20 replies to this topic

[per]

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim looks gorgeous and awesome, but there is one detail in the trailer that really annoys me.

At one point, there is a guy sharpening his axe on a stonewheel. The main problem is that he is running the stone in the wrong direction, and he is actually blunting the axe! When you sharpen blades manually, you are supposed to direct the blade against the motion of the wheel, not along it!!!

I know this is a microscopic detail, but for me these small details shines up and I can't stop thinking about them. Aargh!

Edited by per, Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:09 PM.

[moycon]

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:08 PM, said:

At one point, there is a guy sharpening his axe on a stonewheel. The main problem is that he is running the stone in the wrong direction, and he is actually blunting the axe!

Skyrim features a new sabotage skill in which you sneak into enemy quarters, steal their weapons and make them next to worthless in battle by dulling the weapon on a stonewheel running the wrong way. It really is amazing how much thought went into this game.

[per]

moycon, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:12 PM, said:

Skyrim features a new sabotage skill in which you sneak into enemy quarters, steal their weapons and make the next to worthless in battle by dulling them on a stonewheel running the wrong way. It really is amazing how much thought went into this game.

So why is the NPC in one of the first villages doing it wrong then? It would be even worse if they got it all backwards, like that sharpening blades the right way would make it dull.

Edited by per, Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:27 PM.

[Cebus Capucinis]

moycon, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:12 PM, said:

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:08 PM, said:

At one point, there is a guy sharpening his axe on a stonewheel. The main problem is that he is running the stone in the wrong direction, and he is actually blunting the axe!

Skyrim features a new sabotage skill in which you sneak into enemy quarters, steal their weapons and make the next to worthless in battle by dulling them on a stonewheel running the wrong way. It really is amazing how much thought went into this game.

Actually it's just like in the movies -- you know car wheels spin one way in reality, but when you try to film them the framerate change causes the human eye to see the spokes move differently? The wheel is actually going the right way, it's just in the trailer it appears to be going the wrong way.

[moycon]

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:22 PM, said:

So why is the NPC in one of the first villages doing it wrong then?

You're way off.
It's a playable character in the second village and he's doing it right.

[per]

Cebus Capucinis, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:39 PM, said:

Actually it's just like in the movies -- you know car wheels spin one way in reality, but when you try to film them the framerate change causes the human eye to see the spokes move differently? The wheel is actually going the right way, it's just in the trailer it appears to be going the wrong way.

then he must be spinning it at exactly 3540 rpm (given a framerate of 60fps). I mean, that's a foot-powered machine...

I have uploaded an illustration of what happens for the different directions of spin. The mechanism behind sharpening is that the stone wheel is slightly uneven, and contains small bumps and stones embeded into the wheel. When you spin the wheel and put a blade on it, these small bumps will collide with the blade, and the momentum of the wheel will cause them to make small grooves in the metal. However, the metal moved in the process will deform and end up at the end of the grooves. The direction of the wheel vs. the blade will determine on which side of the grooves this line of deformed metal will end up at.

It's obvious that if this line of deformed metal ends up at the edge of the blade, the blade will be anything but sharp.

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by per, Sat Sep 3, 2011 4:16 PM.

[Cebus Capucinis]

Maybe he drank 20-30 Sujamma? That would explain how he can spin the wheel so fast and also explain why he might be doing it the wrong way.

[Jibbajaba]

This is quite possibly the dumbest complaint about a video game that I have ever read. The wheel is turning the wrong way? You know that IRL, hedgehogs don't wear sneakers, right. "But Jibba, Sonic The Hedgehog is a cartoon character, while Skyrim is supposed to be a realistic experience." Yeah, except for the dragons. Dragons aren't real either, but I don't see you complaining about that. In the world of Skyrim, dragons exist and people sharpen their axes by turning the wheel towards them. Just accept it.

Chris

[moycon]

Jibbajaba, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 4:19 PM, said:

hedgehogs don't wear sneakers,

WTF!? Stop lying. Are you serious!!??
I'll never play a Sonic game again!!!

[per]

Jibbajaba, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 4:19 PM, said:

In the world of Skyrim, dragons exist and people sharpen their axes by turning the wheel towards them. Just accept it.

All the examples you list are OK since those examples are intentionally different from reality. The reason why I am reacting to this one small detail is that they are trying to replicate an actual real world device, making it look as authentic and detailed as possible, but it operates wrongly (seemingly unintentional). It's like they almost went there, but didn't open the door (methaphorically speaking). I know I'm a perfectionist, so I can't really help getting upset for such things; my brain like yells "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!" every time I see the the clip from the gameplay video.

And, yes, you DO sharpen axes by turning the wheel towards them. The problem is that in the video I saw, the wheel was turned away from the axe and not toward it. See the diagram in post #6.

