LE An idea for Smithing

[scrutio]

i like the original concept of thought you had going in your first post;

 

make crafting a more dynamic and ongoing process, instead of sharpening your blade once, and having it be a permanently buffed damage, instead make it more of a temporary process that decays over time, so you have to resharpen your blades every once in a while, it would add to the immersion.

 

 

I don't see any reason why that couldn't be incorporated into it.

 

I think that the amount of work needed to be done is going to put off anyone making this mod though which is a shame. Maybe it'd need several people working on different parts of it and then bringing it all together but seems little interest. Maybe I'll try to learn how to Mod effectively myself although I think this will be well beyond my skills.

[Sacreficium]

if I was that fit in modding i'd help ya. but my modding skills never overstepped simple texturing :(

But i love the idea and will support it in any way possibble to me :)

[scrutio]

if I was that fit in modding i'd help ya. but my modding skills never overstepped simple texturing :(

But i love the idea and will support it in any way possibble to me :)

 

Cheers Sacreficium, I might work on making a big collection of weapons/armor for each Smith in Skyrim and maybe even develop some dialogue/quest plots. Any input would be appreciated as I'm pretty busy with a baby on the way (although that does mean that I have to stay in in the evenings so I've got time to even sketch up some artwork).

[Sacreficium]

:D congratulations

 

a simple start would be to change alvors little "get it started" quest to learn basic leather and iron smithing. maybe you can add a silent perk (basic smithing) which is given to you by finishing the lessons (per script). No major changes just vanilla iron and leather smithing... but you have to do the quest first.

 

It is the easiest way i can imagine to get the whole mod started.

[scrutio]

:D congratulations

 

a simple start would be to change alvors little "get it started" quest to learn basic leather and iron smithing. maybe you can add a silent perk (basic smithing) which is given to you by finishing the lessons (per script). No major changes just vanilla iron and leather smithing... but you have to do the quest first.

 

It is the easiest way i can imagine to get the whole mod started.

 

I have absolutely no ability to mod at all, although I guess I will have to learn. But what I have done so far is to set up a big matrix of all the Smiths in Skyrim, with allegiances, tendencies etc. and ranked them at different levels. Master Smiths are capable of making and training more different types of armor than expert and expert more than adept. Each Smith makes unique items with different appearance, attributes and level and you need to be trained by each Smith to learn how to make their items (some Smiths items are not unique in cases where the Smiths have a certain link). I've put all of these into a big table so I can see how many items need to be made by the wonderful people on this site (or if I learn how to do it, me and I have ideas about how I'd like a number of things to look based on the character of some of the Smiths).

 

Then I've started writing some framework for questlines that you need to do in order for the Smiths to train you to make their items. This involves quests, being high enough level, paying the Smith a lot of money etc. and quite a few of the framework stories intertwine. I've tried to take things from the game and expand them to make these storylines. As an example here is part of the line needed to learn from Oengul (who has been ranked as a Master Smith):

 

This is initiated by you asking Oengul if he can train you in Smithing.

1. I'm working hard making weapons and armor for Jarl Ulfric and the Stormcloaks. If you are a true brother of Skyrim and are willing to help the cause I can be of assistance. But whilst I can make the best blades in Skyrim for the Stormcloak soldiers I need to offer something more superior to Jarl Ulfric. If you bring back Queen Freyda's Sword to me I can teach you some basics. (If not complete Queen Freyda's Sword quest)

 

2. Thankyou for bringing back the sword, it will look fantastic in the hand of the true King of Skyrim. I owe you and there is nobody better to learn the skills of Smithing from in all of Skyrim than me (learn Oengul Iron)

 

3. The Stormcloaks are in need of more iron. Make 10 blades and 10 sets of armor as I showed you and prove you are a true brother of Skyrim.

 

4. You want to learn how to craft steel as Oengul. Huh, I hear murmors that the people believe that if the Imperials gain weapons from Eorlund Grey-Mane in Whiterun then even the Stormcloaks using my blades and armor will have no chance. I will prove them wrong and you will help me. Our ancient ancesters were great crafters of blades. They will have documented their techniques and I am sure that those documents can still be found. My assistant Hermir came across this old map documenting the location of a text about an ancient technique for making the sharpest blades. If you can decipher this map and find the texts I will aid you in learning about steel. (Complete to learn Oengul Steel + All Oengul blades will receive automatic 10% bonus v. armor on top of any improvements)

 

5. Everyone is still saying that Eorlund Grey-Mane is the best Smith in Skyrim and yet you come to me for help, maybe you are smarter than most. People need to see that Eorlund Grey-Mane is not infallable. I want you to tamper with his 'Sky-Forge' and prove that this is that the Forge is the real reason for his greatness not his skill as a Smith. If you do this I can teach you about Elven or Dwarven techniques I learnt many years ago. (Must have level 50. Complete to learn Oengul Dwarven or Elven. Will result in broken Sky-Forge. If caught by Eorlund he will refuse to train you but you can all other actions with him will continue)

 

6. Ah my prodigy returns to learn more huh? Well I've had an idea. When I was a young apprentice I heard about a legendary tale of a warrior dressed in blue that was undefeatable in battle. The story was that he was so confident about his undefeatability that he entered a notriously haunted cave alone searching for rumoured treasures. What he didn't realise was that whilst he might have been undefeatable against mortals his armor had little benefit against the mysteries occupants of the cave. He never returned from the cave and nobody knows exactly what killed him. It is believed that his blue armor was in fact a set of glass armor that had somehow been augmented. If you could get into the cave and return alive with the armor then maybe I could study it to understand the secret behind the blue glass.

