Do you enjoy smithing?

[ElCrisp]

The ability to make visually or statistically interesting weapons is very cool.

Every other aspect of how the system is connected to the game is dog water, as bad as it could be.

A boring grind of 1000 clicks through an interface that only needs to be improved so i can better access and overcome said boring grind.
Add in some randomness to waste more time thats a *Chef's kiss* from me

If say hammering out the steel was some sort of fun skill based mini game where you could feel accomplished for finally succeeding that master craft. It might add to gameplay. That would take dev time tho so...
Maybe quests or some favorful ways to get unlocks, perhaps linked to the crafting orders? Tournament rewards? A lot of different options that would all be better fun than the current progression system as that only succeeds in giving me RSI

 

[MostBlunted]

What if it was done this way by Anagram-of-anagram who rushed this days before the EA release? A notable game designer, entrepreneur, space game explorer, intern enthusiast and perpetual student of project management? You may have mounted your last blade on this forum if Erminas finds out what you said.

EA description even says it:

Throughout the course of the early access period we intend to introduce the missing supporting features, such as, rebellions, kingdom creation and weapon crafting, while expanding and enhancing many of the existing features that are outlined below.”

Legends say, it was the one who shall not be named, working 29/10 to get this feature ready for the EA release. And after 2 years, smithing is what it is right now. And I even believe, that the one who shall not be named, really did work hard to get smithing into the game for EA release, seems to fit TheVisionTM.

According to their EA description nothing is missing today, only those bugs needs to be fixed.

 

[black_bulldog]

What if it was done this way by Anagram-of-anagram who rushed this days before the EA release? A notable game designer, entrepreneur, space game explorer, intern enthusiast and perpetual student of project management? You may have mounted your last blade on this forum if Erminas finds out what you said.

I'm well aware of who developed this and that person either needs to get up to date with modern gaming mechanics or let someone else handle how game the mechanics are developed. I'm not saying that to be an a-hole I'm saying that because I truly believe this is the worst crafting system I've ever seen. If someone wants to ban my account so be it, it would only add to the validity of what I'm saying.

I found your error and corrected it !

Sure, the best way is to make smithing more useful or "better", but we all no it won´t happen

No it won't get changed except maybe some small tweaks. But I just wish they would've had had a rethink early in ea and gone back to what they originally planned. Make it so you could get custom smithed weapons, not make some slap dash monstrosity of a crafting system we have now. But it is what it is.

I guess slap dash monstrosity is kind of good way to describe Bannerlord overall. A bunch of systems thrown together without any thought of a bigger picture or an overall creative vision. This game feels like is designed by a committee of people who once saw a video game played and think they understand what gamers want but in reality just want to make money.

 

[MostBlunted]

I guess slap dash monstrosity is kind of good way to describe Bannerlord overall. A bunch of systems thrown together without any thought of a bigger picture or an overall creative vision. This game feels like is designed by a committee of people who once saw a video game played and think they understand what gamers want but in reality just want to make money.

+1

 

[Csatádi]

I guess slap dash monstrosity is kind of good way to describe Bannerlord overall. A bunch of systems thrown together without any thought of a bigger picture or an overall creative vision. This game feels like is designed by a committee of people who once saw a video game played and think they understand what gamers want but in reality just want to make money.

I would say they are technical people and they don't really know and don't think about what makes a game fun.
For example they ignored all my suggestions how to make smithing fun. I won't say they were the only possible way, but they didn't implement any other solutions.

 

[EverKira]

The best thing about Smithing is that I can make a glaive that is couchable. I no longer need a second polearm for sieges and field battles. Never have to worry about if I screwed up and now I have to just drop a useless weapon if I went into a siege with a lance. Ooooh I'm poking your shield with a lance while I stand still!

However it takes an absolutely absurd amount of time to get all the plans needed to make these weapons and that is a huuuuuuge negative that makes it unenjoyable.

 

[RozBritanicus]

I have used smithing in once in playthrough my current one and i hate it , i hadn't used it before that. It bores me and yes you can run your kingdom off it . Buy some weapons in bulk from some factions and you got the best materials and create the very expensive weapons . Do i need to smith no because i got workshops and caravans . I don't think i will use the feature ever again. I choose can crafted weapon when children are growing up they get unique weapons and sometimes really great weapons if i want unique weapons currently . As i have written before there should be smiths in towns to make weapons and armour that unique but at a greater price. I would be a nice option for player who don't want to grind this mechanic, boring mechanic in my honest opinion .

 

[Nakh]

Smithing is fine, just need a lot of QOL. Bulk refining, bulk smelting, bulk smithing. And hotkeys! Hotkeys for everything.

 

[Mozambique]

I can't say I enjoy smithing because I never used this feature.

For me, It has nothing to do in bannerlord.

 

[geala]

I tried it a little bit and opted to ignore it in further gameplay for several reasons. The most important and annoying aspect of smithing for me is that is makes modding melee weapons more difficult.

 

[Alino3d]

I was hoping Smithing in MB2 to provide some advanced mechanic that allows us players to modify our troops. But instead the devs just let its Smithing feature to drag MB2 down to a cheap mobile game. I do have a phone, but please don't use the mobile game design philosophy to design a singleplayer PC game, especially not the great great M&B game.

