i view unique items in much the same way, I don't need them to be ridiculously powerful to still consider them unique. One-of-a-kind skins, unique effects (see: Wabbajack), odd back-stories, all of these are what I look for in a unique item rather than its sheer power. Perhaps that's why I don't mind that I can make stuff as good, or better than, some/many of them, since they still retain special looks and effects I can't copy, and still require some effort to obtain.

Then again, when I explore I'm not looking for special loot in remote or hidden locations so much as I'm looking for the locations themselves. Of course, I'm the type of guy who will spend literally hours trying to scale remote cliffs in order to see if one of the developers decided to leave a little surprise up there for those willing to attempt the climb, so what I find isn't as important as the fact I made it in the first place.

What I do miss the most are basically:

- Unique looks
- Unique (and useful) stats or enchantments

I'm really trying to keep away from enchanting but it's just so easy to do that I end up enchanting stuff again. Another thing that kinda bothers me is the fact that there are 8! stealth-oriented armor sets but not a single warrior or mage set.

The following I know:

- Ancient Shrouded Armor (Light, focus on stealth archery)
- Cicero's Clothing (None, focus on silent killing + barter)
- Guild Master's Armor (Light, focus on thievery basically upgraded version of Thieves Guild Armor + different look)
- Jester's Clothing (Same as Cicero's basically)
- Linwe's Armor (Light, bonus to sneak, onehanded and archery)
- Armor of the Old Gods (Light, bonus to sneak, archery, magicka and destruction)
- Shrouded Armor (Light + none, focus on silent killing)
- Thieves Guild Armor (Light, focus on thievery)
- Nightingale Armor (Light, focus on thievery, silence, onehanded and bonus to illusion. Even comes with matching bow and sword)

Clothing sets lack stats on slots except head and chest although I can't really be mad about that with the emphasis on enchanting as a mage.
Heavy armor on the other hand lacks completely in the enchanted set departement and compared to the sneaky guys also in looks. And to be honest the Nightingale stuff looks so awesome even my heavy armored orc tank would wear it.

Heavy armor "sets":

- Wolf Armor (same as Steel but lighter)
- Blade's Armor (okay AR values if you like being a samurai)
- Imperial Soldier (Looks okay if you like the style)
- Ancient Nord's Armor (mmh rusty)
- Falmer Armor (if you like it well)

As a set they look quite good actually but you'll have to enchant them in order to optimise them, reduce difficulty or find tactics to survive on master ^^

One positive thing I have to say is though that the way the crafting system works you can actually wear what you like and build your own matching set rather than wearing bits and pieces with good enchantments.

So to sum it up:

- I'd like some decent heavy armor sets (emphasis on endurance or maybe damage?)
- More "special" items with unique enchantments (disenchant: no) like http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Ebony_Mail for example
- Another approach might be giving unique items at least 3 enchantments (maybe not as powerful as the usual stuff with 2) which sets them apart from self-made items. Or giving them negative values to offset quite powerful bonuses like http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Necromancer_Amulet

Just a few thoughts

The thing is though, there is always better gear out there for you to find and enchant in Torchlight. You would have to be exceptionally lucky to get the best variation of the best items in the game with available enchantment slots (you'd have more luck winning the lottery). Skyrim is more like Torchlight if they removed the item enchantments from all item drops and reduced the item variety to 9~ complete sets.


They could alleviate some of the problem in Skyrim by having random encounters/dungeon enemies wear partialy smithed gear like some enemies will randomly have Steel (Superior), some might have Steel (Fine), others Daedric (Legendary) etc. instead of them all being normal regular unsmithed armor. It would add some much needed loot variety to the game without upsetting the balance much. Or have random loot/enemy equipment have an exceptionally rare case of having an exceptionally good enchantment for your character level (you can still probably better the enchantment yourself but if the enchantment is good enough it may be a while before you can make a better version of it).

That would certain make combat and looting more interesting, however it runs the risk of marginalizing smithing since it would be possible (albeit rare) to get a full set of Legendary gear without ever investing in the skill. Unless, that is, the quality tier was capped somewhere in the middle, say at Superior or Flawless, since that would still leave room for smithing to make a contribution to item quality.

Ah, this might help: have the higher-quality items be restricted to higher-rank opponents, so that in order to get Legendary items you have to go after top-level bosses. This allows the presence of non-smithed high-quality items, while keeping the amount of such restricted so there is still incentive to make your own.

