What do you want in a new overhaul mod?

[Mattiewagg]

Something I think that should be really emphasized is the power of two handed weapons. Yes, they may be slow, but when they hit you, they could send you flying. Not really, but in a sense. God, I wish we still had strength. That would be great to apply to the two handed weapons.

 

Though I suppose you could create a global/attribute like you did with spellpower. But essentially:

 

A perk for two handed weapons (blunt only - if we're dividing the skill tree into more types), that can cause enemies to go flying backwards a bit. A low chance, and it has to be a power attack. But like a mini effect of Unrelenting Force - just enough to knock them off their feet. When somebody hits you with a warhammer in the chest, you don't go down on your knee. You get slammed into walls (which I think should do damage, if at all possible.)

 

For one-handed: Yes, one-handed is faster than two-handed, especially swords. But that shouldn't be the only buff to one-handed weapons. In the vanilla game, the formula is basically this, with no other benefits or detriments:

 

One-handed: Faster (especially swords), less damage.

Two-handed: Slower, more damage. (Also can't use shields.)

 

I think diversifying this and making it more interesting would be good. Generally more variables that go into it, like the weapon type, weapon material (elven warhammers are lighter than dwarven warhammers, for example), and player attributes should play into this. It'll allow for more interesting gameplay and replayability, with a greater sense of choice when choosing between certain weapons.

 

Archery:

I liked the ideas for accuracy and power mentioned earlier, those were good. Ideally the slightly moving bow when aiming, and the power needed to draw back the bow. Also, Eagle Eye has no real reason to drain your stamina. Pulling back and holding the bow should - I've fired bows, and especially powerful bows require a lot of shoulder strength. Just getting ready to fire your arrow should take up stamina, which encourages the player to increase their strength (perhaps stamina and perks could play into this, with perks for stronger shoulder muscles, though they wouldn't just be buffs to how long you could hold the bow, perhaps other things as well, I'll think on this) and invest perks in being able to fire the bow at all. As well, when you get stronger and gain more shoulder muscle and experience in archery, your arrows will fly straighter and faster. Plus, if this is possible, though I haven't worked with projectiles much, perhaps speed could increase damage, thus, gaining more strength to shoot arrows straighter/faster would also increase damage. Crossbows won't need as much strength, but take much longer to load (maybe a bit longer than the current time, though we still want to make them a viable option), do more damage, but don't level as well - they have a mostly static damage output.

 

Crafting:

I'm (by I, I mean you, I suppose) hoping to incentivize crafting a bit, as well as having a portable crafting station that you can create with the proper materials once you reach a certain level. Being able to fletch your own arrows would be ideal, and if a deterioration system were introduced for weapons, then it would be a large reason to invest in crafting so you could temper and repair your weapons in the wild. If there were a way to reduce the amount of arrows in the game, or some other way to make ammo more important, I think that would help the fletching system become more viable. Since so far, crafting isn't very interesting. You can make some stuff, yeah, but there's not really much of interest there. Aside from being able to improve your weapons and armor more, which, while useful, is pretty much all smithing/crafting has to offer.

 

Just throwing some ideas out there, I might have some more later. Tell me what you think.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Matthiaswagg

[Doomsdayman]

Hey Arrogancy, thanks for the response! I'm sorry to take so long getting a reply back to you.

I suppose, at least on some level, I really agree with all your points, but allow me to clarify the most muddied of my statements. I will try to follow your layout, as you are far better at organizing thoughts than me..I tend to ramble in case you had not realized.

Roles

Deeper was a poor choice of words, I was referring to increasing the depth of specialized branches over the 1-2 perks you find in vanilla. For example in your one-handed tree there might be 2-3 general perks and then each of your branches would have 2-4 perks; thus by level 40 you could easily have master perks in a few trees, you just wouldn't have ALL the perks in those trees. It might not be the direction you want to head, but I would love to feel that my dual-dagger-wielding assassin is not the same as my sword-and-board warrior despite both having heavily invested in the one handed tree. It sounds like you already have this is mind for trees like one-handed "those are to accomodate different playstyles", but I would propose that idea could be extended to every tree.

