>From: Ralph Scott <rscott@...>
>In general I would agree with you but bear in mind this. There are
>probably
>no more than a couple of dozen serious tinkerers. Heck gnomes
>themselves are
>very rare. I see very few as compared to elves or humans.
>
>With such a small population, it IS possible for the secret to be held.
>Even more so when all the other things you get from tinkering are useful
>to practically no one.
I do agree that the entire tinkering population is quite small, but there
are literally thousands of players out there that search for new quests and
item info every day. In the course of these events, they will eventually
find something to do with tinkering. No one specifically looks for new
quests in hopes of getting a specific result. They search for them to find
something new in hopes of profitting from it in some way. These people
don't say "let's find tinkering stuff today". They say "let's find
something new tody". So, I do not agree with your statement that only a
tiny fraction of the world actively searches for things. People stumble
upon stuff, its just unfortunate that none of it has been about tinkering.
> > spyglass = useful?
>
>Apparently wizards have a spell that does the same thing.
Wizards have a whole line of such spells, but others don't, so I believe
that the spyglass is, at least, marginally useful. The reasons are:
1. No merchant or mob drop supplies similar items.
2. Most people can't perform similar feats using their class abilities.
>
> > collapsible fishing pole = the reason for this list
>
>Useful?? Who the hell fishes anymore. I can get free food from
>clerics, mages,
>rangers, druids... Its use is only as a component, much like firewater.
Yes, its useful, only to make spyglasses and to provide discussion on this
list. Nothing more. Not sure why you read that as "game usefullness". By
itself, it has no value.
>I made a trip through akanon asking everyone about tinkering and fishing
>poles
>and looking at every merchant. Couldn't find anything.
It is very clear that Akanon, city of the tinkering gnomes, has either
well-hidden tinker info or none at all.
>As an aside, I heard from a post either here or on a WWW site that one
>of the
>files contains the text aqua-lung. Could this be another tinkering
>item?
>It certainly sounds so.
It could be anything, or something not implemented, etc. There really isn't
any reason to believe it is one thing or another.