So how do you think thievery should be handled in Skyrim? One of my favorite things in Morrowind was the thievery aspect of the game, finding powerful items hidden away in peoples houses and plundering the vaults of the great houses, while it may have been a little too easy to obtain powerful items through thievery in Morrowind it is needless to say that I was more than a tad disappointed in how thievery was handled in Oblivion. In Oblivion unless you were stealing for a thieves guild quest there really wasnt much for the player to steal other than cutlery and low quality items, unless you were stealing items to raise the amount of fenced items needed to access the next thieves guild quest thievery was useless, especially since you could gain access to some of the highest quality items by killing bandits once you reach a certain level.

Personally I think it should be between options 1 and 2 on the poll, while some powerful items may have been a little too easy to access as a low level character (the Sword of White Woe in Balmora and the Redoran treasury was a cakewalk once you knew where the key is, as well as various items in shops) I feel that it was generally well handled in Morrowind, of course it needs some balancing however Oblivion took it way too far to the point that they took a dive off the cliff. Does anyone remember the Khajiit you can befriend (forgot the name of the Khajiit and the town) in the town you pass on your way to Balmora from Seyda neen? I would love to see more aspects like this where certain people can give you hints as to the location of items worth stealing or even overhearing conversations between people that hint at locations that might have items of worth. I remember in Oblivion hearing rumours that led me to believe that there was loot worth stealing however upon investigating such rumours I found them to be false, 2 guards talking about some nonexistant mithril greaves stashed in the barracks and the aylied collector who supposedly has one of the largest collection of Aylied artifacts dispite the fact that none of them appear in his home (I seriously thought this was hinting at loot worth stealing instead of a quest that leads you on a few dungeon crawls) in the Imperial City.

What are your thoughts on the subject?

Let's see what Selbeth has to say.

Voted:
"Similar to Morrowind with plenty of powerful items up for grabs in seemingly mundane locations."

I hope the AI is smart enough to watch out for me.

I would agree that there needs to be greater rewards for thieves in Skyrim. While I felt that Bethesda improved the mechanics for sneaking in Oblivion, outside of quests, they really made playing a thief much less rewarding. I want to be able to find some valuable items worth stealing in towns and cities. Obviously, not everyone should have them, I don't expect to find Daedric armor sitting in some random farmer's house, but if I break into a rich person's house and pick a difficult lock, I expect to find something more worthwhile than calipers. Nor should these items necessarily be easy to get. I agree that some high quality items were too easy to steal in Morrowind, though in part, I think it was due to the AI not being very good. NPCs would just ignore you if you started sneaking behind them and going up to the second floor of their house would not raise any suspicion at all. Whereas in Oblivion, they'd actually follow you if you got out of sight, and to be a successful thief, the best way was to wait until they were either asleep, or gone, yet there was still nothing worth stealing. Other than that, high quality items could be a little better guarded, but they should certainly be attainable through theft.

I voted the second option. There should be some really good items if you know where to go (perhaps through rumors, or maybe even some fliers or books), but if you go into a mediocre house, don't expect anything fantastic.

i went with option 2 because that seems more like real life, though i would like to see a mixture of of both option one and two. on a side note i would like to see npc's not freak out when i pick up a fork to examine it or go into a local pub and pick up an apple off the table and have the tavern folk try to string me up. it is a tavern shouldn't the apple on the table be free to eat with the purchase of my mead?

thievery in oblivion didnt bug me..

what bugged me was the fact that spoons, calipers etc.. had no value... as long as mundane items have atleast 1 gold of value instead of none then I wont mind.

JUST LIKE THIEF GAMEZZ

ops wrong thread

hmmm I guess I would love to steal from the rich, you know like actual valuable stuff, not spoons and plates, I mean jewels and golden stuff that is worth a lot.

Just as long as there are plenty of secret passages, not just in castles. Castle Skingrad was the best ,with the Pale Lady living in the wine barrels. I loved finding new secret passages and was one of my favourite parts of Oblivion.

Yep.. I'd like to see some set treasures. Not randomized, low, medium, high chests. Even if they are still having inner cells and outer cells it would be nice if there were alternate entrances to buildings.. (like WINDOWS). The elder scrolls universe has the most amazing windows.. nothing can penetrate them..

Still found some things to steal ( rare books, bottles of 399 ) but the stolen flag seemed much worse a problem than the availability of valuable items. I've said this before in similar threads, this is how I would deal with it : nothing findable in random loot counts as stolen ever, but introduce items which are always marked as stolen, such as paintings, fine vases, and named weapons ( anyone will buy an iron shortsword, but not Erik the Hoarder's iron shortsword. ) Would be hand placed only in wealthy or middle classed homes, and are no use at all unless you are a thief by trade and have access to a fence.

I picked option 2. I would love it if you could create diversions,etc. to make the area with the item clear.

One of the more recent coverage mags said something about random NPCs would talk about rumors and certain places of interest. Perhaps they may mention that they heard that someone had something hidden somewhere and just by the audible cue you could take that info and try to find and steal whatever is there.

Somewhere between option one and option two. Thieving in Oblivion was a little lackluster. I don't want to find a good item everywhere I go, but occasionally. It doesn't have to be an artifact or anything, just a little more gold, a gem, a necklace. Enough to give me an incentive to keep on doing it. And then once in a great while bam! ...something awesome.

Robin Hood style (steal from the rich and you give it away to the poor)
and if your caught they whip your arms and hands leaving scars

I voted the second one, but it should be a bit logical. Like if you hear a townsperson say "Farmer Dan keeps bragging about his grandfather's sword!", maybe that's a clue to something you can steal? Other times, you can use logic: "Rich Merchant Vic is rich, so he probably has some items of value in his house!".

Ha!
Yeah.
It seems that the residents of Tamriel have luckily preserved a bit of Dwemer glassmaking lore.
Indestructible and completely opaque windows.

Obviously valuable items are generally not put under the bed. I want thievery to be challenging. Some things should just be beyond your abilities until you reach a certain level.

Side note - one of the first things that I did in Oblivion was to radically alter loot scaling to avoid the bandits in glass syndrome. Hopefully Skyrim is better - I expect it to be. I found the level scaling in Fallout NV to be much better.

Would be cool to catch thieves and slaughter them.

I picked option 2 as it makes more sense and rewards thieves suitably, this combined with Radiant AI/Story would let thieves stake out a location, watch for guard changes perhaps and find windows of opportunity. A good example is the Great House treasuries in vivec in Morrowing which were crammed full of loot but due to the lack of guards changing it was almost impossible to get into without killing everyone or having 100% chameleon. Some sort of disguising mechanic would be cool too, so if you had a full suit of guard armour you'd be mistaken for one.

I did like some of the mid level random loot in MW tho'. I still recall finding a Steel Sparksword in a random chest as a new character and it was my primary weapon til about level 7. The surprise and delight of finding decent loot (not crazy epic stuff) in inocuous locations was fun.

That'd be awesome, tho may become repetitive with almost one grandad in every town having an awesome sword....