Block is really good

This really ties into the more options in combat. If you have more than one defensive move available to you (say dodging or parrying), then you can introduce strengths/flaws to blocking comparably (E.g. Less dependence on timing but a greater chance of being staggered, more damage reduction but more stamina drain, etc.). These might be enhanced/reduced through perks which would feed the feeling of building a unique character as you progress.

 

Differences in Spells and Weapons

This is a tough one. You are absolutely right that the visual progression as you play though Skyrim is a powerful feedback system; and after thinking it through I can't deny the game would severely suffer if it were not preserved. Also visual indications of strength are supremely important if you de-level the world.

 

I suppose my suggestion all comes back to really valuing and wanting more choice. Look at it from a design point of view: Having items be "Leveled Up" versions gives you a feeling of progression, but it also reduces the number of meaningful tools you could have to chose from. There is no meaningful choice between an ebony sword and an iron sword ; the ebony sword is essentially a +10 iron sword. There is an antithetical choice, but otherwise one is clearly superior; it's a calculation and a simple one at that. Thus you've reduced your choices, a player will generally always chose the ebony sword because it has the best stats. Once you've found a deadric sword (which could happen quite early for an enterprising player in an unleveled world) every other sword becomes worthless except as something to exchange for materials/gold. I think some type of tiered system is inevitable but my suggestion is to try to institute some meaningful choice within that system. I do have two rough suggestions to help do so: incomparables, and usage cost.

Incomparables: Reduce the number of "stat-based" tiers so that there are actual options in each tier which differ more by 'incomparables', differences that are not directly comparable (like apples and oranges) See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg8fVtKyYxY. How to do so is quite a conundrum, I admit. I'd root for around 3-4 tiers with 3-4 options and Vanilla just does not offer enough different pieces to do that. However I think creating this choice would greatly enhance the experience. I have a great memory of spending 5 minutes debating over carrying a silver sword or a steel sword around in Requiem since I only had the carrying capacity for one. The steel sword had better stats but Requim gives the silver sword an "incomparable", it is very strong against undead. I had no magic ability to otherwise damage undead, so in the end I settled on the silver sword; better every other fight be a little harder and stand a chance the next time I came across undead. It was a choice I had to make with no clear optimal solution and I'd love to see experience more of that when selecting my weapon in Skyrim. Choice is nice.

Usage Costs: Tiered systems are everywhere in RPG type games, you "build up" to better gear. It's a pretty big developer's crutch when it comes to giving players a sense of progression. As in Skyrim, the problem is gear on one tier becomes obsolete once you obtain the next tier. However I think games like Minecraft do a good job trying to mitigate this by introducing a 'usage costs'; perhaps usage cost is a poor choice of wording because I don't just mean the loss of item durability, I mean any cost you must accept by using the item. The risk you take of losing that item can be a very big cost. A diamond tool/armor is clearly superior to iron, but often I find myself making the choice to use iron because of the usage cost for diamond..the time and effort I risk losing should I lose it to mob/lava or worse. Just like that choosing a material is no long a simple calculation based on stats (mining time) but an exercise in risk management. It's a choice. Again difficult to say the best way to implement, but I would favor a degradation system like Loot and Degradation's. If you ebony armor could be damaged beyond usefulness until you had the ebony/gold to fix it up then wearing it over the easier/cheaper to fix iron armor would be much more of a choice. As would choosing to keep a spare set of armor on your horse...just in case. Boom more choice.

