Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I really don't like most of the armor in the game, especially the more powerful heavy armors going from Drawrven and upward. They all look so garish to me and whenever I roam the countryside, I just feel so out of place... like an alien from another planet. I'm especially feeling this more lately as I've been switching to 3rd person view more often and riding a horse through the countryside. This goes especially for Daedric Armor. Whenever I wear that thing, I feel like I'm from another planet/dimension ready to wipe off all life from skyrim... good or evil! I was so afraid I'd have to trudge though the game wearing that or something close to being as good without having to build up Alteration perks/magic since I'm strictly a melee build. In a game where you want to "live" in the world, I thought that was pretty important. I even try and go as far as wearing "normal" clothes when I'm trudging about town.

Then I stumbled upon Fortify Smithing by buying a pair of gauntlets that had that enchant on it at Radiant Rainments and when I disenchanted the item, I found I could put it on 4 apparel items! Knowing the armor cap was 567, I upgraded my Daedric just to see what I could get and I was getting over 600 without a shield! Needless to say, I went armor shopping/forging. I ended up building a character that has an Ancient Nord Helmet, Wolf Boots and Gauntlets, Steel armor (the one with no shoulder pads) and wields a Steel Shield and Skyforge Steel Sword. Being "leader" of the companions, I thought having some apparel from the companions and a Skyforge Steel Sword was fitting. When I was done with the character, he looked like the marauding brute I had envisioned when I started the game instead of the wandering Daedric deity that was roaming around the countryside. Now I have about 450 armor without a shield which I feel gives me just enough protection for even the more powerful enemies when playing on Expert. My weapon does close to a 100 dmg now too, which makes it useable in later levels.

Anyways, just a thought I wanted to share since a lot of people seemed to harping on Bethesda for their smithing/enchanting "loophole". For me, it was a great way to re-invent myself and fall in love with the game all over again.

edit:

I guess I have become jaded because about 99 percent of these threads are combative and argumentative.

did you even read the OP?


and to the OP, I like smithing for that reason as well, I can just wear steel at any level.

If you don't like the thread, ignore it and it will go away! That's what usually happens!

Thanks for the free bump though!

This is the only reason I like it too. It does give you customization. I really loathe the higher level armors too and prefer my good old hide armor.

Yeah, it makes the game feel so much more immersive for me and watching the 3rd person decapitations are so much more fun to watch now!

Yeah, there's a thread floating around about showing your character, and I saw some crazy nice ones! There was one where this guy made this Orc Shaman and it just looked awesome! I said to myself, I need to ditch the Daedric and build a character I like looking at day in and day out when I play this game and I'm so glad I did.

I'm sure there are some benefits to be found, I don't think they outweigh the negative impact it has on the game though.

Crafting skills are fun to use but when you can make *everything* yourself there is little to no need to explore and hunt for rare loot anymore, which is lets be honest, most of what RPG's is all about. And they could have easily combined the best of both worlds:

Make artifacts damage/armor equally good to crafted gear (but with extra unique enchants). Now before you complain that would make crafting skills useless, easy fix: make them possible to upgrade the artifacts to lets say 10-20% improvement (armor/damage/enchant strength or charges)

It really is kind of sad that every loot item you'll find it pretty much useless later on

I like being able to craft stuff but despise not being able to craft what I want without some perk.

It's awesome, that it makes Leather and Steel Armor viable at higher levels.

Not making the game to easy by using it is simply about self control. ^^

Totally agree with OP, it means that everyone's characters can look very different

Apart from the lag (PS3) I'm absolutely loving this game. I don't see what all the moaning's about

But you see that's the thing... even if I didn't have access to Daedric Armor until later in the game, I think I would have sold it anyway. Now if there was some special "steel" armor that had a stronger armor rating with a special enchant, like you were alluding too, then I totally agree that that might have been a better way of going about it. My quip is about the inherent design choices of armor and how the smithing/enchant "loophole" doesn't force you to look like a demon/martian through the majority of your playtime.

