I've encountered numbers of baddies with more "advanced" armors. And, FWIW, the Thalmor all wear Elven.

Because a sword is a sword and no matter the kind of metal it will still kill you. Steel is good enough to get the job done. Armors are mostly worn to mitigate damage, especially from arrows, but in hand-to-hand the material rarely matters.

My goodness the amount of posts mentioning bandits and other ennemies, did these people even read my original post?

Let me explain myself a little more clearer: ENEMIES ARMOR ARE NOT WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT !

Thank you for your understanding, now, let's proceed with the related conversation.

It's because giving an NPC with "rare armour" means a player could kill them for it and get it before level scaling otherwise allows it....so they give them very basic armor or arbitrarily block the player from looting what they're wearing.

Well, they could do the same with what they did with Tullius, he has a rather unique armor, I had a character with 100 in pickpocket and the proper perks, and when I looked at his inventory, guess what? there wasn't any armor! I think it was the same deal with Rikke.

So I don't think Bethesda did that because we could kill the NPCs and loot them, more like they went ape**** on medieval Viking stuff and kinda forgetting they were working on a TES game, besides aren't some NPCs on Skyrim unkillable? wouldn't have been a problem for them wearing Glass or Ebony armors.

I the end, all I can see in this game are steel armors and leather armors on NPCs, it doesn't matter how beautiful Skyrim is if all you can see is the same **** .

I don't understand why so much equipment is set to NPC only.

Other than what some other posters have put, lvl scaling, you can't get it before hand.

I think it makes perfect sense, If I went "to town" where I live most of the ppl would be wearing the same "type" clothing, not because they can't afford better but because they don't want to "stand out". Walk around any "rual" or "small" town and pay attention to what the ppl are wearing. ( yes their are the exceptions)

Skyrim is heavy in Iron deposits... lots and lots of furry creatures running around.... not to many deadra running around... no scamp on every other corner. So it actually does make sense that their are not alot of glass, ebony and deadric armors running around.

yes their are some deposits of the ore's that you need to make your "exotic" armors and weapons.

As for the Jarl's not wearing exotic armor just because they can afford it, call that one national pride. "OH look theirs the Jarl in Skyrim forged Steel". I wanna be just like him/her when I grow up. IMO

I'm not talking about level scaling, I'm not talking about Jarls not wearing Ebony amors, all I'm asking is why LOREWISE you don't see a single NPC (has non random bandit) wearing even the smallest armor part of these armors.

Would it have been so hard to find in cities at least one guy wearing something else other that steel, iron or fur? just for the sake of making these armors more present in the TES universe? I can't really speak about Oblivion since I barely played it, but in Morrowind you had people in the House of Redoran always wearing Glass armors, in Vivec you could find a trainer wearing nearly a full set of Ebony armor, in Ebonheart you could find an Imperial soldier wearing the Templar armor.
I'm saying this because seeing NPCs wearing these armors make them more fitting in the game, unlike seeing your character walking in Skyrim in full Ebony armor.

All I can say is that it would have added a little more of visual variety in Skyrim at least.

The one thing I feel TES lacks is the choice it provides in armors. Because there tends to be one "best" Heavy armor and one "best" light armor we all end up aiming for the top armor without even considering on race, background, lore etc.

What would have been better is a larger selection of different armor type which get better depending on what they are made from or who makes them.

For example an imperial armor design can be made from iron, Steel or ebony etc. and will have the same AR as say an orcish armor made of the same material.

Light armors will be the same depending if they are made of leather or glass etc.

That way it brings more personal choice and cultural variety in the game.

Someone playing an orsmer can start with a basic looking leather or iron until they find someone or are able themselves to obtain an orcish design which would start of being made of iron. In time this orcish armor could be remade to a finer quality but being made from ebony once the player is able to find / afford the material etc and eventually this top rate Orcish armor could eventually have a daedric heart crafted into it.

Other armors such as Redguard, Khajiit, Argonian, Dunmer etc could be introduced to give players with these races a more personally look.

The same could be with robes etc. Fine embroidered Silk robes for Altmer & Dunmer and woollen looking druid robes for Bretons etc

I think about it like this. There is an empire. There is going to be the standard armor. Eorlund Greymane is the best *steel* blacksmith for sure. And I would say that steel armor and weapons would be the standard.

There is an orc chieftan in full orcish armor. Also, there are a few enounters with "Orc" npcs and they usually have a few pieces of Orcish. Thalmor troops are in elven. Also many bandit leaders start to wear steel plate, which is the 4th best armor in the game. The rarity of certain ore and armor, dwarven, ebony, deadric, glass has already been covered above. The reason there is rare ore at blacksmiths is for the convienence of the player. There is a whole system tied in with the crafting trees and to change one part would mean to change the whole system imo.

It looks like Bethesda is improving. I like this system a helluva lot more than Oblivion. If you don't want to craft, high end gear will be rare. If you do craft you have to spend perks and "grind" the levels out. Not perfect, but it's the best yet.