It makes more sense than adding 20 or more ingots to upgrade a weapon.

Would be nice if they worked on that next… Because the only explanation for that is that you’re the worst blacksmith and waste the majority of material you use for just about everything lol.

I don't know enough about metal to know if this is exactly true for bronze, but if the smelting process effects the density then you could end up with less volume while still having the same mass.

The change in density is not enough to make any significant difference. The only possible reason is like Smetrix said, we are very sloppy vikings and spill most of the material. That, or the devs have this odd idea for balance that they won't give up on.

Originally posted by mrbananas8:

I don't know enough about metal to know if this is exactly true for bronze, but if the smelting process effects the density then you could end up with less volume while still having the same mass.

The density changes, and volume actually increases due to thermal expansion. Only way volume would change is if some of the metal evaporated, which I do not believe is possible outside of a vacuum.

Either way, both realistically and gameplay wise, the ratio for copper/tin to bronze, and just everything around forging could be streamlined a bit better.

It's quite simple, really. There are tiny gnomes inside your Forge, and every time you make Bronze, they steal two thirds of your material. Sneaky gnomes...

It makes as much sense as only getting one berry per bush... if anything, make it random...like from one to five or something like that...

I mean, if we really want to get that technical about it, you wouldn't be making Bronze at your forge; you'd be making it in your Smelter.

Easiest way to resolve this in your head is that the bronze bars are bigger than the other ones. Couple of inches, whatever. You take three small bars and make bigger ones out of it.

The berry icon represents a serving of berries, not a single berry. That's why it's enough to make a meal.

Originally posted by sarteck:

I mean, if we really want to get that technical about it, you wouldn't be making Bronze at your forge; you'd be making it in your Smelter.

Would be better that way tbh, they could also ditch the gimmick of having the bars plop out onto the ground, and increase the amount of ore you can fit inside to at least hold full stacks.

Originally posted by Spark Bibo:

if I smelt bronze using 2 bars of copper and one bar of tin, shouldn't the product be 3 bars of bronze? Metal doesn't magically get smaller when you combine it.

there is always some spoilage
its a primitive forge

Originally posted by Smetrix:

Originally posted by sarteck:

I mean, if we really want to get that technical about it, you wouldn't be making Bronze at your forge; you'd be making it in your Smelter.

Would be better that way tbh, they could also ditch the gimmick of having the bars plop out onto the ground, and increase the amount of ore you can fit inside to at least hold full stacks.

I agree, but then they'd have to rework the whole input/output system there. Instead of taking just scrap/ore, the input would have to allow ingots as well, for example, and they've have to consider dumb players like me accidentally putting in all the copper they just smelted and having to break the thing to get it all back.

Originally posted by sarteck:

Originally posted by Smetrix:

Would be better that way tbh, they could also ditch the gimmick of having the bars plop out onto the ground, and increase the amount of ore you can fit inside to at least hold full stacks.

I agree, but then they'd have to rework the whole input/output system there. Instead of taking just scrap/ore, the input would have to allow ingots as well, for example, and they've have to consider dumb players like me accidentally putting in all the copper they just smelted and having to break the thing to get it all back.

Well they can ditch that too, just give it an interface to do all of that, and if they still want the items to be physically spit out, they can do that too. It would also get rid of having to individually load each ore/coal.

I just want the smelting process to be quicker... I already spend a good few hours gathering and transporting it, just let me load up the smelter and give me a decent amount in return so I can move on to the next area lol.

Originally posted by Smetrix:

I just want the smelting process to be quicker... I already spend a good few hours gathering and transporting it, just let me load up the smelter and give me a decent amount in return so I can move on to the next area lol.

I feel this.

My friends and I went and cleared out a bunch of crypts, fully loaded out longship (540 scrap iron) and still has some we had to carry in out own inventory. We're all laughing and having a good time talking about the haul, all tired as hell from the gaming session.

[EDIT]We even had to purposely encumber on of our guys for the entire ride just to carry what we got.[/edit]

We get back, and the three of them log out for the night after I tell them I'll get the iron smelted. I take down our two Charcoal Kilns (since we'd had the foresight to make more than two full chests of coal beforehand) and add two extra smelters (we already had two up), and it still takes me the better part of an hour being a base-body, refilling smelters, sleeping when I can, doing gardening, etc.

I don't know if it's really enough for me to want the devs to make it quicker or anything, but I can agree it was annoying having to spend all that time processing our haul. Would have been even longer if we didn't have the coal on hand (and those 2 and a half chests were just BARELY enough).

Bronze from the bronze age was made by smelting copper with tin in a 9:1 ratio (at that time it also had other things mixed in like arsenic and lead). You can't cold forge bronze. Its an alloy. Its possible to separate the tin from the bronze when you reforge it but the tech required to do so wasn't available until the late industrial age.

In the Bronze age copper and tin were shipped in pre-smelted billets that weighed about 50 pounds each. Most of the tin used during the bronze age came from the Cornwall area in the British isles. It was the purest and most abundant source in Europe, West Asia, and Northern Africa. Most of the copper came from Crete and Cyprus because those were the purest and most abundant sources in that area.

The alloys were made on site from the pure metals that were shipped in. In the early bronze age that was Tyre and Byblos then in the late bronze age and early iron age Carthage and Rome.

Taking control of the supply of tin was why Rome invaded Gaul and Briton.

In game how bronze is made is messed up and the ratios are way off too. It takes 10 bronze ingots and 4 boards to make a bronze buckler that would have weighed at most 1.5 Kg and increasing quality wouldn't take additional metal. It would have taken more skill and time instead.

Iron is messed up too and in the same ratios. Early iron weapons were smelted and then forged to remove impurities. They didn't hold an edge as well as bronze weapons and they were brittle and didn't last as long. The late Iron age and the blast furnace was what made the difference. Iron is far more common than copper or tin but Iron took far higher temperatures (and the addition of carbon) to be as effective or better than bronze.