- Status Closed
- Percent Complete
- Task Type Bug Report
- Category Engine → Crafting
-
Assigned To
Tuathanach - Operating System
- Severity Medium
- Priority
- Reported Version
- Due in Version Undecided
-
Due Date
Undecided
- Votes
- Private
FS#4569 - Can't cast molten copper and tin
The ability to cast a molten metal into an ingot should go with the ability to smelt the ore. I currently have the ability to smelt tin and copper ores and ingots, but can’t cast the molten metals into ingots.
| ID | Project | Summary | Priority | Severity | Assigned To | Progress | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2656 | PlaneShift | FS#2656 - list of crafting bugs | Low | Davide Vescovini, Tuathanach |
Casting is an entirely different process than smelting, so it is possible for the skill level requirements to be set to different amounts.
Just to be sure:
When you went to cast the ingot, did you put only one molten tin and one molten copper in each slot in the stock casting?
Was the working with stock book in mind during all attempts?
Yes to both. Casting tin/copper doesn’t show up in the book and I get a message that “this is a bit beyond your skills at this moment.” I was level 7 in metallurgy. When I made level 10, I got the ability to cast copper and tin (and bronze).
I still think casting a metal should come at the same time as the smelting the metal (or perhaps smelting a metal should be delayed until one is able to cast the metal). There’s no benefit to just being able to smelt the metal.
I tend to agree to your points. I’m going to be a little long-winded here. This is a discussion I have seen before, and different people have different opinions. There are several issues here:
1. There are some things that it seems silly to require skill for, for example melting ore. If you have a hot furnace, anyone can throw something in and get it to melt. By the same token, casting is also easy. What is difficult and requires skill is purification/separation of the metals, which we don’t explicitly describe in game but must be a part of the smelting/refining process.
2. Why should we always have a book in mind to do something, even after we have done it so much that we don’t logically need a book? Once we have the skill, we should be able to do some things without a book. However, the current design of the crafting engine requires what are called patterns to do things, and those patterns are the books. You can design patterns that don’t require a book, but they would never require a book and people could then do them without ever learning how! (in terms of game play). Because of this structure, you have to change books in mind in order to do some different things.
My personal opinion is that we need to redesign the crafting engine to be more logical. I think each pattern should be a chapter in the overall book, which is always in mind. Each time you add a new chapter, it is made a part of your book, and you now have that pattern. This would require a partial rewrite of the crafting engine (and would be a big job!), but would make it more logical and easier for players to understand.
We could use an indexing system so players can browse the book. You would have a list: perhaps it could be indexed by process, after indexing by pattern. So for example, you could click on the pattern “advanced swords” and have a list including forging, hammering, etc. Once you click on “forging” for example, you would then see the different transformations and combinations which fall under that.