I'd like to begin this feedback with a disclaimer that I will be talking about the crafting systems for Smelting, Smithing & Gilding so those of you that don't want the process spoiled should not read the following.
Having spent the past three and a half months in isolation (Thanks Covid), I have become intimately aware of a problem with the crafting system as it is now; Smelting, Smithing and Gilding. Not only do I find either craft exceptionally grindy to the point that you spend just about every waking hour at a deposit, smelter or anvil but it's also a heavy money sink, especially if you're just starting out with a new character. Whilst I have not been doing this craft for nearly as long as other veterans and legends of crafting (Gods bless you, I don't know how you do it), I feel I now have an understanding of the problems with the smithing system and how it might be rectified.
How it startsTo run those who haven't introduced themselves to smithing or smelting, you start the same as any beginner in crafting with no experience and thus a -5 to any of your crafting until you succeed once which will take away that -5 from that recipe that you learn, giving you a chunk of crafting xp to keep you going. Your stats matter immensely when you get started in crafting. (God help you if you have a -1 in strength or con.) And so if you have positives in your attributes, you can nullify somewhat the -5 previously mentioned, but even someone with a solid +1 or +2 will find it quite the grind to get to the point where you can capably work your materials. First, you need to be able to smelt your ore into ingots, that's the first hurdle and once you pass the initial 5-6 levels, it does get easier, if only a little. Starting copper, you'll be at this for a good week or so depending how quickly you can break down the copper deposits (Which can take more than half an hour per rock depending on your apr), moving from this you have the big push into smithing once you have got a significant amount of copper to work with. You're going to start with something low DC so that you have the best chance of succeeding, thus making it easier to grind out, because make no mistake you
will be grinding this. From my own experience and having +1's and +2's to my attributes, this process of copper smithing and smelting took around a week and a half to get to the stage where I could competently succeed in smithing with copper.
The grind continuesNow it becomes a little tougher. You need to find deposits of iron to crack into and go through the -5 process all over again, grinding your smelting and smithing (Your smelting will always be higher) This process will take a longer period of time, or it did for me when I was doing it. Around a month and a half with breaks to collect the coin necessary to fund my operations. During this, you are at the mercy of the iron deposits, which can be criminally unfair to you at times, see the image below (this took around 10-15 minutes to mine)
Now, we move into steel. You need to either hunt down coal deposits or buy it from select smiths because not every one of them have charcoal (How in the world doesn't the dwarf smith seller have charcoal to purchase? This seems like a missed opportunity, especially because Dvergeheim is where the gilding pits are!) To get to the point where I could capably smith and succeed with steel took another month and a half. Now, keep in mind this was during isolation. I was spending practically 12-14 hours a day on this, either mining, smelting or smithing (or walking my ass up and down the mountain roads encumbered with oxen).
This whole process is agonisingly long for the ability to make simple steel weapons, something that really isn't the bees knees at all in comparison to the weapons you can find around (I know, crafted weapons are better in the long run once you've decked them out, I'm getting to that) and it doesn't need to be this long. If you're looking to challenge players, sure, that's fine, but forcing them to spend just about every waking hour of their time smithing is going to make them not want to play the game. Sure, I could just not craft, but I found it important to my character and I don't believe one should be punished for that.
GildingAnd finally, we move onto Gilding. Firstly, having to grind all the way to smithing level 30 just to have the privilege of gilding is a pain in the ass due to the reasons above. You can't work gilding, not even on copper before reaching smithing level 30, meaning you first must grind up to 30, then come back to grind out gilding and despite requiring that initial time sink, your smithing level doesn't make any difference to your gilding mechanically in the slightest. Instead, you now begin the biggest money sink of all. Not only do you need your smithing level at 30, you need to have acid to soften your metal (a low cost, no trouble here) and mercury (The big money, 110gp) alongside a gildable metal (such as copper). Your initial DC for a copper gilded iron dagger, is 18. Unless you have a positive to your scores, you have no hope in succeeding this until crafting level 5, and failures will give you the barest minimum to work with, (around 10 and under from my experience). So not only is this particular craft a slow grind, it's an expensive one. I've already racked up over 60k just to reach the double digits, and I'm still only working with copper. Furthermore, the amount of CXP you gain for failures can be as little as 2-5, with success cxp slowly lowering as your level rises (At level 10, my usual CXP was 35, at 11 it is reduced to 26) Meaning even if you do gain several successes, you're still having to spend 110+gp per success, which is a maddeningly slow grind, and one that you eventually need to halt to go and collect more money to pay for the expenses.
ConclusionTo close, the Smelting, Smithing and Gilding system as I have experienced it has brought me a chunk of hard work and very little gain for said work. In comparison to crafts such as Alchemy and Herbalism, which have near instant rewards upon a success, smithing and it's sub crafts don't give you that same rewarding feeling, forcing you to grind much higher before you gain something worth coin enough to sell to other players or to use yourself. I would recommend increasing the CXP gain for successes, lessen the cost sink of gilding or to lower the DC requirements in general (especially for gilding). Perhaps other smiths currently handling the system could weigh in on this, but if anyone has told you that this is an easy craft or that it's no trouble to get through? They're lying to you. Thank you.