Rework or remove mettalurgy
issueid=5344 10-14-2017 09:04 AM
Senior Member
Number of reported issues by BenMathiesen: 99
Rework or remove mettalurgy
I think new players will be very confused by this skill.

The case against mettalurgy:

1. It always shows up in the context-sensitive menu of currently applicable skills.
2. When you use it, at best you get a trivial message 'this item is made of metal'.
3. It serves no obvious purpose for any character, even weaponsmiths.
4. It is absolutely not needed to tell, say, mithril from adamantine

Suggestions:

1. Similar to gemology, make it a passive skill that increases your chance of finding ore and ingots. This gives characters interested in smithing a good and noticable reason to increase it.
2. The manual says "it is of great importance to weaponsmiths" but if there are any synergies between metallurgy and smithing then they are hidden in the code and I still don't know what they are after decades of playing. All a couple of sentences to the manual explaining this, for example "A high score also increases your chance of smithing with higher metals."
Issue Details
Issue Number 5344
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category All
Status Suggested
Priority 5 - Medium
Suggested Version Unknown
Implemented Version (none)
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 8
Votes against this feature 1
Attachments 0
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




10-26-2017 06:53 AM
ixi ixi is offline
Junior Member
Suggestion #1 has been around for a while: #3340.
Reply Reply  

10-26-2017 02:00 PM
Junior Member
I believe that metallurgy increases the chance of metallic items getting fire damage ending up as ingots instead of getting destroyed. The "...melts down to a puddle of metal!" message. Also, I have a feeling that metallurgy already would increase the chance of ore generation.

I agree that the message "made of metal" is bad. It should at least be something in line with "is made of metal - but you are not skilled enough to tell the type of metal.", implying that there's more to it when you are more skilled.
Reply Reply  

10-27-2017 11:07 AM
ixi ixi is offline
Junior Member
If it is already imroving the chances, shouldn't it be listed in skill description? So that players really know how investment in this skill would influence their game.
Reply Reply  

10-27-2017 12:17 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Harkila
I believe that metallurgy increases the chance of metallic items getting fire damage ending up as ingots instead of getting destroyed. The "...melts down to a puddle of metal!" message. Also, I have a feeling that metallurgy already would increase the chance of ore generation.

I agree that the message "made of metal" is bad. It should at least be something in line with "is made of metal - but you are not skilled enough to tell the type of metal.", implying that there's more to it when you are more skilled.
Mining is what increases the amount of ore generated. Which makes perfect sense.

I think Metallurgy rework should be focused solely on activities related to Smithing. Some ideas:

  • chance to get extra ingots from melting/smelting
  • allow using lower-grade materials to improve items made of higher-grade materials
  • passive resistance to item desctruction/rusting for metallic items
  • plain bonus for smithing checks
Reply Reply  

10-27-2017 01:11 PM
Qui Qui is offline
Senior Member
I'd say remove. It doesn't serve much purpose right now.
Reply Reply  

10-27-2017 04:11 PM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Qui
I'd say remove. It doesn't serve much purpose right now.
It does serve some purpose, at least for non-spoiled players, as not every identified item has an obvious material.
Reply Reply  

10-28-2017 12:04 AM
Qui Qui is offline
Senior Member
I'm not spoiled enough to remember the non-obvious ones, and I don't remember needing to. Definitely not required for smithing, smithable items have material in the name, if not they are iron or not metal. With mist elves I test for iron by wearing (after making sure it's not cursed of course). I mean, I agree it has some purpose, but just not enough to justify having it as a skill, and none of the suggestions really strike me as the solution, so I'm for removing, with maybe metal recognition being given to Smithing skill as a passive or something.

Also, concerning new players - they might waste level-ups on it before realizing it's mostly useless.
Reply Reply  

10-28-2017 02:30 AM
Ancient Member
Quote Originally Posted by Qui
I'm not spoiled enough to remember the non-obvious ones, and I don't remember needing to. Definitely not required for smithing, smithable items have material in the name, if not they are iron or not metal.
Bracers of strength, elven chain mail, mace of destruction, dragon scale mails, staff of strength, staff of dexterity, and staff of perception are all higher metal and smithable.
Reply Reply  

10-28-2017 11:33 PM
Junior Member
Giving Metallurgy the Woodcraft-treatment of increasing critical hit chance against creatures made of metal seems like an obvious and easy improvement. This could be extended to enemies wearing heavy armour such as Chaos Knights - it stands to reason that knowledge regarding metals would allow a character to locate weak points in their enemies armor.

It might also be possible to add golems made of different metals and simply display "metal golem" to PCs not trained in metallurgy, adding some risk to handling them without identifying them first. Animated Armors of Iron/Mithril/Adamantium/Eternium, etc.
Reply Reply  

+ Reply