I know I focused on weapons/armor so just to touch on spells. Spell already have a decent trade-off system with damage/magicka cost/cast time, but the magicka system in vanilla destroys this nuance. As you progress you can increasingly just cast the highest leveled version and so currently spells can tend to just clutter up your magic inventory. So I'd love either some motivation to use lower level spells sometimes, or a system like Forgotten Magic's where spells level-up instead of multiplying. There are also have several nice incomparables between spells that would otherwise be equivalent; these could just benefit from some fine-tuning, and expanding. A lightning mage shouldn't feel he has to use fire, but I would argue it's not particularly desirable if the only difference between fire ball and lightning bolt is the animation. The choice of pretty color is a pretty lame choice (See Mass Effect Ending).

 

Options in Combat

Well in short choice; better tactical combat. I'm a tactical player, I love shooters. Skyrim offers some great tactical play...but only if you run a "master of everything" character. In that case you have a plethora of tools to chose from in any given engagement. The problem is this breaks the role-playing/immersion for me. So in vanilla I constantly have an inner conflict: do I satisfy my tactical side, or my role-playing side? More choices in combat basically means expand the tool set a player who sticks to a 'class' might have available. As I said, mages have quite a few different spells/tools at their disposal, but warriors/ranges have only a few tools. Adding more moves/abilities/traps/options would increase the tactical play and stop that gameplay from getting so easily stale. Mechanics like timed-blocking are a great way to extend the game play, but they expanded the skill-based play; they do nothing to add to the tactical element. Since I favor tactical play I'm obviously in favor of anything that extends it. Plus if you could add animations as Kestrellius suggested it would add to the visual progression of your character when you unlocked new variations/options.

 

Economics

Oh god you just made me even more excited

 

One last note: It's one hell of a design problem to balance these types of additions; even bigger if you also have to modularize them. You are a mad man. I love it.

[Doomsdayman]

Still have not managed to catch-up but I've got to call it a night. Some quick thoughts:

Quest Awareness

De-leved mods tend to break quest's realism, you mentioned changes to radiant quests which is a huge step-forward. This is more an issue with Vanilla's ridiculous quest progression which has you fighting dragons right off the bat, but (until I get off my ass and start working on my dream of overhauling the Vanilla quests) making the de-leveled world quest compatible would be wonderful.

 

Skill Trees

Trust me, there are a zillion ways you could combined trees and many different trees you could create...cooking and survival are the top ones in my mind (With Hunterborn and Frostfall support), though your potential tree is intriguing. It definitely has potential (I'm sorry I couldn't resist). Personally I would like to see some modifications.

Cooking (Addition). Cooking is a crafting activity in Skyrim. It is the only crafting activity to have no tree tied to it and as a result it feels underdeveloped. Either a separate tree or the addition of a few perks onto a related tree could help expand cooking into a useful skill and not just a mechanic no one ever uses. Ultimately that would be my desire, for the mechanic of cooking to have a reason for existing.

Survival (Addition). I'd love a tree for Hunterborn's perks, for increasing your fortitude and gathering skills in Frostfall's chilly world, for being able to better size up potential foes and recognize them from friends, and maybe a home for cooking. However I admit to being somewhat stumped as to what you would fill this with for those not realism/survival nutters.

Magic (Modification).The Vanilla trees are mostly filled with very bland stat bonuses. I like some of the new perks you added to illusion. More of that would be great, those kind of perks feel much more satisfying imo.

 

Initial Perks: While I am a fan of needing perks to really utilize a tree I'd suggest a metered approach. It bugs me when you can't pick any locks without a perk in lock-picking, as it means you can't level lock-picking without first investing a perk. This never tends be implemented evenly across schools. I have yet to see a mod where you can't swing a sword without a perk in one-handed, or wear armor without a perk in the respective tree. I would suggest that increasing the difficulty or decreasing the usability or a skill is fine, but do not block the usage. For example novice locks might be as hard as master locks in Vanilla with no perks; they would be pick-able, but very challenging. If it's possible higher level ones might have a micrometer like sweet-spot to they were still technically pick-able, but to do so would be an act of repetition and dumb luck so improbable it is essential impossible. Then imagine how happy you'd be if you got lucky. Meanwhile Potions could still be crafted without alchemy but mybe doing so would not only result in weak potion but have a chance to fail or poison you, etc.