+16

 

[Brano]

Is it only me who thinks that 2016 version of the game looks much better then what we have now?
TBF I didnt follow development what so ever. I just bought it upon EA release. Never saw that 2016 demo presentation before. For me it looks like 2 different games done by 2 different game studios

 

[MostBlunted]

Of course, from todays POV we can say that they had build some scripted stuff back then to show off, with no intentions to deliver the version they showed.

 

[Brano]

NPCs look better, map looks better, UI looks better, loading screens look better. I'd rather have that version.

 

[Stefmon]

Don't be put off by my brand new account, I've been a player since warband.
As a player I always enjoy making the narrative for my character and followers and giving them armor and weapons that make sense for them.
Character stories are fun. So when I saw all the variety of weapon pieces and everything in the smith I thought it was great, I can make unique looking stuff that hits well. I liked learning the right poem so I could woo the right lady. Miss that a lot from warband.

Now about smithing.
Here's the thing, why does it take so goddamn long to unlock pieces? I've smelted so many spears and high tier ones and all I have for two handed spears is like a million pommels, all the tier 1 and 2 shafts and all the tier 1 and 2 spear heads.
I've got near to if not 100 hours on a run and I still can't unlock all the damn spear heads. I just want a glaive god dangint!

I don't use exploits, so I don't have an issue with smithing there, and any economical impact can be patched quite easily.
I actually enjoy the smithing and how it works in the game. There could be more done to it of course, and some unnecessary things taken out.
I just wish I unlocked things a bit faster. If I smelt a tier 4 weapon then please don't just unlock 5 tier 1 pommels for me that is so lame please stop.

I also disagree with an earlier reply that smithing doesn't integrate with the game at all. You use towns to buy base materials using currency or smelt weapons from the game, then you make weapons that can be sold, used or smelted. You can also make weapons by request to increase relation with notables and earn more cash. That integrates with the rest of the game in many ways, even if it doesn't necessarily impact the core area of gameplay for most people.

If I've actively been smelting by the time I'm decked in tier 3 or 4 gear, then I should be able to smelt most tier 3 or 4 weapons... That's where it starts to feel disconnected for me.

 

[Ser Jon]

When you look at the overwhelming response in the poll and remember this sort of thing happens in many other polls, but nothing is ever done about it, you really start to realize how little our input means. Instead of coherent pieces working together to create an enjoyable, reasonable experience, we were sold a "everything but the kitchen sink" sort of game. Where dozens of useless or otherwise unimportant features were ham-fisted into the game and interact poorly or disjointedly with other features, and you're left thinking "What?" as the player.

 

[stevepine]

Do you enjoy smithing?....

Do you enjoy shaving your testicles with a white-hot spoon?

 

[Clsy]

I also disagree with an earlier reply that smithing doesn't integrate with the game at all. You use towns to buy base materials using currency or smelt weapons from the game, then you make weapons that can be sold, used or smelted. You can also make weapons by request to increase relation with notables and earn more cash. That integrates with the rest of the game in many ways, even if it doesn't necessarily impact the core area of gameplay for most people.

I think there is a difference between how we see it. Yes it does interact with many elements of the game like economy, material, relationship and such. But most of these are barred behind a painful mechanic which is obviously not the gameplay this game was sold for. Rewards are not excluded to which mean you could still achieve the same without the need to pre invest to this skill level based mechanic. Leveling the skill is as mentioned before, disconnected from the gameplay, you exchange time for stamina, waiting in town doing nothing so you can level up this one skill, rather than progress your story and the opportunity to level up every other skill that is actually meaningful to the gameplay.

What well integrated could tag into for me it would be trading. Although the experience is as bad as smithing because of how it require player to manually proceed everything which is equally unfun, player is not the one and only that can do it in calradia, you got peasant trading between village and town, caravan trading across the map and the player's caravan/workshop. While balanced or not is debatable, you can clearly tell trading is a thing in M&B just by watching how everyone is walking around.

When these are compared i would say trading is well integrated into the game and smithing feels like it's not part of the game. If there is a indie game having the exact smithing system here and focused on it would be fine, but this is Mount&blade.

When you look at the overwhelming response in the poll and remember this sort of thing happens in many other polls, but nothing is ever done about it, you really start to realize how little our input means.

Probably because it doesn't harm the experience no matter how good or bad, exploitable it is if ignored. Unlike armour which actually affect the gameplay.

 

[Ser Jon]

Probably because it doesn't harm the experience no matter how good or bad, exploitable it is if ignored. Unlike armour which actually affect the gameplay.

Certainly, but I meant this poll (of something so insignificant) being an overwhelming answer is just one of many that is ignored.

 

[black_bulldog]

Of course, from todays POV we can say that they had build some scripted stuff back then to show off, with no intentions to deliver the version they showed.

If you actually look at those early videos they never said we could craft only that we could go and get weapons crafted. That's a big difference. One is a nice way to get a weapon that's unique and really stands out to you. The other affects the base game very profoundly because it's been integrated into the core of the leveling system.