The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

[Llywylln]

As a new player of this game, I'm discovering all the bugs and issues for the first time as well as some design 'choices' that I really don't agree with and that rather chafe.
I really like that this game involves so many other side elements besides just the making of swords. The magics, the spells, the Damascus thing all add an RP as well as a business advantage to them. I enjoy the mechanical forging process, actually, though it might be streamlined a little, an actual hammering simulation is amazing for a blacksmith sim.

Then there is the most annoying feature that is actually intended; the single object pickup... and no inventory. Only being able to carry one thing in one hand is totally irksome. Now that the DLC allows us to go to new places and find new things, the one object carry is even more frustrating since you have to wander around ... find stuff and then walk it back to the start... mining ore is a total migraine with having to make that long walk for each piece of ore. Combine that with the object 'in world' only storage and the, quirky at best, buggy most often, drop system. it adds a lot of wasted time that is not fun and hardly rewarding. Another point that bothers me about this is calling it Fantasy 'Blacksmith' when your character isn't actually a Blacksmith, they are a sword smith. You only make swords and can't make the simplest of tools. You can't make your own parts, like cross guards, like a real weapon smith would, all you make are blades, nothing else. I was pretty torqued when I saw that I had to buy a pickaxe in the beginning... Lastly, in the Bad column, Copper doesn't show up in the Metals List... you can make it and work it but they didn't include it in the Metals list from the Menu... don't know why.

Bugs, glitches, and crazy physics are the real Ugly here. Sometimes I put my sword back on the forge and it lands nicely, and sometime is break dances for a few seconds and then leaps halfway across the room Every time I try to drop an item with tongs it tends to fly away too. Then there is a save issue in the beginning of the game. The game wont save until after you finish and sell your first blade... not sure why but it caused me a lot of headaches in the beginning. Then, when you start saving games and reloading them, you find out that placed objects will sometimes leap up and fly around when you load. I have a half dozen pommels lost in my shop by now... The last thing that really irks me about this game on the RPG size is Skill points. I get 3 skill points fro each blade I make and sell. I get nothing for making them, only selling them and it is always the same 3 points. If I sell a cheap copper sword that is only worth 45 coins I get 3 points. If iI make a Titan sword with perfect Damascus, a rich handle with all excellent quality work, a magic spell and an element, it could sell for over 4K but I don't get more skill points for it... I don't get skill points for making the magic stuff work or anything else... I don't learn anything from mining or any of the games I play... I get 3 sp for selling a sword and 1 sp for the cheap odd jobs from the customers. That, is a terrible skill system. Why bother making expensive stuff when you can just skill up on bronze?