Edited August 26, 2014 by Doomsdayman

[Arrogancy]

Matthias,

We do have strength! Improving health at level up increases Brawn, which boosts all melee weapon damage, and, with the Overpower perk, increases power attack damage with two-handed weapons SUBSTANTIALLY. Two-handed weapons are also easier to master (read: less perk-intensive) than one-handed weapons, and sprinting power attacks will knock down most foes, just like a shield charge. I think you’ll find them to be very compelling.

(The stamina secondary stat is “Finesse”, which improves archery damage, sneak, thievery, and some one-handed crit chance. You’ll notice that one-handed weapons are improved by both Finesse and Brawn, reflecting their status as both warrior and thief weapons. Brawn is the more substantial damage contributor, at least until the Thick And Fast perk from the Potential tree is taken. I really recommend taking a look at the Potential tree.)

So the reason Eagle-Eye drains stamina is that you hold your breath while doing it. Note the sound effects. Regular bow drawing will cost some stamina, just like regular attacks.

Portable crafting systems are an interesting idea. I think Enchanting already has plenty of incentive (it’s by far the strongest tree). We’ve added some capstones to Alchemy that give some really strong passives. I think Smithing is pretty powerful too, honestly. As for fletching your own arrows, can’t you already do that with the DLCs? Firewood + other mats = arrows?

Doomsdayman,

Let me say first of all that I really appreciate how cogent and well-supported your points are. This is definitely the sort of thing that helps the design process.

So I think you’d like the one-handed tree we’re using - take a look at it and tell me what you think.

I hear what you’re saying in terms of more options within the perk trees being interesting, but I don’t think there aren’t really enough styles in the game to allow for specialized avenues in every tree - at least, avenues that would be worth the perk points. There is a reason that Restoration is where the designers put the Recovery perk in vanilla instead of, say, Alteration - and that’s because Restoration desperately needed the mechanic. That said, I think you’ll like the Destruction specializations we’ve added. Please take a look and tell me what you think!

I can assure you that finding a Daedric sword will not be easy in this deleveled world!

I’m pretty ok with some equipment just being strictly better than other equipment. Upgrading gear is a pretty fundamental part of the game, and I don’t think I would go so far to call it a crutch. Lots of people like seeing bars fill up and I’m definitely one of them. But you know I really like the idea of fewer tiers and more options. For one thing, fewer tiers would mean you’d really notice the differences when the upgrades do come, and I would much prefer fewer and more noticeable upgrades to more and less noticeable ones.

You make some compelling points about degradation, but I’m still on the fence. The main problem is that I’ve played several games that have had equipment degradation, and I’ve really never found the mechanic to be anything other than a chore. In theory you bring along a spare set of armor or something, and only deploy the rare-material stuff on big runs, but in practice I just max repair before leaving town/carry spare repair parts and the rare-material gear sits in my chest at home forever. I feel like nonrenewable or hardrenewable resources really need a game with more constraints in it than Skyrim has to really shine.

Time blocking is certainly in a lot of combat mods, and there’s no question that a lot of people like it. I very personally hate it. It bothers me for two reasons. First, because I hate timing mechanics and suck at them. Second, because it doesn’t make any sense to me at all why a timed block should be more effective than a regular one. I actually much prefer Skyrim’s vanilla system, where you block regular hits and need to bash to stop power attacks.

So, the problem with cooking and survival trees is that it’s basically impossible to find worthwhile perks to put in them. Like, making trees with perks is easy - but that’s not the goal of good design. The goal is to make every tree feel overpowered. Naturally that really means that they are balanced, of course - but they should all feel awesome. I am not aware of any way to make roasting pheasant feel as awesome as roasting vampires.

