What I'm particularly concerned with is a seeming lack of static, unique, hand-placed items of value.

I agree with the OP on this topic. As I've stated in other posts, I find it disappointing that Bethesda didn't take the lead on bringing more variety to the armor and weapons after some of the wonderful mods for Oblivion such as FCOM did.

Why do all the unique/legendary items in this game have to be in preset locations or on specific npcs? Can't we have a list of legendary items that are extremely rare that we might have a chance to find in a chest or off a boss? This is where games like Diablo and World of Warcraft excel. Its knowing there's a slight chance to find something great in many of the dungeons that you do. Don't get me wrong; this is still a good game, but I think there's a lot of things missing which prevents it from being a great game.

I'm sure the OP will tell you he's not disappointed by finding an iron sword in the chest at the end of the dungeon, its that he knows there's nothing amazing he could find instead in its place. If he were lucky, he might find an ebony helmet with an enchant on it, but that doesn't feel amazing to a lot of us since we can craft those or buy them from a vendor.

I remember finding a daedric weapon in Morrowind in some dungeon i was in.

You spiraled downwards into water and i remember finding it sitting against the wall under foliage and being so excited finding it. You would have never seen it
unless you were looking into the dark corners 24/7.

There seems to be none of that here, its just go to the end and open the chest at the end. No point in scouring everywhere cause loots only in chests, not
hidden away where someone whos really perceptive will find it.

That is not what this thread is about. That perk just increases the chance of finding more predictable loot.

If everything is special nothing is. It's not only completely unrealistic to find special stuff everywhere but a terrible game mechanic that can get you outrageously rich with barely any effort.

I don't understand your point. Why do people make comments that completely disregard the intent of a thread? No one here was suggesting that special loot should be found willy-nilly or in great multitudes. the point was that a lot of us would like to see more variety or for there to be special loot that could be found randomly, albeit at very small odds to do so.

I'm going to be "That person" and point out that Morrowind didn't stock shelves with generic equipment just to prevent early game characters grabbing good equipment.

What I mean by this is, you won't generally find anything above iron/steel on peoples weapon racks. even in dungeons. Infact the only exotic item I found in the world was a Glass Greatsword in a Orc Warlords long-house.

However in Morrowind you walk into the armorer's in Balmora and he has a Draugh shield (quite a high level item) sitting there on the bench infront of him.

Why is this? Because in Morrowind they were concerned with IMMERSION.

Instead of hampering some Min/Maxer player's game.

They call it Balance to filled the world out with Iron and steel. I call it immersion breaking.

Off topic, but I'd argue that the world being filled with iron and steel is more immersive. I love that glass, ebony, etc gear is very rarely found, and that the vast majority of gear you find is iron/steel. I like that generally speaking such things are not out on store shelves, as they'd be rare, custom made jobs, and even if held in stock they certainly wouldn't be left out in the open for crafty little beggars to steal.

I hated how every random bandit in Oblivion ended up kitted out in high end gear. It was just silly. Conversely, I enjoy finding the odd fellow in Skyrim wearing glass, or ebony gear. It stands out, you know he's the real threat.

For random loot, I've found a few very choice pieces, but I admit, I didn't level smithing/enchanting early on so finding any random piece with an awesome enchant was a big deal.

So, no, I don't think there's even the slightest problem with loot at all. The problem is with crafting being so easy to push to such a level as to totally invalidate everything else.

I completely disagree.
Im 35 with my woodelf and if Im lucky, I might find a glass weapon somewhere.
I still see Iron swords and steel armors.
I like that.
Whats changing is that enemies are stronger and have more skills, they hit harder.

I dont want to play in a world where every chest have a few enchanted this or that.

There are plenty of games out there for that.

I play Skyrim for the feeling that Im developing a character that becomes powerful or good, even if Im still using my hunters bow and fur armor.
I am on the other hand not using enchanting and alchemy.
I have taken a few points in Smithing to improve my weapons and armor. Im running in the thiefs leather armor and I wont change.

But mainly, Im playing Skyrim for its athmosphere, stories, quests, people.
There are a hundred games out there if you want to have games where you find thousands and thousands of different loot.
Skyrim is not one of them and Im glad for it.
Or let me say, you do find ALOT of loot, you just wont find very often something very useful.
And that, means that when you DO find something good, its a nice moment instead of you throwing it to the other of the hundreds of items you are collecting.

Complaining about this feature is..........seriously?

But it is already like this, so why make a thread about it then?
You already, in chests find random loot.
If you go in to a chest at lvl 20, then load, come back later, even at same level, the loot have changed.

The loot in general is quite random, some is similar but holds better quality depending on your level.

I dont understand the point of the thread if thats what you want, when it already is like this.

Even quest items, such as the first one you get in Whiterun, is random.
If you undo all your clothes you can get a random armor for any body part with any enchant, from damage, smithing, carry more weight etc.

And in chests its the same.
What I found on an earlier playthrough, I sure didnt find now that Im with my current character.

The whole thread is just, moot.

I agree 100% with the OP!

Also mechanics like "smithing" + "enchanting" together make finding loot very uninteresting, because the strongest and best equipment you can just craft.
I have to say I'm very happy about the dragon shouts ... that way you have at least something unique and cool to explore for ... the items however are rather uninteresting most of the time.

That said, there are a few exceptions.
There actually is some unique and sometimes really cool stuff to find (for example those masks). But it's not very much and sadly some of the most powerful items are thrown at you (stuff you get with entering DB for example), while after an epic dungeon or really hard enemy you only get some useless stuff to sell.

No that still happens.

I know whats in a chest before I open it.
-Gold
- A potion
-Piece of jewelry
-Enchanted weapon or armour

There are 150ish dungeons in this game; you can't expect an upgrade after every single one. Sell what you find and wait until better gear pops up at the vendors if you're that hungry for loot.

