Board Thread:Suggestions/@comment-24108228-20150125000106/@comment-24108228-20150127222849

An Observer wrote: I mean- while we are at it we should also close a little bit of the gap between primitive tier weapons and the other tiers.

Blacksmithing is simply put- too useful. There is no alternative skillset to turn to for effective player versus player. SURE- we get longbows. But what do they shoot? Ore intensive iron arrows. Gunpowder and bombs are simply not sufficent to defeat a competent iron user.

Sure, you can argue that it wouldn't make sense for people excelling in farming, or achitecture to be leveling villages, but blacksmithing also has domestic uses- stews, cheese manufacturing, improved tools... it seems to be a respectable player, you NEED a beefed up blacksmithing skill. This is unbalanced, and almost FORCES the idea of "end-game equals warrior". I have no issue with making blacksmithing less useful. Heck, my 2nd favourite suggestion of all time (saturation) was created solely to fix this issue.

But really, it's going to a long, difficult journey if we were to nerf all weaponry and armour, just so non-blacksmiths can feel slightly better about themselves. Although I would love a way to balance out skills better so your problem is less prominent, it's a tricky thing to do and not one that can be done as an add-on to another thread. Heck, to properly fix it you'd probably need two separate suggestions, both of which being around twice the length of the chocolate thread.

However, what you're aiming for might actually be achievable using a simpler method. Instead of nerfing weapons, we nerf the skill itself. More work to get stuff, perhaps a chance of mishaps while crafting that result in scrap metal. Blacksmiths are important and valuable, but just less common. It's not something for this thread, but it's an idea.