Smithing experience

[Zephyr2011]

Hello all, it's been said by innumerable sites and in innumerable threads by innumerable individuals that the best way to increase smithing is by buying a boatload of iron ingots and leather strips then going to town and making a whole armory of iron daggers. A few variations on this exist (take pelts, make leather, get an even number of leather and strips, make leather bracers to your little heart's content then upgrade them all) but by in large its with the very cheapest components and it still works splendidly. Invariably at that I might add. Even in the 90's it only took me a stop at an armorer and buying their inventory's worth of iron ingots and leather strips then I leveled basically. The efficiency of this method is unquestionable but it's lead me to wonder: Do you get MORE experience for using better materials? Or is it a really crappy piece of engineering on Beth's part where it doesn't matter how difficult it is to make something but just that you made something. If this is the case my first mod project is definitely going to be fixing this strange phenomenon in smithing where using the cheapest materials is still ruthlessly efficient in becoming better. I haven't found any difference in using different materials when I tried to level my smithing but in all honesty iron is so much more readily available that I didn't use other resources much because iron still got the job done. Has anyone else done some research and discovered the same thing?

[Lachdonin]

Yes, more complex items, with rarer materials do grant more experience. A suit of Dwarven plate, at smithing level 40, is worth about 4 daggers of Exp, and will pretty much grant you a level each.

 

Really though, the system is broken. I'm hoping for a mod that makes smithing certian things pointless after a certian level, if for no other reason than to FORCE you to mix it up. Me, i mix it up be choice. Cause, you know... I had my fill of exploiting the game with Morrowind. Fortify Jump 1000 for 300 seconds = Impromptu fast travel.

[Zephyr2011]

Yeah. the real problem as that just because of parts availability iron daggers were still an extremely viable method even late in the game. Originally I didn't want to do the stupid iron dagger spam thing but lack of resources and willpower drove me to just buying a ton of iron ingots and leather strips to level and because there's literally no point when daggers just fall off at efficiency it's still very viable. A mod needs to be made to where you reach the level of the latest perk for smithing in either heavy or light armor the previous alloy gets less and less efficient and then 5 levels after the latest perk the previous alloy gets exponentially less helpful for leveling, that would solve the whole iron issue while maintaining some realism in regards to perk priorities.

[Lachdonin]

Yeah, Iron and Leather Straps are probably two of the most common items in the game. Second only to Salt Piles. They make it an extremely efficient and practical method of advancing Smithing. That said, who wants practicality?

[Sarpedon]

And all those daggers are really handy when it comes time to build up your enchanting skill.