First off I do love that smithing system even though it seems a tad incomplete (not being able to create arrows and such). being able to smith all those fancy armors and weapons is really awesome. but the problem I have with it is Even though I create these fantastic, hard to get armors and weapons, it seems like my character is the only one around sporting this stuff. Now I know bandits, forsworn and other bad guys like that wouldn't normally get a hold of some dwarven plate, or daedric gear, but I would find it refreshing if at least every once and awhile I run into some dark evil lord deep in a dungeon somewhere decked out in a suit of armor, or brandishing a weapon that i have not seen before. I got to level 45 with my character so far and i still see high end bad guys that can kick my butt coming at me with iron and steel weapons.

The most advanced stuff i have seen the enemy using on me so far is dwarven arrows. I'm totally decked out in daedric, save the arrows I carry. Is it because my difficulty setting is on default most of the time? or is it because I raised my smithing skill too quickly?

I would really like to see an improvement here.

It's because people whined about bandits in glass in Oblivion.

Yeah I remember that. and badits in glass does seem kinda silly. but making it to where absolutely nobody in the game gets any kind of appearance change at all is in my opinion a cheap way out.

The problem (as I see it) is that, aside from Steel Plate, it jumps straight from fur or iron to Fantasy! and there's simply not available armor types to give enemies a clear progression of gear and appearance without going straight into gear that looks totes ridic to see everywhere.

Totes Ridic?

Totally ridiculous, obv!

Random bandits wearing full Glass and Daedric armor sets WAS ridiculous! The best armors in the game souldn't become worthless crap like that.

Yet still, dungeon bosses wearing quality items wouldn't hurt.
I'm also a bit disappointed that daedric armor is craftable. I loved Morrowind where only one full set of daedric armor existed in the whole game and you sometimes had to get creative to get hold of those parts. In Skyrim i just was able to craft a full set of legendary Daedric armor and weapons at level 42 and lost interrest playing this character any further because upgrading gear will only be possible by some rare unique items, if at all.

My two cents, smithing, as amazing as it is, is simply cheap! I think it should be way harder to smith thing to make the game a little bit harder

for example Iron Armor cost 5 Iron Ingots 3 Leather Strips, because that is super easy to come by, walk around for 10 minutes and you have everything you need, why not make it harder to make

• Iron Armor cost
  
  • 15 Iron Ingots
    
  • 9 Leather Strips
• Iron Boots
  
  • 9 Iron Ingots
    
  • 6 Leather Strips
• Iron Gauntlets
  
  • 6 Iron Ingots
    
  • 6 Leather Strips
• Iron Shield
  
  • 12 Iron Ingot
    
  • 3 Leather Strips
• etc.

This would make it cost 44.4 pounds to just smith one set of Iron Armor! That is 3 times the weight it would normally take to smith a set of iron armor!

Then make it so venders have half as much ore and ingots then they usually do, this way it cost more minerals, which are weighted, so you cant overload yourself and you cant just cheaply buy the stuff from a vender and use there smithing area.

That's one of the multiple gameplay balance mods I intend to use/make. Smithing is far too cheap and easy, as soon as you are skilled enough to craft something you can craft it immediately because there is so much ore to be found everywhere and so little ore you need to craft something. It also doesn't make much sense when you look at it. To craft a steel armor for example you need 4 steel ore, 1 iron ore and 3 leather strips. Total weight of all materials combined is 5.3. But the armor you craft has a total weight of 35. Huh? Is that some kind of magic or where do the missing 29.7 weight units come from?