So back in early 2005, GM Thanthyl created the Tinnoc boxes to take forging slabs of material and turn them into a flechette maker. Which is great and all, except:
- being either darts or daggers, their damage is crap;
- being based on forging slabs, their encumbrance is mega;
- unless you got one of the really GOOD boxes (I know that "+5 to material" and "+10 to material" and "sanctify the material" exist), odds are good you're eating up valuable-metal forging slabs (like "an ora slab" just to get a +10 dart; and see also "crap damage" above).

Mind you! Since he said that they were based off of one of my ideas--I had put out there "a golden dragon belt buckle", from which you pulled scales, and they were sharp and you threw them, but mine were unlimited (it's a dragon!); or a shark, and you pulled teeth; or whatever, the key point being "unlimited"--I made certain to snaffle up one or more.

But, while they're okay for putting modest Thrown weapons into being available... they're only "okay" at it. They still come with those limitations.

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So my suggestions were several:
- have the ammunition slab inside be WEIGHTLESS while inside the box (this, right here, will hugely affect encumbrance);
- allow flaring materials to do so more frequently (I would go so far as to say "every time"), and/or sell blocks of "feras" to be used in the boxes;
- allow upgrades to the "specials", and/or permit the normal ones to become special (like "Enchant the box" to add more to the flechettes, or "WPS the box" to get damage- or crit-weighting on the flechettes, or "Ensorcel the box" to get Tiered benefits on the flechettes);
- and possibly: allow for the flechettes to be considered to be slightly larger weapons (perhaps a setting on the box? turn to 1 for Darts, 2 for Daggers, 3 for Handaxes [and of course, use more slab material for larger weapons/have them crumble to uselessness less often, because they're more hefty]).

And of course: bring Tinnoc boxes back for sale so that other Thrown folks can take advantage of the new & improved capabilities.

<My initial post on the subject> -- #124 in this thread
http://forums.play.net/forums/GemStone%20IV/Combat,%20Magic,%20and%20Character%20Mechanics/Weapons/view/124

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1) Since the massive changes to Ranged attacks--like "not needing to worry about ammunition"--I would like to see the Tinnoc boxes made into endless producers, as well.

2) Specifically, I would encourage a substantial re-write of the script to allow the use of essentially a menu selector (or dial to be turned) to indicate "use this material that the box knows". Give it mithglin? It now knows mithglin. Give it razern? It now knows razern.
And then allow it to eat/learn/be able to activate from either forging slabs (as is the case now), OR the lumps of ore that come from the Arena automata.

3) I would like for the HESS certificates--specifically, Enchanting--to work on the Tinnoc boxes (so when you peel off a dart, it gets the +? that the box has been Enchanted to). At the release I believe there were two "+5" and one "+10" boxes, so if you loaded them with steel you would get a +5 (or +10) dart, and if you loaded them with vultite you would get a +25 (or +30) dart.

4) I would like to see the blacksmith (and other automated WPS shops) work on the Tinnoc boxes, adding to the box-which-adds-to-the-weapons in the same manner as the high-end Enchanted ones do.

5) And I would like to see the return of the Tinnoc boxes for sale & use, particularly after those updates are made. :)