That's the thing with Skyrim. This world feels so "alive" and real to me, that I care about these things much more than I would any other game. While I was playing Fallout, for example, I didn't care at all what my character looked like. Just gimme some 'o that old T51B power armor and have at it!

No hard feelings! I'm neither combative nor argumentative... I get too much like that at home with the wifey, that I don't have the time nor the energy to do that in game forums!

Just wanted to share some positive thoughts on something that gets so slammed in these forums.

Smithing should have its limits. No human should be able to craft anything beyond 'Flawless', and those of 'Epic' or beyond should only be 'found' loot items, possibly after defeating a boss.

I'd always been of the opinion that Daedric or other armors shouldn't be wearable by the player except as the result of a quest, where perhaps you only gain use of it for a short period. You don't see the heroes of Sovngarde wearing Daedric....

I'd also think that Dragon armor should be a quest reward, after completion of the main one.

I do like the idea of limiting oneself to more realistic armor types as well. I like the look of the Blades armor the most, although I'm currently wearing a plain Steel helmet as opposed to the Blades one, which looks too samurai-ish. The steel helmet has the same coloring and looks better.

Woot!! I agree..nice post. Something positive. I'll bump this post daily till they kick me off the darn forum.

I ride with what ever catchs my eye, and right now I am playing light armor. I just wish they had more choices in this catagory.

I would have absolutely no problem with that, as long as there is more realistic looking armor that is powerful, just like you stated. If I found some fancy named "Legendary" steel armor that has twice the armor rating that I'm currently wearing because I can only craft to "Flawless", than that would be a great way of going about it.

I totally agree with the fact it feels weird crafting Daedric Armor. I feel Daedric armor and weapons should have been left solely for finding them as Daedric artifacts in any of the shrines that are spread out in the game.

I feel indifferent about the Dragon Armor. In that respect, I don't feel it's weird to craft it after you just finished killing a few with the dragon bones and scales that are looted from them. Maybe, a special kind of dragon armor after you finished the game...

I love the entire crafting system the way that it is, with the exception of the alchemy bug.

However, that doesn't stop me from wanting Bethesda to increase the challenge of the game without touching the itemization process.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why there's no such thing as overpowered or unbalanced in an open world game.

It's all about the choices you make and the way you play.

TES always lets you be OP if you want to be. It's a price/benefit/side effect of the freedom of choice and the open ended system. Peole just feel like they have to min/max to the extreme and then think they will still find a challenge. If you use your very vbest min maxing abilities in a TES game your character will be unstoppable. It has always been like this and it's not a secret. Anyway I agree with the OP.

I agree with the OP .. I like using weapons and armor that look "asthetically pleasing" moreso than using things that are the BEST of the BEST.
It's the RP in RPG to me.

Amen to that.

People asking for features like smithing/enchanting to be nerfed are only thinking about themeselves and not in the other ppl that actually want to have the option to make super powerful characters.

I love smithing, wish enchanting worked for me but haven't tried it since the new patch. It was broken after the 1.2 patch so I'll head to whiterun to see if I can enchant once again.

Very, very true. When people talk about the smithing/enchanting "loophole", all they talk about is min/max'ing and there's so much more to it than that. As a previous poster stated, if there was "Legendary" armor that looked more realistic that can be found later with a very high armor rating instead of having the ability to craft it yourself, then maybe that can be the balanced compromise we're all looking for. I'm simply not all that excited finding Orcish/Ebony/Daedric weapons or items at the level I am on.

As of now, the way the game is designed, your armor rating is determined very little by the type of armor you get, but rather by how well you improve it on crafting. I would normally complain about this ad nauseum, but since I find the higher level armors not that great to look at, I'm really glad you can improve the lower level armors to have your character look the way you want him/her to.

Yeah, the only thing I really liked on that side is the hide/leather armor, but I saw some builds with Nightingale Armor and that looks pretty sweet!