Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sujio]

Hi the wiki says smelting electrum from ores will produce 8 bars and save 5 bars of fuel but i dont see how this works. 1 ore of gold and 1 ore of say galena would make 1 bar of gold and 1 silver repectively right? And therefore 2 bars of electrum. So 2 ores = 8 bars??? also wouldn't it save 2x2x4 = 16 and saving15 bars of fuel?

[Bumber]

1 ore of gold and 1 ore of say galena would make 1 bar of gold and 1 silver repectively right?

4 bars and 0-4 bars, actually.

Bar smelting:
1 fuel for gold ore -> 4 gold bars
1 fuel for silver ore -> 4 silver bars (we'll assume we got lucky or used native/horn silver instead)
4 x (1 gold bar + 1 silver bars + 1 fuel) = 8 electrum bars
Total = 6 fuel

Ore smelting:
1 gold ore + 1 silver ore + 1 fuel = 8 electrum bars (always, even if galena or tetrahedrite)
Total = 1 fuel

[greycat]

It should be noted that the fuel costs are only a consideration if you're using non-magma smelters.

If you're using magma smelters, then it becomes a trade-off among the time taken, the amount of Smelter experience gained, and the random byproducts which depend on the kind of ore you're using.  Since silver can come from 4 different ores, with a different random drop chance per ore, the calculation gets a bit messy.

Short version: smelting individual ore stones into bars sometimes gets you more metal than smelting ores with each other, but it takes longer.  (And takes more fuel if you're not using magma smelters.)

[Bumber]

Short version: smelting individual ore stones into bars sometimes gets you more metal than smelting ores with each other...

The only metals bar-smelting gives you more of are lead (galena) and copper (tetrahedrite). Ore smelting wastes those, at the benefit of guaranteeing 4 bar's worth of silver (which must be used for billon or electrum.)

For bar smelting galena, you get 4 lead and:

Code: [Select]

1/16 ( 6.25%) chance 0 silver
4/16 (25.00%) chance 1 silver
6/16 (37.50%) chance 2 silver
4/16 (25.00%) chance 3 silver
1/16 ( 6.25%) chance 4 silver
For bar smelting tetrahedrite, you get 4 copper and:

Code: [Select]

256/625 (40.96%) chance 0 silver
256/625 (40.96%) chance 1 silver
 96/625 (15.36%) chance 2 silver
 16/625 ( 2.56%) chance 3 silver
  1/625 ( 0.16%) chance 4 silver

[Skorpion]

I generally use electrum to turn rare gold ores into a bigger category of valuable bars. Back in 40d, I had a fort where half the bins were made from the stuff, since I had no wood whatsoever and no traders for years.