Just looked at the confirmed info thread: you CAN light oil on fire, apparently. Is that close enough for you?

not good enough. oil only is where it is. if you can carry oil around, then maybe.

can we please let the explosives thing rest for a bit, why use them when you have magic at your fingertips

I don't like the idea because it might lead to further advancement later (pistols, etc...), and I don't think they are necessary considering the other weapons we have (including magic).
If they were in, I would not want them to be powerful, and perhaps even risky (blowing yourself up), so they don't overtake the game.

Explosives wouldn't be too powerful. bethesda wouldn't allow that.

Pistols don't belong in TES. They would only implement what would work, and i think crude explosives work. Just because there are crude explosives doesn't mean they have to add guns.

some of us want an alternative.

It's like a water breathing potion. there's a spell for it, but we want disposable ways to use it that dont use our magika.

Ahem.. fire spells? You have little missiles, flamethrowers, mines.. what kind of explosive would you want? We already have everything.

^did you read the post right on top of your's?

No

The poll is worded a little too strongly to represent my opinion, but I voted yes to explosives. I'd love to see some primitive black powder items, assuming they were scarce; but I don't think they necessarily should or even would exist, and I sympathise with those who live in dread of technologies like this getting in their TES games.

Fire arrows, though? Yes!

I really don't think so. I always just try to think of a single reason to sum up why someone would think yes or no.

you agreed with yes, so you felt it was worded to get your vote, but if you agreed with no you might feel the same (that it was worded strongly to get "no")

at least thats what i go for with my polls... I thought i was doing a pretty good job being empathetic.

Sure. I wasn't implying that anything's wrong with your poll, just that while my feelings towards explosives lean more towards "yes" than "no," I don't have a strong opinion on it. I'd rather they were in the game than not, as a fun aspect of combat & adventure, but I'd be equally happy with say, boomerangs. It's not something I feel is required or strictly appropriate.

That your poll didn't have an option precise enough to encompass all of that isn't a fault, it was just an observation; the "yes" option was sufficient.

It would be great if I could use alchemy to create a Molotov cocktail or some sort of smoke bomb.
Hope they implement it.

Apparently there will be fire arrows. At GI there is a picture showing an archer ready to shoot one.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind seeing some low level explosives. They had satchel charges in Morrowind, and there are several references to Redguard navies having cannons (which, obviously, need explosives to fire).

maybe they were "Magic" cannons. but yes people seem to forget about the Satchels from morrowind.

i think the biggest problem with explosives is that people don't see the place for them. They would be like offensive potions (consumable magic powers that don't use magika) that you can throw, or place. well thats how i see it anyway.

however, the explosive explosions should look different then a fireball, more like an explosion, but it still has the same effect.

people are horrified at any possibility of any kind of technological advancement in this series no matter how minor are they not? i think though there should be some of those satchel charges in a few ruins but exceeedingly rare and do not respawn

First let me start off by saying some people are so thick headed. They see something about crude explosives, and all of a sudden they see an image of a .50 cal rifle in their head and get the idea that is what is being suggested.

I'm a bit on the fence with this one, it does fit in with the lore, and it has been in previous games. HOWEVER, it would have to be implemented perfectly. While the game is supposed to have a more barbaric feel to it than Oblivion did, I can't help but think that over 200 years that there hasn't been ANY technology advancements within Tamriel. Crude explosives or not, it would be nice to see a few little "advancements" if you will. It wouldn't hurt having a quest in the game with a mad scientist and he has quite a few contraptions in his house after back-engineering Dwemer technology or something.

I'm not arguing against crude explosives, but for your 200 years and technological advancement statement, the Empire basically crumbled. You've heard of the Dark Ages following the Roman Empire's collapse, correct? Time does not equate to technological advancement. The opposite actually happened in western Europe after the Roman Empire collapsed, so why would the collapse of the Cyrodiilic Empire necessarily be much different?

Well because, they're not the Roman Empire. It's Tamriel. But you're right that COULD happen, but I suppose its up to Bethesda which way to turn the Lore. I don't mean the whole continent as a whole is more "advanced" but there's a few spots that may have a slight jump than other areas just because of particularly smart individuals, if that makes sense.

so many other empires have collapsed... you can't really mean this. after the fall of the Roman Empire, after the crusades, There was rejection of classical learning (later revived in the Renaissance) and a large increase in devout, unquestioning faith in the Bible. The Clergy possessed libraries of books which had all the knowledge, and they burned all the books that didn't agree with Christianity. Thats mostly why all that knowledge was lost.

fall of Empire=/=fall of knowledge

EDIT: also, It is pretty much a fact that war brings on innovation especially in things like explosives.

200 years advancement=/=advancing of technology, however, and I'm sure more than a few similarities can be drawn between the Imperials and the Romans as well as religious devotions between the two worlds. What of the increase in anarchy, violence, and turmoil following the Roman Empire's collapse... something that apparently occured in large-scale numbers following the Cyrodiilic Empire's collapse, from what I've read? I'm sure that also kept progress at a stand-still... if not a regression. War between civilized countries brings technological innovation. Barbaric civil war in a state like Skyrim, the destruction of an entire province, and rampant turmoil do not necessarily do so, however.

Yeah. Skyrim is in a civil war, Black Marsh is invading Morrowind. Like I said in my last post - not necessarily "crude explosives" but it would nice to see a few little sparks of advancement throughout the game.

TES Religion isn't similar at all Christianity, or the wars of religion in post-roman countries. The Church was very strict about censorship and the "removal" of "bad seeds" (free-thinkers)

The fall of the many Chinese dynasties into a chaotic wars for territory and power never lead to a Chinese "dark age".

Well i can't say your wrong really, but crude explosives have already been seen. IMO it's pretty likely if there's any advancements crude explosives will be one of them