LE weapon and armor Maintinace

[TSotP]

i always hated in morrowind and oblivion how your weapons and armor could be destroyed unless you kept fixing them. However, as a chef, i know for a fact that a blunt knife is almost useless. that got me thinking. what about mixing the two systems into one that is more realistic. Mechanically, it would be implemented follows:

 

Add a new weapon/armor category: Blunt/Damaged - This would reduce your weapons/armors rating by half.

 

as you use your weapons/armor, they would become damaged and require fixing this would slowly take your gear from Legendary, back down to basic, then going to damaged. This would be fixed at crafting stations, just like regular smithing.

 

If your gear does become damaged, it would require the regular crafting ingredients to take it back to normal, then the same again to upgrade it to whatever status it was at. Having smithing perks could eliminate the need to 'double fix' your weapons and armor.

 

E.g.

 

You walk into a dungeon with an "Ebony Sword (Flawless)" and "Orcish Armor (Legendary)".

 

As you attack enemies your weapon would slowly drop from (Flawless), down through (Exquisite) and (Fine) back to basic. If you keep fighting at basic, it'll drop down to "Ebony Sword (Blunted)" (50% basic damage)

 

As you are attacked, your Armor would do the same, dropping back down to basic, then to "Orcish Armor (Damaged)".

 

When you get back into town you would need 2 ebony ingots to repair your sword. One to take it from (Blunted) to basic. The second to take it from basic back up to (Flawless). Same with the armor.

 

If you had the Ebony smithing perk, it would only require 1 ebony ingot to repair your sword back up to (Flawless).

 

2 new items could also be added to the game that are used to maintain your weapons away from smithing stations. A 'Repair Hammer' for Armor and a 'Sharpening Stone' for weapons. They would be able to take your armor back up a level eg. (epic) back to (legendary), but would NOT be able to fix (Damaged) or (Blunted) gear. You would also need the Steel Smithing perk to be able to use these two new items (once you know how to bash dents out of armor and sharpen a blade, it makes little difference if gear is made out of Steel or Ebony, the technique is the same. But someone who does not know what they are doing (no smithing perks), can very quickly ruin a blade or peice of armor)

 

Magical Items would never become (Blunted) or (Damaged) but the "Sharpening Stone" and "Repair Hammer" could still be used to fix them in the field. (This would also get round the need for the Arcane Blacksmith perk to fix (Blunted) magical weapons).

Edited February 15, 2012 by TSotP

[RaktoastTheSandwichTopper]

i heartily agree this would be great for immersion and realism obsessed players