It is kinda strange that Bethesda, a developper who spend a fair amount of time creating a plausible and coherent world, ends up putting archaic gameplay mechanics in Skyrim.

Let me explain:
Lorewise the Draedra and all the related stuff around them (armors, artifacts, etc...) are extremely rare and often occurs in very special events, but in terms of gameplay, you can usually find a Draedra Heart at the Arcadia Cauldron in Witherun, that kinda break the whole epic and mysterious stuff... and pretty much the same with a lot of items, you never meet a single NPC wearing Ebony stuff in all of Skyrim, which is normal since it's supposed to be rare and for the filthy rich and yet, you can find ebony armors, weapons & ingots in every Blacksmith shop.

For me, it kinda breaks the whole immersion Bethesda was trying to deliver.

Wouldn't t have been better if the shops had a preset set of items instead of just scaling with your level progress? and if one seeked special material then maybe have a special quest to make their inventory upgraded?
What I mean, is that in Fallout New Vegas, you would never see the Gun Runners shops selling energy weapons or Cliff Briscoe selling Powered Armors, there was a certain coherence, a coherence that I can't find in Skyrim.

That was just my 2 cents about it anyway.

Daedra Hearts are never sold in large quantities for this reason and are also considerably more expensive than any other crafting material in the game aside from things like flawless diamonds... Also the only place you can get Daedra Hearts until you are at a relatively high level (40-50 before they start showing up in other shops) is from Enthir in the College of Winterhold and they cost about 700 a pop and he's only got two at a time... I find they still almost never show up in other shops except on extremely rare occasions... Ebony I agree should be harder to obtain though what's to stop me from going to Gloombound mine and farming it up anyway... My lvl 18 mage is running around in Daedric because of some seriously hard work at going and hunting down the materials... You can usually get the Daedra Hearts required to make a full suit from doing Azura's Daedric quest which makes sense... It takes hard work to get that stuff early and the knowledge of where to acquire it... I don't think it's too far off but it does seem that the shops shouldn't carry massive numbers of Ebony Ingots (found a shop with 32 of them one time) they should only have a few like 3 or 4 if anything...

there is a easy way to get the outside Azura, and that is doing Merune's quest

and i have seen people in Ebony Armours in the game world, some mercs use them

Daedra Haerts aren't sold in huge numbers though. They're not ALWAYS for sale, either. It stands to logic though that if people in Skyrim CAN conjure Daedra, somebody may be stockpiling Daedra Hearts.

Also, I've actually seen quite a few NPCS in Ebony armour. Mostly walking around as Mercenaries warning of trouble ahead...

Which shouldn't really happen. Ebony is supposed to be incredibly expensive and incredibly rare, mostly concentrating itself in and around Vvardenfell. Now Skyrim obviously has Ebony mines but they are relatively small in comparisson with the problems in Morrowind, so really if anything Ebony should be really rare, which means that Daedric armor which is made from Ebony should be even rarer.

Still it's a lot better then it was in Oblivion. Bethesda is definitely on the right track here, I just feel they didn't go far enough yet.

Still, it's Draedra, I would think of that like if it was Uranium if you understand what I mean, so even like that it shouldn't appear on your average alchemist shop.

That's just the crappy level scaling made in gamesas, just like you average bandit wearing a full Draedric set in Oblivion, you see them in Ebony because you leveled up, and yet you won't find any noticeable NPC wearing it, it's like I said: bad gameplay mechanics that breaks the immersion to the game, you don't believe in it.
In Morrowind you could go at level 1 to Ghostgate and meet NPC in Glass armor, that wasn't due to level scaling, that was because lorewise they always weared Glass armor and not because you leveled up.

Lorewise it actually makes some sense for at least a few alchemists to have Daedric hearts in their possesion. You'd think that some of them would have learned how to summon lower level Daedra and then kill them... Or if not that some conjurer out there sells the hearts to them as an easy way to make money.

I guess you're right, still the whole armors and enchanted stuff sold in shops just doesn't fit with the lore & world I'm seeing in Skyrim.

Totally agree... Most armorers shouldn't sell anything except for steel and leather... Everything above them should be made by maybe one or two armorers...

Of course Orcish armorers, should (still) make Orcish armor.

Not to mention that trading in Dwemer artifacts is supposed to be illegal because of how rare they are, yet just about anyone that can use a forge can make dwarven armor just fine.

I think Beth has accomplished that, it's a lot harder to find a Daedric Heart in Skyrim then it would be in Oblivion.

It's definitely better then in Oblivion, however I think the OP has a problem with it not being good enough. It's still relatively easy to get incredibly rare items

id liek to think that blacksmith peopel have watched me work the forge all day and see hwo i made the armor, also as far as the ebony ull see ebony ore in their stock long before they start selling ebony armor itself, so id liek to think that these are competent smithers and that they pretty much practice with all that ebony ore that they hardly get in and that i no longer buy and after theyve seen me craft them...well u know word of mouth and bam. I just think god that thye fixed and made it to where deadric and dragon armor wont ever be in the shop unless u have sold it to them soemtime in the past.

