I thought steel alloy was smelted using iron and coal (or other carbon). Diamond and graphite are carbon. I don't think diamond smelts well though. Or maybe it does and it's just too expensive to use? I can't remember.

The game needs corundum ore to smelt steel. Corundum is aluminum oxide...translucent gems like rubies and sapphires. If I'm remembering it right. And I may not be. It's been 25 years since Geology and Chemistry classes.

Maybe it's not the steel of our world?

Maybe it's the same name, but a different metal?

Maybe, just maybe, we should give a crap?

I rather get a kick out of the quicksilver ore and ingots. Last I checked, quicksilver is another name for mercury. The stuff is not only highly toxic, it's also liquid at room temperature! So how does it stay in the form of an ingot?

You cared enough to be insulting to a random stranger asking a question. Cared enough to take time to type.

The least they could of done is be realistic and make you combine coal and iron. Because that's what makes steel. There are coal and iron mines you know. But they both start with CO..only two letters off from coal.

If I remember correctly, Dwarven metal, one of the heavy metals-near Fe on the periodic table-is highly combustible, inexplicably.

Edit: What use is coal in this game?

Actually, I wasn't insulting you. I was naming possibilities, or simply stating that we shouldn't look too much into it.

Although, changing the recipe to Iron and Charcoal (or some other carbon), should be easy with mods. If you're on XBOX, like me, then: http://s3.amazonaws.com/kym-assets/photos/images/original/000/143/680/tumblr_lnezcfQxJA1qbqt8go1_250.gif?1318992465

I think quicksilver/mercury ore is called cinnabar. And yeah, it's highly toxic. Highly. Getting it in the blood stream will kill you. It just might take 4 or 5 years depending on how much. And you'll probably go insane first.

What the hell? so Moonstone isn't even real? oh wow now im pissed, i think i will write out a wall of china complaining about bethesda not doing any real research into metal's/elements.


And yes i am being sarcastic, forgive me it's now 6:17 in the am and i really need some sleep.

The term "quicksilver" refers specifically to it's liquid form, though.



I have no problem with the inclusion of fictitious metals, but when you include real metals and materials, at least put for the the effort to make them right.

Agreed. And I thought it was very common knowledge that steel was iron and coal. Wouldn't smelting iron and aluminum oxide be kind of stupid?

Maybe not, hell I'm not metallurgist. I don't know, but it wouldn't make steel, I'm pretty sure.

It's remotely possible that corundum was not actually the item that they intended you to combine with iron to make steel. It probably is very close in the alphabetical list to charcoal or coal. Accidentally picking it on the part of an overworked and underpaid employee is not far from likely.

I find it unlikely that Bethesda even added http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corundum in the first place without having some idea that it's more of a gem than a smelting alloy.