I know I have said it before, but the Weapon Combining seen in the old PS1 game Vagrant Story was very deep (for the time) and aspects could easily be implemented today I would imagine. The combining of different weapon types, grips, blades and magical effects was so compelling it could (and did) offer hour upon hour of full, deep and meaningful game-play. (I say meaningful because the type and affinity of the created weapon had a direct and significant effect upon subsequent game-play)

Have you played fallout New Vegas yet? I wouldn't be surprised if smithing and the other jobs you can do look a lot like that. All you do is basically collect the right ammount of ingredients to make an item, then use it on the right workbench/anvil or w/e you need to open up a list of items you can create.

I'm 99% sure that you wont' be able to shift and shape armour as much as you want because, think about it, how the hell would they program that?

We'd all like to hammer away on hot metal to create our own personal armour, but i just think it'll be somethng way more basic.

I HOPE it'll be fully customisable I EXPECT it'll be like you discribed it.

And the other options in I Hope execpt for "We'll be able to shape armor and weapons as far as our practice, amount of ore, and imagination allow us." are there because.... :biggrin:

But yeah, realisticly, it will probably be like The Shivering Isles if anything. But WANTINLY...

The "New Vegas" way of customising weapons was really quite basic and not what I regard as 'Forging'. Making use of actual forges and/or workshops would feel more in-keeping with the environment I think.

I wonder if I will be able to hunt wolves,mammoths and other furry wildlife and make fur armor... :unsure:

I'm guessing they will use a similar approach to the workbenches in Fallout 3. You find/buy/unlock different recipies and when you have the proper materials you can craft the weapon. Maybe there will be a few unique recipes as well, but overall I feel (fear) that is the extent of smithing in Skyrim

Now I would love full customization and the like, but it may be relatively limited in what we can actually craft.

True.^

Smithing will be a skill so with a high smithing level you can probably make better items and probably upgrade items like the 125% quality perk in Oblivion.

Smithing will require a forge it think that was said in an interview, assumes repairing can be done everywhere as in Oblivion. As I understand Alchemy will also need static equipment.

Problem here is if it's to few forges or alchemy equipment stations or they are badly placed, I wonder how many hours before we have moveable / portable forges and alchemy stations on tesnexus?
(takes a small Azura statue out of backback, put it on ground and prays to it)

Just guessing...It seems like we may be able to smith,etc., however, armor and weapons, if we can actually craft them, will probably fit within a certain number of templates designed for the game. Modding would be an exception, howerer.

One thing that would help with our crafting of clothing, armor, and weapons etc, would be access to the use of dyes.

I myself am hoping for the first option, such as we are able to choose a shape, color, type of ore, artwork, etc., but I'm hoping for more than some minigame.

For example, depending on blacksmith level, we are able to choose whether the sword is made of iron, silver, etc. Then, we choose whether it is curved, straight, etc. Next, we should be able to choose some kind of artistic tradition such as elven, dwemer, etc., but this should depend on our blacksmithing level, and separate skill, like whether you have trained with an elven blacksmith, read any elven or dwemer books on blacksmithing, etc.

Now, here's where we lose the stupid, Fablesque minigame crap (which I admit were fun for a while, but soon became tedious). We go through the actual processes of smithing a sword. We should be able to melt the ore in one or a few steps, pour it in a cast in the next, let it cool, and then actually use a hammer to shape it. This would just make it much more involved than moving through a menu, or playing a one-step, simple mini-game.

I don't know if they would go this deep. I just hope they're putting a lot of thought into this, and make it something more than Fable.

(Sorry if these ideas have already been posted. I haven't read through all of the posts, yet. Great minds think a lot, huh!)

I expect smithing like in Gothic, Arx Fatalis or Dark Messiah by player when need to make several operations use different tools and materials
And smiting as service from NPC like in daggerfall when item was not repaired in one time and repairing can take several days, how long item will be repaired depending on several factors like condition of item and durability, cost of item and material, skills of blacksmith.
Player can do it by self but not in inventory with this magical hammers.
What was good in oblivion thats Mastery Perks but it lack chance of success and magnitude of each repair from morrowind
For example a Novice cannot repair magic items, Expert can repair items beyond their highest condition (to 125%). Expert-improved weapons do extra damage, and Expert-improved armor protects more, but master perk make repair hammers and repair service useless and can be fast reachable
Repairing an item at low skill levels can decrease maximum durability level of item, but expert level will allow restore it again.
Item can be lost forever if durability is zeroed, artifact can be protected from it trough.
There can be some improvement created by smiting like alter weight of item but reducing it maximum durability, change weapon damage and alter durability, change armor protection and alter weight.
Thats can be achieved via tempering, reforging, using coating and alloys.
Also smiting thats can allow create arrows (work combination with fletching), ore refining (work combination with mining)