I level all the crafting skills, but only perk enchanting and alchemy. So I can improve the gear I find but not to the level available (2x) with the perks. So the armor you have is relevant to your level, at high levels you will be able to have ebony armor that you find.

I use alchemy+enchanting to create gear/potions to help out smithing, this way you can meet the armor cap with the high level armor, but by then you should be meeting the cap anyway as you have to on master if you don't sneak ha.

Then there is still incentive to go out looking for better gear, amongst other things like shouts.

Just an idea, thoughts?

ok.

or u know you could just play the game and not concern yourself with crafting all together..
just an idea..

It makes the game very difficult on master, which I play. There shouldn't be a need to avoid it, I was just suggesting a way to not exploit it.

I only make what I need. There's really no need to create more than 1 of each item unless you're RPing a blacksmith/merchant; even then, there's no need to make items you're not going to need or use

I would just say: be crystal clear about your character concept, and spend each perk appropriately. If your character concept is the ultimate artificer, then go for crafting, and you will not be dissatisfied because that was your goal from the start. If your concept is a master thief, don't put your perks into smithing and enchanting, put them into thief skills and use crafting as a minor side line. The problem is if you just go for "whatever seems most powerful" at level up, without thinking about how it will affect your game.

crafting isn't necessary for any difficulty level.
that's all i'm saying.
you'd probably have more fun if you avoid it completely (except alchemy for your own potions but you don't need to waste points in the tree).

My way of mot exploiting it: Not exploiting it! Ta-Da!

I don't mean power level crafting at all, I keep it steady with my other skills. But on master difficulty from the beginning it can be difficult against enemies using heavy armor + shield, as common weak mobs will do a decent chunk of your health when blocking.

I like the game to have challenge, so when I go to a dungeon I will struggle with a group of enemies or a boss, forcing me to plan, maybe run away and heal with restoration. But I don't want to be one/two shotted by common enemies, or one shot them by becoming a god through crafting.

Why craft when you can go on an epic journey for loot?

yes,
again crafting isn't necessary.

Did you read my post? I don't craft armor or weapons, I just improve them.

I still find it astounding that people correlate using crafting skills with exploiting.

I meant other people here... Anyways how not to exploit it? Just don't exploit it.

I did some crafting to the point that I would gain one or two crafting levels (for me Smithing) per character level. This way crafting levels with my character and I am making armor and weapons that give me what I need as I go through the game.

Crafting is only an issue if you grind it. It is not an issue if it increases as your character increases.

I get what the OP is saying, and I'm currently doing the exact same thing. It's not really about self-gimping for me though, it's about saving perks for something else.

I only have 2 perks in smithing, and that's just so I could get the perk to improve enchanted items. Now I actually get a bit excited when I find things I can use. It is a nice contrast to my previous character, who could craft god-like items far better than anything he could find.

People saying 'just don't exploit it', this is a way to not exploit it. It's just an idea, that I use and it works for me.

The fact that players are having to avoid simply taking or using certain perks is the problem. The fact that people do not get that is astonishing. The fact that you like to do this or choose to play a certain way, does not mean others choose or want to play that way. For many people, they want to be able to craft and use those perks - however it unfortunately "breaks the game". Without outright nerfing or making those perks less accessible, there is only one other avenue of "correcting the game" which is to put in more options that allow the user to control the difficulty and scaling over the game content. That is a reasonable request.

I wasn't enforcing my idea onto other people, just sharing what works for me. I do agree that the game needs some balancing, there is nothing I can do about that now though (on xbox 360) so I choose to do this until they balance in later patches.

This is beating a dead horse, but it literally takes hundreds of items to level crafting. If you as the player choose to camp a vendor and buy the materials and wait 24 hours over and over again, that is your choice. The game is balanced. You chose to take a character, stand them in town for three weeks, and spend thousands of dollars. That is an acceptable playstyle, because some people ENJOY maxing out their skills before moving on to other things.

Asking Bethesda to 'balance' it for your playstyle, which apparently is needing someone to tell you "no", is not in the works. Sorry.

Some people like becoming gods on games like this, not hard to understand considering how easy it is to do. I don't like this from experience, so I found a way to not exploit a very easily exploitable system IMO.

Another thing people don't realize is that you don't HAVE to use smithing, enchanting and alchemy all together. You can level all three skills and use them independently, and not "break" your gaming experience.

It's like a crafting virus everyone has. They think that in order to craft something they need to have 4 pieces of +smithing gear and a massive +smithing potion. And then they complain that their gear is over the top...

I never camped a vendor and leveled my Smithing to 100 by lvl 24. My Enchanting is at 100 now at level 28. That is not going out of my way to level either of those, I mined ore and smelted and bought ore when necessary and hunted and killed animals and made Hide pieces from those too. At lvl 24, I had the best gear you could possibly find ever in the game. When I got to level 28, I had the best enchants you could get in the game.

Now, here is where you do not get it.

I am not asking for the effectiveness of these perks to be reduced or the base game made more difficult.

I am simply saying there needs to be more control and options available for people to make their game more difficult. This includes but is not limited to having more control over the scaling of enemies, the population of encounters, and the tactics and weapons/abilities they use.

You people keep thinking we are asking to change Smithing/Enchanting or the base of the game - we are not. Is that really that difficult to understand?

That's the problem- you make it sound like hitting 100 by level 24 is somehow too easy. How many game hours was that? I'm on my 3rd character who is level 17 and she's had 52 game hours played.

NO SKILL SYSTEM in any TES game was ever hard. Ever. Not one. The exploits for levelling spells, sneak, everything are well renowned tales on these boards. The fact you got to level 24 before naturally hitting 100 in anything should be celebrated, not a subject of contention with the system.

I have a theory- I think this is the first TES game wherein people hit huge amount of in-game hours so early. Three weeks out of release, people were already hitting 100 hours. The game has been out two whole months and people are disappointed because they already beat the main quest, already leveled to 100 in crafting, etc etc. I think hitting these achievements so 'early', in their minds, makes them feel like the game is too easy, when in fact it's they who spent hours and hours in the game without noticing that time investment.

I am not sure the exact hours, but it only took me close to 25 hours to do this. That is a level an hour, which is a moderate pace for the game. I am not concerned with how fast you level up in the game or how powerful you can become. I have an issue with not being able to make the game more challenging and having more control over the difficulty of the game for one, and two how the itemization works in the game. Since item values are static, the base damage of weapons and base stats of armor is always the same. Once you find one Daedric piece or craft it, is the same as if you find 20 or one 30 levels later. Enchants are not very diverse and gear is not special or unique. There is not much incentive to explore and reward to be had in the game.

For me, I feel like I have "beaten the game" early on when my character progression more or less stops. I do not see any benefit from continuing on other than simply doing something for the sake of it and quite frankly "most" of the storylines or quest lines are bland and not very engaging unlike say Bioware titles.

I'm not sure how this is going to sound, probably elitist, but...if you've been levelling once per hour, your playstyle is not conducive to the game world. I'm honestly curious as to how you could possibly be doing this without powerlevelling. You'd have to be levelling your skills through constant use, which would mean you're not using a lot of time to explore, listen to NPC's or quest dialogue. You'd be fast travelling everywhere in order to get to your destination and start fighting or crafting immediately.

So either you're exaggerating, or you're playing the game at a frenetic pace that wasn't intended to be the 'normal' pace of the game. Again, reading this myself, I know it sounds kinda condescending/elitist, but I really don't mean it to be.