Sensible rules for enchanting and smithing?

[zyg0tic]

I know there are many people on this forum who hate the idea of abusing the enchanting and smithing - that is, making weapons and armor so insanely OP that you might as well set the games difficulty to Super Easy because youre doing the same thing by using that gear.

 

Anyway, Im thinking that perhaps the people here who hate enchant/smithing abuse can form an agreement as to what constitutes non-abusive use of these craft skills.

 

Here are some suggestions for rules I have:

 

1. Limit the strength of enchants by "transferring" enchants - say for example you buy a pair of elven gloves with +20% one-hand damage. You can disenchant them and enchant a different pair of gloves up to +20% maximum, not any higher. The original enchanted item you found/bought sets the limit.

 

2. Self-capping smithing improvement total bonus - I propose a +50% total cap on smithing improvement, and the +improve items must be store bought or found only. In my current game Im using +20% gloves and +12% necklace, both of which I bought from a store. Even with the improved items I made while wearing those two things, the game is still challenging and I definitly havent 'broken the game' by doing it. Perhaps the cap can be scaled higher/lower depending on level?

 

3. Dont use enchanting to craft +alchemy +improve +enchanting items.

 

4. Dont put two enchants on items.

 

Any other sensible rules you have to share?

 

PS. There are probably rules other people might have that I dont agree with. Like I think its ok to wear more than one enchanted item with the same bonus on it (for example wearing both gloves and shoes with +one-hand bonus) and would only reconsider that if the game were to become very easy because of it.

[PrincessOfFlorin]

I think that you should make whatever rules you want to give you the greatest enjoyment from this single player game. And I find it mighty tiresome when people accuse others of having badwrongfun in a single player game. Not saying you did that, it's just that your post gives credence to the people who have. :)

[zyg0tic]

@Goblin Girl - In order to make good rules I need to draw from the experience/knowledge of others. The question is: at what point does enchant/smithy/alchemy become abusive? We should be able to come to an agreement about that through discussion. Restarting the game and following the rules we decided would make the game more enjoyable for me.

[Handofbane]

If you want to give yourself some simple rules about how to not abuse smithing/enchanting/alchemy, there are two basic approaches you can use:

1) Do not double-stack. What I mean by that is allowing yourself a maximum of single level bonuses (say, max off your skill in enchanting, with perks, plus the best base enchanted items, then use that as your absolute maximum allowance for all other non-crafting enchants - similarly with adding smithing and alchemy to the mix, only go one step off 100 skill/max perk, no higher). This lets you actually make use of the skills, potentially getting powerful crafted items out of it, without getting the repeat-cross-stacking that goes to abusive levels.

2) Ignore all crafting, just play the game. Not nearly as entertaining, but it eliminates most of the temptation to abuse the exploit potential.

 

All that said, it's up to anyone how they choose to play the game. If they want hard-mode with no crafted items, more power to them, if they want to stack off their enchants to get +600% one-handed damage with zero-cost spells, it isn't hurting anyone else, so who really cares?

[Arcadiast]

rules? the whole idea why I am playing a Single Player open World game is to get away from that damn rules. Look around you, we are surrounded by rules. Dont cross the street by red light, dont talk about this and that, eat your cereal, drink your milk and go to bed....gaming should not be about rules.

 

I acknowledge that smithing and crafting can be powerful. This is a good thing! maybe someone will bring a mod that implements enemies where your Powerful Character may be needed. In the meantime, everyone can and should decide for themselves, how much enchanting and smithing they want.

 

Less rules more common Sense please.

[sarnz]

Easy - remove all ingredients from vendors.

 

Done.

[Nekrafilia]

@Goblin Girl - In order to make good rules I need to draw from the experience/knowledge of others. The question is: at what point does enchant/smithy/alchemy become abusive? We should be able to come to an agreement about that through discussion. Restarting the game and following the rules we decided would make the game more enjoyable for me.

 

How about you make up a set of rules and follow them?

 

Agreements? They can't be enforced, they aren't part of the game code. What's the point?

 

People will play the game however they like.

[Marthos]

It never ceases to amaze me that people get so concerned about the things other people do in their games.

 

Just to offset things, consider this:

 

 

Some people thank god for cheats and exploits in games.

 

 

There's three of us share a sprawling bungalow here, Andy who isn't a gamer at all, myself being an avid gamer and Nige, who wishes he was better at gaming.

 

 

Nige has advanced MS, is wheelchair bound and relies on myself, Andy and the home help for everything, he can't even feed himself. He used to spend most of his time when he first came here sitting in front of the TV being bored to tears by it.

