"Lumps" vs. "pieces" of metal

Sindri · Post by **Sindri** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 8:56 pm

Can "lumps" of metal be crafted into things, or can they be smelted into "pieces" of metal somehow? As far as I could tell, they can't be used as raw material for trades.

I don't know exactly how lumps of metal are produced (since my character got them from someone else), so I was also wondering if they might serve some other purpose that I'm unaware of.

Emrys · Post by **Emrys** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:31 pm

I have made lumps of metal by using the cook skill to destroy ordinary metal items. I have no idea if the lumps can be used for anything.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:11 am

Good question. Should they be usable as pieces of smelted metal or not?

Does it cheapen the mining/smelting skills?

Japcil · Post by **Japcil** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 1:38 am

Im in favour of a resmelt with lumps but they have a lower rate of success for useable metal than that of current ore. Like some ores you can fail 2 or 3 times, with a lump, how about you can only fail 1 or 2 times before it is completely destroyed.

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:51 am

That, or perhaps it takes several lumps to create one piece...or both? I encountered Sindri's quandary myself and never really understood what to make of it, ICly, until someone nicely explained that the metal had been treated by unskilled hands and was now worthless. In truth, it should be harder to extract metal from its ore than from the pure metal.

The alternative might be to make "twisted, charred, ruined metal" or somesuch, in place of lumps, so that they are less likely to be mistaken for something of potential utility.

That may still leave people asking "why can't I melt down this mithril staff, which I can't use, and make a mithril hammer, which I could use?" or things of the sort, though.

Kelemvor · Post by **Kelemvor** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:10 am

It seems odd to me that you'd want to allow lumps of metal to be smelted when they are created by 'cooking' metal weapons and armour. A rather OOC means of destroying them I've always thought, since it'd have to be a pretty hot cook fire to melt anything but the softest metal.

Why not just allow non-PC weapons and armour to be smelted in the same way that PC crafted ones can be?

In an area I am working on I hope to create a mob prog to do just that, it would obviously be simpler for it to respond to the smelt command instead.

That way you dont sidestep those players who can smelt and as a bonus, introduce other metals into player smithing - brass, iron (As opposed to steel) bronze etc.

Some materials should be unsmeltable or only smeltable by a specific race (I'm thinking adamantium, elven and mithril) but that would be for later.

With the 'lumps', do they indicate a metal type? It might be that a mob prog could work better from them than NPC weapons as an interim solution

Raona · Post by **Raona** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 12:30 pm

Kelemvor wrote:With the 'lumps', do they indicate a metal type? It might be that a mob prog could work better from them than NPC weapons as an interim solution

ICly, at least, the lumps do indicate a metal type - that is, "a lump of tin" or "a lump of lead." I'm not privy to how exactly they are coded, though. I also don't know if lumps are generated from "unusual" metals.

Dalvyn · Post by **Dalvyn** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 3:13 pm

Can "lumps" be produced by "cooking" coins too?

Oghma · Post by **Oghma** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:22 pm

A few years ago it was possible to turn forged items into lumps and then resmelt them. Then there was the ability to smelt coins. I am against the second. Coins do not belong to the individual, they belong to the state, city or country that manufactures them. I just can see people melting down their coins into objects. The only time such is usually done is durning profiteering in wars or to preserve bullion. In those cases a country has lost prominence or disapeared and to save face a population cashes in or destroys coinage to seperate the precious minerals from the remainder. In fk sense, our coins are created by code, not stored in a single place to be dolled out so it would not affect us, but in rp sense if everyone starts smelting coins currency would become rarer, proof of currency would vanish, cities would go bankrupt and prices would be higher.

Otherwise I am for lumps of metal made by melting forged items being usable in creating new forged items. Only those lumps though, maybe call them smelted lumps?