So actually that’s basically how I plan to implement lockpicking - without the perk it’s super hard (to the point of practical impossibility). And the way we’re planning to run it, weapons are actually going to be much less strong if you aren’t trained in their use (i.e., haven’t picked up the first perk in the one-handed/two-handed trees). I’m pretty ok though with the idea of Alchemy and Lockpicking being things you need training in. Have you ever tried to pick a lock or brew beer in the real world without training?

[Mattiewagg]

Matthias,

 

We do have strength! Improving health at level up increases Brawn, which boosts all melee weapon damage, and, with the Overpower perk, increases power attack damage with two-handed weapons SUBSTANTIALLY. Two-handed weapons are also easier to master (read: less perk-intensive) than one-handed weapons, and sprinting power attacks will knock down most foes, just like a shield charge. I think you’ll find them to be very compelling.

 

(The stamina secondary stat is “Finesse”, which improves archery damage, sneak, thievery, and some one-handed crit chance. You’ll notice that one-handed weapons are improved by both Finesse and Brawn, reflecting their status as both warrior and thief weapons. Brawn is the more substantial damage contributor, at least until the Thick And Fast perk from the Potential tree is taken. I really recommend taking a look at the Potential tree.)

 

So the reason Eagle-Eye drains stamina is that you hold your breath while doing it. Note the sound effects. Regular bow drawing will cost some stamina, just like regular attacks.

 

Portable crafting systems are an interesting idea. I think Enchanting already has plenty of incentive (it’s by far the strongest tree). We’ve added some capstones to Alchemy that give some really strong passives. I think Smithing is pretty powerful too, honestly. As for fletching your own arrows, can’t you already do that with the DLCs? Firewood + other mats = arrows?

 

Doomsdayman,

 

Let me say first of all that I really appreciate how cogent and well-supported your points are. This is definitely the sort of thing that helps the design process.

 

So I think you’d like the one-handed tree we’re using - take a look at it and tell me what you think.

 

I hear what you’re saying in terms of more options within the perk trees being interesting, but I don’t think there aren’t really enough styles in the game to allow for specialized avenues in every tree - at least, avenues that would be worth the perk points. There is a reason that Restoration is where the designers put the Recovery perk in vanilla instead of, say, Alteration - and that’s because Restoration desperately needed the mechanic. That said, I think you’ll like the Destruction specializations we’ve added. Please take a look and tell me what you think!

 

I can assure you that finding a Daedric sword will not be easy in this deleveled world!

 

I’m pretty ok with some equipment just being strictly better than other equipment. Upgrading gear is a pretty fundamental part of the game, and I don’t think I would go so far to call it a crutch. Lots of people like seeing bars fill up and I’m definitely one of them. But you know I really like the idea of fewer tiers and more options. For one thing, fewer tiers would mean you’d really notice the differences when the upgrades do come, and I would much prefer fewer and more noticeable upgrades to more and less noticeable ones.

 

You make some compelling points about degradation, but I’m still on the fence. The main problem is that I’ve played several games that have had equipment degradation, and I’ve really never found the mechanic to be anything other than a chore. In theory you bring along a spare set of armor or something, and only deploy the rare-material stuff on big runs, but in practice I just max repair before leaving town/carry spare repair parts and the rare-material gear sits in my chest at home forever. I feel like nonrenewable or hardrenewable resources really need a game with more constraints in it than Skyrim has to really shine.

 

Time blocking is certainly in a lot of combat mods, and there’s no question that a lot of people like it. I very personally hate it. It bothers me for two reasons. First, because I hate timing mechanics and suck at them. Second, because it doesn’t make any sense to me at all why a timed block should be more effective than a regular one. I actually much prefer Skyrim’s vanilla system, where you block regular hits and need to bash to stop power attacks.

