9.29 FORGING

This help file describes how Forging works and applies to both Weaponsmithing
and Armoursmithing.

Both the tradeskills of Weaponsmithing and Armoursmithing are forms of Forging
and work substantially the same, except, of course, that weapons are made in
one and armour in the other. Anytime this file refers to either weapons or
armour, you can assume that the other works the same unless called out
otherwise.


Summary
----------------
This is a short summary of how the system works. Full details are further down
the help file.

The Forging tradeskills (Weaponsmithing and Armoursmithing) allow you to create
weapons or armour out of commodities such as steel, iron, obsidian, leather,
and so on. 

In the skills of Weaponsmithing and Armoursmithing you'll gain the ability to
forge different kinds of weapons and armour.

In order to let you customize the appearance of these, you can select up to two
adjectives called 'descriptors' from a list you can access via FORGING LIST.
Descriptors are words like sharp, radiant, magenta, gigantic, and so on.

Descriptors are assigned to a Smithing Rank, from Apprentice Blacksmith up to
Master Blacksmith, with more advanced descriptors costing substantially more to
use. These correspond to Smithing Ranks, and you must be of at least that
Smithing Rank in order to use descriptors of that rank.

Descriptors also may have category-based restrictions on them, such as only
usable on edged weapons or soft armour.

As you forge items with descriptors, you gain a chance of producing an item
with that descriptor more cheaply than otherwise, and eventually with enough
mastery over that descriptor, you gain a chance to add an additional 1-3 stat
points to that item.



How to Forge
----------------
1. Find a forge. You can find these in many places around Achaea. Cities have
them, Houses often have them, Temples often have them, and so on.

2. Make sure you have the required commodities for what you'll forge. 
   You'll discover this by doing FORGINGCOMMS [descriptor1] [descriptor2]
<thing-to-forge, like longsword>

   Note that while the cost for a weapon or piece of armour with low-level
descriptors is relatively small, the cost for high-level descriptors is very
high. The fancier you want your armour or weapons to be, the costlier it will
be.

3. FORGING LIST will tell you what descriptors you have access to.

4. FORGING SHOW <descriptor> will show you the base cost for that descriptor
and other info where relevant. Note that the cost to use that descriptor on an
item is multiplied by the size of the item.
   4(a). Item size for a type of item may be seen with FORGINGCOMMS <thing>.

5. You'll now FORGE FOR [descriptor1] [descriptor2] <weapon/armour>. The
descriptors are both optional.

6. You will then go about forging the item. If you do most other actions or are
interrupted too much, your forging will also be interrupted and you'll have to
start over, though your comms will not have been used up.

7. Your item is now done!


Smithing Rank
-------------------
All Smiths start out as Apprentice Blacksmiths. From there you may rise to:
 * Journeyman Blacksmith
 * Blacksmith
 * Artisan Metalworker
 * Virtuoso Blacksmith
 * Master Blacksmith

Your Smithing Rank will increase as you forge items, and each new rank unlocks
a new set of descriptors for you to use. Generally, the more expensive the item
you're forging, the more it'll help you move to the next rank.

There are also two more ranks:
 * Grandmaster Blacksmith
 * Legendary Blacksmith

See below for information on these ranks, as they're not achieved in the same
way as other ranks.



Mastering Descriptors
---------------------
Every time you forge an item with a particular descriptor, you increase the
chance that the next time you forge an item with that descriptor, it'll be
cheaper and eventually, you start getting chances for your item to have extra
stat points added onto it. For weapons this ranges from 1-3 and for armour this
ranges from 1-2. 

All the various types of items you can forge have a size, with that size
helping to determine how many comms an item will cost to forge (along with the
descriptors used). Whenever you forge an item with a descriptor, let's say
"radiant". The first time you forge it, you have 0 points in "radiant". After
forging one item of size 6 with the radiant descriptor, you'd have 6 points in
"radiant".

Each time you forge an item with 'radiant' going forward you'll have a chance
equal to (points/6), with a max of 50%, of having the item cost you in comms as
if it was one size less. In this case, that's only a 1% chance, but as you
forge further items with radiant that chance will increase, until you get to
300 points and hit the effective max.

Once you get to 300 points in a descriptor you're considered 'Expert' in it,
and may begin working towards 'Master' in that descriptor, which requires an
additional 300 points for a max of 600 points.

After you have some Master points in a descriptor you start having a chance to
get an extra stat point on that item. If you have two descriptors that you're
already Expert in and working towards Master on, you have a chance for up to
three extra stat points, which are randomly assigned except for the fact that
all three will never end up on the same stat. It works as such:
 * Each descriptor gives you a chance of ((points-300)/6) to get an extra stat
point.
 * If both descriptors give your item an extra stat point AND you are a
Grandmaster Blacksmith, there's a 50% chance for a third point. If you're a
Legendary instead of Grandmaster Blacksmith the chance goes up to 75%.


Grandmaster and Legendary Ranks
-------------------------------
These advanced ranks are not achieved in the same way as the other ranks,
however. You must be a Master Blacksmith in order to attain these two ranks
PLUS:

 * For Grandmaster, you acquire 60 Grandmaster points. These are gotten through
mastering descriptors (see below). For every descriptor mastered, you'll get
the following Grandmaster points:
   Rank 1 Descriptor = 0 points
   Rank 2 Descriptor = 1 points
   Rank 3 Descriptor = 2 points
   Rank 4 Descriptor = 6 points
   Rank 5 Descriptor = 20 points
   Rank 6 Descriptor = 30 points

 * For Legendary Blacksmith, you must achieve 200 Grandmaster points.

 * As a Grandmaster Blacksmith, your chances of getting stat bonuses due to
Mastered descriptors are 65% per descriptor instead of 50% AND when you get two
additional stat points you have a 50% chance of a third.

 * As a Legendary Blacksmith, your chances of getting an additional stat point
when both your descriptors produce one is up to 75%. Plus, ALL descriptors are
treated as Mastered for the purpose of the extra stat point calculation (but
not regarding the chance of producing an item that costs as if it was one size
smaller).