Smithing perk tree, according to NerdTrek:

Steel Smithing
Create Steel armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Arcane Blacksmith
Improve magical weapons and armor.
Dwarven Smithing
Create Dwarven armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Elven Smithing
Create Elven armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Orcish Smithing
Create Orcish armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Advanced Armors
Create scaled and plate armor at forges. Improve by double.
Glass Smithing
Create glass armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Daedric Smithing
Create Daedric armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Ebony Smithing
Create Ebony armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.
Dragon Smithing
Create Dragon armor and weapons at forges. Improve by double.

I would like to point out several differences between the "Advanced Armors" perk and the rest.
Firstly, scaled and plate armor are not capitalized as are the other armor types. Then again, neither is glass, which is probably a typo.
Secondly, note the perk name itself, which is advanced armors. I assume this to means you unlock the ability to craft enhanced armor types, not unlock the ability to unlock more perks which already have to be unlocked by themselves!
And lastly, the "Advanced Armors" perk lists 2 different names rather than the other perks which only list a single name. This is probably because "scale armor" is an advanced light armor variant and "plate armor" is the advanced heavy.

This seems to suggest that for each material there will be at least 2 different craftable variants, possibly 4. There will be at least 2 for each armor material if, for example, elven is always light armor, and daedric is always heavy, etc. And there will be at least 4 if you can, by default, make a light or heavy armor variant for each material, because the advanced armor perk adds 2 more.
An example of 4 armor variants for steel would be steel chainmail (default smithable light armor), steel scale armor (advanced light armor), steel armor (default heavy armor), and steel plate armor (advanced heavy armor)

However, I think it is more likely that each armor type will have 2 different variations rather than 4.

It was pointed out that the description for the light armor skill is as follows:
Light Armor: Those trained to use Light armor make more effective use of Hide, Leather, Elven, and Glass armors
Meaning that those are exclusively light armor... Thus 2 variations

I'm assuming there are disadvantages to advanced armors to balance out the increase in armor rating; most likely an increase in ore/materials required to craft the armor and a greater weight, which in turn may make these variants more cumbersome.



Do YOU like this new armor system? We lost the greaves slot but have gained at least double armor variations

Oh, and I think I solved the mystery orc pictures that had similar iron armor, but one had plates

Seems logical, and I really hope it is as you first said; four variations instead of two.

Semms logical! Good idea!

Am I the only one who will be angry f ebony is stronger than daedric... the perk list seems to suggest so but daedric armor is infact advanced ebony so it seems wrong.

Well, as long as they make ebony armor sixier than daedric this time around I should be ok with it

What I'm wondering is if there's only one upgrade possible per item? "Improve by double" and the fact that there are not tiered perks (Lvl 1, 2, 3, etc.) would suggest that upgrading anything is a one time event. In Two Worlds 2, for instance, you can keep upgrading as long as you keep increasing your skill level. This does not seem to be the case. But what happens when you keep increasing your skill level then? I'm assuming here that it will increase with use just like any other skill. Will it then just unlock the next perk and the skill level, e.g. 43, which then won't make a licking difference over having skill level 41?

I think it's merely just the order they put it on. Obviously in the game the perks are going to be presented in a tree form and not a list. This is a list.

Wow, really interesting catch. I missed the "advanced" part when I first read it (mostly beacuse I was trying to find glass in the list!). The system could be really interesting if your ideas are right. I like the idea of 4 sets too!

Yep. Each tree branches off two paths and meet up at the end.

Wait, if you collect ores for the armors, does that mean you collect sand for glass?!?!?!?!

I would expect the crafting system to offer two kinds of armor for each material, taking elven as an example, we would have "Elven Armor" as default, and "Scaled Elven Armor" with the perk Advanced Smithing. I highly doubt we will find a system with 4 types of armor per material, two light variants and two heavy, mostly because of the descriptions we get for each skill:

"Light Armor: Those trained to use Light armor make more effective use of Hide, Leather, Elven, and Glass armors."

