Im not sure if this has been given much light, but one of the things I think of when I think Skyrim and Nords is the rustic nature of it all and with that comes doing alot of things yourself. Im thinking it would be cool being able to get different ores out in the game world (some being harder to get and more rare of course) and mixing certain amounts of some or just using one type of ore and making your own weapons and armor. You could find weapons like usual but being able to forge your own would be amazing. I hate to be another to bring up Dark Messiah but they have a good system http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBUNcRT5RZI Its realistic and well honestly rather cool. It would be interesting being able to mix ores to get verying degrees of strength, sharpness, enchantability, etc. It would also give a point to a pick ax so you can use them to mine ores. Which is kinda simular to minecraft I suppose. This could also work well for roleplaying because you could forge weapons and then sell them and pretend to be a black smith or something along those lines.

Thoughts?

I would like to see something like this in the game but I know that there are more threads just like this.

I dont think that they could allow us to do stuff like create our own unique weapons but I am guessing that we could possibly be able to give a different handle to a different blade.

perhaps you could forge your own weapon much like how you build your characters appearance. make a bunch of options for styles and size and markings depending on the amount and types of ores you have?

If we could forge at least the normal game weapons it would be nice, though unique weapons would be amazing in my opinion though they would have to come up with a creative system to make it work im sure. I would just be happy with forging weapons though. Its something that can be done very well Im sure.

It would take a little development time, but making a unique system where alongside procedural generation you could influence the features, and develop a completely unique weapon, is not impossible, or even extraordinarily difficult, its just enough of a challenge not to be implemented. The only other problem is the TES series is full of legendary items, weapons, armors, places, characters, et cetera, that are supposed to be the exceptionally unique items among the game. As such it would make little sense if every player had the ability to create his own uber sword of doom that outperformed umbra. For that very reason such a system would have to purely limited to cosmetics for TES, which I think is kind of sad actually, but its the only lore-compliant answer... Rather sad...

Even if such blacksmithing could be used it would be limited. I think it would actually be best to leave it out. Buy whats already made.

well to me I would love to see this happen I find it would such a great depth add in to this game, I mean running around doing quests for other people can get boring I wouldn't mind having to kill/gather things to create weapons/armor... such as killing an animal with sharp teeth or claws that can be used to forge weapons, or flint rock where you can gather rock and eventually forge/make arrow heads that have added bonuses.

specific woods could be used for forging bows/hilts and axe handles... for example ash is a strong hard wood (it could be used as an axe handle or sword hilt), then yew would could be used to make bows since it's more flexible....

but what I would really like to see is us being able to make simple base weapons with small amounts of resources but available throughout skyrim are old master blacksmith recipes (since I would imagine the nords being a blacksmith heavy race) to where you can craft cool items from the past. I dunno thought that wouldbe cool

adding to that it would kind of awesome if some blacksmiths across skyrim could have the ability to craft for you. and a couple of the quests require you to get things and eventually you end up with the sword/armor or w/e it is as compensation.

It would be great if you could customize your weapon, but I doubt that that will happen. It would, however, be nice if there were multiple styles ( like arming swords, falchions, rapiers, cutlasses, katanas, falcatas, scimitars etc.) and skins for weapons, so you can choose between multiple weapons of the same type and tier (instead of just one steel sword) and not even necessarily have every one of that particular style of steel sword look exactly the same. There could be 4 or 5 different skins for every weapon, perhaps corresponding with the location that you found it ( like having an older looking sword on a skeleton enemy). As for actually smithing weapons, it would be nice if there was a choice between enchanting the weapon as a mage or forging magic into it as a smith. It could work like the way it does in Dragon Age. While all you really have to do in DAO is tell the dwarf to put in your runes, the idea behind it is that a skilled smith can fold Lyrium (magic dust stuff that is also apparently like heroin for mages) into a weapon allowing it to be enchanted with runes. That would be a good alternative for people that can't just enchant their weapon with their own magic skills.

You could also make a mod where activating anvils lets you pick from menus what you want to make. Then it fades to black, passes some time, and switches out your items. Not too hard to make, is lore-compliant, and you don't have to murder one bethesda employee to prove to the others that your death threats are real.

@Lightweight Nate:
Again, that is what mods are for. If you're an xbox/ps3 player then either svck it up, switch to pc, or convince bethesda to allow mods on consoles.
edit: Multiple skins on one item is not possible. You can make multiple weapons and place them in the game though.

I think that being able to maintain your weapon is enough.

Do I have to be the greatest warrior/mage, be savior of Nirn, be astonishingly good looking, AND be a master smith on top of that?

With new engine, who knows what is or isn't possible anymore. Live retexturing and retabling (object properties) is pretty much a requirement if we are to have seasons.

Have to? TES is about options (well it used to be at least). Adding another option doesn't strike me as a bad thing unless it's poorly implemented. Say it's unreasonable but please just don't assume that because it has no value to you it shouldn't be in the game.

Its all completely feasable, even if you can only make the normal weapons and have some hidden blacksmith ore lists to make some special legendary weapons of non dedric origin I believe it could be amazing and add depth