Ok, thats a new one to me

[Astroshak]

I tried hitting combine after putting stuff into a forge and got the following message :

This seems correct but something is wrong. Perhaps you need to know something more in order to combine this

IS that the message for a skill restricted combine or something? As a side note, I don't have SoF yet, and that was a SoF combine ...

[jacknut]

i would bet that is your problem....no SoF

[KyrosKrane]

More likely, they got the code bug fixed that was allowing you to do cultural combines in experiment mode. You have to buy and scribe the instruction book first to be able to use the recipes. Previously, there was a bug that allowed you to make the items in experiment mode without scribing the book first. I'm guessing, and it's just a guess, that this has now been fixed.

[Aldier]

The restriction you mention is only for ARMOR combines.

I was able to experiment and learn a template recipe with <300 skill.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Kyros is correct.

I may have left the symbols unrestricted because you need the quest to do the combines anyway. I will have to check the data on this though.

[Aldier]

I think it was also mentioned that if you do not have SoF, you cannot do any of the new cultural combines, yet.

[greebmushroome]

by the way, what's the motivation for disallowing experiment-type combines for cultural armor?

[Aldier]

It prevents the person from just "getting lucky".

It gives more incentive to max the skill.

It provides a reward for having maximum skill instead of getting the AA to improve your success rate.

Do you really think anyone is going to have much of a chance at 440s trivial combines thats not 300 or very close? And if you are close, you will be 300 soon because it is not hard to find combines anymore.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Aldier has the basic idea

The primary reason was to put a value to having skill.

The rest is secondary.