@xyzygy said:

Have you played Morrowind? There was so much gear that each type of weapon had it's own skill, and they divided armors in Light, Medium and Heavy. That's a testament to how much crazy gear there was in that game.

You know what I remember now too, about Morrowind, was that weapons had different speeds, reaches, and damage ranges via different attack styles (slash, swing and thrust IIRC). Not to mention there were more than essentially TWO weapon types (one- or two-handed)

While it makes combat skills much easier to focus, in Skyrim, that is also its problem. None of the weapons really scream out to you, they just get bigger numbers. Same with enchanting. Cuirass of the Saviors' Hide in Morrowind? One of the best Light Armors in the game, AND has 50% Resist Magick? Yes please. Skyrim is what, 15%? And is easily outdone by a self-made enchant, as well as having an extra effect if you have the perk.

I don't feel like simply complaining to complain though. I really just want to state what I consider facts as opposed to opinion on a lack of desirable loot. I for one am not excited by "vendor fodder" especially when gold does so little in this game. It actually does feel like diablo, but with a different story and way less Uniques.

Ooooooh, someone make a mod to give us Rune Words :P

@stinky said:

went through cave and chest at the end had hide armor.

got quest and went back through same cave and this time it was dragon armor in same chest, pretty decent.

as for chests with locks? all have been shitty. near end of my game play i started to ignore them. really why bother with them at all?

have to say lock picking is about as useful as the speech tree.

If you're playing on PC, get Lockpick Pro. That mini-game gets boring very quickly, and this can give quality of life improvements for a small drop in immersion.

I haven't had this problem at all...

I find decent upgrades to my gear every now and again, and also occasionally enchanted gear which I don't know the enchantment for yet.

Loot off of dead enemies tends to be better, too. But as was stated earlier, Skyrim isn't a loot-lust game.

@xyzygy said:

Have you played Morrowind? There was so much gear that each type of weapon had it's own skill, and they divided armors in Light, Medium and Heavy. That's a testament to how much crazy gear there was in that game.

You know what I remember now too, about Morrowind, was that weapons had different speeds, reaches, and damage ranges via different attack styles (slash, swing and thrust IIRC). Not to mention there were more than essentially TWO weapon types (one- or two-handed)

While it makes combat skills much easier to focus, in Skyrim, that is also its problem. None of the weapons really scream out to you, they just get bigger numbers. Same with enchanting. Cuirass of the Saviors' Hide in Morrowind? One of the best Light Armors in the game, AND has 50% Resist Magick? Yes please. Skyrim is what, 15%? And is easily outdone by a self-made enchant, as well as having an extra effect if you have the perk.

I don't feel like simply complaining to complain though. I really just want to state what I consider facts as opposed to opinion on a lack of desirable loot. I for one am not excited by "vendor fodder" especially when gold does so little in this game. It actually does feel like diablo, but with a different story and way less Uniques.

Ooooooh, someone make a mod to give us Rune Words :P

I've never played the game for the loot really. I tend to like to stick to one or two weapons and upgrade the hell of them rather than go looking for better weapons in random chests. Then again, I care about how my weapons looks as well as its stats.

It took everyone 100+ hours to realise this? I'm pretty sure if you spend 150 hours playing Skyrim and the 'loot sucks' - SURELY it's making up for it in other ways? Hard to take this topic seriously.

blacksmith all the way. other loot is just for money to buy leather so you can increase you bs

This was one of my biggest problems with Oblivion and yeah, sadly they haven't fixed it. Takes a lot of the joy of exploration away when there's literally nothing good to find that doesn't specifically come from a quest.

At least the environment is a lot more interesting this time.

It took everyone 100+ hours to realise this? I'm pretty sure if you spend 150 hours playing Skyrim and the 'loot sucks' - SURELY it's making up for it in other ways? Hard to take this topic seriously.

