csk1d
Recruit
It seems that you the developers wants crafting to be a way to obtain unique customised weapons, but to me it is more a metalworking career.
Metal prices now is a complete nonsense as you loss more by producing higher quality steel, this is not balancing at all.
Another problem is that because of the high weapon prices, those special weapons like Winds Fury, The Ambassador is completely inaccessible to players, which is also a nonsense, if you can't get these weapons at all, why should they exist?
Thus I have come up with a few ideas to make crafting as a possible career with balancing:
1, Introduce coke as a level 2 fuel that is made from charcoal, and is used exclusively for steel making.
Coke had been used as a primary fuel for steel making for hundreds of years, blast furnace has been introduced as early as 11th century as is heated with coke to produce steel, as coke as produce heat as high as 1600 degrees, providing necessary heat to melt iron and steel completely, in contrast charcoal can only produce heat up to 1200 degrees. But coke does not exist in nature, and has to be produced from destructive distillation of charcoal or oil, does making it a bit harder to produce.
Introducing coke as a fuel for steel making not only makes the whole process more time consuming, but giving coke making a perk that require higher level like level 50 would mean it is harder to mass produce steel in early game.
2, Higher rate of material degrading from smelting, fuel requirement for smelting
One of the easiest way to balance the smelting exploit is to make it harder to obtain materials from smelting, for example, southern heavy mace require 3 iron and 1 hardwood to craft, when smelting it produce 2 iron and 1 wrought iron and 1 hardwood, there is already a degrade of material here, but its not enough, 75% of the metal material should be degraded by at least 1 level so that smelting produce less profit. And there could be a high level perk to allow players to reduce the degrade or loss of materials
Making coke as the required fuel for smelting high tier weapon is also a method of balancing, by doing so it would take more cost to smelt weapons.
3, Link cost with weapon & armor prices
With present prices of metal the weapon and armor is extremely expensive compared to their raw materials, it makes even some of the weaker weapons basically too expensive, while some of the higher tier weapons appears to have unreasonable prices, the best example is the billhook and glaive, the latter can only be sold for 83 denars while a billhook can be sold for 2000, this could be an issue of wrong prices, but even the cleaver is way more expensive than it should if using the current metal prices.
A better method would be pricing the weapons according to the their raw materials with a bonus, the bonus would be higher for higher tier weapons, but should not over 100% so that the weapons stays at a reasonable price while making smelting less profitable. But in early game players can still make a living by smelting low tier weapons.
4, Higher metal prices
At least the base metal prices should be in accordance to the base raw material prices, this include hardwood for making charcoal or even coke (if you do introduce that), and the iron ore required to produce metals, there could be a small penalty for directly selling metals, and could have a perk that lower the penalty so that in late games players can become a dedicated smith, introducing a new way to play.
For example, crude iron should have a base price of 1/2 of the combined base price of 1 unit of iron ore and 1 unit of charcoal, so the price would not be unreasonably high but still profitable it you have the perks.
5,(possible)Level requirement for smelting higher tier weapon
There should be a learning curve to understand how to treat different metals, it would be unreasonable to think that a amatuear smith could deal with crucible steel without any failure, thus by introducing a level or even perks requirement, a player has to learn how to smith before being able to smelt it, this would only affect early to mid game balancing, but consider the fact that player usually become rich in these stages, the ability to smelt high tier weapon and sell would not be a major problem in balancing.
Metal prices now is a complete nonsense as you loss more by producing higher quality steel, this is not balancing at all.
Another problem is that because of the high weapon prices, those special weapons like Winds Fury, The Ambassador is completely inaccessible to players, which is also a nonsense, if you can't get these weapons at all, why should they exist?
Thus I have come up with a few ideas to make crafting as a possible career with balancing:
1, Introduce coke as a level 2 fuel that is made from charcoal, and is used exclusively for steel making.
Coke had been used as a primary fuel for steel making for hundreds of years, blast furnace has been introduced as early as 11th century as is heated with coke to produce steel, as coke as produce heat as high as 1600 degrees, providing necessary heat to melt iron and steel completely, in contrast charcoal can only produce heat up to 1200 degrees. But coke does not exist in nature, and has to be produced from destructive distillation of charcoal or oil, does making it a bit harder to produce.
Introducing coke as a fuel for steel making not only makes the whole process more time consuming, but giving coke making a perk that require higher level like level 50 would mean it is harder to mass produce steel in early game.
2, Higher rate of material degrading from smelting, fuel requirement for smelting
One of the easiest way to balance the smelting exploit is to make it harder to obtain materials from smelting, for example, southern heavy mace require 3 iron and 1 hardwood to craft, when smelting it produce 2 iron and 1 wrought iron and 1 hardwood, there is already a degrade of material here, but its not enough, 75% of the metal material should be degraded by at least 1 level so that smelting produce less profit. And there could be a high level perk to allow players to reduce the degrade or loss of materials
Making coke as the required fuel for smelting high tier weapon is also a method of balancing, by doing so it would take more cost to smelt weapons.
3, Link cost with weapon & armor prices
With present prices of metal the weapon and armor is extremely expensive compared to their raw materials, it makes even some of the weaker weapons basically too expensive, while some of the higher tier weapons appears to have unreasonable prices, the best example is the billhook and glaive, the latter can only be sold for 83 denars while a billhook can be sold for 2000, this could be an issue of wrong prices, but even the cleaver is way more expensive than it should if using the current metal prices.
A better method would be pricing the weapons according to the their raw materials with a bonus, the bonus would be higher for higher tier weapons, but should not over 100% so that the weapons stays at a reasonable price while making smelting less profitable. But in early game players can still make a living by smelting low tier weapons.
4, Higher metal prices
At least the base metal prices should be in accordance to the base raw material prices, this include hardwood for making charcoal or even coke (if you do introduce that), and the iron ore required to produce metals, there could be a small penalty for directly selling metals, and could have a perk that lower the penalty so that in late games players can become a dedicated smith, introducing a new way to play.
For example, crude iron should have a base price of 1/2 of the combined base price of 1 unit of iron ore and 1 unit of charcoal, so the price would not be unreasonably high but still profitable it you have the perks.
5,(possible)Level requirement for smelting higher tier weapon
There should be a learning curve to understand how to treat different metals, it would be unreasonable to think that a amatuear smith could deal with crucible steel without any failure, thus by introducing a level or even perks requirement, a player has to learn how to smith before being able to smelt it, this would only affect early to mid game balancing, but consider the fact that player usually become rich in these stages, the ability to smelt high tier weapon and sell would not be a major problem in balancing.
