I like the idea of having the chance to create at least one definate great item when using valorite hammer, or the chance of having one high end item when using one of the lesser runic hammers. I understand that OSI has this big fear that "uber" weapons are going to flood the market and unbalance the game, but let's be serious now. There are only going to be 2 valorite hammers per shard a year. A guarantee of only 2 GREAT items a year compared to how many artifacts spawn over a year doesn't sound like a plan for a system breakdown. People work long and hard for these rewards and expect the payoff to be, at the very least, equal to the work put in to it. As a side note, the whole BOD reward system needs to be revamped. How many useless and heavy prospector's tools, or gargoyle pickaxes, (which are more of a threat to the miner than a boon,) do we really need?!
I also like the the idea of being able to have better control over what special properties go into an item that a smith (or a tailor) try to create. And I agree that there should be some sort of trade for this ability, such as extra charges being used. Or some other fair tradeoff. Should OSI decide to impliment something like this, it is important that they do not create a tradeoff that is unfair to the player, such as letting them have greater control, but less intensities. This would only serve to continue the grief felt by crafters.
Another suggestion to fixing runic hammers that I've read and agree upon is letting skill level play a part in the outcome of the quality of intensities on a crafted item. It only makes sense that a legendary blacksmith can create a better item than a grandmaster. Perhaps a formula can be used similar to the regular smithing formula. For every .1 skill point over 100, bump the percentage roll up by .2%. That whould give a smith with 120 blacksmithing skill an extra 4% added to the roll for the intensities of properties when using a runic hammer. An extra 4% might just be what the smith needs to bump his/her item into the next bracket, and at the same time, not be that overly powerful or unbalanced. This leads me to my next point, which will probably cause some booing and hissing, but please try to keep an open mind when considering this. I do not think that ASH should be allowed to be used at teh same time with a runic hammer, and here are teh reasons why. First off, if OSI were to use the above skill bonus, a +60 ASH would add 12% bonus, and added with the legendary 4% would give a 16% bonus which could eventaully lead to the flooding of really great weapons that OSI fears. A second reason is that thinking realisticaly, a smith can't use two hammers at the same time to smith something. One hammer grants you a certain type of special power, another hammer grants you a different type of power. While in the game it is possible to equip an ASH and then use the runic hammer in your backpack, it's not very realistic. It's akin to having gm swordsmanship and gm fencing and trying to use both a katana and a kryss at the same time, or even just gm swordsmanship and trying to use two katanas at the same time (although the idea of a new two one-handed fighting skill would certainally add some new interest to UO.)
Now, don't get me wrong about ASHs. I know that currently they are pretty useless and they do definately need to be fixed. This is a little bit off teh topic of runic hammers, but it is something that needs to be discussed as well. Currently, ASHs are only useful to do three things: make dragon scale armor, make swamp dragon barding, and to give a better chance at making plate armor. As with so many things in UO, to fix one problem requires a whole chain reaction of fixes. Here's an example. ASHs are good at making swamp dragon barding, but rarely sell because so few people ride swamp dragons because AOS really nerfed pets and destroyed swamp dragons. As a pet, they had, and still do, have total crap for attacking power, and AOS took away their only useful ability, that of a damage sponge, by taking away their large amount of HP. Few people also ride swampies because while they require 0 taming to control them, they take an insanely high taming level for such a pathetic creature. The ridiculously high taming level causes mid-level tamer/bards to go out in frustration and provoke cows to kill their herders, which in turn cause the npc herders to cry out with their dieing breath, "Curse you OSI, why is gm herding such a totally nothing skill?!" So first, if anyone is to ever bother making dragon barding, swamp dragons need to be made more available and less useless. Second, MAKE DRAGON SCALE ARMOR WORTH WEARING!!! Why on earth is such a high level crafted item so utterly pointless?? This also applies to plate armor. Why are you making it so much harder to craft an item that has the same sum total protection as ringmail? OSI needs to go back to sturdier armor gives better protection. And here's a suggestion for making ASH worth having. Just as draon scale armor is a special armor that requires an ASH for any real chance at making it gm, create a new weapon that would require the ASH. To do this right, and give the ASH an edge, it would have to be something that couldn't be crafted using a runic, so it could possibly be made out of a special material in the same way the dragonscale armor is.
Anyways, I know that was really long, and not totally commited to runic hammers, but hopefully it gives a few new ideas for people to kick around some.
