User:OM1E5GA/Forging FAQ

When people approach me to make weapons for them, I tend to spend a lot of time answering the same questions. So I don't have to type out the answers every time, I created this little FAQ to answer questions from people that will (probably) never forge themselves. Hopefully others find this useful as well.

How long would it take to make XXXX?

I'm going to assume you mean to make a perfect XXXX cause no one ever asks anyone to make superior or lower quality weapons.

This depends on several factors: the weapon you're asking about, the metal you want, how much time the person you're asking is willing and able to spend in the forge, and plane 'ol dumb luck.

When working the forge, there's roughly a 10% chance that any given blade/head/etc will come out as a "best" piece that can be combined with a "best" handle/hilt/etc to create a perfect weapon. So, on average, 1 out of every 10 pieces you make in the forge is even capable of becoming a perfect.

When combining a best blade with a best hilt, there's another roughly 10% chance that it will result in a perfect weapon, the rest will be superior quality. This means that, on average, 1 in 100 blades a blacksmith starts will become a perfect weapon.

Note: These numbers aren't exact, but they're close and make the math easier. I'm also not taking into account that it's more difficult to get a "best" piece with enchanted metals here.

Different metals also take different amounts of time "per forging cycle" So, I'll use two extremes for metals to answer the question (steel and vultite) as well as two popular weapon bases:

Steel dagger: 2 cycles x 3 minutes per cycle x 100 blades = 600 minutes = 10 hours

Vultite dagger: 2 cycles x 9 minutes per cycle x 100 blades = 1800 minutes = 30 hours

Steel handaxe: 4 cycles x 3 minutes per cycle x 100 blades = 1200 minutes = 20 hours

Vultite handaxe: 4 cycles x 9 minutes per cycle x 100 blades = 3600 minutes = 60 hours

Remember, these are just average times, the person you're asking could get insanely lucky and complete it in half the that time... or they could get struck with rotten luck and have it take twice as long. I'm also not accounting for the difficulty added by higher enchant metals or the weight of the slabs needed to make a weapon (both of which can increase those times). 4 cycles is actually in the middle of what can be required, but it's not often I get asked about weapons that require more then that (falchion, flamberge, war hammer, etc).

So, after all that... assuming you're asking a GS addict that can and will spend 8 hours a day in the forge, it will take between 2 days to just over a week to make that weapon you're looking for. However, it's safer to assume that the person you're asking actually has a job and life away from GS (not to mention other things they might want to do when they're IG), so figure on it taking more like a week to a month.

Why does it cost so much?

You mean aside from the insane amount of time I detailed above just staring at the screen when I could be hunting?

Well, if I'm buying my slabs from the forge it's costing me silvers for every weapon I make.

I can prolly sell a couple of the superior morning stars I make to other players eventually, if I have a shop, but realistically the 99 morning stars I'm making on the way to your perfect are going to the pawn shop. The most the pawn will give me for vultite morning stars I made is 20,000... but the cost of the metal and tempering oils to make them is about 40,000 (depending on trading bonuses, citizenship, etc).

So I'm losing 20,000 silver per vultite morning star or almost 2 mil just to make that weapon if the averages hold up. THIS along with the time invested is why I want 4 mil for that vultite weapon I'm selling or 1 mil for that steel weapon...

What if you use slabs you got from the slab generator?

I can't speak for others, but this is actually what I do. It really doesn't change the above at all though, you're just using Blood Script instead of silvers to purchase the slabs.

The reason I do it this way it to have access to a wider variety of metals as well as rare metals such as razern, vaalorn, and white ora. It also means that I have lockers in four different towns that are full of nothing other then forging slabs and the longer it's been since the last Duskruin, the fewer options I'll be able to give you for metals.

Can you customize the appearance?

Not a whole lot. The metal used will be in the description as well as the wood I use for the handle/hilt/etc. A blacksmith can remove the hilt from the description or use a different type of wood for the hilt, but you're prolly choosing the metal based on its properties.

Keep in mind that each town only sells one type of wood, so if you want a type that's not sold in the town the blacksmith is in they're going to have to travel to get it and use 20-50 locker slots storing it while they make your piece... some will do that for free, others will tack on an additional charge. Hilts/etc can also be made with metal instead of wood, but I would definately expect an up-charge if you want that.

Any other changes to the look are going to require a merchant, a Sadie scroll, or finding someone with an alter box that works with weapons.

I have this slab of [insert metal here], will you forge it into a [insert weapon here] for me?

Speaking solely for myself, I will gladly do this as long as we can agree on a price for my time and the tempering oils needed. I will forge it into as many weapons of the type you want as I can get out of that slab, do everything in my power to try to get you a perfect out of it, and all weapons produced from that slab are yours to keep.... but I absolutely will not make any sort of guarentee you'll get a perfect out of that slab (see the first question above for why).

Will you make me a weapon out of golvern/rolaren/eonake/eahnor?

These four metals are exceptionally rare in the slab generator and fresh slabs of them generally sell for around 5 mil silver on the secondary market. If I happen to have one or more of the one you ask about at the time, I may sell you the slab and and forge it into weapons as outlined in the question above... assuming I don't already have plans for it/them.

However, due to the high rarity and cost of these metals I cannot take commissions for perfects made out of these metals. Honestly, perfect weapons made from these metals are purely for showing off and are rarely made other then as personal projects for blacksmiths. If I were to take a commission for one, I would want a minimum of 100 mil silver with half of it up front and it would take at least a year for me to complete it just due to how hard those metals are to come by. You can easily get a perfect made from any other metal available and have it enchanted up to 7x or more in less time and for less silver.

Why are there so many perfect lances and mauls compared to other weapons?

Lances and mauls are exceptions in forging in that they're popular bases that only require one forging cycle (because the glyphs are merchant only). As a result, this is what blacksmiths tend to make when they haven't been asked for something specific and are just making things to sell on the open market... especially if they're working with a metal that has a long forging cycle.