New Smithing Mechanic for TES6: Idea

[Battlemage92]

So I've been playing Skyrim for like a month, and have gone through a few characters (only one above lv20) just so I could get a handle of what was happening, coz im new to the series.

 

It just seems to me that the Smithing perk goes rather unnoticed. I mean the rate at which you level the perk up from using the grindestone is ridiculous. And as once you have an armour set you like, there's not much point to forging new armour. I'm struggling to get the perk high enough so I can get better weapons/armour.

 

So I had an idea for the next game... Freedom Smithing. A bit like the alchemy thing, but with weapons.

Basically, you can truely design your own sword/axe etc. For example you'd buy a 'recipe' from smiths with mixtures of metals like an Iron Ingot + a Moontone Ingot, that would make a particular type of blade. You'd also be able to make and decorate a hilt, pommel and handguard for the weapon. While the blade will probably take on the image of a standard weapon e.g. the silver sword, the mixture of metals used would give it a sort of 'in-made' advantage than run of the mill weapons. A bit like enchanting, but not so much. Like moonstone would make the blade lighter, giving a 5% increase of attack speed. Obviously I'm only really focusing on one handed swords in my description, but this could be adapted to all weapon types in game. Perhaps even to bows.

When it comes to advancing that smithing perk, i think this could be a brilliant way to do it, without having to waste rescources, forging things that your going to sell directly afterwards.

 

Feedback?

[bpestilence]

It is already ludicrously easy to get fantastic weapons and armor from the smithing skill. Why would you want to make it more of an exploit?

 

If anything it should be harder. I find it hard to believe that a "newcomer" to Skyrim like me would be able to learn how to make Deadric armor after hammering together a few hundred iron daggers.

 

Hell, I find it hard to believe that I could make ONE iron dagger. Or tan a hide. You know how long it takes to tan a hide using old-fashioned techniques (i.e. without chromium)?

[Battlemage92]

I understand what you mean bpestilence, but i just dont really agree with the idea of spamming iron daggers. Seems a bit 'exploitive' of the game :/ I duno lol

[bpestilence]

Uh... That was exactly my argument?

[Korodic]

what would make more sense is you would need to find a book to learn how to craft armor/weapons and have the skill (to be able to understand the books)

[Battlemage92]

I know that's what your argument was about. I just think, how can you get the skill up in the first place without spamming the hell out of iron daggers? How does forging 7000 daggers make you able to build armour and such? I agree with you. I just thought that as a way to give the player an edge in combat, and to make smithing actually seem worthwhile (as you can usually find better armour etc as you play anyways).

[nitevision92]

Don't want to hijack, but I figured I'd leave this here.

It needs to be changed in a way such that doing iron-work, for example, only increases the skill for iron forging.

Might be good to include a failure rate/system when crafting stuff for the first time. As the player crafts more of said item, he/she becomes better at working with said material (Less crafting failure, slightly better armour stats) , but does not automatically know how to create something out of another material- Steel, ebony etc. would have their own levelling procedure.

"Plans" or "blueprints" for armour and weapons may be bought on their own, found in books, or a friendly NPC may even offer to teach the player, and give him/her crafting plans, or raise his/her skill level, or maybe even lower the crafting failure rate for some items.

Looted armour could be reverse-engineered (and destroyed) at the smithy to learn how it's put together- Something like the current enchantment system. Something more interesting than selling it off or leaving it in the chest where you found it.

 

My own $0.02, I find it to be more enjoyable this way compared to crafting 500 iron daggers. Imagine travelling across Skyrim to find the elusive construction plan(s) for the fabled Daedric Armour set... Then learning how to build it.

It might, however, put off more casual players who want an easier way to get their armour. Opinions?

Edited December 8, 2011 by nitevision92

[Battlemage92]

Looks like you've thought about the armour side more than I had, but yeah, your idea sounds so much closer to a real mechanic! It'd be pretty damn awesome if you could have the Good side gods version on armour too, which would have reprocussions in game. And like what about giving your amour to a particular NPC, wait an hour while they paint it? Like red with yellow edges? You could seriously personalise your expeirence that way.

You have some awesome ideas there! Especially as it could also apply to crafting your own swords etc.