I remember going into some random cave on Solstheim and finding a Glass helmet, cuirrass and tower shield... at level 12. And also Randagulf's Fists (I think that's what they're called) in a dungeon near Red Mountain. Morrowind actually rewarded exploration. I have the feeling that I've already seen everything there is to see in Skyrim whereas I can still discover new things in my Morrowind today. I certainly hope the Skyrim DLC will take the Morrowind approach, it's so much better.

I'm not so sure I'd call finding Glass kit in Morrowind at low levels a reward, since combat becomes an utter joke at that point. That said, I do see why folks want to find good items while exploring, since nobody plows through a nasty dungeon in search of 15 septims and a ragged shirt (which is probably what you're going to get from the Master-level chest in the corner ).

It's a long-standing issue that doesn't have any really good solutions, since no matter what you do you're going to penalize either the seekers or crafters, which will just generate more complaints.

Why you can't commission NPCs to make things for you is beyond me...

Loot scaling was the single worst idea they came up with for Skyrim.

I still remember finding Eleidon's Ward hanging in a crypt out in the middle of nowhere.

My problem is that unique loot doesn't look unique. It would be nice if there were a few more unique models included in the game even if they were just slightly modified iron swords or something.

A large amount of people like Lady Gaga and Kesha. Doesn't make it good music.

On topic: Anyway, I agree completely with the OP. I haven't had that same sense of accomplishment in Skyrim like I did in Morrowind. Finding a daedric cuirass or heavily enchanted piece of jewelry while exploring should be something to get excited about, and getting daedric artifacts should be even more rewarding. I'll never forget the first time I wandered into the vaults in Vivec in Morrowind. Hell, I'm still finding out new things in Morrowind, 10 years later. Example: I never found Eleidon's Ward, and I put well over 1500 hours into that game.

But still, Skyrim is a huge improvement over that steaming pile of crap that was Oblivion as far as I'm concerned. Oblivion cheapened *everything* loot-related. I'm glad to see that Bethesda at least improved the scaling in that manner.

I'm also of the opinion that Skyrim is sorely lacking when it comes to finding unique items scattered around the gameworld. It is one of the main reasons why I feel little motivation to explore dungeons or out-of-the-way locations. I remember the first unique item I obtained (Dawnbreaker). When I checked the stats, I was overcome with such an overwhelming feeling of 'meh', that I quickly shoved it in my storage chest after returning home in Whiterun and resumed using my enchanted steel Skyforge sword. Its not that I necessarily mind that the unique items don't have godly stats, either (although I'll admit that it feels that the effort you put into exploring is that much more rewarding). What I really miss, however, is the excitement that comes with the possibility that something very cool could be just around the next corner or in the next chest -- something that I have yet to experience while playing Skyrim.

I totally agree I have played 160hrs and so far I havent found anything intresting.

greg

I agree theres next to no unique loot in the game. Everytime I get a new item or any loot, its just the boring same old stuff.

Theres no feeling of 'OMG look what I just got' like there is in other games, and it has nothing to do with mere item stats and bonuses.

Look at Guild Wars, every item in the game has a very easy to obtain maximum cap. Yet whenever I get a rare or unique weapon drop, I still that 'OMG look what I just got' feeling. Other RPGs, particularly ARPGs handle this a lot better, particularly Diablo type games. Diablo III and Guild Wars 2 are both going to have 'magic find' type mechanics with lots or rare and unique loot to obtain. On the otherhand in TES games, all the loot and gear is simply boring!

The gameplay is great, but I no longer feel any kind of addiction or desire to keep on playing TES games. I got bored of Oblivion after a month. Skyrim was unbelievably fantastic when I first got and played it .... and after a week I was bored. They just havnt kept me entertained as long as Morrowind did, though I do believe that Skyrim is better than Morrowind, I just simply cant get into any of the TES games anymore in the long term, everything eventually feels boring and all the same with too little variation.


Exactly this. In a lot of other games I know that theres a nice rare item somewhere that I want to get, and it motivates me to play and get that item. I like it when I get an impressive item I can use and equip it to my character.

Recently I started playing Age of Empires online which isnt even an RPG, but it has lots of rare, epic and legendary gear that you can slot to your units, and it isnt really too difficult to obtain either, you just need luck to get certain things but you can trade and buy them off other players too. Everytime I open a chest and an epic item pops out of it, I get that 'OMG look what I just got!' feeling.

