Metal Smelting

[Starman_Omega]

Today I learned in science class that you use Mercury to melt the metal from the ore you mine. you boil the mecury with the gold in it and the mecrury turns into gas(bad source of pollution) and you have the liquid gold left. so i thought, "why not put this into EL..." it doesn't take any longer or shorter to add the mercury to the formula, and it would take lots of gc out of the game. maybe a formula for an iron bar:

 

8 iron ore

3 coal

2 mercury

2 fire essences

 

SO thus leaves you with an iron bar.

 

another thing i was thinking of is that so many people want Mercury to be minable...maybe in a secret cave or such put mercury...but this is no ordinary cave, this is a cold, freezing cave. since mercury exists as a liquid at room temperature, it would stay frozen at colder temperatures, so we could add a cold cave that needed say, 6+ cold protection to ward off the cold, or else, maybe frostbite(damage like poision)

 

feedback appreciated!

[Kami]

Eh...........

 

I'm all for improving the system a little But MUST we make is so much harder! Not only did you add a very expensive item to the mix but you actually Increased the other Needed Materials! This would very easily Break us! If we're going to add items to the Formula (and Expensive ones at that) then we should at lease reduce the Other Items to a more reasonable amount. Anything that doesn't make the System completely stacked against us!

 

I'd rather add an Item Long over due: An Ingot Mold! After all, who seriously believes we can shape Metal Bars with nothing but our Hands and raw Magic? At lease we can use the Ingot Mold over again while it adds to the complexity.

 

Make the Formula for Iron something like:

6 iron ore

3 coal

2 mercury

2 fire essences

Ingot Mold

 

Then it'll be perfectly balanced. No massive profit to Alchemists but doesn't Break us either!

 

Other then that, I like your idea of adding Mercury Mines. Having it Harvestable yet Perilous at the same time make it worth having but we may need to rethink just WHERE it can be harvestable though. In addition (Bringing up my Old Idea), Mercury should only be Harvestable (and Sellable) in Vials! After all, Mercury can't stay solid forever and in it's liquid state, it's dangerous to hold in your hands! For that matter, having Player's take Mercury Poisoning while Harvesting and Making stuff with it would also be a major balancing factor to!

[Starman_Omega]

sorry about the bar formula mistake, I don't know the formulas by heart.

 

Anyway, yes, I also think mercury should be sold by vials. It can't stay freezing forever, and It's highly unbelievable that Harvy can sell SOLID mercury. In a desert. In huge clumps... though, maybe it should stay solid, just so it won't get too complicated or what not.

[Kami]

Oh no. Actually, Having Mercury in Vials actually gives just enough Complexity to it as to make it where it won't unbalance it anymore. Right now, Mercury is only sold so Player's don't have an unlimited Supply and thus forces them to drain their Bank account if they chose to use it.

 

By Adding a Vial Requirement to Harvesting Mercury we'll apply a Basic Monetary value to it. A Player will still be forced to go to Harvy and drain away even more money for Vials. Is Ok since Vials are also reusable as well as having multiple uses. This way, Player's would generally be willing to do this since it's not so expensive as to buy Mercury directly but in turn would need to carry an additional Weight of at least half of their carrying capacity in order to harvest Mercury their selves. Now, assuming a vial of Mercury would weight 3 EMU, this will effectively reduce mass Harvesting Of Mercury the same as with Sulfur. Speaking of which, if we were to include a tool of some sort as an additional requirement to harvest Mercury, such as Leather Gloves, then that too will help curve any rampant over Harvesting. Added to that any other factors such as dangerous conditions, Harvesting Mercury would provide Players with a Viable, yet not an obvious, alternative to buying their needed Mercury.

 

Now, with the high EMU, Requirement of a Tool, a Hazardous/Distant Harvesting Location, and having the amount of Mercury a player can harvest limited by the amount of Vials that player carries, I'd say that the Complexity of this system would balance out perfectly.