 

So, the problem with cooking and survival trees is that it’s basically impossible to find worthwhile perks to put in them. Like, making trees with perks is easy - but that’s not the goal of good design. The goal is to make every tree feel overpowered. Naturally that really means that they are balanced, of course - but they should all feel awesome. I am not aware of any way to make roasting pheasant feel as awesome as roasting vampires.

 

So actually that’s basically how I plan to implement lockpicking - without the perk it’s super hard (to the point of practical impossibility). And the way we’re planning to run it, weapons are actually going to be much less strong if you aren’t trained in their use (i.e., haven’t picked up the first perk in the one-handed/two-handed trees). I’m pretty ok though with the idea of Alchemy and Lockpicking being things you need training in. Have you ever tried to pick a lock or brew beer in the real world without training?

 

I especially like the last point about lockpicking and strength.

 

I think it would be cool if certain (closer in tier) weapons had different strengths and detriments, more so than now. i.e.:

 

Elven sword is faster and lighter, but less damage than...

Dwarven sword, which is slower and heavier, but more damage than the Elven sword.

 

Thus, when you begin to reach higher levels, it's less of a clearly tiered idea. Dwarves were master smiths, and the Elves were clearly skilled as well. They're DIFFERENT, but one is not so much inferior to the other.

[Kestrellius]

I hope you keep the armor cap, and possibly implement a weapon damage cap (although the caps for different types of armor or weapons would differ). It's nice, because it means virtually anything can be viable once you're beyond a certain point, and it also makes sense. You can only sharpen a sword so much.

 

Also, not sure how hard this would be, but it would be extremely helpful to reduce the amount of animation-lock you find yourself in in vanilla. Why can't I put my sword away while running? Why can't I shift my weight to the side while attacking? For that matter, why can't I get all the way down behind this rock so that dragon can't reach me with its breath?

[lofgren]

(alteration and destruction shouldn't level together for the same reason two-handed and heavy armor shouldn't level together - it would be too powerful).

 

Can you explain this thinking some more?

 

I feel that this is a common misconception amongst gamers – that a character must not be able to train in more than one type of weapon or armor easily because it would be unbalancing. But heavy armor and light armor are not divided into two skills because they would be unbalancing as one skill, they are divided to create the illusion that your character is unique. Players want a light armor and a heavy armor because choosing one over the other makes them feel like they are customizing their play experience. There is absolutely no balance reason to divide them because you can't equip both heavy armor and light armor to the same slot. If I am wearing heavy gauntlets, it doesn't matter how much armor light gauntlets would give me. If I switch to light gauntlets then the bonus to heavy gauntlets is irrelevant. The two never stack, so one can't possibly be unbalancing of the other. And in fact in vanilla Skyrim if you get to a high enough level with both then they are both weightless, silent, and exceed the armor cap.

[Arrogancy]

Matthias, you're absolutely right that Dwarves were master smiths, and Dwemer gear will definitely be in a higher tier than in vanilla. It always annoyed me that it was worse than orcish, given how incredibly advanced the dwemer were. At present the tiers look something like this:

 

Weak: Leather, Iron (weak NPC gear, basically)

Standard: Steel, Imperial, Stormcloak (low level PC gear)

Advanced: Steel Plate, Scale, Falmer, Elven, Orcish, Nordic Carved

Secret: Ebony, Glass, Dwemer, Ancient Falmer

Epic: Stalhrim, Daedric, Dragon

 

You won't be able to find Epic gear - you'll have to smith it yourself. What do people think?

 

Raising the armor cap for higher tiers is an interesting idea, Kestrellius, but it runs into problems as soon as you consider things like the Lord Stone, enchantment buffs or the protection spells from the Alteration school. With only a few tiers, though, the difference in armor will be substantial enough that I think the difference will be noticeable.

 

I like the idea of giving materials special abilities or characteristics within their tier. Any suggestions?

 

lofgren, if you extend your analysis, you will find the answer to why two-handed and heavy armor would not be balanced to combine.

[monganfinn]

Will Stalhrim still be sold by the specific vanilla vendors?

