So I haven't played a whole lot of Morrowind, but I did see that in Oblivion, there were very few instances of finding actual "treasure". Sure, you could find some fancy armor, you own weight in gold, and even some fancy Daedric artifacts. But the chance to really discover things was very low. One never really got the chance to find something historically valuable, like ancient Ayleid artifacts that are never mentioned in any quests or by any person.

What I always wanted to have was the ability to go into an Ayleid ruin, look around, and have the chance to find something unique; not necessarily valuable to merchants, but unique. Or even the chance to miss finding something unique because it was left in a remote corner. Or perhaps it's broken beyond repair? Or perhaps the ruin is simply empty. And no explanation through quests at all. If the ruin has an interesting history, I would want to have to discover it myself; not rely on a quest to tell me about it.

Morrowind did do this a lot better in some ways; I use Dwemer mugs and bowls in my house, and decorate with cogs. But apart from those standard artifacts, I don't think I've ever found anything truly unique.


So I wonder, what did you enjoy about finding special loot in Oblivion and Morrowind? What could have been better? How should TES: V improve on treasure, or other undiscovered peculiarities?

well i love finding treasures like nuggets and Gems. but i would love if there were valued/unique artifacts too.

a ruin/dungeon simply empty is bad idea and a waste of time,so no.

I'm pretty curious as to what the word "swag" has to do with this post, at all. :mellow:
Do you know what the word swag means?

Looking it up, I guess it was kind of off. But not by much. I had envisioned a pirate's loot.

I think some clever person made it into an acronym for stuff we all get, as in for free, like gift bags etc.
I think there were just too many pointless forts in Oblivion for them to give everyone a story. My advice? don't do that. Have a few points with real meaning and yes, include the pointless yet interesting artifacts.
What I did in oblivion was I collected all the pointless rings and necklaces (if you have amazons installed from either OOO or MMM you'll find they drop a lot of jewelry) and I dumped them all in the pool in the vile lair. After a while it looked pretty crazy but running through it would slow my machine down a bit. Especially with the gate stones rolling around. In Morrowind, the stop level of my house had all the different types of armour layed out, along with any unique weapons. I hope the guy who made 'decorator's assistant' has his game face on when TES5 comes out.
My $0.02

They really should've had more Ayleid artifacts. I mean, the KotN expansion's books really got me fascinated with them, but it's still weird and annoying how their "cities" don't show signs of ever having been occupied. Even in Mankar Camoran's Paradise where I assume he was trying to recreate an Ayleid dominion, his hall has nothing save for a barren throne.

Those weren't cities, they were sewers. Ayleids were forest-folk, and would never live underground. The obove-ground cities were sieged and :flamethrower:ed and crushed by bliviongate:s (Supposed to mean Daedric summonings.) The Alessian army [censored] and burned, but simply did a worse job than us nords did with Falmer. I don't think they would leave many things in the sewer, but some ruins cold have easily been said to be treasure-vualts or bomb shelters (against the Slave rebellion)

Completely agree. Hand placed artifacts make dungeon diving and exploring worthwhile. Even if it's not something functional, like a Dwemer book or an Ayleid candleabra, it would still be exciting to come across

Oblivions levelled loot made dungeon diving monotonous after 1 or 2 playthroughs

You are very wrong if you don't think Morrowind had unique items to find. There were alot of unique treasures scattered around the different dungeons. and yes I agree, this is what makes exploring interesting