Sangband Item Forging

[Malak Darkhunter]

Trying to play a warrior with Item Forging Abilities, note that for this adventure I have turned artifacts off, I want to rely on making my own, to fill in the absence of the extra benefits artifacts give you. I have currently made it to level 35, the problem is I haven't found to many chunks of ore to work with. I know from previous games that you get more ore drops toward the end of the game, my last game I ended up finding about 45 chunks of different ore types. There's to few drops at the begining of the game though, on this adventure I have only found about 5 chunks in by the time I made it to level 35. So as far as forging goes i'm currently screwed, I have sunk extra money into the armory to be able to buy some armor of resistances, so far the store hasn't really put out much. On a side note I made one good weapon out of the 5 chunks of ore and 3 forging tries blew up in my face and that was with forging skills at 50% working with copper and bronze, and that was without trying to add essences to them. Would it be reasonable to make ore drops of copper and bronze more common on early levels? Or maybe have the chance to mine for more if you need them in mineral viens? As far as Item forging goes, I'm having a horrible time trying to get started, so I can make some descent weapons and armor that will alow me to go deeper.

[PowerDiver]

It's been forever since I played S, but I do not remember forging ever blowing up in my face. Back then, it was a mistake to ask for anything specific. I'd just forge an item and see what luck brought me, and that was more effective than requesting specific attributes.

[Malak Darkhunter]

The higher the level of the item your trying to make, the bigger chance of failure, I usually stick with making items without a high level reqirement, because you have a chance of doing something wrong and cursing the item, and it blows up at other times. I usually don't add essense to the items, it's a little complicated, and don't usually have enough of a kind to get what I want. Sometimes you can get lucky, and see what randomness it brings. Forging Skills are now 60% and starting to get a little more realiable, I have made a few good items, but really could use a few more chunks of ore, keep hanging around level 36 now to get caught up on equipment, and stat gain.

[RogerN]

The drawback of forging is that you're entirely at the mercy of the RNG when it comes to finding ores. I once had a character get to 60% skill in forging before I found a single ore (it was his primary skill in fact). And yeah, it really sucks to search for 100k turns before finding ore and then have it blow up in your face. There's always a significant chance of failure, even with low-level items.

I also agree that using essences is usually not worth the increased chance of failure. Most of my smiths never take the magical infusion skill at all. The best use of magical infusion, IMO, is trying for basic immunities. The most basic elemental essences are relatively common and you can start collecting them pretty early, so you have a decent chance of getting enough of them to try for an immunity. Unfortunately that's a very low chance of success.

There's no easy way to find ore. The best solution is to just kill large groups of monsters which drop items. Orc and troll pits work fine.

[PaulBlay]

There's no easy way to find ore. The best solution is to just kill large groups of monsters which drop items. Orc and troll pits work fine.

Walk around level 1 and 2 a few times; pickup 600 gold in coppers; melt them down: Copper (Ore)!! (Repeat for silver, gold and platinum).

Seriously you must be carrying around tons of metal for thieves to nick, why can't it keep track of what metals they were and allow you to forge with them. ;-)

[RogerN]

Walk around level 1 and 2 a few times; pickup 600 gold in coppers; melt them down: Copper (Ore)!! (Repeat for silver, gold and platinum).

This reminds me of an idea I had regarding ores. It might be interesting if ore had to be mined (like treasure veins) instead of dropped by monsters. Balancing this would be very tricky, of course...

You could have veins of copper dust, silver dust, etc... Use scrolls or staves of Detect Treasure to find them. Require the player to mine out 99 units of copper/silver/whatever dust which will yield 1 unit of ore.

Better ores (runegold, mithril) are only found deep in the dungeon. And of course mining can be a very hazardous endeavor, since you tend to wake up every monster within earshot

[PowerDiver]

Chunks of ore are mostly useless, and count as money that you pick up. To forge an artifact-quality item, you need a special chunk infused with wild magic. Where did the magic come from? Perhaps from the soul of a monster that was carrying it when it met its demise. No point mining for those.

[Narvius]

I don't see why there shouldn't be magical, mineable ore deeper in the dungeon. There's enough wild magic going on there.

[camlost]

This reminds me of an idea I had regarding ores. It might be interesting if ore had to be mined (like treasure veins) instead of dropped by monsters. Balancing this would be very tricky, of course...

More than likely, this would be very boring and/or poorly balanced. Sword-guys need sword drops to be effective, crafter-guys need chunk drops to be effective. You can't mine for ego or artifact swords, therefore you can't mine for chunks.

I would say that somewhere around 1 in (4 to 6) chunks blow up, but I don't have the source in front of me. I rarely try to infuse items, though. Make sure you're not in the red/black if you do try.

I have found the number of chunk drops in the early game to be highly erratic. And copper is almost completely worthless.

Also note that I usually don't have any artifacts by level 35 either. Try diving deeper with what you have.

Working with really weak materials with a high skill seems to explode more often, IIRC. Not sure why.

[Magnate]

I've found Copper to be fine for crafting simple items (a single low resist, or +1 to a single stat). I've found Infusions to be invaluable for my forgers - you don't try to specify everything, but you specify the one thing you really want to cover (usually rpois or rconf for me), and see what else you get. Obviously better chunks get better results, and yes copper probably would blow up if you try to put rpois on it - but I've had forgers who have worn several copper items in the early game (made with skill <20) before moving on.

My one tip: always always always choose the lowest base item when crafting armour (wicker shield, sandals, cap etc.). Much higher chance of success than iron helm etc. Obviously this doesn't apply for weapons, because you want higher damage dice.

CC

[PowerDiver]

My one tip: always always always choose the lowest base item when crafting armour (wicker shield, sandals, cap etc.). Much higher chance of success than iron helm etc. Obviously this doesn't apply for weapons, because you want higher damage dice.

I guess I thought this went without saying. Armour is mostly interesting for resists, except for shield weight for bashes when relevant. Not only are the lowest bases easier, they are generally lighter too which is what you should want. I'd pick filthy rags over plate mail every time, given a choice with equal resists.

I remember there being more than enough awesome weapons easily accumulated. I remember thinking it would be a serious error to waste precious chunks on weapons.

[Magnate]

I remember there being more than enough awesome weapons easily accumulated. I remember thinking it would be a serious error to waste precious chunks on weapons.

Agreed. I remember once seeing a tremendous forged Bluesteel Blade in a dump, but I don't think I've ever forged a weapon myself. There was always an armour slot I wanted to upgrade.