I agree. It made sense Deadric items were more common in Oblivion to a limited extent, as all the Oblivion gates being open probably brought many into Cyrodiil; but in Skyrim, I think it would make more sense to make Deadric items super rare.

Yes it's quite pointless when there's nothing to spend all your gold on. In Oblivion even the high end stuff each shop did have was useless because it usually had a negative effect.

I think rare stuff should perhaps not be carried in stores (like daedric) but the more mundane but high end stuff I agree should. I always have more fun when I'm saving up for something cool.

as long as it doesn't turn out that only one city has the high end merchant that sells good weapons, I think every major town needs to have a trader that has high end stuff.

Well Daedric arms and armor are actually made from refined ebony with a lesser daedra bound to it. As far as I know, they are not made in oblivion.

I think everyone should have a chance of having a high end weapon or armor piece in their store, but it won't always be there, and sometimes there will be more than one. It shouldn't be leveled and it shouldn't be static. There should be some base things that are always restock in inventory (low end gear, maybe a few arrows, a piece that is unique to the store like the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Unique_Items#Unique_Weapons, etc.)

Then for mid level gear (Anything around Silver, some lower end enchanted stuff) it should have an X% chance of being stocked. And High level gear like Daedric or Glass should have a lower chance of being stocked, something like half the chance of the mid range gear.

Edit: @Jolly Good: Yes but giant portals streaming out Daedric warriors will eventually lead to a buildup of Daedric gear. Even though they tried to balance this by making the weapons "Dremoran" and not letting you grab the armor. I always assumed that was a balance issue and if it were real other people who killed Daedra would have no problem picking them up.

I understand where the OP is coming from but it wouldn't be good for the game. I can see if it's something that's medium hard to get like Mithril, Elven, Orcish but not something like Glass Armor even if it costs 30,000 at level 1.

If they do have full inventory at the beginning then you can't have a merchant chest or have the loot from his store appear on his/her corpse.

I'm one of those players who prefers to get their weapons and armor from dungeon raids and such rather than spending money on them, so I don't think this wouuld affect me too much. However like has been previously stated, I think rare weapons and armor should be rare and not availabe early on in shops

I have never bought armour from blacksmiths. Because i knew if i would spend some time on exploring i would get the gear i wanted for free.

i agree. and i know what you mean about feeling the game reminds you that you are indeed playing a game. make the items very expensive and hard to steal and all problems are solved

edit: they dont have to sell deadric stuff from the beginning. but a few enchanted "normal" stuff and such wouldnt hurt

On the shops, really nice idea but it might be better if some more expensive shops who specifically search and deal in rare stuff (and will also cough more money up would you be willing to sell rare items) and have a higher chance of getting a 'rare' item.

On the daedric stuff: Of course it is partly a balance issue, but lower dremora do not actually have daedric gear. This is a right reserved for those in higher ranks, if I recall correctly. The lower dremora then take on a form that they think fits them and ispires fear on their enemies. They essentially make themselves look like they have daedric gear. (although this could just as well be made up for the sake of balance)

I just want to get more use out of weapons I find more aesthetically pleasing. I also hope they have a Katana half as cool as the mother ship zeta one. I hate big silly looking weapons and only picked them up to sell them.(glass gear set) I don't care for 90% of the equipment so I only use the equipment I think looks cool and enchant rings and pendants to make up for the stat difference. I would also hope you can buy sets of gear at shops less we look like a hodgepodge of a dragonborn.

As far as immersion is concerned, yes I think vendors should have a transparent stock of items that is not dependent on the PC's level. Whether or not the weapons can be afforded or used with competence should be the deciding factors in a purchase but I'm not going to knock whats already in Bethesda games. Take into account factors such as the repair cost of magical or higher level items plus magical charges (e.g. 10 fire damage on hit) then making an expensive purchase too early could be more hassle than it's worth but that is all part of the player's own real life experience of playing the game. Some play fast and loose, some more reserved.

Its true, the a lot of the people on these forums are very conservative about any changes made to the series. Scaling went overboard in OB but was greatly improved upon for FO3. A level range bases scaling system I think is essential for open world rpg. Both NV and MW I thought were not as good as FO3 in this regard.

As to the OP's question, I don't think I have played a game with economy that I felt was balanced. Doing what he wants would be very tough with balancing.

I don't have a problem with level scaling of store inventory. Frankly, there shouldn't be very many vendors out there with rare and powerful weapons anyway, and, perhaps, those who do, just on general principal, wouldn't care to sell a rare weapon to some rag wearing vagrant who just schlepped into town.

Ya on the principle that rag wearing vagrant does not have the septims to buy it.

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:
By far my favorite emoticon smiley dude. I like that you used two.. good post sir.. good post. B)

Although I totally disagree and think money/shops should be more realistic/IMMURSHUN-y. Just adds to my wonder to the game world I suppose.

But regardless.. good post. lol

Edit: Oooo look they're all in sync! That's pretty neat. (you can tell it's an aspen because of the way it is.)

True there should be the "Ultra Rare Weapons Deluxe"^TM shop here or there but they should not be common places. Maybe a 2-3 shops in the whole game that only deal in the unique and awesome. I think it is a little of both on the Daedra. It has an in game reason but I'm sure it was done for the sake of balance. Looking at the Dremora Armor in the CS they should have let us use it. It is all scaled properly and uniquely named, it just isn't playable. Oh fun fact, the level 5 Dremora's (Markynaz) helmet is mislabeled as a level 4 Daedra's (Kynval) helmet. Neat lol.

I would be fine if most stores had a greater variety of weapons or armor like elven. But I also think there should be a few specialty shops that also have some higher end (glass, ebony) items at level 1.(edit: guess I was too slow as others have mentioned something similar) Not everything, but maybe a piece or two as well as some unique enchanted items. Inventories could change with some new items appearing and others disappearing.

But I don't think they should have everything from the beginning. These guys aren't Walmart so sometimes they might have that dwarven cuirass and sometimes it may be gone. Although I think in OB there were some shops that had 11,000 septim items even from the start like some dwarven juggernaught cuirass at a store in Bruma. Some other expensive axes etc... were in other stores so some of that was in place even in OB.

I agree with the OP.

I agree with the OP.

In terms of the world, not every vendor should have Daedric armour because it is hard to obtain and none should have the legendary artifacts.

But the big cities should stock ebony and glass from the outset...In Morrowind it was great when you saved up for armour and then spent it all on one or two pieces...Just make the prices ridiculously expensive and the security top notch to prevent thefts.

I think they should randomly get special weapons, that way it always pays to go out of your way to a store in some village because they might of got their hands of a great shipment.

I like the idea of having high end shops, but they should have a crap load of guards in them (like few of the shops in MW had), in order to prevent people from just walking in and stealing it all at level 1.

ehhh Elder Scrolls has included ebony, glass, daedric, etc. for a long time now.. I don't think they are considered to be necessarily RARE. I mean sure, more rare than iron and silver but it's not like unique items with magical properties like Mehrunes Razor. I don't see it being an issue so long as not every store carries the same items. They gotta make it worth going to all of the other shops. Maybe even a higher item database this time around.

I agree. However I think a nice way to make it more balanced would be if vendors sold items that are maybe 2 armor/weapon levels above yours. So if you're on level 1 (iron/fur) vendors will sell dwarven/chainmail armor, which usually only appear at level 7 (?). I also agree high end iweapons and armor should mostly only obtainable for those who can afford it or if they belong to some elite milicia or other military job :shrug:

Hopefully not every bandit and their dog have glass armor and warhammers, when no one in the imperial markets can seem to find any....

so stupid