I am level 12 so far so i have not gotten far, but i have noticed that shops get better loot dependant on level, which is stupid. And i have yet to find any special weapons other than weapons that are already available in shops.
Since shops magically gets better gear just because you level, is it the same with chests and such. Like are there no unique weapons or at least some more powerfull items like elven or glass placed around the world?
In fallout 3 there where unique named weapons and armors that you could find in certain places, and this made that game much more interesting when it came to exploring as you could stumble on gear that was extreamly much more powerfull than what you got.
Also in Morrowind there was some places where some glass armor or deadric armor parts could be found, even on level 1 and on all playthroughs. I know i have not gotten far in the game yet, but I just want to know if this is not just a game where I must be a specific level to be able to obtain elven or deadric armor.
Because if gear is only available dependant on what level you are, then what is the point of exploring, as you can just grind level and get the best loot from shops anyways.

In this game, based on their stated design, you should be able to find anything at level 1 provided you can either get to it or kill it.

Not seeing a lot of grind opportunity anyway, especially since respawns are ungodly long.

It depends do you buy it, or do you kill enemys for it , like cold said, you can get everything u want if u can kill for it.

Exploring is fun, and "grinding" is not?

That's more than enough "point" for me......


(And upgrading your gear from stage to stage is fun, too.... so fighting your way through a few levels with Steel gear, and then slowly upgrading it to as you find it? Fun.

The long respawn times discourage grinding and a lot of great equipment cannot be found in shops, so of course it is in your best interest to get out there and explore. Exploring and finding new things is the bread and butter of this game anyway.

Best items I have found were from loot in dungeons or stolen from locked cases in certain buildings

Yeah i think my state of mind at the time i wrote that must have been messed up, as exploring is more fun no matter what. And i just found a magic orcish bow just lying on a table.
I don't think stuff laying around is randomized by level, so i guess this bow will always be there even at level 1. What i wonder is that if i go into a dungeon at some point in the game, and i am lets say level 5,
the enemies will probably kill me in 1 hit, but if i manage to get passed them and get to a table or some place with loot or a big chest, will this loot always be scaled to my level, thus being iron or steel, or can this be deadric or glass quality?

I'm curious about this as well. I thought it did NOT depend on level. I found an orcish bow in a dungeon and thought it was special, BUT when I returned to the nearest town, the shops had just gotten a bunch of orcish weapons. So far, I haven't seen any reason to believe they've improved upon Oblivion in this regard.

The scaling system was Oblivions biggest flaw, when i play games like this i want to think that somewhere in the game world there is some awesome gear just waiting for me to find it. Not that there is some awesome gear out there waiting for me to find it, when i reach the appropriate level......

So I should be able to find a set of Ebony or Daedric at level 1? Does that mean killing the owner for it or can I find these items placed around the world in certain places? Are there any oportunities for an oportunistic thief to get his hands on a set?

Well thats the same thing i want to know, are there sets like this placed in the world, or are they only available when you reach a certain level. One of the things i loved with morrowind was stuff that was placed by hand in the world.
I don't want to know where these kinds of stuff are, i just want to know if they do exist. In morrowind you had to explore lots of dungeons to build the deadric set because pieces were spread throughout many dungeons, this is awesome.
It is not as awesome to just get all these sets easy when you just reach a certain level, it removes the joy of being lucky and finding something you did not expect.

I'm the opposite. I don't like my gear being based around numbers. In Oblivion, I knew that when I hit level 12, that glass weapons were about and I could finally start making some real money for once.