The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind had only two full sets of daedric armor in the entire game. One of them was worn by an essential NPC, and the other was impossible to find without a walkthrough. The Secret of Steel makes getting fantasy armors an achievement again.

The Secret of Steel is one of the best mods out there for those of us not addicted to SkyRe. It almost entirely removes fantasy armors and weapons from loot and NPCs, which makes finding / crafting high level armors much more rewarding. It only alters leveled lists, so it's compatible with almost anything (with a Bashed Patch). Add in a mod like ERSO to address vendors, and Skyrim starts to feel like The Elder Scrolls again.



TL;DR: I wanted to carry Althir's changes over to the expansions, so I did. Then I found some areas that Althir overlooked, so I addressed them. Then I added patches for a few other mods.

Original mod: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14175



***The Secret of Steel - Dragonborn

All Orcish, Elven, Glass, Ebony, Dwemer, Daedric and Stalhrim (yes, Stalhrim) weapons and armor have been removed from DB leveled lists EXCEPT:

-The Dremora Merchant sells daedric items (why wouldn't he?).
-The quest reward for Feeding the Addiction has been changed to a glass or ebony enchanted weapon.



***The Secret of Steel - Tweaks

Significantly reduces the amount of scales and bones available on dead dragons. Because, really. Crafting a set of armor might actually require killing more than one dragon now.

Removes orcish, elven and ebony weapons from bandit chiefs and draugr deathlords.

Adds seamless compatibility with Immersive Armors and Armored Skeletons. You don't need these mods, but if you do, you'll stop seeing ebony equipment all the time.

Thalmor level up armor and weapons at the same time.

Orcs in strongholds have orcish weapons.

Daedric Armor is way too easy to craft in this game. So:

-Daedra hearts have been removed from vendor lists and apothecary satchels
-EXCEPT: Enthir has a 10% chance to spawn 1 Daedra Heart
-The two dremora at the Shrine of Mehrunes Dagon should no longer respawn
-Placed daedra hearts no longer respawn. This affects:
--Jorrvaskr
--Nightcaller Temple
--Hall of the Vigilant
--Sinderion's Laboratory
Let me know if I missed any other hearts.



***The Secret of Steel - Dawnguard

Daedra Hearts in Volkihar no longer respawn

Drastically reduces the chance that a gargoyle will drop ebony, malachite, etc.



***TSOS - Convenient Crossbows

Dwarven Crossbows taken out of leveled lists

Crossbows don't spawn until level 10. Note that this is the level when Dawnguard normally starts.



***TSOS - High Level Enemies

Did the same thing as I did in tweaks, namely: give all the orc bandits an orc dagger and take orc weapons away from everyone else.



***Installation

Rule A#1: You should be using a Bashed Patch.

-This mod DOES NOT REPLACE The Secret of Steel - you still need Althir's esp!
-The same goes for CC and HLE if you want to use those. Highly recommended.

The Secret of Steel - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/14175 (required)
Convenient Crossbows - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/25790 (optional)
High Level Enemies - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/27866 (optional)

-This mod is generally not intended for SkyRe. I recommend ERSO or ACE.

ERSO - http://erkeilmods.altervista.org/skyrim (not required)
ACE - http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/10037 (not required)


-Load the patches after the mods they patch, obviously.
-Load TSOS - Convenient Crossbows after your bashed patch.
-Load Tweaks after the original TSOS esp.
-DO NOT merge the original TSOS esp into your bashed patch!
-When building a Bashed patch, check the following:

The Secret of Steel - Dragonborn ; Relev
The Secret of Steel - Tweaks ; Relev

Otherwise Wrye Bash will overwrite the changes.

In fact, Wrye Bash will probably overwrite them anyway for some reason that only computers can know, so I recommend checking things yourself with TES5Edit.

Uninstalling? Updating? No scripts, no big deal. Just overwrite the .esp's.