Blacksmith Advancement - Goals

[necrobutch]

Hello. First of all, good job for your server. It truly is an awesome project and I appreciate your effort. I would like to ask if there are any plans in improving or tweaking blacksmithing or weapon balancing.
When I first joined the server, my character's goal was to become a known blacksmith and slowly advance and be able to craft the best weapons it is possible. To be honest, I thought both of these would take time.... It is kind of unfortunate that I am already able to craft the best weapon possible (greatsword). This fast progression devaluates the weaker weapons in my opinion and thus narrows my crafting options. Noone will ask me to make him a longsword for example. He will ask for a radiant scimitar...
I have also noticed an issue with weapon/armor preference, which probably comes from the not so balanced weapon types. Many people use swords and maybe wrestling and some fencing. Noone will ask for a mace or axe or even an off hand. Also, leather armor seems to be much more relevant that heavy or medium, probably because of the penalties and the fact the world is not so deadly yet... Both of those narrow my crafting even further. So, now I just craft 3-4 pieces of gear and pray for an Ex/Mwk. There is not that feeling anymore that I will improve into this skill. I just have to delve into other skills, entirely and this not the blacksmith I envisioned unfortunately.
What I would like to suggest is maybe adding a few other types of weapons and armor (especially armor for better variety), which are stronger than what players have know and make them especially difficult to craft (The components to craft them could be rare drops, difficult crafts from other skills, even special drops from certain unique monsters, areas etc). In my opinion one should not be able to craft them in a single or a few days.
You can also adjust the costs and power of some existing high level weapons, making axes and maces more appealing.
You can make some weapons being easy to completely be destroyed, and forcing the wielder to seek a new one. Now when someone gets a mwk greatsword, he is done... He won't need another greatsword or other weapon until the end of the act...
These are my thoughts, overall. Thank you.

[Kent]

I think there are markets you have untapped, majorly, in blacksmithing. I have a character that checks your vendor frequently and is chronically disappointed at the selection and quality, especially when it comes to medium armor.