Did you know that? (Dominions trivia)

[Endoperez]

I thought the limit was always 1 gem, with no way to go below that (with extreme forge bonus, Steel Ovens and Forge of the Ancients). Am I misremembering?

[archaeolept]

you used to be able to forge 5 gem items for free, w/ enough bonii - i'm guessing it is still the same

[Endoperez]

Originally Posted by archaeolept

you used to be able to forge 5 gem items for free, w/ enough bonii - i'm guessing it is still the same

It must be a really impressive amount of bonuses, then, because I spesifically remember that when Hammer of the Cyclops, Forge of the Ancients and Steel Ovens were used and Ring of Wizardry still cost a gem.

You still have to have the gems in your lab, even if none will be consumed in the forging, right?

[ano]

Just tested. If you have 50% bonus hammer, FoTA and 20% bonus site 5-gem items are free indeed. With (and without) dwarven hammer they cost 1 gem.
If mage has 25% forge bonus then with dwarven hammer, FoTA and bonus site he may also forge items for free. Free fire brands, for example

[ano]

Tested a bit more. Even 15% innate bonus on a mage is enough. This means Taimai elders and LA Ulm Black priests can also make free items if they have luck to find construction bonus site. Sounds evil.

[Baalz]

Well, in practice generally 1 gem with no hammer is better than no gems with a hammer by the point of the game you're putting up forge of the ancients, etc.

[Rysith]

Originally Posted by Baalz

Well, in practice generally 1 gem with no hammer is better than no gems with a hammer by the point of the game you're putting up forge of the ancients, etc.

The point isn't so much that you can get free items, but that it's possible to exceed the 80% cost reduction cap, which I had previously thought was a hard limit. As I mentioned, with the same set of bonuses they forge 40-gem items for 6.

I suspect that the key is pushing the bonus to 80% before the site bonus is factored in, and then the site bonus ends up pushing it beyond 80% reduction (and truncating, so items costing fractional gems are free).

[MaxWilson]

I've never heard of an "80% cost reduction cap" (except in GURPS) before. The algorithm is pretty simple: if there's Forge of the Ancients up, halve cost and round down. Then apply your forge bonus and round down again. And yes, you can forge cheap items for free with a large enough bonus, although in practice it's probably better to forge an expensive item for really cheap.

-Max

[Zeldor]

Now you can see that fighting in void has its penalties:

[chrispedersen]

Interesting.. how did you get that.. I don't think R. suffers that.