POI such as Blacksmith/Sawmill to smelt Ore in game.

POI = points of interest (duuh)

Especially in the early game with limited bag space, many raids I join last 5–10 minutes because I’m pretty much instantly full inventory. While this hinders progression to some extent, it’s just a rinse and repeat until I have accumulated a wealth outside the game, while never really entering any POI.

I personally see the implementation of new Points of Interest such as a Blacksmith (Forge) or Sawmill as beneficial to progress, player experience, and PVP.

If I were able to smelt ore in-game, just reducing the ore that is 4×4 big into a bar that is 1×2 inventory slots, it would reward me with a higher quantity of loot for a higher risk since I could be ganked by other players. It would prolong the time I spend in raids dramatically.

We could potentially talk about extra benefits besides it being faster to smelt, obviously. Especially at night, I could see the forge being a cool thing that lights up really hard, so people are almost immediately aware that someone is currently smelting ore. Potentially, we can increase the outcome of ore. So instead of 10 ore giving 5 bars, it could be 6 bars, etc.

Same for the sawmill. The logs are 2×3 and the cut wood is 1×3, which would again save me some inventory space and provide a higher quantity of loot in my inventory.

On top of that, we could see a higher reward for killing enemy players. Since such POI make people stay longer and accumulate more loot at a time, killing a player is most likely going to yield more loot.

In late game it also has some use. If I were to keep my Mithril Ore unrefined, same for the Ironwood, I could eventually bring all my very valuable Ores & Wood to the Forge/Sawmill in the raid to get an even higher outcome.

I think the passive Lodge will still be used aynway.