I don't like how I feel like I'm missing out when I play a 2H character without smithing; there is a clear lack of 2H weapons in the economy (until later), and they are always way overpriced.
Since it's relevant, and I haven't seen anyone else post similar thoughts, I'll copy and paste my post from another smithing thread:
I like the idea of being able to design and acquire customized gear, but the implementation is very out of place.
1. I agree with the idea that realistically, if someone is in the role of leading a clan, kingdom, or army, they wouldn't be spending much time if at all blacksmithing. That is a trade skill. I do like the idea of diverse gameplay that includes more aspects of the culture and lifestyle of what our character may be experiencing in this world. To that end, implementing trade skills can be successful. (edit: Sure the game is called "Bannerlord," but obviously people want to do more than just run a fiefdom.) But what is so special about blacksmithing that my character would be doing that, but not hunting or fishing? Medieval royalty literally had whole forests restricted for their private use, but there is very little player interaction with the natural world in Bannerlord. Sure, blacksmithing specifically serves the purpose of giving the player more character customization and attempts doing so in an immersive way, but as others have already suggested, it would be way more immersive to place an order with a blacksmith NPC with options specific to the culture of the settlement and Tiers levels capped at the level of the local blacksmith.
2. My view on stamina is kind of a moot point because really I'd prefer the change mentioned above, but if we absolutely must stick with blacksmithing as a player skill, the devs should replace the stamina system with what happened with taxing cities in Warband: when you initiate the action, time should automatically advance to simulate that action taking time to accomplish; the time needed to finish the task should be viewable before initiating. This is really what stamina is supposed to simulate right? Because players shouldn't be able to bust out multiple armories worth of equipment overnight, sure yeah. But right now it feels backwards. Rather than taking time to accomplish, we have take time to recover. What? It doesn't make sense. Maybe it would if there was a larger stamina system in the game, affecting our travel speed, spent in battles, gained back better with food diversity, etc. Since that larger system doesn't exist, blacksmithing currently plays as being some kind of hobby of guilty pleasure the player can do if they want to make a "custom" weapon with components of random cultures the character had no way of experiencing and thus learning. I do like the idea of learning components only after smelting a crafted weapon. (edit: in order of what makes the most sense, after smelting a weapon, the player should have a chance of either learning a component that weapon utilizes, a related component from the same culture as the smelted weapon, a related component from the same culture of the town the player is smithing in, or a related component of the same weapon type. No matter what, giving low level smiths the ability to unlock high level parts is obviously broken and leads to snowballing of the skill, and its associated revenue, very quickly.)
3. The scale sliders on weapon components do NOT coincide with believable (realistic-ish) changes to the stats. For example, a larger, heavier pommel should not increase swing damage. The real purpose behind a hefty pommel is to bring the balance of the weapon away from the tip of the blade which allows for easier manuevuring of the point: a bigger, heavier pommel allows easier, more precise stabbing. Also, because the balance of the weapon is shifted away from the tip, swing is actually less, even though the overall weapon weight is heavier. Neither of these, which are the main function of a heavy pommel, are reflected in sliding the scale in the game. Another example of wtf stat changes is handle size: a larger handle size allows the hands to be spread more apart on (edit: a 2H) weapon, creating a more efficient lever action and thus faster swing speed. But sliding scale up on the handle decreases the swing speed. But of course, that's because no matter what, the character will be swinging that sword like a baseball bat...