(11-24-2014, 07:19 PM)Zed26 Wrote: Oh yeah, I could never get over how Daedric weapons with their Oblivion-infused ebony and enchantments really broke the realism in Skyrim.
That's why I stick to shooting beams of lightning out of my hands and summoning guardians made of ice to tank their fire breath when I'm fighting dragons so I can craft more realistic weapons from their bones and absorb their souls to enhance my ability to shout people to death and prepare for a final battle in Nord heaven against an immortal dragon who's also the aspect of a god.
Remind me to invite this guy to my next tabletop gaming session. Sounds like he'd be the life of the party.
Point is that, in most fantasy settings, physics is unchanged, and magic is essentially an overlay. Unless it isn't and you're just throwing the laws of physics out of the window. And those laws are the predominant factors in weapons design, even if the designers are just making things that work well and don't know what said laws are.
So your sword made from the bones of a dragon or "speshul skai metal" or sharpened with magic or posessed by a demon is still swung by a 100 kg man standing in 9 m/s^2 gravity, and if you define the tensile strength of the scales of your dragon-god, you can even determine exactly how fast/how forcefully you must swing your demon-possessed sky-metal sword to cut through.
And having a spike that would obviously poke you in the eye when you swing it may look cool, but it's still impractical...
(11-25-2014, 03:55 AM)Vogel Wrote: If you think that's bad, try watching fantasy games use sabers incorrectly. It's amazing how much thought and skill goes into both the design and use of sabers, and yet to most folks it's just another blade that shows up in the civil war or something.
The same could be said for pretty much any sword. Or weapon. Polearms are my pet peeve. Anyone who knows the basics of how to use a spear can tell you that your opponent cannot be "too close" for you to use it effectively, and that you cannot "attack through" your friend who is standing between you and the enemy without severe repercussions.
Also, sabres existed long before the 19th century...