In oblivion sneaking into someones house was fun but rather useless. In each house there were chests but they never contained anything really cool. Will Skyrim have houses with random chests belonging to wealthy people that will have awesome stuff. They should implement a much more difficut lock picking system to solve this. Possibly one that when failed poisons you.

This also brings up another issue of mine. After playing the game for awhile many items became useless. In the begining of Oblivion roaming in the wild was worth while because you could stumble upon a ebony mace or something of the sort. However once played for a greater period of time it was no longer cool to stumble upon things in the wild. Daedric swords aren't cool when you have goldbrand Will they fx the late weapon imbalance?

I was never able to find Ebony anything at the beginning of the game in Oblivion. Morrowind, maybe, but not Oblivion.

I have to agree with Broken-Scale- perhaps you're thinking of Morrowind, because nothing like this ever happened for me in Oblivion? Only thing I ever found "roaming in the wild in the beginning of Oblivion" was a couple of Fine Steel weapons, and those were hand-placed and in known positions. :shrug:

Not just stealing, I hope there's more attention given to non-combat aspects of gameplay. So far most of the stuff we've heard about magic and stealth has been devoted towards their role in combat: fire magic and stealth kills.

We've heard a little about the improvements to how NPC AI interacts with the Sneak skill.... But what about Security and Speechcraft?

Stealing is not going to matter anyway if they dont remove the fact that the guards are omniscient.

I want to find places where I can have really great heists in Skyrim. Something like the House Treasuries in Vivec where there are very valuable items but lots of guards (except a place where the guards actually care when you break into them).

I certainly hope it doesn't. Stealing is one of the most wicked things you can do to an individual. Everybody has a self-image of some kind; usually it is of yourself as a good person. When you steal, you are chipping away at that good self-image, lowering your own self-esteem and the deed will be preying on your conscience. You may deny to yourself that it is happening, but is inevitably happening within your subconscious mind.When you steal, you are beginning to stop loving yourself, and therein lies the road to ruin in your whole life.

I certainly hope you're joking. It's just a game.

I don't think the average person in Skyrim should have anything really valuable. Those who are wealthy should have a goodly amount of gold gems and jewelry. A merchant should have his goods available for pilfering if their stash is found ala Morrowind.

I don't like having stolen goods being marked. At least in the past if you enchanted the junk you stole it wasn't stolen any more. And the guards don't have esp.

It might also be nice to find a magic weapon or armor in the homes of the more wealthy.

I also hope that there would be a need to steal to increase wealth. Oblivion made it so there was no need to collect loot at higher levels. By 12th level you were rolling in coin, and 12th level was pretty easy to do. I've come out of the sewers at level 6 or 7. a run through Vilverin and the castle filled with goblins and some artistic casting of illusions and conjurations some coin at a fighting chance to train your armorer skill a couple of times, and you're levelling some more.

Sorry got side tracked. *shrugs*

Heck... even just giving the clutter real value would be an improvement. But increasing the value of truly valuable clutter, like like silver cutlery and limeware platters, would also be appreciated.

I don't mind not being able to sell stolen goods in the same town you bought them, to avoid ridiculousness like this:
Townsman: Lord Fancius Pantsius's most valuable jewerly was stolen last night!
Shopkeeper: I'm certain those beautiful gems, rings, and necklaces I purchased from that visitor this morning is a completely unrelated event.

or to avoid the embarrasment of this :
Player Character: Oh hi, Merchant! I'd like to pawn this full set of matching Sterling-silver, gold-inlaid dinnerware, fit for a lord. But, I need the cash fast, so I'll sell it for 400 drakes. It's easily worth thrice that value!
Shopkeeper: ... You mean the full set of sterling-silver, gold-inlaid dinnerware stolen from Lord Fancius Pantsius' castle yesterday? Guards!

I prefer the idea of actual Thieves Guild Fences for some things, especially distinguished gear or aforementioned valuable looted clutter. As annoying as Oblivion's "Honest Merchants won't buy stolen Goods" was, at times it did make sense... of course, what's really needed is for stolen goods to have a visible "Heat" rating depending on the distance from the theft, distinctness of the item (A common silver shortsword won't raise any fuss after the first few days, while the King's legendary Akaviri Katana will always be super-hot Everywhere), and reports of the character's whereabouts at the time of the theft (or, in the case of a distant location, the player's amount of time spent there), and other factors using Radiant World. The ability to pawn an item depends on the shopkeeper's honesty, guilability, and the player's Mercantile/Speechcraft skill. Fences always buy hot items, but at a lower price than an honest merchant, to cover the fees of transfering it to a "cold" buyer (The King of Skyrim's legendary Magic Akaviri Dai Katana may be seen as just a fancy sword in Elsweyr, or a closer collector could pay good money for such a thing), with the reduced pay being directly determined by the heat of the item.

I hope so. thief archetypes without decent stealing is epic fail IMO.