called it something else 10 years ago, but changing it now would, I suspect, upset a lot of folks with no real gain.
Like a lot of the Elder Scrolls series - homage to the Ultima series and its use of Glass swords as the ultimate weapon.
Blips
1589
I’ll be disappointed if there are is no dragon bone material for making weapons / armors. Cliche I know, but they’ve already got the dragons so might as well make the most of them :P
Timex
1590
What does anything have to do with anything?
Seriously though, when you’re using one hand to block with a bow, and the other hand to shoot freaking magic fireballs of destruction, blocking with the bow isn’t the part which catches my eye and makes me say, “Hmm… that doesn’t seem realistic.”
Didn’t seem to bother Bethesda when they rebooted Fallout and changed a lot of things, nor changing around their various gameplay systems multiple times in both that setting and in Elder Scrolls. They own the setting, they should feel free to do what they think is best for their games. I don’t know that “angering” a bunch of nerds on the internet matters if you can make the game appeal to a broader audience and make more money. At the end of the day, they are a business. Case in point, AD&D -> D&D 3E -> D&D 4E.
Not blocking with a bow really would bring in that whole mainstream audience. It’s ridiculous that Bethesda is refusing to do that.
It just has to be internally consistent to the setting. If the world involves magic, and the magic has certain rules that are spelled out, just be consistent about it (unless you have a very clearly defined reason). Otherwise it breaks immersion and people start caring less and less about it.
What I would do is make blocking with various weapons have more or less effectiveness for blocking by having systems to break your weapon or be staggered/stunned or have broken limbs or bleeding effects. There’s a guard on the sword’s hilt for a reason, and it doesn’t exist on a staff or bow.
That’s a separate discussion about materials. You’re crossing the streams!
Final Fantasy also used glass swords as ultimate weapons, and it bothered me then as well. When you only have seven characters to describe something as awesome, you tend to use names of mythical beings, creatures, or materials that conjure ideas of heaven or hell or the impossible.
Also dragon scale. I thought the Elder Scrolls series did a poor job of using its own fantastic creatures as a source of inspiration for materials. Why not a suit of armor made out of dragon skin/scale?
Don’t be silly, glass > dragonscale, everyone knows that, hmmmph.
oh god someone post a picture of a wooly mammoth or something
Refresh my memory: didn’t the glass swords in Ultima (or maybe Final Fantasy) break after a single use? They did tons of damage, but were expendable. Is this true, or did I dream it?
