It's not a mistake. Spelling a word incorrectly is a mistake. Making it so that charcoal + iron /= steel isn't a mistake.

Besides, I was just reading up on Iron and Steel. Just for fun, it's not as simple as charcoal + iron = steel anyway. Pure iron is almost useless as a metal, because it's very soft. Since ancient times, even cast iron and wrought iron have been full of carbon.

Cast iron actually has more carbon in it than Steel does. Mixing charcoal with iron doesn't make steel. Steel is made by a very specific process that fixes the carbon to the iron in a certain way. Not only that, but it's a highly specific range of carbon that makes for good steel.

So the "iron" in the game would have more carbon in it than the steel does. "Adding charcoal" isn't going to make steel.

So your premise doesn't even hold up anyway, never mind the fact that I disagree they were aiming for realism in the first place.

That is just a ridiculous comment considering the context.

So we should complain also about the basic mistake of swords being effective against plate armour? Because I would imagine that's just as well known as the fact that steel does not naturally contain corundum.

no, he is right. steel is a metal alloy = iron with very low carbon content. But to produce the alloy (and/or remove the carbon), you need coal (for the heat in the melting furnace)

And corundum is not use to produce steel. Corundum is often use as an abrasive or for protecting glass.

LOL

That is all.

Or that the player character sheathes a 2-handed longsword over their shoulder, despite the fact that it's anatomically impossible to draw such a sword from that position?

There is a mod which addresses this already and changes the steel recipe to iron and charcoal, along with some other nice fixes.

You're confusing me for someone else who is saying that charcoal + iron = steel.
Suppose you are right that charcoal + iron is not steel, how does that make iron + corundum = steel even more right?

Because charcoal + iron is not exactly steel, therefore iron + corundum = steel is acceptable? This is what overlooking a mistake is.
Because you cannot have 100% realism, that means if you crush diamonds into diamond dust, add sweetroll to it and then mix it with a healing potion, you can get gold metal?

You cannot have 100% realism, but at the very least it must be within reason. It is more believable to say 2 iron ores = steel, rather than create the impossible where iron + corundum = steel.

Couldn't even be bothered to fact-check with Wikipedia real quick eh?

Pretty sure Conan can do it. But he cannot make steel from iron and corundum.

What I'm saying is that it doesn't matter. For all I care they could have made cotton + malachite + iron + 2 butterflies = steel. What difference does it make? You can't represent that actual process in the game, so just make something up.

You already know that silver, malachite, glass, ebony, and quicksilver are all fantasy ores in this game. They have real life names, but their in-game counterpart is nothing of the sort. Why should I think that the in-game steel, or even corundum are anything like the real versions?

In Tamriel, iron ore + corundum = steel. That's fine, it's fantasy. It's not a mistake.



And no, his arms are too short just like everyone else. Maybe in a fantasy world, you know, like TES, where things aren't real, sure he could.

Everyone alive knows you forge daedric weapons and armor by taking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony (wood) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart (a heart)

Because this is a video game and that's apparently how you make steel on Nirn. And it's apparently not the same as how you make it on Earth because the game designers made it that way, on purpose.

Yes, I was disappointed about this as well. Mostly because other parts of the game have definitely serious amount research behind them (beheaded persons eyes flicker for example). Its such a simple part, I'm guessing its just a basic oversight. If you're on PC, you can get a mod (or make one) for this, if you're on consoles...

Or maybe they should make it so that you need to harvest hematite, magnetite or limonite ore and smelt it with coal fuel to make iron bars.
Then smelt the iron bar further with coal fuel and a flux stone like calcite, chalk or limestone to make pig iron.
Then smelt the pig iron with regular iron plus more coal fuel plus more flux to finally make steel.

But maybe they shouldn't because that's far too painfully and needlessly complex for a game like this, and some modder is bound to make Skyrim: Dwarf Fortress Edition five minutes after the CK is released anyway.

Riddle me this smarty pants!

How, pray tell, do we make daedric pieces IRL???!?

I think you have to accept that it's a fantasy game and that they've made their own rules for gameplay purposes. I think that's fair enough personally

If you go through all the trouble to add in an obscure ore from real life that didn't exist in previous Elder Scrolls game, the only correct use of the ore is its use from real life.

Iron + charcoal = steel is more believable than iron + corundum = steel. I didn't care about it because my chemistry isn't that good, but smarter people are offended enough to point out this mistake.

Mistake?

Some of you may forget that a piece of ore has usually got quite a lot of other stuff than just one material. This means, depending on how you treat the ore, you'll extract different materials from it. It's really, really not that weird to think you'd be able to make steel from some other types of ore, because those pieces of ore most likely do contain everything you need. What I'm saying is, a corundum ore doesn't just contain rubies and sapphires and what-not, it has other metals in it. If it wouldn't have, it'd be very, very odd.

But it's a video game and they made it this way on purpose. It doesn't actually have to work the way it does in real life. It's in a fictitious universe. And the "correct use" is whatever the game designers chose to use it for or how they implemented it. Also, "smarter people" shouldn't be offended at all because they would realize that this is just a video game set in a fictitious universe where things don't quite work the same as they do in real life here on Earth and it's not trying to be Earth and real life in all aspects either.

This may be the silliest thread I have ever read.

1. This is a fantasy game .. they can make the recipe's whatever they want

but that being said

2. In the real world you make steel (which is an alloy) by first removing impurities (like carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, etc.) from iron (or pig iron). Then you add a very small amount of another element (usually about 1%) to make steel .. carbon for carbon steel (the weakest steel), chromium for stainless steel, or tungsten for what is commonly referred to as high speed steel (which is basically a really improved version of carbon steel that does not wear down as fast).

The closest you can get to 'pairing' things together is probably this

everything from steel down on the armor chain is basically what it is here

Dwarven is kinda like stainless steel with Ebony and Daerdric being improvements on steel that are just heavier and thicker (such as high speed steel)

Elven and glass are based off of synthetic fibers (think kevlar).

Does it say that you need iron ore and corundum to smelt steel, or does it only say that iron ore and corundum are needed for making steel equipment? Joseph Volney Lewis, in Corundum and the Basic Magnesian Rocks of Western North Carolina, says that corundum is used for cutting and polishing metal, and that it is "extensively used" in the steel industry (51).

Oooh haha a lol. Don't you hate it when someone who has some idea what they are talking about breaks into your thread and just messes up your whole day? This is a really good point. They never said that Iron + Corundum = steel. What it does say is that to make steel equipment you need iron and corundum.

Doesn't say what you are using it for. Not only that, but my read of the wiki article also suggests that corundum is a common abrasive used extensively in steelmaking. To me, that makes a lot more sense than http://www.kingsford.com/. (Joke aside)

der... the smithers use magic to create all their sh*t. its all in the fire salts dudes, its all in the fire salts....

WHERE'S MY MITHRIL?

Yeah, I had completely forgotten about Mithril. Of all the places in Tamriel that Mithril should be found I would think Skyrim would be it.