I've gotten high enough into the Thieve's Guild that I can go burglarize some places. I was recently sent to Arcadia's Cauldron to grab up a garnet for the guild.

While there, there was quite a bit of crap I could liberate. That said, I seem to remember that in Oblivion when I did this, I eventually wound up with a bunch of naked people in completely barren stores, and trust me on this, Thorinir looked much better with his clothes on.

Rather than repeat this hideous visual where the shops were completely empty every single time I went in there, I was hoping that this time the items on the shelves and the racks would re-spawn. I didn't take anything this time while I was in Arcadia's Cauldron for fear or repeating the "empty wasteland" visual I got from Oblivion.

My question is, if while on this mission I had cleaned the shop out, would it forever be completely devoid of items on the shelves and tables, or will they eventually come back?

No respawn on placed items or NPC inventories.

That's pretty disappointing.

Thank you.

Nope. If you empty the shelves, they remain empty. If you're looking for an RP way to justify it, just imagine that the shopkeepers lost their faith in their fellow man because of your greed.

So in real life, if a neighbor gets his car stolen from in front of his house, he forever walks? If he gets his TV swiped, he stops watching TV for the rest of his life?

When Walmart gets a CD stolen, they simply stop selling that CD forever and don't replace it on the shelves?

Bethesda has had four years - FOUR YEARS - to figure out a replenishment strategy, but failed to do so.

I can think of one off the top of my head. Once every ten days, the shopkeeper becomes more complacent and returns one item to the shelves. This forces the player to hit different stores but doesn't forever ruing the immersion aspects of the game.

This isn't rocket science. This is laziness.


I appreciate your attempt to make it better through your suggestion. I do. But that's something Bethesda should have done (made the game better). Creative imagination on our parts doesn't excuse amateurish product evolution on theirs. Especially considering the small fraction of money they spend on developing the game compared to their giant mountain of profit.

I wasn't trying to defend it. I was just giving you an option for a way to deal with it in character.

I know. Thank you.

I was editing my post as you were reading it. I saw how my reply came off and tried to get in there fast enough to show appreciation for your effort, but you were too quick for me.

Thank you for the suggestion; sincerely.

I wasn't offended or anything. I was just clarifying. Plus, I've been on these boards all day long. I might be a little delirious at this point.

This does seem odd. You'd think that items would just reset after 7 days, just like most cells do. Oh well, just do what everyone does and wait for a mod to fix it.

I'm on a PS3.

I love how everyone assumes that everyone is on a PC. I guess that makes sense and is a natural presumption as Bethesda clearly doesn't seem concerned with quality when it comes to the consoles.

PS: Cells don't reset after 7 days. In Oblivion it took three days. In Skyrim the rumor is that it takes 45 days, but the first dungeon I cleared was Brittleshin Pass. I've been playing for 73 days and made a point not to go anywhere near the place again just to see what happened, and it's still showing as cleared on the map.

It's possible the monsters have re-spawned inside of it, but I doubt that's the case.

Okay, so as an experiment, I went to Solitude's snooty Radiant Raiment and wiped the place out. I mean I took the clothes irons, potions, the bread off the floor, the charcoal from the shelves.

I then went to White Run and waited 47 days. Then I returned to the store.

Oddly enough, all the objects, including those on the shelves, had re-spawned. What's weird is that the strongbox was still unlocked and empty, as were all the other containers in the place.

Still, it means that the shelved items do re-spawn, but I don't know if you have to just stay out of the store, or if it's the entire town one must remain outside of. And again, the contents of the containers inside did not re-spawn during this time, so it seems we have the exact opposite problem of what was going on in Oblivion, but with 15 times the waiting involved.

It actually respawns. Don't ask when, but It does, the whole store is resetted.

Not the contents of the chests. The strongbox for example, as well as the contents of the cupboards.