 

7. You made it. Still all in one piece too. And the armor, you have it? (The player can use the armor but once given to Oengul it is no longer possible to get back) Amazing. I need time to study what can have turned the glass blue. When I have the answer I will send Hermir to find you.

 

8. (After receiving note from Hermir to return to Oengul) I have found the secret, and it is to do with how the glass is forged augmenting the crystalline structure of the glass. Not only does it change the color refracted from the glass to blue but it also makes the material far tougher. This is why the legend states that the warrior was undefeatable. Of course this myth is an exageration but for sure this glass is far stronger than normal. I can show you how to make this glass using my forge but this secret will not leave my forge, understood? (Learn Oengul glass. All Oengul glass items will be crafted blue instead of green with a 40% bonus against swords/axes/hammers. Oengul glass can only be made blue in Windhelm otherwise the appearance is green without the bonus. This is unless you choose to give the secret to Eorlund which will result in the Eorlund glass being blue glass also but this will mean that Oengul will no longer agree to train you and will refer to you as traitor)

 

 

I am developing these for all of the Smiths, some are not so questy because the Smith is more interested in money for example and will simply want you to pay them a lot for their training.

 

Hopefully this will satisfy a few things. It will make learning Smithing far more interesting than simply crafting a load of iron daggers, it should add a lot of variation to the types of weapons in Skyrim and it will expand a lot the interaction with the Smiths in Skyrim.

 

Still a lot of development and planning I can do, but at the moment I am really needing a skilled modder or group of modders to take on this pretty huge task.

[Sacreficium]

WOW thats great so far and for your skill

 

I'd suggest to ask the creators of mods like crafting complete, etc. for help or guidance

 

as you already have much of the planning and development, send them a small overview of it and maybe they will react :)

[scrutio]

WOW thats great so far and for your skill

 

I'd suggest to ask the creators of mods like crafting complete, etc. for help or guidance

 

as you already have much of the planning and development, send them a small overview of it and maybe they will react :)

 

Do you have a link for the crafting complete mod?

[Sacreficium]

Yeah sorry i always forget the links xD

 

here is crafting complete

 

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=10255

[scrutio]

The idea has really evolved now since I last posted in here. I've dropped the idea that it'd be possible to make completely custom items through some sort of console like the face creator. Now my slightly ambitious plan is to have eleven Smiths located around Skyrim who each make items with different looks and characteristics for example Rustleif in Dawnstar will make items that are suited for the cold of Skyrim, his armors are more furred (for example) and his weapons have jagged edges and spikes on them to rip through flesh of creatures and animals (which will give a boost to his items v. creatures and animals).

 

In order to do that I've create material 'keywords' in the editor for unique materials for each of the Smiths i.e. RustleifWeapIron, RustleifArmorSteel so that items made by Rustleif are made with that material rather than the standard iron (even if the recipe is identical). Then I have created a material perk for each keyword material. So RestleifWeapIronPerk would give +10 value versus Creatures and Animals (using the same format as silver weapons do damage against Vampires etc.) but -5 versus heavy armor (since the jagged edges are good for ripping flesh but are easily damaged versus heavy armor). So almost every item that will be added to the mod won't simply be 'overall strength' but will have unique characteristics which will be useful against certain things you'll face in the world of Skyrim. This should make it more interesting than just always using the most powerful base item all the time and will make using and carrying certain items more tactical.

 

In addition to creating quests and dialogue in order to learn these 'unique material' sets, I'm also planning to set many of the characters to use the items rather than the standard items, so the guards in Solitude will use weapons and armor made Beirand, rather than just the standard iron armor. Again this will make combat more interesting as you could find yourself up against foes who have items that have benefits against what you are using. It also means that you are likely to run into people who have an item which you have never seen in the game because you haven't done the quests to unlock that unique material smithing (obviously this is only likely to occur with iron and steel as bandits won't be walking around in craftable Daedric items).

 

I've been playing a lot with the editor and have duplicated/edited over 1000 entries so far in order to get all the materials/perks/items/craftable/smithable/learnable system in place and i'm probably not close to half way through. What would really bring the whole mod to a new level would be the graphic side of it. Imagine walking into a different region of Skyrim and seeing people carrying different items and wearing different armor (which will have been crafted by their local smith). As it stands I have over 500 unique item entries which I'd love to have unique graphics for but whilst i've got to grips with the creation kit, I think that it's just going to be too much to do and i'll never finish the mod but I'm going to at least give it a go with the weapons and maybe further down the line I'll try out some armour. I'd really love to find some friendly artists who'd help me out with some textures for some items for me but I don't even know where to start in finding people who would be willing to spend the time to create so many pieces.

 

Here is my first attempt at modelling a steel greatsword for Oengul (obviously it is just a model which I'd need to import into 3ds as an iges, and then do all of the artwork, nif files etc. but the modelling is reasonably straight forward):

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/wHoYu.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/X9QHm.jpg

 

 

 

http://i.imgur.com/1LVYE.jpg

 

Edited August 2, 2012 by scrutio

[Arrun]

You're forgetting that smithing can be levelled to max at any time - just make endless iron daggers all the way up. Start off with a little cash, buyout iron ingots and leather from Avennicci and Eorlund smith daggers, enchant, sell back, wait 48 hours, repeat.

 

Then you can craft full dragon bone armour and/or deadric if you have the materials.