Any help? Or maybe of interest to Ngreth?

[Bonzz]

I was playing with the HQ Steel today for th sub-parts of the AAAA.

Some of the items are made from "Blocks" of HQ Steel.

I look up recipes for HQ Steel Block and it is made from Large HQ Bricks.

I found this odd, as the specialty merchants sell Blocks of Refined HQ Ore.

Large Bricks of HQ Steel are made from Large Bricks of Refined HQ Ore (1), Gnomish Heat Sources (6) and HQ Carbon Powders (3) -- taking up all 10 slots.

Logically, the Block of HQ Steel could be made with an increased number of Sources/Powders... but there aren't enuff slots in the forge.

So I decided to see if it might be cheaper to buy the Block and make it into Large.... to make it into Steel.

Block costs 151 Plat. It only made 2 Large. Large are also sold by the specialty merchant... for 62.

So no, the Block-to-Large is actually more costly by about 7 plat.

So... this left me to wonder.... why are there Blocks of Refined HQ Ore at all?

I am wondering if the recipe in the game was meant for the Blocks and the Large Bricks were supposed to require lesser number of powders/sources?

[KyrosKrane]

I believe the blocks were only put in for consistency with past sets of ore, like the normal High Quality and such. Since the Refined Large Bricks already take up all ten slots, there literally wasn't room in the forge to create a recipe that could be used on Blocks.

It's always possible that at some point in the future, Ngreth could create a new item (Concentrated Gnomish Heat Source or some such) that would cost, say, ten times as much as a normal one, and could then be used with the refined blocks.

In the meantime, the Blocks serve as a slightly more expensive route to getting additional large bricks. When making AxAA, you need lots and lots of bricks, and most makers I know will use both the large bricks and blocks. They tend to avoid small bricks because it's significantly more expensive, though.

[Roanne]

High Quality Refined Ore predates Steel recipes. I wondered why there was no recipe to go straight to Block of High Quality Steel from Block of Refined High Quality Ore but it has always been so. I believe it's intended as an additional complication in process to have to restock the vendor from time to time and the lack of a converting recipe may be because the ratios are different.

Each Block of High Quality Ore converts to 2 Large Block of High Quality Ore but it takes 3 of those to make a Block of High Quality Steel. Currently you can make 88 Block of High Quality Steel from a fully stocked vendor with x2 Small Brick of High Quality Ore and x2 Large Brick of High Quality Ore left over (or x8 Small Brick of High Quality Ore if you only convert what you need; I convert as much as I can to Large Brick of High Quality Ore so I can squeeze out 89 Block High Quality Ore 2 out 3 vendor clearings). 88 Block...Steel is enough for parts on x2 AAAA assuming average RNG result

If there was a recipe to convert Block...Ore straight to Block...Steel (assuming it wouldn't take an addition Large...Ore but maybe cost more for extra carbon and heat sources or whatever) we could make 110 Block...Steel. Not quite enough for a third AAAA, but 5 per 2 vendor clears instead of 4.

I dont believe the current conversion recipes using only Large...Steel to make Block...Steel is an oversight however. I think it was done this way for simplicity in making sure there are no pp exploits and necessitating the frequent restocking of the supplier to introduce another level of complexity. I also believe few people are any good and visualizing the big picture of what goes into making an AAAA (especially the smithing part) and understanding how a change to one part propagates across the entire process because there are so many different iterations possible depending on which conversion path you take. Some cost more than others to get to a final goal (be it Block of High Quality Steel or the AAAA itself and whether you are just making one AAAA for personal use or stocking them on a vendor for sale.

With the bad place cultural armor holds in the devs hearts these days, I suspect the AAAA's days are numbered. I'd be surprised if any time was given to changing the status quo on this recipe at this point.

[Zaltak]

They could just use one carbon power in all the recipies to make HQ steels.And just double the number of gnomish heat sources.Two GHS+carbon power+small HQ ore makes a small HQ steel, Four GHS + carbon power + large Brick HQ ore makes a large brick of HQ steel,eight GHS + carbon power + block of HQ ore makes a block of HQ steel.But i guess this would make too much sense.
Or the can do what we've always wanted and make a block of Ore + chisel make THREE large bricks of ore etc.

[KyrosKrane]

Zaltak, the problem is, doing it that way could lead to a plat exploit. You've reduced the cost to make a brick of Steel by reducing the ingredients, so you might end up being able to sell back the brick for more than it cost to buy the ingredients.

[Ngreth Thergn]

I put in the HQ Refined ore block for consistency, AND so that you could get an additional, if slightly more expensive, source of large bricks.

At this time I have no plans on changing the recipes to give a direct method to convert blocks to blocks.

[Zolina]

Yep, an AAAA takes more than 100 large bricks, I usually take half the stash of blocks as well to make sure I have enough.