Let me see if I understood this right.....
You used the SSI imbuing back and forth to try understand whether, even if only showing HLL 100%, the longsword had actually been reforged to HLL 133% ? Is that so ?
Yes.
At least, that is what I seem to understand when you mention that imbuing to 20 SSI drops HLL to 96%...
In this case, yes, but that's a gross simplification. Once I knew that the longsword really had 133% SSI, I was answering the question "What values of SSI still cause the displayed value of HML to be >= 100%?"
So, when you reforged the longsword as first, you had 100% HLL displayed (actual 133% in truth) and 20 HSL because when you then imbued it with 15 SSI it still had, besides the 20 HSL, 100% HLL displayed (and now actual 100% in truth) ?
Is that so ?
Actually I believe that when it was at 15% SSI, it still has 103% "real" HML. If you refer to the UO Guide page it gives the equation to determine what the max IMBUABLE HML is, given weapon speed and SSI. You could then turn the equation around and determine the HML drop per 5% SSI added.
If that is the case, the CAPs exceeding values NOT SHOWING might be confusing because a lot of players not realizing it, might be seeing a value of 100% and think it is what they have but instead, they got, for example, 133% for that given property......
Actually, this is likely a bug, or at the very least, was not put under full consideration by the devs who implemented this. I'd find it hard to believe that this is a codified aspect of the design, and as a dev who works in an industry where, by law, not written down = bug, I'd guess this is a bug. Not all bugs are bad...
Now, they may not want this 133% value taking imbuing weight, but be happy with a displayed and actual value of 100% (especially if the 133% is only a displayed value, not actually bringing any extra bonus over 100%....) and so might not imbue their item as it could be.....
Now this is one aspect I did not look into. I'll leave this as an exercise for YOU to determine the outcome. Here's the test to perform. In TC, go to an NPC and buy some longswords. Imbue one up to the max SSI (87%), and then look at what the total weight would be if you were to imbue 1 DI onto it. This should be 112 (100% intensity SSI *1.1 imbue weight = 110, + 2% intensity DI @ 1.0 weight = 112).
Now start reforging Vampiric/ Of the Vampire until you have a Longsword that displays 100% of either HML or HLL, and ONLY the HML/HLL. Now open the imbue gump and set it to imbue 1% DI. If the total resulting imbue weight is 128 (115% intensity [100/87] * 1.1 weight plus 2% intensity @ 1.0 wieght), then imbuing only takes into account the DISPLAYED value. However, if it is say 148 (133% intensity * 1.1 weight = 146 + 2% DI = 148 - BUT the hammer need not put exactly 133%, I think the cap is 135% for a copper hammer, but also if it adds say 50% of it's max ability to add, you'll still display 100, but the value MAY only be 103% behind the scenes).
In any event, in this reforged scenario, any number above 128 means that you've got some "wasted" imbue points, given that you're paying the imbue price for, say 115% HML, but only able to make use of 100%.
What I am trying to say, is that if the property actually does benefit from going over 100% then the higher value should be displayed, if it does not, then it should stop at 100% not just displayed, but also actual reforged value....
I disagree with you. In your scenario, I do not get to swing a longsword at 1.25 seconds, while also having 100% leech on it, and only having 180 stamina, and not needing tinker legs or SSI jewelry. Bummer that you're confused, but I'm not. Since I've just spent a few thousand words explaining the mechanics - so you ought to be able to puzzle it out now.