Never have that though in any TES game.

well this thread ignores quite a lot of facts from the game. Like no unique loot... I'm sorry, I have not found any other weapon that set only undead on fire, or a blade that was stronger in the moonlight, or a lightnings staff that did twice damage to magicka.
Also this whole "crafting ruined loot" thing is false. In case you've forgot you cannot just make iron daggers until the end of time then walk around in full daedric gear, because you actually need to make it, with actual ingredients and stuff, you know. Ebony and dremora hearts are not everyday items you know.

Same with enchanting, before you could recreate most of the enchanted items, but this time unique items are truly unique. Or os it just me who hoards all the magic items I can find to disenchant them?


But obviously this is all about greed and money because... This somehow gives them money....

There's a sword that's stronger in moonlight?

You can get your hands on all the daedra hearts and ebony you need at level 1. And by the time you're a high enough level in smithing to make daedric, you're also more than a high enough level to find daedra hearts and ebony.

See, That shield looks beautiful! Where is the artistry in Skyrim alot of the stuff is barbaric looking, I know nords lands and all but that has nothing to do with the unique weapons and armor. In Oblivion lots of the armors looked civilised and some were barbarian in this we mostly get the latter.

I agree completely.

Yeah, that's the other problem with Skyrim's enchanted loot. It's streamlined and utterly boring, without any shred of excitement.

Let's clear up some of the words I'm going to use first. I've chosed to categorize them like UESP wiki does it:

Artifacts are unique items (only one exists) that are unique in appearance as well as in name and stats.
Unique items are unique in name and stats, but uses an existing model.
Generic magic apparel/weapons (multiple enchantments) are items enchanted with multiple enchantmens that can be found in normal loot.
Generic magic apparel/weapons are items enchanted with a single enchantment and can be found in normal loot.

There's a sizable amount of artifacts in Skyrim, with most (if not all) being quest rewards. What is missing are artifacts hidden out in the world, though. Such artifacts give the players incentive to explore the dungeons and places like the seabed of a lake.
Already mentioned are Eleidon's Ward, the Dragonbone Cuirass and the Saviour's Hide in Morrowind. There's also Volendrung and the Daedric Crescent. Amazing non-quest award artifacts that satisfied me a lot upon finding them. And this is not an old nostalgia-twisted memory from 2002 mind you - this was when I first played through Morrowind in early 2011. When playing through brand new Skyrim a year later, artifacts such as these are missing completely. I found all of the above in 70 hours in Morrowind, while in over 300 hours of Skyrim I can't remember having found a single hidden or semi-hidden artifact or unique item out in the world.

To my knowledge, loot with multiple enchantments do not exist in Skyrim. The enchanted gear and weapons are so boring and so streamlined it's ridiculous. Where's the interesting generic loot, like Boots of the Olympian, Robe of Glib Tongues or Acrobat's Amulet?
Instead we're treated with nothing but " of ", such as Ring of Eminent Archery or Necklace of Minor Alchemy. It's still rewarding to loot high-level chests and find the best archery or one-handed gear, but the gear is boring. No excitement like when finding the "Ring of War" (Fortify all combat skills +10). All you get is streamlined loot following the "X of Y Z"-system.

Then there's the merchants. Remember in Oblivion, where nearly every merchant in the Market District sold one unique item? (Akaviri Warblade, Tower of the Nine, Aegis of the Apocalypse, Spectre Ring, Quicksilver Boots, Apotheosis, Hands of the Atronach, Imperial Breeches etc.)
In Skyrim, I haven't found a single unique item being sold by a merchant. All they have to offer is boring, generic and leveled stuff.
Alvor is clear that iron and steel are the real deal, while elven stuff are just fancy - and yet he starts selling elven, dwarven and orcish stuff when you hit a certain level, for no reason. Comparing him with Balimund and Beirand, they're all but identical. The only difference between them is the numbers of maximum ingots or enchanted gear available.

So there's no hidden non-quest artifacts, no normal loot with multiple enchantments whatsoever, and no unique items being sold by merchants.

And level-scaled dungeon loot & level-scaled merchant gear/weapons in collaboration with crafting takes away what value there should have been in not only high-end material such as glass, daedric and dragonbone/scale, but in average stuff like orcish, dwemer and elven as well.

