Perhaps I am too confined by the MMORPG paradigm, but through 100 hrs of playing Skyrim I have seen little to no point in upgrading items or looking for any special weapons/armor to help my cause. I play the game on Expert so I am sort of looking for a challenge. However, since level 15 I have been wearing and using the same crafted gear (Dragonscale armor and Dragon Bane 1H.) Since it scales with my character, there is absolutely no point to itemization.

Either the game is way too easy, on Expert difficulty, or gear makes little impact on the outcome of the game.

I really don't get it to be honest.

I agree..sort of. I have been wearing the same enchanted Ebony armor, and have not found anything better. Plus the fact that you can craft and enchant your own, coupled with the lack of anything to spend money on makes it boring to pick up loot. I wish there were some outrageously high priced , really good pieces that you could save up gold for. I've starting not even picking up stuff, but just looking in case I can find anything interestin.

That's one of Skyrim's problems, it's just too easy to reach the top. Try playing on Master, that may help a bit.

You (obviously to have 100 by level 15) purposely grinded a craft skill to make the best armor in the game early on. That'd be your main issue.

This. You powered the skill to make the best armor available, and you're wondering why lower-level armors are inferior gear? This tends to happen when you min/max single player RPGs.

Of course if you have the best armor and weapons by level 15, then the game will not offer you as many challenges.

Try playing the game and not grinding things to get the best armor and weapons and you will have more of a challenge. The game allows you to create a god like character, which you have done. But it does not mean the game will give a god like character a challenge.

Derp Derp Derp. No. The problem is that the itemization is static in Skyrim. Progression is all out of whack in the game. The only way to increase weapon damage outside of raising your skill (which caps naturally at 100) is through Smithing. Smithing, caps at 100 naturally as well. A character who does not invest in Smithing will not be able to ever get an upgraded weapon tier past Daedric. A player who only invests in Smithing will not be able to ever make anything better once they hit 100 Smithing. To advance your damage further, you must invest in Enchanting. To advance it even FURTHER you have to take up Alchemy. What this does, is essentially force characters to pick up and invest in Tradeskills to see their character progress. That is an issue.

Further, found items will always be inferior to items you can craft. That is another issue. Crafted items should NOT be better than possible found items. There should always be an incentive to dungeon crawl and open chests. In Skyrim, there is not. Weapons and Armor do not scale. Some Unique ones do, except the way they scale in most instances is awkward. Crafted items should be supberb quality, but their draw should be the fact you can obtain them at your own pace and it is not just luck that you find them. The only variance of gear in Skyrim is the level of Enchant on an item. Even that caps out, and a player will ALWAYS be able to place a superior Enchant on their item.

Leveling is underwhelming. Besides access to another Perk point, the only thing that happens is your character gets 10 HP, Magicka, or Stamina. Dinging level 2 is the same as 80. WHAT THE HECK!? Leveling skills raises your level. You reach a point where your primary skills are all 100. If you want to progress further and invest more perks, you have to USE ABILITIES THAT ARE NOT PART OF YOUR CHARACTER PATH! Perks further are GREAT ideas for specialization and progression, the problem there however is that most perks just are not unique enough. Instead, they got lazy and instead they are ranked Modifiers all over the place instead of unique abilities and spells - stuff that truly creates specialization and makes your character control differently from an unspecialized one. For alll intents and purposes, the only difference between a specialized and non-specialized character is the damage dealt or received...Usually, the difference would be what is further in your tool belt. What spells and abilities that you have that define the "custom class" you have made.

This has nothing to do with the derp squad of "don't craft 1000 iron dagger". If you do not understand why the itemization and how progression is handled is an issue, maybe you should stick to LARPing.

The game is not about leveling. Unlike an MMO, where you level to play the game, this game you play and you level up as you go. It is subtle difference but where it gets profound is around level 50. At this point, most are done developing their character, as far as primary skills. This means one of two things. Either you can now just go and enjoy the story without worrying about developing your character, or you can further develop your character by doing things you have not done before. Kind of like a second career. The game does not offer anything more to a character at level 80 than it does at level 51.

I almost wish they did not have levels in this game, then people would not focus on them and instead focus on the game.

