I think the effects of what Smithing can do are pretty much fine (although I do agree it would be neat to customize armor/weapons somehow).
In my opinion, what makes Smithing the most boring skill is the absolute grind-fest required to level it.
With Enchanting, you can level the skill by disenchanting gear and recharging enchanted weapons, in addition to creating your own enchanted items. IIRC, disenchanting alone can take you into the 50s. So it's not necessary to craft a lot of "useless" items in order to level the skill.
With Alchemy, you pretty much just level the skill by brewing potions - but because potions are disposable, you'll craft a lot anyway. Plus, experimentation will lead to level increases even if it accidentally creates a potion you don't want.
But with Smithing, the only reliable way to level it is by creating gear - much more gear than you could ever need, and in practice, much more gear than you can ever sell. So you end up dumping Dwarven Bows and Golden Jeweled Necklaces by the dozens next to some forge, since no merchants have enough gold to buy all the crap. It's an absolute roleplay killer.
The shame of it is that I often make characters who want to get specific high-level armor and weapon sets. My options are pretty much A) to craft it myself, requiring ridiculous grinding, or B) playing to a high level and hoping it will drop in loot. Since my characters usually "top out" in the 30s, by the time I get to craft that Dragonbone Greatsword, my game is pretty much over anyway.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that tempering is keyed to your Smithing skill level, yet tempering provides minimal increases in Smithing skill.... so the only way to get better at sharpening my sword is to craft dozens of Dwarven Bows.
Bring back weapon and armor degradation, please. That was a natural way to increase your Armorer skill that made sense in the context of your character's activities. If you didn't want to be a blacksmith yourself, you could always pay NPCs to repair the dents in your armor and get the nicks out of your blade. But if you did your own repairs, you steadily got better at the Armorer skill. So much more natural, so much more immersive - and while the breakable repair hammer thing is a mechanic I don't quite understand logically, I'll take that any day over the tedium and silliness of Skyrim's Smithing system.
I think the effects of what Smithing can do are pretty much fine (although I do agree it would be neat to customize armor/weapons somehow).
In my opinion, what makes Smithing the most boring skill is the absolute grind-fest required to level it.
With Enchanting, you can level the skill by disenchanting gear and recharging enchanted weapons, in addition to creating your own enchanted items. IIRC, disenchanting alone can take you into the 50s. So it's not necessary to craft a lot of "useless" items in order to level the skill.
With Alchemy, you pretty much just level the skill by brewing potions - but because potions are disposable, you'll craft a lot anyway. Plus, experimentation will lead to level increases even if it accidentally creates a potion you don't want.
But with Smithing, the only reliable way to level it is by creating gear - much more gear than you could ever need, and in practice, much more gear than you can ever sell. So you end up dumping Dwarven Bows and Golden Jeweled Necklaces by the dozens next to some forge, since no merchants have enough gold to buy all the crap. It's an absolute roleplay killer.
The shame of it is that I often make characters who want to get specific high-level armor and weapon sets. My options are pretty much A) to craft it myself, requiring ridiculous grinding, or B) playing to a high level and hoping it will drop in loot. Since my characters usually "top out" in the 30s, by the time I get to craft that Dragonbone Greatsword, my game is pretty much over anyway.
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that tempering is keyed to your Smithing skill level, yet tempering provides minimal increases in Smithing skill.... so the only way to get better at sharpening my sword is to craft dozens of Dwarven Bows.
Bring back weapon and armor degradation, please. That was a natural way to increase your Armorer skill that made sense in the context of your character's activities. If you didn't want to be a blacksmith yourself, you could always pay NPCs to repair the dents in your armor and get the nicks out of your blade. But if you did your own repairs, you steadily got better at the Armorer skill. So much more natural, so much more immersive - and while the breakable repair hammer thing is a mechanic I don't quite understand logically, I'll take that any day over the tedium and silliness of Skyrim's Smithing system.
