Suggestion for the Salpeter Problem

[hawkeye_pike]

Apparently everybody has a huge problem with the availability of salpeter and the cost of firing one cannon shot. The root of this problem is that in order to make Black Powder (which you need to craft both charges and fuse cords) you need 6 salpeter. And you have a relatively high failure rate.

We should keep in mind though that salpeter being camped and bought empty by a handful of guys on the shard may only be a temporary problem.

Vote for three suggestions to solve this issue:

 

[Trebr Drab]

I say add saltpeter mining from rocks and caves.
I suggested long ago, and repeated it when this Booster came up, that they should break the map apart at the edges and add a huge new ocean in between all 4 edges, and add small islands dotting the oceans. Add rocks covered with, and caves full of, guano to mine.

Or put it in the Underworld and Abyss.

 

[yars]

this ^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[Basara]

As I've noted in other threads, there's two different versions of Saltpeter.

One is Guano-derived (potassium Nitrate).
The other is a naturally-occurring mineral in some deserts (Sodium Nitrate).

Mining would be the preferred option (perhaps a bonus when mining sand, as well as dropping like special gems when whacking on rocks).

And, dear lord, why are all the new fish 10 times heavier than the old ones, when if you AREN'T upgraded, all those fish will spawn as old fish at 1 stone instead of 10???

 

[Mandrake of DF]

You find alchemist on every harbour that sell salpeter.

So - I dont see the problem.......

 

[hen]

Put it on every alchemist, job done.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

You find alchemist on every harbour that sell salpeter.

So - I dont see the problem.......

Those were added manually TODAY, and they are NOT at every dock by a long shot.

While this has helped the problem temporarily, the larger issue(s) still remain(s). The alchemists must be worked up from the base of 20. One can hope a shard could have that accomplished often enough, but what happens when someone needs saltpeter after server up and nobody is around?

The fail rate of 30% when making black powder combined with the fact that it requires SIX saltpeter per 1 charge means you will burn through this resource incredibly fast. 25,000 saltpeter only makes 4,166 units of black powder (assuming you have 0 failed attempts). 1 heavy cannon charge requires 4 units of black powder. So you would get a maximum of 1041 heavy cannon charges from 25,000 saltpeter (assuming you have 0 failed attempts). Going with a worst-case scenario, meaning you do fail 30% of your attempts, you would get 728 heavy cannon charges...from twenty-five THOUSAND saltpeter. This also isn't taking into account the crafting of any match cord.

Simply put, saltpeter needs to readily abundant in large quantities and/or black powder should require far less of it.

 

[Cailleach]

You find alchemist on every harbour that sell salpeter.

So - I dont see the problem.......

Um, no. Not on every shard there isn't. Certainly, on Europa, there's two alchemists - one on the Tram Emporium, one on the Fel Emporium. I'm not sure why we seem to be the poor relative in this regard, but we are.


EDIT: I take it back, on the Tram Emporium we have more alchemists. Not enough, mind, but more.

 

[Phineas le Monge]

I voted for option one because there is already a resource of explosive potential that alchemists should be able to make into a very potent black powder...it is called "blackrock" and seems to be totally useless in the game at the moment. Why not let black powder be crafted from two different sources?

 

[ziggy29]

I'd temporarily flood the market with the stuff to eliminate hoarding. At some point a market equilibrium will be established and the stuff is reasonably available, at which time I'd cut back on the supply.

 

[Aurelius]

Ironically I can't get HS to see for myself how much of the damn stuff you may need, but I still don't see the problem with it being on all the alchemists in the world, unless there's a plan for a future $12.99 'booster pack' that lets you have the equivalent of LRC for cannons.

I'd say let players make the damn stuff from some already existing reagents, or if you really must go for a more 'realistic' option let chicken coops produce it or use Trebr's options for mining it....

 

[Viquire]

According to a post this morning by Messanna in the BUGS thread, these alchemists should now spawn at every dock area with a fish monger.

 

[Sigurd Wraith]

I think with the addition of 32 total alchemists on each shard to get saltpeter that within a few days the market should be flooded with enough saltpeter to suit everybody's needs. Furthermore, with a GM alchemist and the best tali your success rate is 99%, even with a lesser tali you still are enjoyed a MUCH greater success than was originally proposed in beta.

I do think, however, there need to be more outlets for saltpeter through either mining or looting it from merchant vessels.

We should also be able to loot canon supplies (matches/fuses/charges/ammo) as well as wood and cloth from pillaged ships. One would assume they would be carrying the same supplies the player would need in order to effectively arm/supply their ship.

Has anyone actually engaged in ship to ship combat and have any data on how many shots would be needed to scuttle a vessel?

 

[Paldrion]

Increase the output.

I vote for none of the above.

Increase the output. 8 items input should equal 8 items output. We should be getting 8 black powder as a result not 1. This will also reduce the immense amounts of times spent on crafting black powder.

 

[Skrag]

Re: Increase the output.

I've pretty much just written this booster off as a loss, and will be much more careful before shelling out in the future. I'm not grinding up a crafting mule just for this (yes some people don't have one) and I'm not paying 30k per powder charge to kill a pirate worth 10k.