The question is not whether or not they have the skill to do so, which is unlikely especially with Orcish armor... The question is more where in Oblivions name did they get the ebony in the first place

You know... I've always wondered... has anyone ever consider that the reason we have bandits and mercs and stuff running around in Glass and Ebony armor is because, you know, they stole it? Or, you know, they managed to kill someone who could afford it at looted it? I don't know about you, but thieves having rare stuff makes sense so long as you assume the got it in a way that makes sense for them.

Now that I remember it, I think Eorlund Gray-Mane is the most "legit" blacksmither in all of Skyrim, why? because I never saw him selling enchanted armors or weapons and not much else other than iron, steel and his trademark: Skyforge weapons & Wolf armor.




We can always think of that when you meet your bandit leader in ebony armor for the first time, but after the tenth time... not to mention, such expensive weaponry and armors wouldn't be transported in a simple carriage, it would be probably traveling with a well fortyfied transport and heavily guarded.

Thieves running around in suites of Ebony however make no sense... A piece of Ebony armor should be enough to buy a house for some people, or at least lots of food and several months of rent... You don't risk that being destroyed or severly damaged. Unless of course you already have a lot of money but then why bother robbing people at all, especially somebody like me?

It's like somebody stealing a ferrari to then go buy gasstations to steal icecream, which he well then sell for profit...

You act like you are the only one in all of Skyrim that can conjure a Daedra or mine Ebony Ore. You are also not the only customer for the shops, though you could easily sustain one on your own. Shops have rotating stock and replenishing gold because others can come to town and sell off items, or buy items with stolen gold/other items.

Mercenaries are NPC's that do the same things as you do (dungeon crawl, quests, etc.), so why shouldn't they have advanced armours and weapons? It's not bad level scaling, it makes perfect sense from a lore perspective. Also, there are working ebony mines in the game, so that explains why ebony makes it's way to blacksmiths. It's expensive compared to steel, so only the very rich can afford it, and the very rich in this game tend to be in safe environments where they don't need that level of protection. It would be nice to see a few Jarls with ebony ceremonial armours though.

You have to remember that the wealth of nations is considerably lower than it was at the time of the Oblivion crisis. The Empire isn't likely to still be enforcing laws on Dwemer artifacts and materials due to both the explosion of refugees coming from Morrowind and it being over stretched since the last war. 30 years is a long time for people to still be hung up over old laws that are no longer enforced.

No I don't, and care to explain LOREWISE how come shops does have enchanted weapons & gear and yet no guard/personnal guard/anybody else wears similar stuff? Here's the answer: bad mechanics.

Yes, because a ferrari can totally protect you better than a Pinto.

They wear it because they don't want to die! This is armor, not a freaking car! Hey, you know if you find a piece of that stuff, you're all "Sweet!" and EQUIP it right away? They're likely the same way. Because it helps them survive. Additional pieces they'll sell - but whatever keeps them alive they'll most definitely equip.


Let me counter your anology. You're in a war. You have a Jeep. There's an empty tank. Now, you're telling me I should sell the tank and keep the Jeep. I'm telling you "Screw that, I'm getting the tank!"


@Blacksmiths having enchanted gear: You know how you can sell them stuff? Let's go out on a limb here and say you're not the only ones who can do that. They bought it from someone else, so they can sell to you and MAKE MONEY.

Common sense! Use it, people!

Common sense? Where is it when no one else other than you wears it?

The core problem in this case is that the economy in TES is a weak simulation of an actual economy. New items are created and new gold is created without any resources being consumed. It lets us pretend that there's a real economy working. You all aren't pretending... you're expecting a real economy. Daedra Hearts and everything else should have to be harvested from a real in game resource. If one shows up in an NPC shop, it should only be there because some NPC was able to kill a daedra an take it's heart and bring it back to the shop. Same goes for Dwarven Armor... someone has to go out and mine the resources or recover them from dwarven ruins. The reason steel and leather armors should be the only ones available is because these resources are easy to get to... armor and weapons would only be able to be created if there was a source of material.

The problem with a "real" economy is that it would take far more computing power to simulate than one that simply allows us to pretend that there is one. So the onus is on you, the player, to suspend your disbelief and pretend that things like this make sense.

Who knows. I'm really beginning to believe that pic where it says it's so rare it's a superpower. >_>

Violation of lore? For doing the same thing the player does - buying and selling? Seriously?

I personally find a small amount of suspension of disbelief to be necessary to truly enjoy a game like Skyrim. It sits perfectly fine with me that there are (in my head at least) other folks out there who are killing daedra, mining ore and finding/creating enchanted weapons and other expensive pieces of gear. The Jarl's court wizard in Whiterun has an enchanting table. Wonder what he does with it? There are plenty of alchemists and other adventurers out there, even if I don't run into them adventuring (apparently every guard used to be an adventurer like me). Now if every merchant had a few full sets of ebony armor and nothing but enchanted gear then it would be a little hard to bear with. Worse comes to worse there are always mods to fix merchant lists.