I love Skyrim, and think it's an improvement over the past games in many areas.

But when it comes to loot? Bethesda really dropped the ball on this one. Perhaps they should have snatched Oscuro from Obsidian and let him design this area of the game.

The thing that disappointed me most about skyrims unique items (apart from the fact they were ridiculously weak compared to ones you could make, but the power of the item isnt an issue for me) is the fact that very very few actually LOOKED unique. I mean there are soooo many items in the game with UNIQUE NAMES but the do not have unique enchantments nor do they have a UNIQUE appearance. Ok so the daedric artefacts are unique in appearance, but Dargonsbane is a plain blade longsword, ebongy mail is hardly unique at all, and what about Trollsbane, Windshear, Valdr's Lucky Dagger, Axe of Whiterun? and the numerous other uniquely named artefacts and rewards, they are all stock standard weapons or armor with an average enchantment.

What happened in Morrowind when we had items like Umbra, Dragonbone cuirass, ebony mail, lords mail, skullcrusher, and [censored] loads more which not only had powerful enchantments but were TOTALLY UNIQUE in their appearance. Umbra was the ONLY sword in the ENTIRE game which looked the way it did. Not to mention the massive amount of different plain weapons, i.e katanas boradswords, longswords, sabers, wakzashi and ect. Its like the amount of STUFF and variation in the items has decreased ever since morrowind.

I mean even with chiillrend in skyrim and oblivion, the ONLY thing the devs did was change the colour. like wtf, lazy much? And people bring out mods with hundreds of custom swords and weapons and armor.

I was hoping this would change with skyrim when we saw screenshots of the different types of armor and hide armor, but no...

The thing that disappointed me most about skyrims unique items (apart from the fact they were ridiculously weak compared to ones you could make, but the power of the item isnt an issue for me) is the fact that very very few actually LOOKED unique. I mean there are soooo many items in the game with UNIQUE NAMES but the do not have unique enchantments nor do they have a UNIQUE appearance. Ok so the daedric artefacts are unique in appearance, but Dargonsbane is a plain blade longsword, ebongy mail is hardly unique at all, and what about Trollsbane, Windshear, Valdr's Lucky Dagger, Axe of Whiterun? and the numerous other uniquely named artefacts and rewards, they are all stock standard weapons or armor with an average enchantment.

What happened in Morrowind when we had items like Umbra, Dragonbone cuirass, ebony mail, lords mail, skullcrusher, and [censored] loads more which not only had powerful enchantments but were TOTALLY UNIQUE in their appearance. Umbra was the ONLY sword in the ENTIRE game which looked the way it did. Not to mention the massive amount of different plain weapons, i.e katanas boradswords, longswords, sabers, wakzashi and ect. Its like the amount of STUFF and variation in the items has decreased ever since morrowind.

I mean even with chiillrend in skyrim and oblivion, the ONLY thing the devs did was change the colour. like wtf, lazy much? And people bring out mods with hundreds of custom swords and weapons and armor.

I was hoping this would change with skyrim when we saw screenshots of the different types of armor and hide armor, but no...

Yes, there's a forge near Whiterun that should make all weapons forged there add this property but that was never implemented, instead you can find a number of weapons with the enchantment so you can disenchant them

Just like you can find high level equipment in Morrowind at level 1 if you know where to look.

I thought that was a good thing.

I remember when I found the ring of perfection in oblivion ... boner inbound

Enchanted loot in skyrim mainly is redundant as you can find any enchantment from stores and then make your own more powerful versions through enchanting. I think it would be better if stores did not sell enchanted gear so it would actually be rewarding to find unique disenchantable gear on random corpses/chests.
Some rare unique pieces of loot should have more than 2 effects to make them superior to to the regular enchanted equipment.

I found a necklace of peerless haggling in belethors store ... why would a merchant sell an object which makes everything 40% cheaper? Would be great if you found this in a chest.

For Oblivion actually. Sadly they forgot to fix that when they were fixing the rest of the level scaling.

It doesn't? How is ebony mail not unique? And just because any item isn't epicly hard to acquire doesn't mean it's not unique. People just want items that make them god-like... Nothing wrong with that, but people need to be clearer about what they're asking for. It's not that there's a lack of unique items. It's the fact that they "svck" compared to what a player can make.