Dumbass Bethesda

[majordespair]

Just noticed.. while scraping some items that Pencils break down into wood and lead... lead? really Bethesda? I thought your were brighter than that... There is no lead in pencils and never has been.. Its graphite you morons! its called Lead but isn't the actual metal. You learn that in infants school! lead is part of the carbon group the same as graphite, but you cant write to well with it :P Anyone else notice any other items like this?

[ranggiana]

Probably they were like... ah people won't know the differences anyway.

[Boombro]

 

You learn that in infants school!

Yup. Like anyone recalls anything from back thing :p

 

 

Grade School seems like decades ago or a dream and I'm just 20 years old.

[SiNNeR]

it's hard to say whether they threw it in as a joke on the common misconception or out of ignorance

[matilija]

Never has been? You are incorrect sir, lead was the primary used material in the original roman stylus, and continued to be used in pencils up into the late 1500's when a large graphite mine was first quarried in England and it was found that Graphite had many of the same writing characteristics, but was so brittle that it needed a holder, which they originally wrapped it with a tight woven string and later adopted wood for use.

[Rabbit1251]

Bethesda has been providing lead from pencils at least since New Vegas's "Old World Blues".

 

 

Rabbit

[majordespair]

well 1500s we stopped using it then I guess...I smell wiki though. Also picking apart my comment is not the point.. lead it is not. Fact.

[Boombro]

Fallout is based on 50-60 USA though.

[Aurasoma]

A quick google search pointed out to me that while lead was not used in pencils. The Romans and other cultures of that times did use a righting styles that was made most often of lead and used on wax tablets. Sort of a pre-dark ages PDA that allowed you to take notes and gave you the option of clearing your work with a swipe of the wide "Eraser" end or by warming the wax.

As for the word pencil it comes from the Latin word pencillus. And has as some one pointed out about been using Graphite since the 16th century.

As for "Get the lead out" is actually shortened from "Get the lead out of your pants" Or "Get the lead out of your ass" which was meant to motivate a slower person who is acting like their weighted down.

[roamwild]

I think that if you were to look at all into the material requirements, and what items break down into (let alone the quantities), you may find yourself to be overcome with rage. If I am to take your response to this finding as an indication of your temper ;o)

 

For instance, their so-called "conduits" which should really be called insulators. The only way that I can reconcile these "conduits" having a power radius is that I place them on a building which in reality would have its own internal wiring to provide power to lights, etc. Let's ignore the fact that none of the walls or other building components require copper :o) Oh, and then I expected to get at least some copper (let's just call it material we need for electrical type stuff) from scrapping an entire house in Sanctuary. Or, maybe scavengers already ripped all of the internal wiring and plumbing outta the walls. So, it must be assumed that the copper material requirement is meant to account for this "site wiring". In reality the single part which they are calling a "conduit" (insulator) would require only steel and ceramic/glass/porcelain/polymer depending on the type. The actual connection between the lateral (what we see as Wire in-game) and the site wiring of the home or structure would be done by a tap. Obviously it's a lot of extra work / rendering / modeling and finicky placement that's not really necessary for the intent of the system in-game.

 

I also find it hilarious that we get copper from light bulbs, and glass in an amount that would be in any way significant. This is ignoring the fact that glass is expensive / difficult to reclaim and re-purpose even in our modern, un-nuked world. In fact, the ease and quickness with which our PC magically plunks down any construction element or device / machine is .. well .. incredible. ;o)

 

This stuff doesn't particularly bother me. It's just a game, and a really fun one at that - and if I'm going to start applying the rules of the reality in which I live, the whole thing is gonna fall apart pretty quickly. The designers had to require we get these materials from /somewhere/ and had to separate them into some "types" to make an interesting system. They could call lead 'soft crap' and copper 'material we use to run (path) electrics' for all I care, but it wouldn't fit into the menus very well. I'm sure most people never notice this kind of stuff. In short, no matter how good any simulation is, there is always going to be some suspension of disbelief required. Just that, in some cases, that suspension may be a bit more shaky.

 

Edit: Reformatted a bit and expanded on a thought I had just minutes after posting.