Does anyone know why we can't smelt dragon barding?
I have a pile of them and I tried to reclaim some of the ingots but it doesn't work. I'm sure it used to, because I smelted my non-exceptional ones back before I got some ancient smith hammers & decent talismans. Nobody ever bought plain quality.
They changed that 2 years ago - around the time of the BOD bonus & Hammer properties in 2008, IIRC. I know it happened a few months after I tested the then-new Salvage bag for ingot return, for one of the FAQs on what is now UO Craftsman (the crafts all had their own individual forums at the time), but before the May 2008 Stratics "Oopsie!".
There was an exploit 7 years ago concerning the ability to smelt some things you weren't supposed to, that apparently re-emerged in 2007-2008, leading to the change.
Of course, now with the changes to the Dragon barding, the normal BODs aren't as bad as they used to be. The bonus is still lower for protecting the rider, but the bonuses that the armor gives to a riderless swampy are only 5% less for normal, as opposed to exceptional. For someone trying to train up their swampy's skills, the normals should still be useful.
