I've mentioned this in my editorial and I posted as a bug the high failure
rates when working with combinations that are trivial. I have a respectable
wisdom of 90 something and a skill level of 40 something (been playing other
characters so haven't leveled beyond 8 for a long... time) but I fail SO
OFTEN with onyx and lower.

Is there a relationship with difficulty of attempt (even when trivial) and
the rate of failure? In other words, will I continue to fail the same rate
on average with a particular trivial combination even after raising my skill
level by working on harder combinations first? I think there's no
improvement to the failure rate on combinations that are pretty easy like
silver/onyx even as I improved my skill in the recent past. With that in
mind, I don't know if I should work with unenchanted electrum and malachite
to improve my skill level if the rate of trivial failures remains constant.

Thanks for any info or advice you might have. If this is something you
could ask someone or even better if there's a petition or list of
suggestions I would request one of the following:

Subject: Rate of failure on trivial metal/gem combinations too high
What: With a respectable wisdom of 90ish there are far too many failures
with trivial metal/gem combinations. Failure rates are running 30% to 50%
working with trivial items.

Proposal: Drastically lower the rate of failure for trivial items
(something less than 10%) or eliminate failures for trivial items
completely. OR Leave fail rates where they are but if you fail making
a trivial combination you either get a non-magical item or you don't lose
anything and have to reenchant the metal or you just don't lose anything.
Again, these are only for when an item is trivial.

Why: It makes sense to expect a skill gain with the known chance of
failure. It makes no sense to fail often when there is zero chance of skill
gain because the item is trivial. If it IS trivial to make, why would a
craftsman fail so often? Trivial = easy = no learning = no skill gain = low
failures

What would happen: Not really changing much except making the game more
fun. There will still be the current rate of failure for non-trivial skill
gaining - so we won't be getting something for nothing. This will make
business more fun and less frustrating. If there are certain items that for
some reason should never be trivial then you could still fail at them and
still gain experience.

thanks,
Shawn
Azara, Povar