Sceptres: Can have all the melee abilities, but not e.g. Majesty.
Arrow: Artifice arrows are pointless, as you can only have up to +4 bonus (when you can make almost as good ego items in bunches of two dozen w/o using 3 forge uses). Oh, wait with Artistry it is possible to make an up to +7 arrow if you start with the +3 arrows as the base. Easy to miss the option, but I guess this is ok. But it definitely is odd that it is more difficult to put a slay on a single arrow than to put the slay on a bow.
UI: When you switch between Artifice menu and Numbers menu and back again selected skills are not shown anymore in the artifact description, but are still selected in the menu. If you try to deselect / reselect the skill it shows twice in the artifact description (+ and is calculated as such in the difficulties). Basically I have to redo the whole selection process again.
Accessibility: Smithing is far less accessible than any other feature of Sil. Everything else is either explained in the manual or accessible in the text files, but before you have all the base abilities and artifice you never see how awesome smithing really is (especially if you bought enchantment and thought artifice is just a somewhat extended version of enchantment).
Forges: It really helps to dive faster (if you survive) as you get more of the useful staffs (Revelation / Treasure) that are so very important for a smith. It is very much possible - for a slow player like me - that you don't find enough forges after you finished your smithing kit. Without changing overall number of forges, having a guaranteed forge at 900 or 950' in one of the "palace" blocks upon first entering the depth would relieve me of quite a bit of pressure. (I had a smith once going up and down between 950-900' until his only staff of revelations was empty without revealing a forge if I remember correctly.)
Especially in the middle game with already large floors, but no staffs for autoexploration I spent a lot of time walking around (with a stealthy smith w/o chance to make much equipment I felt very much underpowered for a very long time and then suddenly - apart from being killed by Morgoth in the official run - nothing could withstand me, but in the private rerun it sure was cool to kill Morgoth and all his creatures while wearing literally no armor, singing and shooting - I had a warding glyph though )
Power: Smithing is still tremendously powerful - especially for people who don't engage in lengthy melee and can afford to wear robes and crowns, but have the killing power to claim the forges. I had +9 archery and +5 song modifiers (and additionally +2 grace, +1 strength) and a whopping +13 (-1) stealth modifier (this one mostly found items, but I wouldn't wear a +4/+5 shadow cloak if not smithing had increased my light level) when I geared up for the throne room (+ some useful abilities on the items). All this despite having Maeglin run away when I tried to carefully pick off his entourage and not using the 2nd hand (I wasn't sure I find enough forges) and not draining my skill, so I ended w/ 30 max.difficulty in the final normal forge (more in the enchanted).
Perception / smithing: The possibility to get loremaster for cheap (500xp and no cost increase for other abilities) is a big help for all chars that rely on perception abilities, i.e. hunters + assassins. But of course as 1st time player my 1st smith was a no-stealth Naugrim. Another benefit for hunters and assassins is that they can benefit from robes and crowns as they are not as much relying on helms and armor.
Artifact weapons / artifice: The abundance of artifacts in the game (especially swords) makes smithing artifact weapons look quite pointless to me. Many have a level out of reach for all but or even the most experienced smith. As opposed to the collection of artifact swords I invariably end with (last time I had both Amras, Amrod - both very good for hunters + Glamdring, could have been more if I not dived past the 700-800' range quickly) I never even once found the one of the major jewellery artifacts (Melian's Ring, Nymphelos etc.) although I have been lucky with stat-raising ego-items sometimes. Can something be done with the rarity scores of the different items?
Arrow: Artifice arrows are pointless, as you can only have up to +4 bonus (when you can make almost as good ego items in bunches of two dozen w/o using 3 forge uses). Oh, wait with Artistry it is possible to make an up to +7 arrow if you start with the +3 arrows as the base. Easy to miss the option, but I guess this is ok. But it definitely is odd that it is more difficult to put a slay on a single arrow than to put the slay on a bow.
UI: When you switch between Artifice menu and Numbers menu and back again selected skills are not shown anymore in the artifact description, but are still selected in the menu. If you try to deselect / reselect the skill it shows twice in the artifact description (+ and is calculated as such in the difficulties). Basically I have to redo the whole selection process again.
Accessibility: Smithing is far less accessible than any other feature of Sil. Everything else is either explained in the manual or accessible in the text files, but before you have all the base abilities and artifice you never see how awesome smithing really is (especially if you bought enchantment and thought artifice is just a somewhat extended version of enchantment).
Forges: It really helps to dive faster (if you survive) as you get more of the useful staffs (Revelation / Treasure) that are so very important for a smith. It is very much possible - for a slow player like me - that you don't find enough forges after you finished your smithing kit. Without changing overall number of forges, having a guaranteed forge at 900 or 950' in one of the "palace" blocks upon first entering the depth would relieve me of quite a bit of pressure. (I had a smith once going up and down between 950-900' until his only staff of revelations was empty without revealing a forge if I remember correctly.)
Especially in the middle game with already large floors, but no staffs for autoexploration I spent a lot of time walking around (with a stealthy smith w/o chance to make much equipment I felt very much underpowered for a very long time and then suddenly - apart from being killed by Morgoth in the official run - nothing could withstand me, but in the private rerun it sure was cool to kill Morgoth and all his creatures while wearing literally no armor, singing and shooting - I had a warding glyph though )
Power: Smithing is still tremendously powerful - especially for people who don't engage in lengthy melee and can afford to wear robes and crowns, but have the killing power to claim the forges. I had +9 archery and +5 song modifiers (and additionally +2 grace, +1 strength) and a whopping +13 (-1) stealth modifier (this one mostly found items, but I wouldn't wear a +4/+5 shadow cloak if not smithing had increased my light level) when I geared up for the throne room (+ some useful abilities on the items). All this despite having Maeglin run away when I tried to carefully pick off his entourage and not using the 2nd hand (I wasn't sure I find enough forges) and not draining my skill, so I ended w/ 30 max.difficulty in the final normal forge (more in the enchanted).
Perception / smithing: The possibility to get loremaster for cheap (500xp and no cost increase for other abilities) is a big help for all chars that rely on perception abilities, i.e. hunters + assassins. But of course as 1st time player my 1st smith was a no-stealth Naugrim. Another benefit for hunters and assassins is that they can benefit from robes and crowns as they are not as much relying on helms and armor.
Artifact weapons / artifice: The abundance of artifacts in the game (especially swords) makes smithing artifact weapons look quite pointless to me. Many have a level out of reach for all but or even the most experienced smith. As opposed to the collection of artifact swords I invariably end with (last time I had both Amras, Amrod - both very good for hunters + Glamdring, could have been more if I not dived past the 700-800' range quickly) I never even once found the one of the major jewellery artifacts (Melian's Ring, Nymphelos etc.) although I have been lucky with stat-raising ego-items sometimes. Can something be done with the rarity scores of the different items?
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