So we've all seen how early you encounter dragons in the main quest...Carrying the loot is pretty burdening. IMO, this makes buying a house or getting smithing 100 ASAP extremely important. Both cost a significant amount of gold.

I am extremely concerned that dragon gear is available very early, and after getting it you'll never find any gear upgrades. The most exciting thing to find would be a piece of gear with an enchantment you don't know, so that you could destroy it.

I can see myself playing the game two ways:

1) Buy tons of cheap alchemy mats, make newb potions, sell them for 5000% profit, repeat. Use gold to buy all the iron I can find, make iron dagger until smithing is 100. Kill first dragon and make some dragon weapons. Go questing, and after every dragon encounter, replace a piece of gear with a crafted dragon armor.

2) Go adventuring until I have enough cash for a house, get the house, THEN kill the dragon. Dragon drops stay in my house until I'm 100 smith. Level smithing by making things for profit or use, not just skill.

The first abuses a flaw in game design, but gives me access to the items I'm stoked about immediately. The second feels more natural, but the whole time I bet I'll be thinking "I should make some iron daggers."

Has anybody else considered this? What will you do about the heavy dragon loot? Will you be powerleveling any skills very early?

I'll just get a companion to carry it.

you have a few holes in your plans .. alchemy does not make as much money as M or O. Not all things like M/O are used for alchmy (foods .. are for cooking not alchmy). Also alchmy has stuff like butterflty now that you have too run around and grab. Also as you lvl ea smithing lvl it takes more and more lvl it .. you can not lvl fast doing only Iron when you are lvl 50+. Also, From what I have seen of the 7 hours of game play .. Iron ingonts are not easly found for sell .. maybe 1 or 2 at a shop. However you can mine ore and make ingots but this take even more time. You will be high lvls before you can touch maken dragon armor.

even if you kill and loot a dragon at a low level i dont think you will be able to make weapons/armour as you need the perk to do so

That's what he's talking about, farming the skill to get high enough to get the perk as soon as possible and then make dragon gear.

PLUS there are no Dragon Weapons, only Dragon Armor.

Like finding a few Ebony ores for your sword will be a hard task even if merchants don't sell it at that level

so we have to be a master at smithing to get dragon armor? bah

Avendesora, you can get dragon gear as you play, but not until you're the appropriate level. Since you can kill dragons at very low lvls and can master smith at low levels, smithing gives you very early access.

We're sure there's no dragon weapons? That seems absurd.

Well... duh
lvl 100 smithing and the perk for it
Im REALLY glad they didn't make the best armor in the game easy to get
It differentiates those who are dedicated to geting it from those who are not
Those who don't want to do the work get Deadric
Those who do do the work get rewarded with the best armor in the game

I'm pretty sure you'll need more then just dragon bones and scales to make the gear. And that stuff just might be incredibly hard to find.

By increasing your smithing level and neglecting your combat skills you will be to weak to fight anything even with dragon armor

One of the biggest problem with this "plan" is that every skill levels you in this game.

IF you go around leveling your smithing skill you will be gaining a bunch of levels without exploring the surrounding areas or increasing your general "killing skills."

Now, this is a huge problem, since the game is scaling itself to your level, you are removing whatever safety buffer you would have had, if you were not powergaming your way through.
Lets say you make 500 daggers (whatever) and get smithing to 100. Meanwhile it has leveled you 10 times. The whole of skyrim expects you to be a level 10 capable/equipped character, but all you will be is a really good blacksmith with a bunch of cheapo daggers to sell. No more chump drauger in the caves, your level 10 now, so they are all a more deadly version, to scale with you. Problem is, you may not have the skills to manage, and may gimp yourself.

I have seen the same thing happen in oblivion. One of my buddies was competing with a group of us, and thought he would beat the game faster than us by leveling quickly. So he just sat there and conjured skeletons all night (he had conjuration as a major skill.) He wound up about level 30 true, but in the end he couldn't do anything since he had no other skill and no money/items/spells. It was comical.

I am not sure if this idea would be any better.

Except not, because you now have the most badass suit of armor in the game that lets you tank everything at once.

With 0 heavy armor skill and a full set of dragon armor, your armor rating would still be a LOT worse than someone with Iron Armor and 100 heavy armor skill +perks,

Shh! hes got it all figured out

you need 100 smithing to make dragon armor according to a reviewer

So far, the cheapest confirmed house is 5000 pieces of gold. I think, at the beginning of the game, I'll settle in an area near the exit from the first dungeon and explore caves, kill bandits and animals until I can raise 5000 pieces of gold. Once I'll have my personal stash, I'll begin adventuring.