Since I often played a thief character in Oblivion and Morrowind, this was always a pretty big pet peeve of mine. I searched around on google and didn't find anything about this, so does anyone know if they've mentioned implementing this? I just think it is unrealistic that, if you loot a shop, it remains forever empty.

Good question, with all the radiance going on in the game and the live economy, idk but thatd be a really cool touch

God I hope so, the fact that shops didn't respond was the whole reason I didn't steal from them. I would hate walking into a shop and seeing it empty. Same goes for NPCs, I would never murder anyone because all the character's, besides bandits etc. were set. Ugh.

This is a big important question for me, I hope mods answer..

Would be nice to know.

It would be excellent if shops respawed stolen stock, and there was a passive NPC generator that replaced named NPCs and moved them in to the former's residence. Ultimately though i think we're a engine generation away from that, but maybe something similar can be modded in.

It would be nice if they had certain special things in stock for that particular week, add some variety.

i hope the shop's loot replenishes AND you can sell stolen stuff... it was lame that they wouldn't buy it if it was stolen :'(

I think if you for example steal an item from a shop's shelf it will forever remain despawned and never respawn.

Unless they changed that mechanic.

The one thing I could see Bethesda not putting in respawning shops would be the fact that it would make the game extremely easy, financially. What they should do to keep the game interesting and fun for thieves is, first, yes. Start out with merchants placing good stuff on their counters at night. But after the first break-in and the merchant discovering a stolen good, all of the locks (including the one to get into the shop) should go up a rank. As well as all of the gear on the counters being replaced with something that is less valuable. So say, day 1: You break in and steal an Elven helmet. The shopkeep comes in that morning and realizes an item is missing from the room. Upon that realization he could go to each "spawn point" and take all of the items off the shelves. Then go back through the "spawn points" and replace them with something else, so it would go from looting something, say Elven, to something like Steel. And this would continue until you reach the lowest tier, where then it kind of caps at an all time low and you can continue to loot fur or iron junk all the time. But the limiting factor on looting low-tier equipment all the time is the locks are gradually more difficult until all of the locks are 'very hard'.

Also, if there are some unlocked containers in a room, after a few nights of burglary the containers with no locks could be fitted with locks. And to even further increase difficulty, the shopkeep could hire a guard to patrol the shop, adding another fun factor to stealing. Of course the ultimate outcome of robbing this store as many times as it would take would be: Very Hard locks on everything, Lowest value loot on tables/counters etc., and a guard patrolling the store.

Sorry about the jumbled mess of words, that is the first paragraph


Note the use of "elven, iron, steel" etc. is to signify the tier of the loot being placed.

That is one idea. I hadn't thought about unbalancing the game by making burglary an easy way to get rich, but that would be a better alternative to no restocking at all. It would make sense and it would make burglary remain fun, even if you get less of a reward.

That's a lot to read, but makes a lot of sense. Another consequence of robbing stores over and over is that you're essentially bankrupting the merchant, thus damaging the local economy that the devs talked about.

Perhaps this is one of those little details they have up their sleeve still? It seems plausible enough.

I would guess to some degree it would. I'm not to sure about physically new items on tables, but maybe new items in the shopkeepers inventory every time you level up or something.

Interesting idea, but I ultimately have to disagree with that approach. A similar idea, though, where locks would not only get higher each time you broke in, but where good items are placed would also be in harder locations. For example, a glass sword is placed on the counter for display. Maybe after a week of in-game time when he gets another shipment of goods (or smiths said goods himself), another glass sword will be in the shop; however, it will be in a locked chest behind a locked door, or something like that.

It seems likely that neither of our ideas have been or will be implemented. That said, this question brings up a larger and, in my opinion, more critical question: How deep does the economy in Skyrim go? We have some information on it, but I'm interested in seeing it in the works when it comes out on 11/11/11!

Well, assuming there isn't such a thing as insurance in Skyrim...perhaps if you loot everything, they could make the shop close because they have no money with which to restock their wares.

[Sarcasm]Right, because the owner wouldn't want to re-stock at all to keep Business open...[/Sarcasm]

So now that people are starting to actually get the game and have played it for a while, does anyone know for sure whether items in shops respawn or not? I don't get the game until the 18th so I won't be able to check my self for a while.

You ruined the guy's business by robbing him. It is realistic that it is empty. He has no working capital to buy new goods, and he has no goods to sell to make more working capital.

that'd be cool. maybe even hire guards for night time. or maybe put everything in glass cases that you need a key to open.