I know this thread is a few months old but I just got Skyrim. Been playing about 50 hours or so, and only into the 2nd quest in the main story line. Which for me, is NOT good. I feel like I'm wasting a lot time. I'm not a big RPG'er, but I do like the adventure, just not all the micromanagement.
So just last night I realized one of the things taking up so much extra time is looting and selling stuff. I wouldn't say I'm a hoarder, because I don't hold on to things. I only loot to sell stuff to make gold. Or ingredients for alchemy, and some stuff for smithing, but not much. I DON'T pick up books except spell tomes or high-value books, but again, only to sell for gold, and I don't pick up other junk like dinner-ware, baskets, etc. Even food, I collect some stuff for making vegetable soup or venison stew, or elswere fondue.
But I do loot all armor and weapons, using the trick (still not sure if it's a feature or glitch) of dropping stuff I loot and having my follower pick it up so my follower can carry and infinite amount of stuff.
So I've realized that this takes a LOT of extra time to drop and get the follower to pick stuff up every time I reach my weight limit. Last night it took me about 3 hours to finish a dungeon that probably would have taken only an hour, if that, if I had just gone through without looting everything and having to drop stuff and have the follower pick it up. And then of course a ton of time to sell between trading with the follower, then merchants not having enough gold, and having to wait the 48 hours for gold to replenish 2 or 3 times (even when selling among mutilple merchants in town).
So I'm trying to decide if I'll feel comfortable just not looting every piece of weapon or armor, and also to some extent things like hides or pelts for making leather for smithing.
So how much gold on hand is enough to feel comfortable that I'm not going to be short on it at some point. Will I stay comfortable by only carrying what I can carry and what my follower can carry by what I can give them through the trade interface? If I only keep that much and sell each time I get back to a town, will I stay at a comfortable level of gold?
Oh, I've bought Breezehome but no other houses yet, but want to. I'll feel better once I've bought more houses and aren't trying to save up for them. I haven't paid for any training yet but would like to without feeling like I'm going to constantly short of gold.
With things like hides and pelts (I seem to collect tons of wolf pelts and several other hides every time I go out), will I have plenty for making leather if I only bring back a couple each time, to then have enough leather for smithing? (I guess the same could be said of things like ores, ingots, etc., but I don't seem to come across tons of that stuff, the hides/pelts are the main thing I get tons of.)
To be clear, this is not about any compulsion to loot just because I want to, it's purely about wanting to be comfortable with having enough gold to not worry about it, and supplies for smithing (and I guess to a point, also cooking and alchemy, but I've got a pretty good handle on those, it's mainly about the weapons and armor, and hides/pelts), and not wanting to waste a bunch of extra time in the game if I don't need to.
Thank you.