Sil: Smithing (observations)

[half]

Vanilla Angband "balances" this with a timer for level feelings - you have to have spent some amount of time on a level before the next one will generate a feeling. Such a time limit could be used to balance "forge feelings". Maybe 500 turns?

That's a good point. In Vanilla, the turn penalty is quite trivial, leading to macros to rest for the required time etc. But in Sil it would mean something.

[wobbly]

It seems, at least to me that the whole 2-use vs 3-use forges issue is exasperated by hard break points in armour enchantment:

9 is good : helm of brillance, boots of speed, +2 stealth on leather etc.
10 has a couple of good items: +2 gloves of forging, +2 stealth on boots
11: corset of protection
12(a big jump): crown of grace, cloak of protection, +2 evasion on round shield
13-14: I feel like I've got nothing better then shaving some weight off.
15 (another jump): Gauntlets of strength, +3 stealth on leather
16-17: ?
18 (big jump for stealth): shadow cloak, +3 stealth on cloak, +3 stealth on boots, also +3 gloves of forging

So reaching a 3(or 4) use forge at 17 smithing I'd forge a helm with +1 light radius & loremaster. But a 2 use forge at 16 or 17 leaves me scratching my head for something useful. Normally I'll just id a couple of junk items (treacherous path etc.) Am I missing something? Is there actually anything good between 15 & 18? or 12 & 15?

[debo]

Depends on what abilities you take -- 13 is the breakpoint for some very useful rings iirc (+2 acc, +2 eva, I think even +0 amulet blessed realm but don't quote me on that)

[wobbly]

Sure, but taking jeweller is pretty expensive if your going armour -> enchantment -> artiface -> grace. I assume 13 & 14 are also good for artistry. It's armour enchantment that suffers the gaps.

Edit: 17 is a dwarf mask of clarity which I guess is useful to carry as a swap but not something I'd use regularly. I guess I'm saying I'd prefer some smoothing of the transitions.

Edit2: Feeling stupid again. You can skip enchantment if you take jeweller can't you. The ridiculous thing is it's taken me this long to work that out.

[taptap]

I can't deny it. I have a strong urge whenever I play a smith to produce Galvorn items (far more than Mithril in fact). Sadly, even my best smith never succeeded to do so.

[BlueFish]

I can't deny it. I have a strong urge whenever I play a smith to produce Galvorn items (far more than Mithril in fact). Sadly, even my best smith never succeeded to do so.

Dude, my smiths make 3 Galvorn items at the first forge - a Batman suit, a necktie, and a hockey mask. You're just playing wrong.

[Infinitum]

Moving back to non-random forges, maybe designating set levels in the dungeon to always have a 3-use forge present (eg the present 100', 200', 350', 500', 700', 900') which then are persistently generated as long as the player hasn't used that particular forge yet? This would still have Smiths dive slower, but at least it wouldn't be a guessing game as to where the forges would be situated and it wouldn't penalize the player as much for being forced off levels.

[half]

Moving back to non-random forges, maybe designating set levels in the dungeon to always have a 3-use forge present (eg the present 100', 200', 350', 500', 700', 900') which then are persistently generated as long as the player hasn't used that particular forge yet? This would still have Smiths dive slower, but at least it wouldn't be a guessing game as to where the forges would be situated and it wouldn't penalize the player as much for being forced off levels.

This is a simple and interesting idea.

[wobbly]

As far as I know, there are only one or two bugs. Fixing them is on my to-do list, but it is a very difficult (and boring) piece of code and will probably take many hours away from adding features / fixing game balance etc. If people wanted to carefully delineate the bug(s), that would be very helpful. (i.e. working out the simplest precise description of what goes wrong, which will probably determine whether there is one point of failure, two, or many).

Found another. Weaponsmith + Enchantment + Artiface
Select a sword, put defender on it, go in to numbers menu, exit numbers menu, go in to artiface menu, exit artiface menu, go in to numbers menu, you can now get +3 evasion on the weapon.

[taptap]

Found another. Weaponsmith + Enchantment + Artiface
Select a sword, put defender on it, go in to numbers menu, exit numbers menu, go in to artiface menu, exit artiface menu, go in to numbers menu, you can now get +3 evasion on the weapon.

That isn't a bug if you ask me. Similarly artistry + artifice can produce higher modifiers than artifice alone.

[wobbly]

That isn't a bug if you ask me. Similarly artistry + artifice can produce higher modifiers than artifice alone.

It is, if you have to go through a secret order of menus to get to it.

[taptap]

It is, if you have to go through a secret order of menus to get to it.

I have criticised that much in this very thread. (The problem is distinguishing between normal 1 use item and 3 use artefact and the inability to toggle the 1 use item modifiers once you switched to artefact. The same way you can only make +4 arrows with modifiers once in artefact mode, but +7 arrows when you first increase the attack bonus and then select artifice menu and return to the numbers screen.)