I'm wondering if they are gonna bring back the item grades like they had in Oblivion. (i.e. swords were Iron, Steel, Elven, Glass, Orcish [or whatever], and Daedric) I really, REALLY, hope they do away with that. It made finding new weapons rather boring since there was no real variety in them, it was always "look for the one thing with the highest quality and screw the rest." It didn't help much when most of the higher lvl items looked ridiculous. (don't even get me started on Glass light armor) In Fallout there were plenty of different armor types and while some were better than others different types at least allowed different stats and wasn't just based on what it was made out of. I think I'm gonna love playing this game but if I want to play as a light armor fighter and find out that the only way to get the best protection is to dress up like a glowing green monkey then I am gonna be rather dissapointed. (I REALLY hated glass armor, glass swords were cool though)

I thought the glass in Morrowind was B.A.

I assume they will return. Though it will not make much difference to me personally. I always wore whatever armor suited me best on a visual stand point. :shrug: Besides, if you really hate glass so much just enchant some lower grade armor with "shield" or something like that.

I hope they have a little more of a pro-con approach to it in Skyrim if it does come back, instead of everything being direct upgrades.

It's been there forever, I doubt they'll scratch it completely. Maybe many swords of the same material but of different make. A Nord forged glass sword wouldn't look the same as a Redguard forged glass sword. Also steel Orcish scimitars would be relatively powerful against compared to other swords made of steel or such.

so... you want ghost weapons and armor, then?

well, you apparently want weapons and armor NOT to be made out of any physical material... least thats how it sounds to me.

look, thats how it is in life... steel is gonna be better than iron, demonic armor is going to be the BEST you can possibly hope for...

i doubt they're gonna get rid of these things...

i do hope for more variety, though... i want tons of different types, including some we had back in bloodmoon, like ice armor.

all i know is that glass armor in oblivion was ugly.

What he said.

What I'd like to see is some variation in these different types. Will each "Iron Sword" look like a carbon copy of each other? Will my sword start to show damage as its conditioning lowers? How rare will weapon classes above steel be this time around? Will humanoid enemies spawn the rarer weapons when I level scale up, or will they be just as rare? Will there be more unique weapons this time around that are similar or entirely different than their common counterparts?

These are the questions I'm asking.

a couple of the screen shots show weapons that look like they could be glass.
So, you want them out of the game? or just different qualities within each material type as oppossed to between the material types?

i would like there to be multiple types of class weapons and armor.
like have different variants of iron,steel,glass,etc...

My fighter characters almost always use fine steel weapons and steel armour for the duration of the game because that's the type I like aesthetically. I know what you mean though, it does feel like going against the grain. I would prefer it if you could upgrade your chosen weapon so that it has a higher damage, outside of magical enchantments.

I remember first finding glass armor in Oblivion and getting really excited... until I realized it looked nothing like Morrowind's, haha. Different variants between the types of weapons/armor would be very nice though.

I thought the steel bow was the best looking so I usually used Sigil stones to enchant them. The levelled loot in Oblivion was too much. after a while adventuring for loot wasn't satisfying any more. There was so much upper level junk filling my bags I could have outfitted an army. Oh and there was nothing to buy with the coin. I could enchant better stuff than I could find or buy.

As for the appearance, well I had just found a way to get into morrowind when Oblivion came out. The disappointment I felt at the changes was acute. The odd world was now normal, the weapons and armor were different, and not really for the better. My favorite weapons were gone as was the only means of travel that was of any use was gone thanks to the cities being in separate cells, this being the levitate spell. The move speeds in morrowind are tortuously slow. With a levitae you could at least go in a straight line from place to place.

I guess the best armor in the game was the Iron armor although if I wore heavy armor it was only a helmet and briastplate. Being a sniper/summoner I usually went without armor, relying on enchanted clothes and jewelery.

BGS isn't going to break with tradition so yes, item grades will be back in Skyrim.

Having the quality of items determined by material has been standard for the series for a long time, and honestly, it wouldn't make sense to remove it now. If you have all those fancy fantasy metals to make weapons and armor out of, of course you're going to take advantage of it. The reason why you won't see people in real life wearing armor made out of glass or ebony is because glass would make very impractical armor in real life, and ebony in real life is a kind of wood. But the glass used in glass armor in the Elder Scrolls is different from what you see in windows, and ebony in the Elder Scrolls is actually a form of volcanic glass that's said to be the crystalized blood of gods. But material doesn't have to be the ONLY defining factor in the quality of equipment, after all, if you have two swords made from steel, one can still be of higher quality craftsmanship than the other, and for that matter, the strength of your armor and weapons doesn't have to be the only factor to consider when choosing them. After all, glass armor may be the best protection a lightly armored warrior can hope for, but I can't imagine going around in a shiny green glass suit can be good for sneaking.

I liked how Oblivion started it out, though I wonder why they didn't keep it for higher level equipment. see, in OB, there was iron, then FINE iron. there was stell, than FINE steel. why couldn't every material have that!?

Not what I mean, sorry if I worded it wrong. I'm just found the whole "grade" system to be annoying, there was never any variety aside from special weapons found in certain areas or from quests and most of those were already enchanted so you couldn't do anything to them. Yes I know they have to be made out of something I just hope it isn't as restricting as it was in Oblivion. (btw, I never played Morrowind so I have no idea what the Glass looked like in that)