I am trying to raise smithing. I have basically crashed the world supply of hardwood. I have gone back and forth between the areas that produce hardwood, even in villages that produce it the price is up to 40. in cities that aren't linked to a hardwood village the price is up to 80+. I think it's ridiculous that my single character's desire to practice black smithing is crashing the global economy.
Suggestion 1:
base: 1 hardwood = 2 charcoal
perk: 2 hardwood = 5 charcoal
this would significantly lower the amount needed, as well as the percentage of your total time smithing which is dedicated to refining charcoal (which is like 95% right now). if you want to keep the price balance level you could bump the price of hardwood up across the board (but not make it more rare)
Suggestion 2:
make the ability to make the higher steels innate, or at least tied to both perks at a tier. not being able to make higher tier materials isn't a viable option because no one else in the game does. even if you were willing to pay the 2k market price for thamaskene, there is literally 0 production of it in all towns in the game.
so when you get to 50 smithing skill you unlock the steel recipe, which is the same as now:
2 iron + 1 charcoal = 1 steel + 1 crude iron
but you can choose take a perk, we'll call it "efficient steel maker 1" which looks something like:
5 iron + 1 charcoal = 3 steel + 2 crude iron
again, this alleviates the 2 major concerns of smithing (too much charcoal, too much time spent on refining)
Suggestion 1:
base: 1 hardwood = 2 charcoal
perk: 2 hardwood = 5 charcoal
this would significantly lower the amount needed, as well as the percentage of your total time smithing which is dedicated to refining charcoal (which is like 95% right now). if you want to keep the price balance level you could bump the price of hardwood up across the board (but not make it more rare)
Suggestion 2:
make the ability to make the higher steels innate, or at least tied to both perks at a tier. not being able to make higher tier materials isn't a viable option because no one else in the game does. even if you were willing to pay the 2k market price for thamaskene, there is literally 0 production of it in all towns in the game.
so when you get to 50 smithing skill you unlock the steel recipe, which is the same as now:
2 iron + 1 charcoal = 1 steel + 1 crude iron
but you can choose take a perk, we'll call it "efficient steel maker 1" which looks something like:
5 iron + 1 charcoal = 3 steel + 2 crude iron
again, this alleviates the 2 major concerns of smithing (too much charcoal, too much time spent on refining)
