Smith a weopon up to exquisite. After prolonged use it downgrades to superior, then fine, and finally back to standard. Same goes for armor. This would mean always being on the lookout for metals to repair your armor. Some find this tedious, I think it's kinda fun. This way if you don't want to focus on smithing you don't have to worry about broken gear, but if you do focus on it you'll be getting an advantage but only if you can keep up with it. Share thoughts.

I thought people hated that in Oblivion. Its a nice realistic concept though.

I'm not a big fan of item repairing in most games, and I would throw baby Jesus into a pit of lava if Bethesda brought it back the way it was in previous games. But this, I'd be ok with.

I did too, but now in Skyrim they went from one extreme to the other. I think this would be a good balance.