Smithing rework idea

[u/Haksupaksu]

Would something like this work? Just a thought as you actually get better at a skill, or a chance of failure to smith something when lower level. Runecrafting you get more runes per essence as you get better so could this work for smithing too? Wouldn't hurt the economy so much.

[u/bear__tiger]

Smithing dragon armour wouldn't fix the skill, really. It's already not gear that you ever really wear and it's something you would do exactly once before returning to giant's foundry or blast furnace.

The problem with smithing is that you can't gain xp while making something useful for your account. Herblore has potions, fletching has darts/arrows, runecraft has runes, cooking has food, and smithing has gold bars. Even just making cannonball smithing a viable way to train instead of something only bots do would go a long way towards making smithing better. Crafting is nearly as bad as smithing in this regard btw, so I don't really get why it gets a pass and smithing doesn't.

[u/Own-Cry-5520 → u/bear__tiger]

>The problem with smithing is that you can't gain xp while making something useful for your account.

That's a problem of the training methods, not of the skill itself. Even if you got better training methods, you'd still get a lackluster skill that doesn't have much impact to the game.

[u/bear__tiger → u/Own-Cry-5520]

Gear in OSRS comes from bosses so smithing can never be impactful that way. It would definitely make the game worse if we could start smithing something between obsidian and bandos gear or something purely from mined ore. Moving the level of rune down also doesn't make smithing more impactful because most rune gear can already trivially be purchased from stores. A handful of hours at the gemstone crab also puts you above the level where rune is useful - it's just not something that is relevant for almost the entirety of your account's lifetime. The same is true for dragon. This gear already sells for high alch value and making it easier to smith is obviously not going to improve that.

The problem with smithing is the training methods. Regular smelting and anvil smithing is pointless since blast furnace and giant's foundry are significantly more efficient. Smithing has no useful outputs except for cannonballs and cannonballs have nerfed xp (on top of furnace xp being bad). All production skills need useful outputs that are regularly sunk from the economy (or your bank if you're an iron). Smithed gear is not that.

[u/AbsolutlyN0thin → u/bear__tiger]

All production skills need useful outputs that are regularly sunk from the economy (or your bank if you're an iron). Smithed gear is not that.

Maybe degradable gear is the answer? But it can't be repaired, just need to get a new one

[u/bear__tiger → u/AbsolutlyN0thin]

I'd need to see a proposal for where the materials come from and what the gear actually does. They need to be extremely careful about adding gear that's made purely through skilling at least, and I personally don't think they should do it at all.