 

I would suggest a redesign of the advanced and secret tiers:

While it is certainly true that the Dwemer were mastersmiths and the snow elves probably as well, both did not advance their technology in quite a long time and the dwemer armor isn´t even created by dwemer but buy others imitating the dwemer, nor do we know if the dwemer were as physically strong as the orcs. Whereas the orsimer, nowadays reknown for their smithing skills, progressed their skills in that time.

Perhaps rather than putting them into such specific tiers, you could give some armors specific abilities like the frost enchantment on the Stalhrim(which should be a bit stronger as the Thalmor actively research it)

f.ex.

Glass: very fast because it is light

dwemer: uses less stamina and/or is very light especially for a heavy armor, because the advanced mechanics of the armor make movements very easy

ebony: anti magic

orcish: heavy and relative high armor rating, adequat for a race that values physical combat and smithing very high

ancient falmer: very light? frost resistence? boosts magic?

elven: boosts magic?

nordic carved: exposure resistence? some combat boon?

falmer: sneaking boon?

- if you incorporate Frostfall you also could give some armors boons in exposure resistence

Differentiating the armors by effects would also affect the individual playing style greatly, or at least how the armors are used and they don´t automatically become obsolete when you can smith better armors.

I would transfer the steel plate, orcish and scale armor sets down into the standard tier, and differentiate them from the others with better regular stats but the whole tier doesn´t have arcane abilities, whereas the ebony, glass, elven, falmer, dwemer, nordic carved, etc are united in a single "arcane" tier that gives them special abilities promoting a special playing style with the armor.

The Stalhrim, dragon and daedric should stay superior and differentiate between themselves with special characteristics as the arcane tier armors

- Don´t the dremora in molag bals shrine drop daedric items? IMO it would be better you can´t smith daedric and have to loot it from dremora. It gives the armor a more unique feeling. Though I guess that since you need the daedra heart to smith it you still have to kill dremora for the armor.

[Arrogancy]

I'm pretty sure that Dwarven armor was made by the Dwemer. I mean there's a full set found in Dwemer ruins, and the guards say "Dwarven make, am I right?". And there's the quest where the Dwemer artifact makes your Dwemer armor better. Do you have a source?

 

I don't want to put Steel Plate into standard because it LOOKS very strong. Scale I would be ok moving down if there was an alternative light armor (say from a mod) that I could put on the stronger vanilla Nord bandits, who obviously shouldn't be wearing elven armor (there are not a lot of light armor sets in this game). They won't have special abilities, though. Dremora will not drop Daedric armor; just the hearts. You will be able to get it from the Atronach forge, though. Stalrihm will not initially be for sale, but you can buy it after completing the New Source of Stalrihm quest.

 

Here's what we're currently working with for bonuses.

 

Advanced Armors

Elven: Reduces spellcasting penalties

Orcish: As effective as secret-tier armor when used by orcs

Wolf Armor: Full exposure protection.

Blades Armor: Slightly better armor than other advanced armors. Weighs very little.

Falmer: Reduced sneak penalty. (Thanks morganfinn)

Nordic Carved: Full exposure protection. Bonus to magic resistance.

Vampire Armor: Bonus to sneak and magic resistance. (Stronger than the others, because vampires wear it)

 

Secret Armors

Ebony: ??? (I don't want to put something as strong as magic resistance on Secret-tier armor)

Glass: ??? (I don't really like move speed. Why be faster than wearing no armor?)

Dwemer: With "Ancient Knowledge" quest, almost as strong as Epic armor. This will be a much harder quest.

Better Falmer: Less sneak penalty (heavy), doesn't interfere with spellcasting (light)

Dawnguard: Reduces damage from vampires.

 

Epic Armors

Stalrihm: Full Exposure protection. Bonus frost resistance.

Daedric: Health bonus.

Dragon: ???? (I don't want to just make shouting better)

Edited August 28, 2014 by Arrogancy