The thing that Bethesda does that irritates me the most is that - for the sake of streamlining their game - they completely cut something out instead of working to improve it. Weapon and armor durability wasn't implemented well in Oblivion. It should have been improved and left in the game instead of being completely abandoned. After all, for the immersion factor, having armor that never gets beaten down isn't ideal for role playing.

How would I have improved it? I would have made it so that weapons and armor never outright break, they simply get less and less effective. This could be represented visually by altering the model to appear more beaten, chipped, and broken down. After dungeon crawling, the player would have to go back to the forge and repair their items back to pristine shape and even improve them. I wouldn't even make it a skill outside of smithing. It would just be something you would have to watch over time.

Amrourer hasn't been removed. It has been Improved. Smithing is that improved version. It may not be exactly what you want, and it's not perfect, but it's definitely an improvement over carrying 60 hammers at all times. You are rewarded for taking smithing by being able to upgrade your weapons and armour instead of being penalized by having them break and become worthless without the skill.

One man's improvement is another man's loss. I don't see where the new system is an improvement. Different, yes, but not really an improvement. I'm pretty sure that the people on this board could come up with something better. Here's my attempt.

1. No more breakable hammers. Replace with a non-breakable whetstone for sharpening.
2. The Whetstone allows you to maintain a weapon to original state, but not usually beyond.
3. Whetstone effectiveness depends on smithing skill. Let's say you need smithing = 30 to bring a weapon back to 100%.
4. Add a perk that allows use of a whetstone to bring a weapon beyond original condition.
4. Smithing stations allow you to take a weapon beyond original, provided you have the skill. Use current Skyrim system.
5. Weapons do not degrade past 75% usefulness.

Now we have a system where a skilled smith can bring a weapon beyond 100%, just like we have now. We also have weapon degradation. We have the ability to restore weapons given a small amount of smithing. We have a reason to revisit smiths - bring weapons back to above 100% condition. Weapons will not become unusable. No more hammers.

I like this.

Does this system include removing the buff from a grindstone over time? I couldn't quite tell your opinion on that.

Why would you wait til something breaks? As i had said in my 2 previous posts which you seemed to have not read, what if I dont want to carry 10 or 50 hammers.
It seems more realistic to me if I were to take my stuff to an armorer, or blade smith then try to do it by myself which obviously is simple in the game to do.

But not carrying 50 hammers is replaced instead by 50 lbs of material that I mined and are lugging around, and enough to make a whole suit of armor and swords,
helmet, and anything else you have enough to carry.
That makes no sense, we went from carrying hammers to carrying a ton of material, and now we dont have a system that shows a degraded weapon or armor.

Or armor weapons that doesn't show a degradation of the effects of getting beat down by some draguer with a warhammer or even dragon, or giant beating down on me,
stuff will break with enough force it really dont need alot of time, so weaker materials should degrade quickly, or quicker rather if your consistently getting hit or beat, or whatever.

I'd like to see my armor with dents, and possible gashes in it, my sword with knicks in the blade, I mean 95% of the time your not hitting flesh.

A weapon or armor dont need to degrade over time, just go into battle with it againsted a dragon, or many foes in the game and Im sure after taking a few beatings, your going to need to fix something,
if your helmet is still holding on your head after a dragon slaps you up the side of your head with his big paw, claws or whatever then either your skull got thicker or your helmet is made out of serious [censored].

Great ideas!

Hmm this has me thinking then.
Repair hammers are exactly like Thirst hunger and sleep which are also exactly like soul gems.
Currently right now soul gems are nothing more than repair hammers for the most part. Maybe I need to rethink my thirst hunger and sleep mod I have in the works and expand the idea.
It seems like we have two schools of thought on this topic.

1. Everything is a bonus
You can improve armor and weapons with a temporary bonus that degrades with use.
Armor enchants last forever and never need to be recharged. ( Default game )
Enchanted weapons automatically refill while equipped and soul gems can be used to provide a temporary bonus to the enchant
All foods including alcohol provide small but more useful bonuses that have as little overlap with alchemy as possible.
Magicka, health and stamina auto regen ( default rate )

2. Everything must be maintained
Armor and weapons degrade with use and you have to repair them. (Optional, with each repair gear becomes slightly weaker.) (Optional, slight chance that armor can be permanently destroyed if used while in a damaged state )
Armor enchants created by the player only last for so long before the effect dissipates. ( 2 to 7 in game days )
Enchanted weapons must be recharged ( Default game )
Magicka, health and stamina depend on your current thirst hunger and sleepiness to determine how well it auto regens. You must Drink, eat and sleep to maintain your characters healthy status.

Its possible that I can actually work on both versions of this concept together.

If you want to go a step further in "visual" representations (referring tot he guy that brought up broken items) you can alter the states of weapons and armor
for example, fur armor their are what..4 versions of it I think?

fur armor -Pants> Pants with fur on Back> Pants with fur on back and chest piece> Pants with fur on back and chest piece + pauldron?

or

Hide armor - pants and chest strap > pants, chest strap and curiass > pants chest strap,curiass, Pauldrons, > Pants chest strap Pauldrons and metal shoulder piece?

why not have it so items degrade in that sequence? broken Sword Hilt is there, soulgem fragments, and even potions(them breaking causes the effect to spill on you)

and for broken armor/weapons you use workbenches/Forges to reforge them.


simple on paper no? (ON PAPER)

"The speed of light is a constant" is simple enough too. I look forward to your Theory of Repair Relativity dealing with the implications .