I've leveled smithing and enchanting so much that I would be disappointed if I couldn't make things that are better than what I would find. I am at level 32 and still rocking Wolf Armor and Skyforged steel.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

@Ulain: Even then, it wasn't the reason played. Loot is why you play games like Diablo. It's not why you play ES. If you want better loot, there are games out there for you. A game doesn't need to be all things to all people. Skyrim doesn't need unique shit scattered all over the world. I'd rather have meaningful, sparse super awesome gear than 100 random half assed unique weapons. Want better loot? Play Morrowind. Or better yet, play a LOOT FOCUSED GAME. And stop whining because you don't constantly find special unique overpowered gear. Morrowind is ONE game in a pretty sizable franchise. I've never given two fucks about loot in an ES game. I'm of the opinion that really cool loot being rare is way better than constantly finding "cool" loot that's just a different name applied to the same shit you've already seen. It wouldn't make any sense for you to just constantly be shedding your gear for yet another piece of "awesome" loot. I enjoy the loot in this game. If you aren't going to go the Borderlands way with it and just be totally batshit crazy and have a shit ton of different pieces of loot, I'd much rather be super stoked to find a rare bit of gear because it's not often you see cool stuff then constantly find amazing gear. I'm more than happy with enjoying quests and the awesome combat and the stories and exploration offered by the world. If you want loot, get loot. Does Halo need loot, as well? No, it doesn't. And neither does Skyrim.

You're right, I don't play Elder Scrolls games for the loot. Thing is, I really don't bother to play *any* games for the loot.

Mass Effect 2 barely had any upgrades, yet I think it's one of the most enjoyable games I've played lately. Let's go WAY back and look at Super Mario Bros! Best "loot" in there? A fire flower/racoon suit leaf?

Thing is, I found those games to have a well thought out story and engaging gameplay, respectively (and relatively speaking for the time period).

Maybe I should have expressed that in my original post, but as this is a thread about loot, I thought it might be off-topic to talk about how I don't enjoy the gameplay (which I didn't really in Morrowind either without the heavy use of mods) and I also didn't enjoy the story(ies), which felt shallow and poorly written. This is my opinion, and not what I want to have a debate over, but it is my reasoning for hoping the loot would have been more adequate.

I'm not sure where you get that I want hundreds of random, over-powered items laying around. My point is that there are NO over-powered items laying around. You have to do quests for a majority of the "good" loot, and even then, it's usually not better than anything you can make with Smithing and Enchanting.

My point is, I feel the game does not have a strong focus on loot, engaging gameplay mechanics, or compelling storyline. I think it sacrificed all three in order to create a beautiful, realistic landscape that only captures your imagination for so long.

I really wish the DLC is gonna have some crazy shit that beats the Daedric armour 

I don't get it. Obviously if you're going to choose the best weapon and best armor there is going to be one best of everything. Then everyone will be complaining that whatever comes out in the expansions is the best and the next expansion better have some armor that's better. And there is way more loot in Skyrim with unenchantable effects. I looked through all of Oblivions effects, almost every single one was just a stat buff. But Skyrim gives you a lot of unique effects you can't even get with spells, like the Ring of Hircine, or Dawnbreaker (which incidentally you do kind of get from a chest), a dragon priest mask, the Ebony Mail, Ring of Namira, Spellbreaker, Targe of the Bloodied (which you can find in a dungeon dive), The White Phial. And this isn't counting stuff from Dawnguard.

It would be nice to see different skins than what morrowind and oblvion had. i am tired of glass/elven/dwarven/ebony/mithril/chainmail etc.

That's not the real problem, the real problem is the lack of unique equipment. You get a couple of artifacts, some weapons/armor with unique names. But that's it. Along with some of the storylines and lifeless NPCs, the unique equipment, or rather lack thereof is Skyrim's biggest problem.

You can enchant your own equipment to make it unique. You can customize a set of armor to have enchantments that match your style of play. Same with weapons. I actually prefer that to having a few unique, high-powered items. In Oblivion, how many of us ended up walking around Cyrodiil with the Umbra sword? It was unique, but ... in the grand scheme of things it didn't feel unique to me, because everyone had it. I'd much rather make my own stuff than find it. That said, I understand the complaint. I think they could have found a better balance, even if the path they chose didn't particularly bug me.
 
Actually, I wonder if a Borderlands-style system would have been better. A lot of loot with different stats, all randomized and (for the most part) encompassing the low-to-moderate level. Above that, weapons with even higher stats that you could make yourself. Then, at a level above that, a handful of difficult-to-find items with superior stats. Elder Scrolls needs something more like that, just to keep things fresh.