Agreed, there definitely seems to be a lack of unique items... and level-scaling pretty much means you'll only ever find what Bethesda think's is appropriate for someone of your level to find.

Because of this, I've pretty much lost the will to even set foot in dungeons outside of quests. There isn't much exploration value to most of them anyway, considering how linear they are.... and i've got no interest in collecting Shouts.

I have only been doing smithing for the bare requirements of upgrading my weapons, and i gotta say, it's still really fun to find a next tier item, or something that you [could've] made, but didnt. I gotta agree, the crafting system is pretty damn broken in this game (leveling with only daggers to dragon??) but just play the game how YOU think it should be played, any you'll be fine..

If not, just shut up and wait for the mods, or make your own!! :toughninja:

Edit: But yeah, on a final thought, it could've been a lot better (again, just waiting for dem mods!)

Crap... I found and love the sword Dragonbane, but it's, according to the UESP, permanently stuck at a lower level than what it's potential is because I picked it up at my level rather than a later level. This seems familiar.

So what if they're linear? Almost all RPGs are linear. At least they all look quite unique, unlike oblivion's copy paste dungeons. Hell, I would visit those places just for the immersion factor of skulking in the shadows looking for targets to slay, even if the dungeons were completely devoid of loot.

REALISTIC you call this LEVEL based random BS ?

/sarkasm on
its definitly realistic when ebony and glass start to POP everywere even on vendors just because player has reached lvl x.
/sarkasm off

name these UNIQUE weapons you speak of.

i bet 100% sure you just see anything that has a special name and an rudimentary enchant as UNIQUE like the gauldur ones. but you can make the SAME weapons yourself with smithing and enchanting and even have THE SAME NAME so no unique label on them for me so stop called somthing like this an UNIQUE item. thats a flat lie.even the priest maks : whats unique about them? the different COLOR? seriously every moron can change the texture colors with Photoshop i dont need PAYED devs for [censored] like this. or the WEAK entchants on some of them like 70 endurance?

the deadric ones ARE uniques. the nigthingale armor/weapons are unique but even these items are super weak compared to selfmade ones because their entchants svck. but nothing you can find out there except for the major questline rewards and the deadric ones, NOTHING you can find outside of these things counts as an UNIQUE item. absolutly nothing (yngol and gauldur amulett dont count. they are unique but weak).

the OP is absolutly correct with what he talks about in the first place. i have explored every single dungeon in this game YES the whole map is explored. i have done most quests already (thieves companiosn mages masterquest DB and all of the deadric ones)
and you wont find really useful or special things out there unfortunatly. the devs did a great job by the new handmade dungeons. but they were to lazy to hire 2-3 people to HANDPLACE loot also so exploring actually makes sense.

Funny. To me, it's much more realistic that most NPCs have access to inferior weapons such as iron and steel, even a blacksmith unless he was a smithy of legend. Superior gear should be extremely rare.

I like the idea I just went through 10 lock picks on a master lock only to find 20 gold, it's a risk using up the lock picks.
But I've also found some very useful items for my one handed character, elven sword of frost, elven sword of flames and dragonbane, I keep all three in my inventory, sword of flames is great against ice wraiths and trolls, sword of frost for flame antronarchs.

Handplaced loot svckS. I hate it with the force of a thousand supernovas. Why does it svck? Because you quickly learn where the great gear is, so you completely avoid the dungeons that have no loot that interests you (metagaming). I want to visit all dungeons and have a chance to find decent loot, not make a beeline for the Dungeon of Uber Two-Handed Axe.

I found this reply funny, though harsh to the op. Shame on you..for making me laugh, but also for being so harsh.

I like the world being filled with "common" stuff. That does feel realistic. And no, glass and ebony items don't just "appear" once you reach lv X. They have been there all along, your character was just too inexperienced to recognize the woksmanship - so the shopkeepers ripped you off. At least that's how I understand it.

That being said, I agree that loot could be more diverse. At least 2 designs for every equippable item (just like the imperial and steel swords - same stats different looks)
The shops could be selling expensive stuff from the start - it wouldn't affect ballance, cause they would be expensive (can't aford early) and hard to steal (impossible for beginner thief)

As for the "random chance super loot" - no I don't like that idea at all. That would render crafting skills meaningless.
As for "rewarding" loot / quest rewards - I don't know what to imagine under that except for daedric artifacts.

In sum, I think Skyrim is more about "growing" your character rather then "equipping" it. For a roleplayer like me - that's a blessing.

The "growing"-factor of the character is "ok" in Skyrim (much better than in Oblivion). Still not anywhere near a "blessing for role players".
Finding "super loot" wouldn't necessarily make crafting meaningless. Maybe that loot would provide unique effects/looks/strength. It could complement the crafting.
At this moment it's rather the opposite. Crafting makes looting meaningless. It's uncool to be able to craft everything and to make it that strong, that (almost) any loot you can find is weaker.

Ouch .. now THAT's a lame explanation. Very unrealistic, very anti-RPG and very "forced".
Also the loot in Skyrim is not anywhere near "realistic" ... but then I don't even know, why anyone would want it to be.

1. I admit it's lame, but how is it anti rpg and how is it forced? I guess you didn't like (or play) RPGs like Suikoden or Diablo. Besides idetifying objects was in previous TES (daggerfall)
And how is it unrealistic...? Can you tell apart my training katana (machine made) from the real thing? I highly doubt you could tell the difference.

2. A bandit in the mountains has his clothes, a weapon, some money, some food and a bottle of mead on him. I'd say that's pretty realistic. The hideout is filled with personal stuff, some food and a few things he managed to steal. What else would you expect to be there...? Goku's golden staf and Amaterasu's mirror?