Sooo... I just spent 3000 charons for a 62 crafting difficulty supersteel piece when my character has 92 effective mechanics (85 natural). I'm just going to drop it on the floor.
It technically has a use as armor plating, but at that cost for a single piece I was hoping for something I could use as a main ingredient. The difference between it and a tichrome reinforcement of the same quality is 1 extra mechanical resistance and 2 less heat, so it's basically the same thing. Not to mention it is outright worthless for weapons crafting at that quality.
So it would be nice if either
A) Crafting difficulty of material received = effective mechanics (so 92 here), with a maximum based on level
or
B) Crafting difficulty = your choice, with higher quality costing more charons. Give a set of dialogues letting the player choose a charon amount and crafting difficulty (shouldn't make them infer it from quality xD). Example:
2500 (80)
3000 (100)
3500 (120)
4000 (140)
etc..
With the upper limit being based on the upper limit of vendors based on your character level (so for my level, about 110/100 quality/difficulty?)
On a related topic, I've noticed it's.. not even that great. I've only tried metal armor, however. Comparisons of similar quality armors without reinforcement
Tungsten steel (60 diff):
strength req: 9
Major resistances: 61 mechanical + 26 heat + 28 energy = 115 total
Mech and Energy: 89
Armor penalty: who cares
Tichrome (63 diff):
strength req: 8
Major resistances: 43 + 37 + 55 = 135
Mech and Energy only: 98
Armor penalty: 55
Super (62)
8
57 + 23 + 50 = 130
Mech and Energy only: 107
50
It's
very slightly better than tichrome when you consider only mechanical and energy (and slightly worse against grenades). When you consider you can make alloys by using different ingredients or rearranging armor (tichrome armor with tungsten helm + boots, or tichrome armor with tungsten reinforced plating), the only advantage is the actual points which is isn't so great, and a teensy bit of armor penalty.
Edit: after doing the exact math, it is pretty good, but again, only considering equal qualities