@xyzygy: yep, 100% agree.

combat isn't great either. Needs more status effects & counters.

@haggis: I think I could agree with this to an extent. It's at least the illusion of loot variety, when in reality most of the randomized stats will probably be complete shit (sup, Diablo 3). Hell, even if it didn't really have stats, I think it could actually be pretty cool if they mixed in Morrowind's weapon variety (spears, long blade, short blade, axes, etc.) the different attack styles (slash, chop, and thrust) and Oblivion and beyond's skill progression of hitting harder with weapons, as opposed to increasing the chance to hit with them.

Since there's no attribute scores anymore, those are the kind of stats I'd want to see.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

That's not the real problem, the real problem is the lack of unique equipment. You get a couple of artifacts, some weapons/armor with unique names. But that's it. Along with some of the storylines and lifeless NPCs, the unique equipment, or rather lack thereof is Skyrim's biggest problem.

I guess I was kind of counting unique equipment in my generalization of "loot". Almost every single one of the unique items has an associated quest which makes them extremely easy to find and thus eliminates the point of actually searching. Just do the quest and you'll basically be given the item. I can't remember finding anything unique EVER while simply exploring. It made exploring really boring and pointless.

@haggis: Sure you can make ridiculous weapons and armors with smithing but that completely takes away from one of the major aspects of Elder Scrolls, which is exploring and seeing what you can find in dungeons. Why explore when there is only an iron dagger to be gained? I can't tell you how many times I've gone through a dungeon in Skyrim and came out with nothing but a few low value, regular ass vanilla weapons. What is the point?

They need to get rid of self-smithing system. You should only be able to create basic items: iron, steel, leather, etc. For anything higher you need to seek out a master smith in that discipline. The focus should be on finding cool items, not creating them.

@mitsuko_souma said:

They need to get rid of self-smithing system. You should only be able to create basic items: iron, steel, leather, etc. For anything higher you need to seek out a master smith in that discipline. The focus should be on finding cool items, not creating them.

I think the idea behind making the ideas was finding the stuff to make it, i had more than enough bones by the time i reached 100 smithing though.

As for the rather shitty loot in the game i don't really loot things except for the gold(which makes being able to carry 736 pounds of stuff kinda useless). if you want unique stuff get your enchanting to 100 and make a nice glowing daedric sword with 62 fire and frost damage or absorb 20 points of health and capture their soul.

EDIT: if you have dawngaurd make dragon bone weapons and enchant them. which ARE better than daedric.

@Superfriend said:

I don´t think TES has ever been a loot driven game. They changed the way loot was distributed for one reason only: In Morrowind everybody would just skip all armor/weapons available in the game and go straight to the unique/overpowered stuff.

I think this game handles it way better than Oblivion did. I´m 85 hours in and I´m still finding stuff thats worth keeping. Oblivion went straight to Glass/Daedric/enchantend stuff after maybe 60 hours for me. Then I wouldn´t find better equipment. Not so in this game. The Daedric stuff is not as overpowered as it once was, but it is still very much worth getting. The Razor does more than just the damage you listed.. because it has a chance of killing with one hit. All the other daedric artifacts I´ve found so far are pretty cool too. Nothing too complicated or overpowered but very much worth getting. I think where this game falls a little short of Oblivion is quest design and I feel like I have to start a new character once I´ve hit level 50, which I didn´t do in Oblivion for some reason.

Honestly, if you´re playing an Elder Scrolls game like a fucking dungeon crawler, or care about "DPS" and percentage of high level loot.. I think you´re doing it wrong. But hey, it´s your game- so feel free to ruin it for yourself whichever way you like.

This.

The Elder Scrolls is not Diablo. If you came to Skyrim to get "sweet purps", you're playing the wrong game.

One thing I noticed about loots from chests, etc. is that on the first run, first time you open it, the loot is usually good BUT for whatever reason you had to re-load the game up whether you died or wanted to try something different then open that same chest..the loot is different and 99% of the time it is crap. Many times I first open a chest and get a nice weapon/apparel and forget to quick save and then get killed then replay it then open that same chest the loot is only a few gold and an arrow...iron arrow. Anyone know if there is a way to reset chests that haven't been open back to default as you have never opened it before? It feels like the game knows you opened it before and don't want you to keep re-loading to fish some better loot.