Artisan Archive
Thread: Smelting Device
Smelters raises game balance questions. The resource chase is part of the game, as is working as designed. Smelters would alter this mechanic substantiall. What should the resulting qualities be? How should they be calculated? Should you create unique resource stacks, or some "smelted" resource type? How quickly should this happen?
I see this as possible, if the game balances can be worked out, but this will also require coding, which won't happen soon. Maybe we can see one if they ever do an artisan pass.
Everything inside of this game is a balancing act. The last time that I looked around, even the real world wasn't balanced. I don't buy the excuse of "it requires coding" (welcome to computers) or this will throw off the game somehow. This would be no different than a Bio-Engineer creating a new pet version that instead of having crippling strike has Dizzy Strike. Now, with that said I realize that they had their issues with UBER non-ch monsters. However, I'm merely suggesting a way (amazing how after 3 posts it is down to a 1 star already) to reutilize excess waste or to take 300 pieces of Netronium Steel & 300 pieces of Titanium Aluminium and coming out with 300 pieces of AlloyX. As for how quickly it should happen, who cares...we are talking new content. How is it calculated, as a new metal type. Take 3 separate metals that you would otherwise have to destroy, combine them in a smelter and out pops a single unique piece of metal.
Anyhow, hate it or love it, it is just a suggestion...
phantazer wrote:
How about if they made it so that you could improve the stats of the metal but not combine anything. Maybe make it so that if the resource is OQ 200 and you want it to be 900 you have to combine 5 units. I don't think you should ever be able to get it up to 1000 though.
The problem that I see if you took 5 pieces of the same metal and put them into a smelter is that you'd still have the same exact properties of the original metal. What I'm suggesting is taking scrape metals or bulk metals and combining 2 different types together in order to create 1 metal type. Give it experimentation points so that you can alter the end product. Increase Mal by 25%. The flip side of the coin is it would take MUCH more metals to it this way. A swoop that currently take 6400 steel (pretend that experimentation & quality matter here) may now take you 12800 steel to create because you take 6400 of steel"X" and 6400 of aluminum "Y" and you put them together to make super alloy "Z". The schematic still requires only 6400 but you can use a different type.
Kryy'in - Bria Galaxy - Master Artisan | Tailor | Architect
Honestly, I would love to see a smelter. Take lots of ore to make other ore. Then I ask: how good? If your smelter made 100oq ore, would you think that the smelter was a joke? If it makes 500oq ore, how much would you need to put in to get 500oq? How much power and energy? With an insistance on high quality materials, would there be a market for this material other than grinding? If it's for grinding, then how is it more cost effective than using cheaper raw materials? Does this become a reqirement for those working with rare materials, as they can't compete unless they have one? Should they take up a lot, especially as artisans are already using lots for houses, factories, and harvesters? Will artisans be unhappy at having yet-another money sink connected to their profession? Do they want unique resources custom made by artisans, which will further fill the database?
I see those as some basic questions. That's alotta questions.
As for coding, take a look at Thunderheart's posts. "New Coding" is a big thing to the development staff. The decision on a Droid Commander profession partly hinges on the fact that combat droid models already exist in the game and won't take any new coding. In many posts, ideas are shot down with, "that would require new coding, and that's not likely to happen." He's not saying that it won't happen or is impossible, but the development staff can't work on every good idea, so they must pick and choose what they will develop.
I'm not arguing with you, I just want to point out how the developers will see the idea, and the kind of scrutiny that the idea will be placed under.
I can see both sides of the fence on the issue and honestly would not expect something like this (even if the Devs did see it) to be out before say Publish 10 or 11 (if that early). I don't think a smelter would be viable for grinding material. As you pointed out, what would the point be if someone is just practicing anyhow. I'm thinking more along the lines of taking bad shift ore A and combining it with bad shift metal B and coming up with a decent quaility to craft something. Experimentation would be the key ingrident for a device like this. As for this being like a factory, that is open for debate (well, the whole idea is open for debate). At first I had thought about this being a tool, but after reading your post and thinking about this for a bit I would guess that for large quantities a factory like tool would be required. I realize that people are tapped out on lots currently, but I think some people may sacrifice a lot or 2 in order to be able to create a superior metal to craft with. Sure, artisan/architect A can push out materials faster, but if (theoretically speaking here) if Architect B who has a smelter and can craft a Fusion Generator capable of BER15 or BER16 because of these super alloys (doubling the material cost of course) don't you think people would get on board for this? (I realize FGs can currently only go to BER14). As for the coding of this, I'm not a programmer and have never claimed to be, however the game has to be Dynamic. This is just one of hundreds of wish list items that I'm sure will pop up.
Now who wants the talking stick?