 

Otherwise, Harvy would remain the only source of Mercury in the game that, although keeping Mercury limited by a player's ability to afford it, still creates the dilemma as to where if a player feels that he/she CAN'T accomplish something then he/she won't even bother to try! Right now, I can make more profit (both is Monetary and Experience) by sticking to Life Essences alone, completely even bothering with everything else simply because they are all too expensive or too much of a hassle to bother doing on a large scale!

Edited December 15, 2004 by Kami

[Aerowind]

minus the coal.... the coal was there to keep the heat to melt the iron if u use mercury well then why the hell would u need coal??

[Enlia]

minus the coal.... the coal was there to keep the heat to melt the iron if u use mercury well then why the hell would u need coal??

You still need the coal to bring the iron ore upto melting point, mercury on it's own won't work.

 

I like the idea of the dangerous/cold harvesting. Means that people won't try to harvest without need, which for something this poisonous should be the case. Presumably the existing random events would also apply?

[Starman_Omega]

Because you use the coal to make the fire using the fire essence. It's not like fire essences can start themselves, ya know.

 

and about the mercury in vials thing: if we did this, shwould we get rid of regular, solid mercury? or have a solid mercury to buy and to harvest, as well as a liquid mercury to buy, or have the mercury melt into vials as you carry it?

[70347]

I think that harvy should still sell mercury but in a liquid form.

It should require a vial to buy or maybe come with a vial but with 5 quartz added on to the price.

I think that the place where mercury could be harvested should not be reacable by normal means.

I think that there should be a random chance of going to the mercury place when you switch maps.

The chance could increase with your magic level as it would be easier to see "the portal to the mercury mine" with a more experience in the magical arts.

Once you get there you should be able to get back to where ever you just came from through a door.

The mercury would be there in a pool i liquid form and would require leather gloves (to protect from poisoning) and vials.

Maybe, if its possible, one could not get to the mine if they have switched maps in the last minute to prevent ppl go into and out of building quickly just to get to the mine.

I think that this would raise prices more than an easily accessable mine because if the mine could be accessed normally then there would be very little change.

Just one more thing to harvest before you can make your bars. the cold and glove req wouldnt make much difference and the vials would just get ppl to make more trips without stopping them much.

[Ravenod]

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but if you read this you will find that mercury is not used to extract metal from ore. It is actually reversed, where mercury has to be removed from the ore before it can be smelted into bars.

 

But as far as I know, the whole process of making metal bars is being given a face-lift of sorts, so who knows; maybe mercury could become harvestable.

[behindthemask08]

I really like the idea of making mercury harvestable, and this has been said before - everything should be able to be made by the PCs. But some of it should be so hard it would be alot easier to buy it, such as leather ar mercury.

 

Possibly for mining the mercury a new snake skin gloves could be added, they would add protection and the mercury wouldn't just go straight thru the leather like in real life.

 

I agree that it should be very hard to mine(as in exterme cold, poison, or radiation) that way no noob could just go mine alot and sell it for half of what Harvy does.

 

If you made mercury come in a vial, you would only be paying 2 gc per mercury(3 gc + 5 quartz = 1 vial, but the 5 quartz adds up to about another 2 gc or more. so really you are geting the mercury free and buyign the vial - unless he increased his price.)

 

The metal making system definatly should be revamped.

[dns_server]

mercury is not a requirement for smelting in real life. it us used to help remove some impureties (or was it an impurity itself, i can't remember).

gold is also a noble metal (non reactive) and is found natively on the earth surface and does not require smelting if found in the form of gold nuggets.

[Hammen]

gold is also a noble metal (non reactive) and is found natively on the earth surface and does not require smelting if found in the form of gold nuggets.

Yes, but it is not always found in nuggets... especially if the area is highly mined (the nuggets have already been taken). Gold Ore does contain Mercury, and, the Mercury is removed during smelting... maybe the smelting of Gold Ore can create a Gold Bar and Mercury... Of course we could make a difference between a Gold Nugget and a Gold Ore.

[freeone3000]

Yes. That way, the gold nugget would take a lot less to force into the shape of a bar. Like 2 gold nuggets 2 fire essences 3 coal.

[Starman_Omega]

I didn't mean mecury was needed for smelting i just meant it was needed to remove the impurities, therefore you would need it in your amnu window to smelt stuff.