I think what Bethesda should consider is adding true unique weapons to their games.


In Fallout 3 and Oblivion, you had "unique" items, in the sense that their was only one of them. But they were always in the same place, so you didn't get a sense of accomplishment finding the weapon. For example, Lincolns Repeater in Fallout 3 was always in the Museum of History. If it were changed to spawn randomly in the world map, finding it would truly be an epic moment.


Bethesda should add unique weapons that spawn randomly. It would add a whole lot more to looting.

By unique I'm assuming you mean artifacts, and I'd rather they not spawn randomly. In Morrowind there were many hand-placed artifacts, Eleidon's Ward, the Dragonbone Cuirass, and the Daedric faces being a few examples, and for me at least, this added to the atmosphere of the game rather than if I'd found these items in a random chest. It gave the artifacts backstories that the player could only guess at. Other artifacts, and most -- if not all-- of the Oblivion artifacts were found through quests of the Daedric variety.

I'd rather go through a dungeon (or three to get clues to where the unique weapon is) than go "Oh, look! This random bandit had an incredibly powerful sword on him!"

In reality, it would be extremely rare for any unique weapon to be randomly found on the ground or in a person's inventory- what did the previous owner do, drop it because they had too much in their inventory and needed to lose some weight? No, it's far more likely that the previous owner bit off more than they could chew trying to single-handedly clear out a dungeon full of powerful enemies.

oh, i know what lets do!

lets go back to arena's artifact system... ask about rumors about a million times, eventually get one hint about someone knowing about the location of a map to an artifact, talk to them, go to a random dungeon and find the random map to the random artifact, then go to another random dungeon to get the random artifact...

...then just keep using that one random artifact, because we shouldnt be allowed to own more than one artifact at a time, then eventually it'll disappear forever, and we can start all over trying to get another random artifact.

that sound good to you? :dance:

Or maybe the adventurer survived and his artifacts are in his tomb. Eleidon's Ward and the Daedric Face of Inspiration can be found in a rather well-hidden crypt, hanging above a skeleton - presumably the Ward's last owner. The Dragonbone Cuirass is found concealed in an locked cupboard in a lost Dwemer Checkpoint, and how it got there -- and why the Checkpoint was lost -- is left to the imagination. The Daedric Face of God is found in an ornate (and again, well-hidden) Nordic tomb, complete with a dragonship and other goodies, and the only hint you get to this place is a drunken barbarian's key.

Truly, what I'm hoping for in Skyrim is another one of these Nordic Sepulchers . . . but on a grander scale!

I actually expected the Lincolns repeater in the museum of history...it kind of was a part of history so it made sense.

non respawn unique item is better i think,but pls create more of it and put it under unique areas,like beside a corpse,puzzle reward or anything

so to be a truly unique item it has to randomly spawn?

Unique items are supposed to have a story behind them. Im sure a few could be randomized a bit. But most should always be in the same place.

I have to agree with this. While I don't mind having unique artifacts in random loot in some sorts of games, such as say, Diablo, it's not really what I want from the Elder Scrolls. In such games, a lot of emphasis is put on killing lots of enemies in the hopes that you'll find some rare, powerful item, and that's not a criticism, because if I play that kind of game, chances are that's the kind of experience I'm looking for, but the Elder Scrolls, I feel, is more about exploration and quests, making these things feel rewarding and capturing the atmosphere of locations is important, and for this, I think some worthwhle hand-placed items is beneficial.

In any case, I don't see how randomly spawning makes unique items "truly unique", if anything, being hand placed makes them seem MORE unique, because you know that if you didn't explore this dungeon or do that quest, you'd never see that item, if they are part of random loot, you could potentially find them in any location that can spawn items such as them in the world. But really, when someone says "Truly unique items", I think of making the appearance or abilities of unique items more unique, and Oblivion mostly had the first one down, aside from the artifacts, many quest rewards looked different from normal items, at the very least they might have a different texture, in terms of abilities, though, while there were a few items with unique effects you wouldn't see anywhere else (Wabbajack, for example.) aside from the kind of boring but practical Azura's Star and Skeleton Key, most of these seemed like gimmick items for the most part, they might be fun to play with, but weren't actually extremely useful, and the other unique items tended to just have common enchantments, although artifacts were usually much more powerful than anything you could make yourself and most generic enchanted items.

Random spawn locations doesn't necessarily make an item "truly unique". Unique items are suppose to possess certain qualities that separate them from common items, hence the term unique. I would hate having to always be guessing where I will find this "unique" item because of random spawning. I'll be happy with "unique" items in Skyrim, long as Bethesda makes sure all unique items have their own unique design in appearance and qualities, and are difficult to obtain via quest or exploring particular dungeons.

They've already got those, and have had them since Arena.



Which made those items, by the very definition of the word, unique.



Which has nothing to do with the item's uniqueness, or lack thereof.



Not to mention somewhat butchering the game. There was quite a bit of Lincoln historical memorabilia in fact, and it was all found (how surprising is this?) in a museum of history.



Maybe they should, I'll go that far. But not so far that every single unique weapon should spawn randomly. This isn't a simple random dungeon crawl like the Diablo games or Nethack, nor should it be turned into one.

I think there should be more unique one off items but they should be hand placed and not generated randomly. By hand placing items like this you can give tham a backstory and make them interesting, there should be a reason why certain items are found in certain places, not just turning up willy nilly.

I'm not saying that every unique weapon should be randomly spawned. Of course many will still be in consistent locations to fit in with lore.

I'm just saying that it would be nice if their was a chance of certain unique weapons spawning randomly, that don't conflict with lore. And by randomly I don't mean on killed enemies, I mean on the ground in the corner of a room or in a secret chest somewhere.

And I know what unique means, I used the wrong word. Thanks for tearing me down about it :whistling:

I have to admit I did enjoy Morrowinds system when it came to obtaining legendary/unique artifacts. I still remember the first time I found that dagger; Fang of Haynekhtnamet in a Sixth House base. Actually the dagger could possibly make an appearance in Skyrim, considering it was made from the fang of a rare type of dragon in Black Marsh.

This. Unscaled, unique items in single locations is the way to go. "Hidden" ones like Magebane and carried ones like Temreki, Shackler of Souls are the way to go.

I was fond of the convoluted path to Skull Crusher's resting place myself. :thumbsup:

I haven't played Morrowind in about two years now, but I do remember Skull Crusher. Wasn't it in a chest levitating above some molten lava? Good times. :goodjob:

Well, just my thought but... maybe Bethesda could make one, maybe two, items that are spawned on a random enemy( something tough at least, maybe a boss) along with a diary for explaining how that guy got the weapon. Using the boss idea, maybe his/her crew raided a dungeon and found it, and being the leader he claimed it and began using it....I dunno, may be cool for one or two items imo, but I can understand opposing opinions(may become repetitive or something)

I remember in the first KOTOR game down in the shadowlands of the Wookiee planet of Kashyyyk, lived a huge creature that a previous warrior had fought and was killed against. Anyway the blade from the original warriors' weapon, remained in the creatures hide for years. You (as the pc) were then required to retrieve the blade so you could reforge the weapon. You get a ruff picture of what I mean. I think a similar style quest could work, perhaps with dragon, who knows? :goodjob:

I can't rememeber how they did it in Daggerfall but when I was playing Arena a few months ago, the Artifacts were never in the same spot. You would get "rumours" where they could be, or was it you knew what province they were in but it was never in the same dungeon twice. So maybe that is what the OP ment, wich I actually like, it keeps the game refreshing and no more going straight to Rivit City to get the Intelligence Bobblehead right away.