Some guys on the irc channel were suggesting an alternate crafting system where recipes are the same but the quality of the items raises with each smithing level. I did a quick ruby script to output the xmls they'd need: http://codepad.org/m16YiGdg If anyone wants to tweak the file, feel free, then post the resulting URL here.
new ruby code here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3923260/dred.rb and additions to itemdb.xml and craftdb.xml here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3923260/dred.txt weapons and armor now, in seven different materials (bronze, iron and steel, plastic for crappy but light armor, aluminum for tough and light armor, silver for aethereal damage and armor that does not penalize magic, and copper for voltaic damage)
Pardon my ignorance, but how would one go about adding this? It looks a bit complicated. And what in the world is a ruby code?
It's not quite finished. Ruby code is code in the Ruby programming language. It's what generates all the item lists.