goodyman8 wrote:try attacking a bear with 10 strength and only punch and youll see what i mean by not trained for it :P
I did that on the first day of the server. Easiest source of meat in the early game. I had opportunity knocks and charge! too but that's besides the point. It got a lot easier with Call down the thunder the next day.
Anyway, you cannot lower the quality of ore with low strength or skills. All that does is determine if you can mine an area and mine speed: sqrt (str*tool quality) determines your mining ability versus hardness. The more you overcome hardness the faster you mine. Pickaxes are significantly faster than stone axes but stone axes are easier to raise in quality. Ore quality is determined by the node it's on and those are spawned randomly at world generation.
When blacksmithing, sqrt(str*blacksmithing) determines the softcap you put on items you make. Tool quality and material quality matter a lot too. If you surpass both tool and material quality, your softcap cannot lower the quality of the item.
Can't tell you where you buddies are mining ore from, only they'd know.