Quote Originally Posted by origamikitsune View Post
Basically, if you go balls to the walls hardcore, you should HQ SOMEHOW.
Essentially, yes. A goldsmith without a miner should not be, and should not expect to be, competitive with one who is either in cahoots with a miner or a smith who IS a miner. A smith who prepares for success should not have so many of their materials degraded to poorer quality to the point where it doesn't functionally matter.

Currently (and I'm making this up, but I think the proportions are appropriate): Time it takes a smith to +3 an Iron ingot without +3 iron ore: 1 hour 20 minutes. Time it takes a smith to +3 an Iron ingot with +3 iron ore: 1 hour.

That's not acceptable.

Instead of leaving iron ingot+3's up to a lottery of a bunch of random smiths trying to get lucky, design them to be the property of the smiths who deserve them because of true effort. Not mere time and mat spam.