Alan Blue Posted May 21 Report Share Posted May 21 Smelting, say, 2000 units of tin and copper into tin bronze, the fire understandably takes a long time to heat up the firepit, and the thermal mass of the metal. And then the 'smelting clock' starts. But. If you're 99% of the way to 'liquid tin bronze in crucible' - that last drop of green missing - and the fire runs out, this is the time I'm talking about. The firepit reasonably starts cooling. Eventually, the thermal mass of the metal starts edging down in temperature. But. Things don't 'unsmelt'. And the second the mass of the metal drops below 'smelting' temperature, the 'progress' starts regressing *extremely* fast. imo, for *smelting*, the progress bar should not regress at all. But, at least slower. Even if the idea is: 'things cool off way *way* faster than you can heat them up', that doesn't change what smelting is actually doing. There's no 'unmixing' of the near liquids. Which, in practice, means "half smelting" and then "cooling" and smelting *again* to completion... that second time is a lot faster than it would be from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thorfinn Posted May 21 Report Share Posted May 21 (edited) Well at least you don't have to skim off the dross or flux the molten metal. If I have to choose between one more piece of charcoal or doing realistic smelting, there's no contest. [EDIT] What does bother me some is once its smelted, it moves over into the output spot, where it cools off, even if the fire is still going strong. The crucible itself has not moved. It should still stay hot. Like Cliff Claven says, "What's up with that?" [/EDIT] Edited May 21 by Thorfinn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan Blue Posted May 22 Author Report Share Posted May 22 Pondering it, I think it should have an intermediate, like working on an anvil. ingot -> partially worked piece -> plate. bits -> partially smelted bits -> liquid. Smelting is starting when one of the two metals (or the joins between them, sometimes) is edging towards liquid enough to deform. So, basically, the second the 'green arrow' starts it's march, the 'thing in the crucible' should really be one object already, '2000 units of partially smelted tin bronze in a crucible, xx% complete'. The percent complete can march, and if the temperature is not compliant, then it simply doesn't march. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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