 

He one day said to me "I'd love to have a go at gaming but I can't control my hands", I said to leave it with me and I'd see what I could do. So I built him a decent PC and hooked it up to his 47" LCD TV, then I had to fashion a sort of lap desk that could easily be attached to his chair and fastened a large key keyboard and a huge trackerball mouse to it. To stop his hands waving about I fashioned and fitted a pair of padded wrist cuffs on 2 inch stems, one in front of the centre of the keyboard and one in front of the trackerball so that he could (after a few attempts) shove his hands through them and have some semblance of control, so far so good.

 

Booted up a game (good old Fallout 3) loaded up a save I'd transferred over from my rig and he was dead with in minutes, time for TGM and off he went trotting round the wasteland quite happily and loved it, said it was almost like being able to walk again, success yay.

 

But after a while he got bored as there was no challenge for him using TGM, so I used the console to make his character so tough that it took a hell of a lot of punishment to get the health bar dropping but for Nige it was still a challenge.

 

 

So that he could play Skyrim I had to get him the Xbox 360 version, as when I told him about the Steam requirement for PC he was having none of it, so, remove the keyboard and mouse from the lap desk thing and move the wrist cuffs a bit and make another stem for the 360 controller and bolt it all up and away we go.

 

Once again he was dead right sharpish like, (no console on the Xbox version, oh bugger) so it took me a while but I used the smithing, enchanting and alchemy exploit to make him an uber powerful greatsword and uber tough armor. He still finds it tough and the profanities that come drifting along from his end of the bungalow would make a docker blush, but he assures me that he's enjoying himself and quite fancies Lydia.

 

 

Long story short, some people rely on exploits like these, don't knock em too much, if you don't like em, don't use em, they aint hurting you :thumbsup:

[Nekrafilia]

It never ceases to amaze me that people get so concerned about the things other people do in their games.

 

Just to offset things, consider this:

 

 

Some people thank god for cheats and exploits in games.

 

 

There's three of us share a sprawling bungalow here, Andy who isn't a gamer at all, myself being an avid gamer and Nige, who wishes he was better at gaming.

 

 

Nige has advanced MS, is wheelchair bound and relies on myself, Andy and the home help for everything, he can't even feed himself. He used to spend most of his time when he first came here sitting in front of the TV being bored to tears by it.

 

He one day said to me "I'd love to have a go at gaming but I can't control my hands", I said to leave it with me and I'd see what I could do. So I built him a decent PC and hooked it up to his 47" LCD TV, then I had to fashion a sort of lap desk that could easily be attached to his chair and fastened a large key keyboard and a huge trackerball mouse to it. To stop his hands waving about I fashioned and fitted a pair of padded wrist cuffs on 2 inch stems, one in front of the centre of the keyboard and one in front of the trackerball so that he could (after a few attempts) shove his hands through them and have some semblance of control, so far so good.

 

Booted up a game (good old Fallout 3) loaded up a save I'd transferred over from my rig and he was dead with in minutes, time for TGM and off he went trotting round the wasteland quite happily and loved it, said it was almost like being able to walk again, success yay.

 

But after a while he got bored as there was no challenge for him using TGM, so I used the console to make his character so tough that it took a hell of a lot of punishment to get the health bar dropping but for Nige it was still a challenge.

 

 

So that he could play Skyrim I had to get him the Xbox 360 version, as when I told him about the Steam requirement for PC he was having none of it, so, remove the keyboard and mouse from the lap desk thing and move the wrist cuffs a bit and make another stem for the 360 controller and bolt it all up and away we go.

 

Once again he was dead right sharpish like, (no console on the Xbox version, oh bugger) so it took me a while but I used the smithing, enchanting and alchemy exploit to make him an uber powerful greatsword and uber tough armor. He still finds it tough and the profanities that come drifting along from his end of the bungalow would make a docker blush, but he assures me that he's enjoying himself and quite fancies Lydia.

 

 

Long story short, some people rely on exploits like these, don't knock em too much, if you don't like em, don't use em, they aint hurting you :thumbsup:

 

Kudos to you Marthos, you're a champ! :thumbsup:

[crudius]

I have maxed smithing/enchant on my last two builds and must admit, it is something you need to get out of your system....

 

I spent a few days running about in double enchated legendary gear and have got a bit bored and over powered.

So a bit of self restriction is what it needs for 'sensible' players.

So i have spent an hour tonight flushing out my inventory and off to the smelter to have a rethink.

Im going for more balanced enchants on weapons and single enchants on rings/necklace/clothing to make it more challenging again.

Going to go LA this time rather than uber HA.

Big archery fan so going to work through that perk tree and stealth.

 

Anyway, i think its something you have to experiment with in any way you see fit for your play style.