Remove or Hide Weapons and Armour from Certain Containers

[SwissxPiplup]

In an effort to make blacksmithing more useful in Skyrim, loot from containers in the world, including NPC inventories should be limited; by removing weapons and armour from these containers, the player is incentivised to make use of the blacksmithing skill tree to prepare themselves for the potential challenges ahead. The limits on loot extend to chests, barrels, crates, and other lootable containers, and of course NPCs like the common bandit and slightly less common but no less annoying mercenary, but also guards, Thalmor, dremora, etc.

High risk/reward containers will be unaffected however, such as boss chests/inventories, final dungeon reward chests, and dragon inventories, this ensures that the player's efforts and progression are still rewarded without blacksmithing becoming obsolete; as weapons and armour will be less common by a large degree, these high risk/reward containers will become more sought after.

Shop keepers may still stock weapons and armour so if the player genuinely doesn't wish to participate in the blacksmithing skill tree, they are instead encouraged to enhance their speech skill tree; practising bartering can help one acquire what they're looking for without needing to craft anything themselves.

The idea behind this mod is to promote blacksmithing as a key skill for survival, no longer will players be able to bypass it through regular looting, and any weapons and armour that the player is able to loot is going to be loot well earned.

Thank you.

[DirebearCoat]

I still smith my own gear.  Any good gear I get from vanquished foes I disenchant for Enchanting.  After that, any gear I get from vanquished foes, I sell for cash.  Some, very unique looted gear, however, I keep as trophies.

So, maybe, your mod should come with the ability to set how rare the loot is to obtain, from just a "bit more rare than in vanilla Skyrim," scarcity level, to "everyone is dirt poor, so you won't find it out there," scarcity level.

I hope that made sense.