Although we will surely see more than four types of light armor, it would mention the material which was considered "heavy" and would have a "light" variant if where going to see it in-game. Still, two variants are much better than one, and Smithing overall is looking great.

Hmm, perhaps fur and leather don't need perks?
I would love to use the improved archery system to hunt down a bear, skin it, and make bearskin "armor".

With athletics/speed gone, I can see using light armor more than I did in previous TES games.

We already know that dragon armor and weapons are made from dragon bone (possibly dragon scale armor is made from dragon scales!). And to make the different armor some require leather straps etc. I wonder what kinds of materials we will need to obtain to make some of these armors. I doubt there are veins of elven or orcish or dwarven ore, and glass certainly is ridiculous... don't get me started on daedric.




Very good observation citing evidence of light armor skill. I will update OP

wait, light daedric armor?

Blasphemy!

I think even players who do not put any points into armourer perks will be able to craft basic armour, most likely leather, fur, iron, etc.

Glass is mined in TES. No more preoccupation with all that sand that would accumulate inside our Swimwear in Skyrim's beaches... :thumbsup:

Also... I can see maaaany people using and leveling Enchantment, Smithing and Alchemy in their first play-trough just to see how gorgeous they are. :hubbahubba:

I'm not too excited about the smithing skill...
I thought we could create like these really unique armor that you couldn't find anywhere else in the game. Now that I know that I can only create armors that I can find normally everywhere else (except for dragon armor, unless that can also be found in the game), I'm not too excited about it.

I'm also not too fond of the fact that we can forge daedric armor. I always wanted daedric armor to be extremely rare and unique that you could only find by searching through every nook and cranny in the game, like in Morrowind. However, if the "ingredients" are extremely rare and unique as well for forging daedric armor, then I guess I'll be more fine with it than otherwise.

Why not it's not earth just because they have iron doesn't mean they need strontium... Glass in tes is a hard but light mineral like resin or polycarbonate, so yes glass veins not bags of sand. Also ebony is volcanic glass and daedric is purified ebony.

Daedric armour is ebony armour treated with arcane rituals and infused with the souls of daedra. I'm not sure whether or not this takes place in Oblivion or not. I'm assuming you'd need tons of ebony, maybe some soul-gems with daedric souls, daedra hearts, daedra blood? It would be interesting if the only place you could craft daedric armour would be at a special forge in Oblivion.

Likewise with dwarven, perhaps you scavenge materials from dwarven ruins? Like the tubes, gears, and scrap metal from Morrowind. Maybe you can only forge the armour at a dwemer forge in a ruin.

I think orcish armour is simply steel armour with certain design and aesthetic elements. I hope it looks samurai-esque like in Morrowind.

I have no idea what elvish armour is made of. Ayleidium?

Yea OP, I figured the same thing too. This is how I phrased it in a thread last night



Thinking about it, it will PROBABLY only allow for 2 variants for each material: basic and advanced. It's a shame the Dunmer didn't seem to bring bonemold or indoril armor from Vvanderfall, I would've figured that would be their race specific armor.

There are also pre-requisites for perks so even if you do find the materials for Deadric, you'll probably still need something like 75 Smithing to do it.

Still, I think Dragon Armor wasn't mentioned in neither Heavy or Light Armor skill's description, and as it is confirmed through the Smithing perk tree, could we expect light and heavy variants of Dragon Armor?

I find it hard to believe that with these perks, smithing can be used to create every armour available in the game.

That one screenshot with the Imperial Guardsman in the roman-eqsue armour, what category would that fall under? The race specific armours? Would whatever Bosmer, Dunmer, Altmer armour ends up being fall under "elvish"?

I can't help but think there will be armour we can not make with smithing, excluding unique and artifact armours.

I believe it has been confirmed somewhere that dragon armor comes in both light and heavy variants. Can't remember where though

Would make sense. Dragon bone armor-heavy, Dragon scale armor-light? Or not because of their skin burning off?