Levels are arbitrary as it is. I don't care about levels, I just care about Perks so I can progress my character. Character progression is not relegated to MMOs, that is a fundamental part of RPGs right down to P&P table top games. It isn't "worrying about" developing your character. You say that like it is a burden, it is not. It is every bit as integral as the story, which in Skyrim is way inferior than say Bioware titles (opinion). My point regarding levels is that they basically have taken out levels in Skyrim. There is just a husk of the system in place now. That's fine and dandy, but they have effectively killed progression in the process.

Rofl..how do you even get dragon armor at level 15..that takes some doing.

I can't believe you posted this as if it's a problem with the game...

I suppose that's a matter of opinion. Couldn't one also argue that the movement to a more perk based system from a leveling system changes character progression from an illogical comparison of your level to an enemy's level to a more versatile system where you improve yourself in whatever way you choose?

Based on legends and epic novels, it make sense for the character to have a bigger impact than his gear. Actually in some case, the gear is even useless in the wrong hands.

Personaly I think this make more sense.

There is still gear you can t craft like the archmage robe, dagon masks, azura star and so on.

I ve always been anoyed how mmorpg are designed to grab your real life money. And how it reward idiots that play 200,000 hours and cheaters who purchase their character from ebay. They make no sense whatsoever.

This.

The issue here is the player, not the game.

It is just that MMO's have made it all about the character level and nothing but the character level. People who play TES games typically do not worry over much about character levels, at least after they have played for a while. As it does not matter as much in these games. Besides, if you play the game, the character levels take care of themselves.Morrowind only need you to be level 20 to 25 to beat the MQ and at that point, your character could handle whatever was thrown at it. I also reached level 20 to 25 by the time I was walking into Dagoth Ur's house no matter how I played the game, unless I ignored the MQ for a long time or skipped parts of the MQ. Oblivion was a special case, but that game did not require high levels either. Nor did the Fallout 3/NV.

It is not a burden to develop my character. It is just pointless to me to develop them beyond what I had planned for them just to gain another level. By the time they have maxed out their primary skills, they are doing everything I need them to do, so I don't worry about it. Then again, I don't marry myself to one character in these games, so starting a new one for different challenges is what I do.

However, for those who need to see their character level beyond some point, you are going to have to move outside of your specialty.

^ I just want enough levels to get all the perks to fully flesh out my character vision, which is roughly in the 50-60 level range typically, depending on the build.

i only have low level characters so far and therefore can't verify what you guys are saying. but, if bethesda is going to make looting and treasure hunting, armor and weapons, etc. an unworthy part of their games, they are making a VERY big mistake.

that has always, rightfully, been one of the best aspects of their games. that kind of trend would be ridiculous and could cause issues down the road.

I'm level 32, wearing a combination of Orcish, Steel Plate and a Dwemer shield, with Vokun as a helm. I find dropped equipment that is equal or superior to crafted frequently.

To use an MMO term; you're a twink. Of course dropped items are inferior.

Wtf, level 15 and dragonbone? Your doing it wrong and you know it

There are two ways to get around taking up crafting skills late in the game: remove the level cap so that you can keep upping your damage regardless of the quality of your gear or make the quality of the gear that you find equal to the quality of the gear you can craft so that it just becomes a choice whether you want to spend the time crafting or digging through ruins to get good gear. If the crafting skills are redesigned to make the task of finding the right materials and crafting the items as intensive as digging around in ruins then not crafting will be seen as a viable option without disincentivizing players who want to choose the crafting trees. The third alternative is to allow players to have items custom built and enchanted by NPCs.

If you want to find cooler stuff than you can make, then don't use Smithing and Enchanting. Simple really.

There's a difference between progressing a skill because you need to for overall progression past a certain point, and intentionally powering that skill at the near beginning of the game. I didn't say anything about not leveling smithing or progression issues regarding gear later in the game. I specifically responded to the complaint that maxing smithing (at level 15) makes other gear useless, and this concept is somehow difficult for your own "derp squad" to process.

I agree with you on some points about progression and looted vs. crafted gear, but it's a separate debate from the early-game power-smithing nonsense.

The OP's problem might be the fact that he crafted the best light armor at a low level.

I just wanted to say, you have seemingly typed a nice wall of text, but I quickly skipped it after the first sentence, you should learn to have respect if you want your opinion respected

i don't use smithing. (thanx to this website)

but, if a skill in a game negates the greatness of looting and caches and treasure hunting (enemy killing loot is already less) then i have a big problem with that skill.

looting, etc. might be the top reason why i started playing video games way back when in the first place.