1. The effects that weapon and armour upgrades have in the game are disproportionate to the real-world effect of different manufacturing qualities. There were plans to remove the blacksmith altogether but it wasn't implemented.

2. I have no idea. That it is not in likely means that no-one requested or the uniques for that area were added at an earlier date when natural phenomena had not been considered.

3. Not sure what happened in Syracuse. I seem to recall a problem with uniques not showing up there due to a change in a value elsewhere. It seems it was not fixed.

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