For console users, most people accidentally lose artifact items and if they want to do the quest to get it back, they have to load up a save that is so far back, they may as well start a new file.

Pc users can easily use console command to retrieve the item back, but console users lose access to such items forever.

I think for the next elder scrolls game, the devs should include a vendor that will always sell artifact items you've acquired throughout the quests you've done so that in case you lost it, you can always buy it from the vendor. The vendor will only have the item in stock if you've picked it up from its respective quest or such.

I don't see how people accidently lose them. They should be going into a chest or something, not into a merchant's inventory.

No. If you sell something that rare, it's your own fault. Even if you accidentally sell them, you can buy them back from the same merchant until their inventory restocks.

This goes here: http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1465112-official-beyond-skyrim-tes-vi-24/

I disagree with the OP. I think most people keep all this crap in some chest even if they are never going to use it. They don't "accidentally" lose them. They don't pay attention. No, I don't think a dumb vendor should have rare artifacts to sell at less than 1000 gold. Pay more attention next time OP.

Not losing an artifact by selling it, just by other methods such as it despawning in a place or forgetting to pick it up in a quest. Or the weapon may get disarmed.

Where did I say that people lose stuff by selling it?

How do you "lose" gear though? Even when you get disarmed you can just pick your weapon back up......

Gods no, with how the journal system works, quest markers and the compass, quest items and unkillable quest giving NPCs we don't need yet another thing that will let the players play like mindless morons instead of paying attention to what they're doing. If you lost the artifact that's your problem.

In the next elder scrolls I want to see quest items being lost-able and appearing where they would appear even before the quest is active, instead of it being spawned only when you activate the quest, as well as possibility for the quest givers to die.

What the hell happened to the good old hard RPGs that we knew and loved?

Well sadly, that is Beths' fault. It's not really common when being normally disarmed, but when your weapon gets disarmed by a shout it can happen that it launches off too hard and can sometimes clip through walls/floors in interiors, and you can't pick it up again. That's something they messed up a bit. :/

Agree with this. Lost my Bloodskal Blade due to shouts.

Odds are its in that room.

On my very first character, I lost the Mace of Molag Bal in Saarthal. 5 real months later I found it in the first room with the Draugr. You just need to keep looking.

I literally searched for two hours my friend. I looked at every brick for signs of the blade with no luck.

Sometimes it doesn't get lost in the room, it goes through the wall and you can't get it back. Trust me, it's not so uncommon.

Nope... I think this is just moronic in a RP perspective. I mean, how did a merchant got a Daedric Artifact for selling? I wonder what Belethor would have to do to get his hands on the Mace of Molag Bal... It just sounds wrong. Even if they would sell for over 100K Septims. I've lost the Volendrung once in a weapon plack of a house... I guess the thing clipped though the floor and I never saw it again (happened when I wasn't home, pretty bizarre). So, I leaned to never put artefacts in weapon racks and placks again, only chests.

This isn't an MMO where you can die, losing artifacts, and respawn...

So no. I disagree. If you lose them, it's your own fault.