The problem may be that most people have never sharpened blades in real life, and for most of them it seems obvious to do it the wrong way. It seems like the programmers just assumed that it was like that instead of investigating how blades are actually sharpened.

Edited by per, Sat Sep 3, 2011 5:05 PM.

[moycon]

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 4:27 PM, said:

A problem may be that most people have never sharpened blades in real life, and for most of them it seems obvious to do it the wrong way...

A problem may also be that Skyrim takes place in a Bizarro world in which case certain things you think would happen a certain way, in fact happen an opposite way. It would be hard to argue against that since you have provided no proof Skyrim was ever supposed to take place on a particular planet, like say....Earth.

[per]

moycon, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 5:37 PM, said:

A problem may also be that Skyrim takes place in a Bizarro world in which case certain things you think would happen a certain way, in fact happen an opposite way. It would be hard to argue against that since you have provided no proof Skyrim was ever supposed to take place on a particular planet, like say....Earth.

This is unrelated. We all know that the game is a fantasy RPG, so it's acceptable that the laws of physics doesn't always apply. This is not what I am critisizing. What I am critisizing is that the developers actually tried to make something realistic, but unintentionally got it wrong, possibly due to lack of investigation. I mean, I find no reason why it couldn't have been implemented correctly.

I clearly stated in the initial post that this is a microscopic detail, and that my reaction to it is based on how I regard such microscopic details. I don't understand why you get upset because some people think in different ways than you.

Edited by per, Sat Sep 3, 2011 6:19 PM.

[moycon]

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 6:04 PM, said:

This is unrelated. We all know that the game is a fantasy RPG

It's perfectly related and valid. We might not all know the game is a fantasy RPG based on certain posts is why I brought it up.

[Hyper_Eye]

moycon, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 5:37 PM, said:

It would be hard to argue against that since you have provided no proof Skyrim was ever supposed to take place on a particular planet, like say....Earth.

But it can be proven that it takes place on a particular planet. It takes place in Skyrim, a providence of Tamriel which is a continent on the planet Nirn. Nirn is contained in the plane of Mundus which floats in the void of Oblivion.

But I have no idea how they sharpen blades there.

Edited by Hyper_Eye, Sat Sep 3, 2011 7:34 PM.

[moycon]

Hyper_Eye, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 7:33 PM, said:

But I have no idea how they sharpen blades there.

I do and it's ass-backwards or I wouldn't have even bothered to respond.

[Atariboy]

I can see complaining about something like rain in the tunnel at Monaco in a Formula One game during a wet race, but I think I can manage to overlook this problem.

[Wntermute]

This reminds me of something I noticed in World Of Warcraft recently.. practically every boat you see docked or approaching a dock does so on the STARBOARD side.

[AtariLeaf]

I was just playing asteroids and all the asteroids look like popcorn. I've seen pictures of real asteroids and none of them look like popcorn. I don't think I can ever play asteroids again.

[toiletunes]

per, on Sat Sep 3, 2011 3:22 PM, said:

So why is the NPC in one of the first villages doing it wrong then?

He's doing it wrong because he's the village idiot. Do I get a No-prize?

AtariLeaf, on Sun Sep 4, 2011 6:05 AM, said:

I was just playing asteroids and all the asteroids look like popcorn.

Donkey Kong doesn't look like a donkey. Or a kong, for that matter.

[Random Terrain]

Send them an e-mail so they can get it right next time. If everyone would share their little bits of expertise as things like this pop up and game designers will listen, the parts in games that are supposed to be based on real things would improve and everyone would benefit. People who work on games can't know everything there is to know about the world. They spend most of their time coding, drinking Mountain Dew, eating Cheetos, watching porn, and avoiding sunlight, so how could they?

[AtariLeaf]

Random Terrain, on Sun Sep 4, 2011 8:46 AM, said:

Send them an e-mail so they can get it right next time. If everyone would share their little bits of expertise as things like this pop up and game designers will listen, the parts in games that are supposed to be based on real things would improve and everyone would benefit. People who work on games can't know everything there is to know about the world. They spend most of their time coding, drinking Mountain Dew, eating Cheetos, watching porn, and avoiding sunlight, so how could they?

Reminds me of this classic joke:

Quote

An old man goes to the doctor and says "Dr., I don't know what's wrong with me, my dick is orange."The Dr. tells him to pull down his pants and let him take a look. He has no idea what is wrong so he asks the guy if he has recently painted anything orange. The old man said "No."

The Dr. thinks for a minute and then asks the guy if he has recently been exposed to any chemicals at work.

The old man said "No, I'm retired."

The Dr. then asks the guy if he could have been working with any chemicals in his garage.

The old man replied "No Dr., I told you, I'm retired. All I do is sit around all day, watch pornos and eat Cheetos...

Edited by AtariLeaf, Sun Sep 4, 2011 9:45 AM.