Thievery - What respawns?

[Internet Boy]

Hey all, I was wondering what respawns when you steal it and what does. I'm pretty sure store counters and such don't respawn since I waited for about 20 days with no success. But what about picked pockets, locked doors, containers, houses, etc?

[arottweiler]

NPCs and containers that are affected by the cell reset that occurs every 72 in game hours will become re-populated with items but anything not affected by the cell reset such as the open world will not reset. I learnt the hard way when I first started playing by stupidly clearing out all the fighter's and mage's guilds so I could sell them. Stuff like clutter and weapons on display never respawned so it looked very empty for the rest of the game and was hardly worth any cash anyway. My advice is to leave anything alone that you can see in the game world such as on display cabinets or tables because this will not re-populate if it's taken so will remain bare for the rest of the game.

There is an advantage to this if you want to decorate an area with something else because your items will then become permanent fixtures. There is a rogue single apple on the table in the Skingrad bedroom that keeps respawning though which must be a glitch.

[Internet Boy]

Originally posted by arottweiler:

NPCs and containers that are affected by the cell reset that occurs every 72 in game hours will become re-populated with items but anything not affected by the cell reset such as the open world will not reset. I learnt the hard way when I first started playing by stupidly clearing out all the fighter's and mage's guilds so I could sell them. Stuff like clutter and weapons on display never respawned so it looked very empty for the rest of the game and was hardly worth any cash anyway. My advice is to leave anything alone that you can see in the game world such as on display cabinets or tables because this will not re-populate if it's taken so will remain bare for the rest of the game.

There is an advantage to this if you want to decorate an area with something else because your items will then become permanent fixtures. There is a rogue single apple on the table in the Skingrad bedroom that keeps respawning though which must be a glitch.

Alright good to know, I was worried that the shops and stuff would end up looking dull and empty after stealing everything in sight. Thanks a bunch!

[arottweiler]

It's a shame there isn't more for a thief character because I enjoyed the Thieves Guild questline as much as the Dark Brotherhood but there are no mods I know of that make being a thief worthwhile. Aside from the items never respawning if you clear out a shop it doesn't even affect the owners disposition. There is a certain resident of Skingrad that I would love to clean out but there is no incentive. If I knew it would make him rage at me in anger with something like "I know it was you that robbed me you scum" while he's being arrested by the city guard for assault I would have a reason :D

[Internet Boy]

Yeah, the only mod I could find that enhances being a thief is one that delays the guild quests by requiring you to steal more. So instead of only having to steal the poultry sum of 1000 to gain access to all quests I now have to prove myself and steal a total of 12000. It's not much but at least I actually have to be a thief and not some random adventurer that decided to nick an enchanted dagger that one time.