We all know by now that weapon forging is a confirmed fact. It is also an awesome fact. But what level of forging possibilities will we be presented with, and to what extent will we be able to forge? Will it be confined to only swords? Or will we be able to create everything that we want to, like warhammers, armor, and even staves, for the mages out there? Will we have to keep to a template, pre-designed by the developers? Or will we have to find designs, and 'blueprints', in a similar fashion to fallout's crafting?

I want to hear people's opinions, so fire away Skyrim fans!!!

Runescape levels. As in, you mine the ore, and then with the appropriate amount of ores is collected, you smelt it, then you can make one of the available items that is the same ore as the one you are making it from.

Edit : okay let me go into more detail.

Mine 3 iron ore -> find a furnace, smelt into pure iron -> find an anvil, make into ->
3 Iron = 2H iron sword, iron chest armour, iron leg armour
1 Iron = 25 iron arrows, Iron helmet
2 Iron = Iron boots, Iron gauntlets

well u really cant do much wit a hammer and a bow but my sword....jus wait for it

I hope we will be able to make unique weapons and design the look of the weapon, if we can't do that then I'm not using it

i can shamelessly say that Runescape and Dark Messiah both had half decent forging systems, i think bethesda should take those 2 games, observe, and take all they can from both, and if this is not enough add Minecraft into the mix.

I am personally hoping for a slightly more advanced system than the one in dark messiah, and i want the armorer skill to affect what you can build successfully and your chances of success, so if you have 100 armorer skill i want you to have 65-100% chance of successfully building all armors in the game (65% for the hardest to build and 100% for all basic sets like iron, steel, etc) then i want you to require 80 armorer skill to be able to make the best forgable items in the game. in addition to this i want to have unique weapon and armor sets that can only be attained through forging, and specific blueprints showing a combination of enchanting+forging = an epic piece of armor/weapon, but if you don't use the enchantment specified in the blueprints then you don't get as good final result (bonus effects from specific enchantments on specific armors) theres a lot more detail that can be gone into to polish this system, but i think this much would do, then its just all about balancing and debugging.

I'd say Runescape system, but the RS system is meant for RS not for TES.
Maybe make it a bit better to where you can also add details to the armor/weapons when forging them.

I'm interested to what level we can customize weapons we forge and can we give names to our weapons.

I want to be able to change the shape to an extent. Maybe I want a sword to curve to the side at the top.

I want forging to be real-time with animations. That would be awesome. :intergalactic:
Menus svck :flamethrower:

I think forging will work almost the same as alchemy, it'd be awesome if it was more complex, but I'd be fine with it being alchemy like.

I'm really looking forward to forging, but I don't really have any specific ideas in mind. I imagine that we will have to work with existing weapon templates, as creating completely unique weapons would be rather complex in terms of programming. But it would be nice if we could customize the standard templates by choosing from a selection of features, such as decorations (a jewel in the pommel, runes along the blade, cross-guard shape, etc.) or even functional features (such as the shape of the blade (cross-section) or the size and number (single/double) of fullers). Those are just some examples for swords--obviously other weapons would have different features.

Hmm. OK, maybe that is a specific idea. I don't really know how detailed the system is going to be, or if we're going to get something like a standard template/custom features system (if I had to guess, I would say probably not), but I'll be happy with just about any improvement over Oblivion, where there was no forging at all.

The forging system is what makes or breaks a game for me. Oblivion was okay, but i was really dissapointed with the lack of creativity that was put into it. They should make the system much like they do the character building system where you can change little aspects of the weapon to completely shange the look. You would take a basic model: one handed sword, dagger, 2h sword, axe, spear, halberd, etc. In addition to all of these, their should be designs, functioning like tatoos, that can be placed on the weapon.

Example:
length slider
width slider
curve slider
hilt variations (leather wrapped, gold embroidery, etc.)
wrist guard variations (curved, straight cross, none, etc.)
material selection
(the curve, length, and width of the weapon would affect: speed, damage, piercing, trajectory if thrown, etc.)

For Bows, their should be:
The length slider, width slider, curve slider (recurve, normal longbow, shortbow, etc....affects damage and range), and material selection.

Sorry for double post, but I couldn't fit everything on the first reply.

Armor should be done in the same fashion, but with the addition of customizable pauldrons, gauntlets (open fingered?), greaves, boots, helms, etc. Also, Capes and Cloaks should be made so that they can fit armor sets.
However, the customization for armor would be different from weapons.

Example:
Material selection being the base model (leather, iron, steel, etc.) along with the kind of armor (light, medium, heavy) the general function/appearence (chainmale against peircing, plate against slash and piercing, scalemail, etc.) and, of course, the kind of item being crafted (gauntlet, chest armor, etc.)

Customizable straps and pouches/belts for leather
Customizable edges and, possibly, spikes for metals making heavy armor
Customizable surcoats for chainmail
Customizable emblems and designs that can be added like tattoos to all.

Also, sheathes and quivers should be customizable, and be able to be added onto the armor. (a brace of daggers across the chest, etc.). Capes/ Cloaks and hoods should also be able to be added with customizable designs.

The cynic in me thinks that it'll be just about he same as Cespenar's or Cromwell. Collect the items, head to someone who will forge it for me. And this was just fine for me.

The non-alchamy in me hopes that it's not "go collect random ores, hammers of varied types, etc. and see what pops up"

What would I want? Erm...hard to know as that aspect of a game never really appealed to me :shrug: Same with "crafting", so I gues it'd be a minor amount.

I think it'd be nice to find/buy blue prints for "parts" of a weapon and mix and match, then from there edit length, width, (color???) stuff like that. Depending on what materials (and possibly the quality/quantity of it) you make the part from determines power, attack speed, durability etc..

True enough. Dark Messiah did indeed have a good system. Find the metal, find the forge. Then take it through the process piece by piece until the weapon is in your hands. Don't forget. A lot of Arkane's assets went over to Bethesda now that they own the company. It wouldn't surprise me to find they have taken on board the means of forging in that regard. It will be exciting to see nonetheless. ^^

I like it. Follow a set design, then alter it to make it unique in almost every possible way, but start from something already drawn up. Nice. I like the idea of different materials having differing effects on the performance and style of the blade, rather than a prerequisite set of stats for each weapon type. Good flavour and variety could be used with a system like that, and it ensures that, for a while at least, new weapons will always be forged. Awesome, thanks for the post ^^

If it looks similar to Minecrafts crafting that would be pretty detailed, and therefore fun. If it's like alchemy in OB then it will probably be boring as hell.

Natzat i love your idea, but i dont think it will be that in-depth. But just a fraction of that amount of customization would be great.

Alchemy in OB wasnt boring, it just was a bit repetetive, and all in all seemed pretty un-polished.

This.


I'm pretty sure this was confirmed. It was written on a whiteboard in the GI Video Tour of Bethesda Game Studios.

I doubt we will be able to customize the sword through the forging process by any extent at all.

I'm expecting the regular forging system. Mine ore. Smelt ore. Hammer Ingot. Voilà, weapon.



Then I doubt you will be using it, better to have low expectations and be pleasantly suprised or to be right.

I believe they said once that there would be player animations for this.

:ninja:

Good news for you then, here's a gameplay video of what forging plays like (for about 3 hours at a time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cnsl04JArjY

Enjoy your game.