This is my main gripe with the game:

Why are all these merchants not even displaying their Elvish/Orchish/Glass gear to me unless I reached some arbitary number they cannot see or calculate in this 'living, breathing world'? Do these merchants hide all their best crap from someone who is prepared to pay for the best for his/her survival?

Not to mention, not every merchant will be naturally stocked with these, but I expect at least SOME cities to carry such items like Elven/Glass and perhaps even Ebony. Daedric should be still a rare thing you have to loot. I mean most smiths have the components you need to craft your armour, so I expect they can forge it and sell it to me for a good hefty but honest price. Once more, I want choice, not the arbitrary level dictating what I can see in their vendor list and purchase.

This doesn't make sense to me, I have about 15K+ [ Not using enchanting/alchemy/smithing ] and I can't blow it on anything useful but more potions. Anyone who can suggest some higher level gears for a lvl 10 and possibly post about if you understand and support this mechanic or not.

EDITED for expanding on my point more clearly.

I thought the level scaling is almost the same as Fallout 3. I don't remember vendors' inventories updates as you level. This needs to be fix as soon as the CS is out.

Why not

It actually bothers me the most that even at the higher levels I can still only raid something like 100 gold from a chest that is being guarded by a bandit chieftain.

Sometimes realism must be sacrificed for the sake of logical playability.


Isn't it kind of pointless to be able to buy the best armor in the game early on? Keep in mind that it is possible to get rich without levelling, so you could potentially have a level 5 in Ebony Armor or something.

Why not, what my good sir.

With all the loot you find in dungeons that can respawn, unless you're an archer, what do you really need to buy at a merchant anyway? Most little things you use can be found in abundance in dungeons (Soul Gems and such). Everything else is either also found in large doses or can be made by you; and things you make, from my observation, are ALWAYS better than what you can buy or find.

In that case the money is pointless. I'm level 16, walking around with 10 000 gold and a [censored] leather armour. Where can you get a decent light armour?

Why shouldn't they suddenly gain better merchandise?

I think it would be a lot better if the merchants never upgraded from the basic hide, iron, etc.


It would make dungeon crawling much more worthwhile since it's the only way to get good gear, and it also adds in the realism factor. Where do they get that high-level stuff anyways?

Logical playability? Nothing should be sacrificed for something that makes sense and is logical in itself. If I accumulated enough gold in my dangerous questing and travels, I expect I can invest into gear from merchants who always should have stocked these to begin with, but simply beyond your reach since you don't have enough cash. I expect some immersion from the part of the game as well, not me just roleplaying.

If my level dictates what the world is throwing at me or even my loot? Fine with that, I can deal with it. But merchants too? No. It only frustrates me even further I am crapped out because of it.

This isn't power levelling, this is simply pulling out your hard earned cash to obtain some of that gear you want but never will find in those caves with redundant armour and petty gold on such level. Lets not even break the can of worms that is the Nightingale armour.

I agree. What would people prefer? Stay in Riverwood at the start, spam woodcutting for a few hours, buy enchanted ebony armour from Alvor the lowly village blacksmith? No thanks...

Not really. It's not like the armor is free when you reach that level.

And you could craft it or buy it (or is this a hypothetical situation to counter my argument? ).

Most normal vendors shouldn't even have Ebony for sell in the first place. Most npc don't even get to wear anything higher than steel plate. It makes no sense that vendors would sell or have anything higher than steel as the general population don't even wear them and probably can't afford them. High grade armour should only be sold by special vendors, and a blacksmith in Riverwood should just have average stuff. So even if you managed to find tons of gold, you'll still need to find a vendor that sells them. And if you do find one, then I think you deserve to wear them as a level 5.

I find it a bit odd that I seem to be the only one able to buy orcish and elven stuff almost right from the start (when getting to Whiterun anyway). Sure there might not be much in the way of glass and ebony, but that would also pretty much ruin the game.
I know it's not that realistic, but sometimes you have to cut back on realism to make room for better game mechanics. Fact of the matter is, it would completely destroy the game if you were able to just go buy the highest level of equipment at low levels.

It's another way of arbitrary level requirements on items. A less in your face "no ebony until level XX" mechanism.

Probably also keeps enemy scaling a bit more accurate. I doubt they scale to your gear so a low level in 'high level' kit would streamroller it.

Yeah but just make higher armour more expensive and gold rarer.

If ebony armour was say 10,000 gold (not including boots, gloves and helmet) it would make it less attainable at low levels but still there.

It was a real question. I'm sick of this leather armor. I've only come across elven but it looks very misplaced on my vulgar Dunmer.

You are talking like everyone will actually mind this. Woodcutting is a tedious task and takes some time to actually accumulate enough gold. Not to mention, not every merchant will be naturally stocked with these, but I expect at least SOME cities to carry such items like Elven/Glass and perhaps even Ebony. Daedric should be still a rare thing you have to loot. I mean most smiths have the components you need to craft your armour, so I expect they can forge it and sell it to me for a good hefty but honest price.

Once more, I want choice, not the arbitrary level dictating what I can see in their vendor list and purchase.

Plus the random loot CAN throw up surprises, you know? My character found a glass sword at level 4 and an ebony helmet at about level 7. Useless to a pure mage, but that's not the point...

It was hypothetical, and it wasn't a "finding" of the armor at a special merchant. It was purchasing from some regular guy because you had the money.


And I agree with you about what they stock, as you can see in my earlier post. Having merchants selling Dwemer gear (and at affordable prices) is unrealistic in the first place.

I wish it was based a bit most on location and economy.
ex.
Rich towns -> Rare items, Higher merchant gold

I've crawled through a lot of dungeons (and I mean a lot of dungeons) and at lvl 29 the best stuff I have is still Glass. My sword, bow, arrows, shield and helmet. The rest is Elven. Not that I'm really having a tough time surviving.

Vendors have been offering Glass weaponry for a little while now, but the best light armor for sale is Elven or scale. I've found a few bits of Ebony armor, but no weapons yet.

Good stuff is rare; I like it this way. No more marauders decked out in Daedric by the time you hit lvl 22. When I come across an Ebony 1H sword or bow, I'm going to squeal like a little girl.

this type of scaling removes so much of the fun it spoils the game.

its like being led by the nose all the way through the game.sure you can explore,but theres nothing across the screen map that cant be got at the local store.

so it sort of ruins exploring for good gear...which if i am not mistaken is the whole point of tes games,open world and open gameplay etc.


but then again..its a console game now so we wont be seeing the old tes we fell for again.



@unclepain above post.

good stuff is not rare,its just locked until you hit a level,then its in every store/sellers inventory.

meanwhile the bow it took me ages to craft becomes old news in a split second,and can be bought for less than the crafting price.

stupid lousy thought out system

When you go shopping, do the attendants run around hiding everything that is too expensive or nice for you?

With vendor item scaling, it incessantly breaks the immersion because I'm aware that everything will be just as expensive and powerful as my level allows. It makes me feel like I'm playing a game. Why they can't have a diverse item selection I don't know. If a level one sees they have an ebony one handed sword for sale for ten thousand gold, it's just as inaccessible as if it weren't there, but the immersion isn't broken. Similarly, it would give speechcraft an actual use in the game. If Joe wants to save and barter and steal that sword at pain of death (because the bounty would be relative to that which was stolen), then that's up to him, not the mysterious game gods.