I like the idea of being able to upgrade items, that should definately be a possibility. Actually, you could think of it as repairing the item to a higher standard of craftsmenship -- anyway. As far as smiths cornering the market, how many of you folks have played Everquest? If you have, you know that basically there is only ONE useful set of items that a smith can make in the game - banded armor. Everything elses has either no market value (skewers, only used by the occasional cook, etc.), took a massive nearly unattainable skill (cultural smithing was nearly impossible - in fact, I never met anyone who could do it....), or price to quality (again, the cultural armors were so ridiculously expensive, and the quality of it over items that could be purchased or quest found make it pointless. Many thousands of platinum......). My point here is that it is completely possible to Kill smithing while having zillions of items. Now, personally, since there are going to be several demos, alphas, betas, or what have you, before the final release, I think we should test some of the design out. You know, give it a shot at smithing only upgrading items. If everyone decides it doesn\'t work, try letting them make items.
Truth is, my vision of the ultimate MMORPG would be a place where every need was filled by a player, and NPC merchants were fazed out, or only used to sell players items. For instance, if players were the only source of copper, than it would become about as precious as it was historically -- right around the value of silver or sometimes gold! (if you don\'t believe me think about this, gold and silver occur in pure form, but copper is found as an oxide usually, except under certain conditions such as the bottoms of bogs.... BTW Tin IS and element, not a mineral.)
Thanks for your patience,
Montenegro