Jump to content

Allowing Ebony Blade be tempered is not Lore Friendly..


PadaV4

Recommended Posts

I noticed the Unoffical patch says 

 

"Fixed the following weapons and armor not being improvable at a workbench or grindstone: ___ Ebony Blade (4838F)___"

 

yet if you read the book near the Ebony Blade it specifically says

 

"Not even the hottest fires of the Skyforge could melt it; indeed the coals themselves seemed to cool when it was placed within."

 

So to me it seems that having the Ebony blade unimprovable is actually intended and not a bug. While that would make the Ebony Blade not so strong as other weapons, I think the unoffical patch is supposed to be purely a bugfix, not a balance mod?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That wasn't a balance decision though. It was a direct response to load screen data that explicitly says all weapons and armor can be improved.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh you mean the

"Any weapon or piece of armor can be improved at a smithy, regardless of the material type or the smith's skill or perks. Smithing perks increase how much the item is improved."

What if the loading screen was only meant to convey that the player does not need the respective material perks to improve things made from those materials. And they just didnt think about the deeper implications of the text "Any weapon or piece of armor" ??? Although one could interpret it either way, i see no harm in making the other weapons or armor improvable, but i think the Ebony Blade should be definitly an exception, since the lore for Ebony Blade specifically says that no forge can heat it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What if the loading screen was only meant to convey that the player does not need the respective material perks to improve things made from those materials.

That's a rather long "what if" We can play with semantics some more:

 

"Any weapon or piece of armor can be improved at a smithy, but if there are no smith's skill or perks, the item cannot be improved."

 

The "or" in the following might be intended as exclusive rather than inclusive:

 

"Any weapon or piece of armor can be improved at a smithy, regardless of the material type or the smith's skill or perks, but not both.

 

Thus there is doubt as to whether a weapon can be improved at a smithy with a specified material and  the Player has no smith's skills or perks. And you can play around with the or in "weapon or armor" and "skills or perks" as well.

 

Let's return once more:

Any weapon or piece of armor can be improved at a smithy, 

The meaning of the statement is pretty explicit. The following "regardless" is not even a condition for it to be true. The "can be" still applies even if player has no skills or perks when he/she has access to the appropriate spells or potions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So to me it seems that having the Ebony blade unimprovable is actually intended and not a bug. While that would make the Ebony Blade not so strong as other weapons,

Seems pretty clear to me that "all" in the loading screen text means "all weapons" with no exception. The Ebony Blade is a weapon, so therefore it makes perfect sense that being unable to improve it was something that was unintended by the developers.

 

"Not even the hottest fires of the Skyforge could melt it; indeed the coals themselves seemed to cool when it was placed within."

Pretty sure that book is referring to actually destroying the Blade, but not positive there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tempering isn't done in the forge, it's done on a grinding wheel. i don't know why there is a need for this discussion

While the game does represent it as grinding it on a grindstone, the process of tempering in RL involves heating the blade to a certain temperature and then quenching it in acid.

 

I agree with PadaV4's point that the Ebony Blade shouldn't be improvable according to the lore in the book. Also if it was possible to improve the blade with a grindstone then it would be possible to destroy it that way by grinding it down to dust. :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The book never says you can't destroy it. Only that you can't melt it. Honing it on a grindstone isn't going to melt it, it's going to grind it to dust.

 

Anyway, it's pretty explicit in the load screen data. ALL weapons and armor. That includes Ebony Blade. Trying to insert RL methods into Skyrim's gameplay isn't generally how things get done around here. Earth != Nirn. If they "temper" on a grindstone, so be it. I'm sure one could argue they really meant "hone", but hey.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So uh why does temper need additional material if it only grinds parts of the weapon off? Additional material would make sense if the weapon is reheated, more material added, shaped and than grinded at the end, and all that reduced only to showing the animation of grinding for more simple gameplay. If it really only is grinded than the additional material requirment makes no sense.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Because for whatever daft reason, needing an additional ingot was the gameplay mechanic they chose to ensure there's a resource cost to it. Maybe the process on Nirn involves using the ingot as the means to hone the blade and grinding it that way works differently than it does here on Earth.

 

Point is, nonsensical or not, our decisions are generally not based on tales from a potential work of fiction in-universe. There is overriding external info given to the person at the keyboard that things were supposed to work a certain way and no exceptions were provided for in that information.

 

If you can produce more than just that book that corroborates the intent, we'll consider it. You'd pretty much need Mephala herself to do so, or at least some other firsthand current information that's not based on that book. Like, say, if Eorlund told you it couldn't be worked in the forge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...