So, I looked up how to make money and some forum post suggested fortifying Agility to 100 and then stealing. I decided to try it with my Sorcerer, but I was not able to steal even with 100 Agility.

However, I did notice that the guards were really easy to kill once they appeared. Are the guards just weak, or does 100 Agility make *that* much of a difference? (I suspect the latter, but even with 100 Agility and multiple defensive accessories, I *still* got quickly killed by a couple of humanoids in a dungeon.)

Well, I guess I have a new trick, as well as a stat-building strategy in case I ever play a non-spellcaster.

Of course, I did run into a couple things that are very annoying when combined.

1. I arrived in town during the night.
2. All the marks on the town map were erased.

This combination is *extremely* annoying, especially since the game doesn't let you rest outside in town (why not?), and there are no (or almost no) people to ask for the location of the nearest tavern. (Also, enemies appear at night in towns.)

On the other hand, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, because:

1. I encountered 2 enemy mages, and came out of the fight with more Spell Points than I had at the start of the fight. (Being a Sorcerer with high Willpower helps here.)

2. I actually found someone who looked like the wizard at the Mage's Guild (except that he was outside) and could ask for the location of the tavern (which I was right next to).

Even still, they could have done better if the developers had:

1. Allowed you to rest outside in towns. (There's still a reason to find a tavern; enemies appear during the night.)

2. Not erased the markings on the towns. This could be solved by only erasing the least recently visited map instead of the map that was least recently entered for the first time. (This way, you wouldn't lose the markings in your base of operations.) Also, prioritizing towns over dungeons would also help here.

3. Make it so that you would always arrive in town during the day, and not too close to sundown. (This should also have happened when first exiting the starter dungeon.)

At level 8, managed to do some stealing in the Longhaven Wizard's Guild. (Not 100% consistent, but still works.)

After stealing all three magic items, I notice the following behavior:

Buying potions works normally.
Buying spells causes the palette to change to glitchy colors and the game to lock up.
(The "Magic Items" option is gone.)
Stealing has no Potions/Magic Items Prompt.
Successfully stealing displays a "division by zero" error for a split second and then drops to a DOS prompt, except that no keys work here.

This was all done with 1.06 (last floppy version). Did 1.07 fix this bug?

Just trying to buy some spells (after buying all the magic items).

I can't confirm your observation regarding the town map. When I enter a town (day or night), all labels are there, both the ones created automatically and the ones I entered manually. Have I missed your point?
Why you can't rest outside in towns? Well, Tamriel is an orderly empire (or, the inn-keepers have a strong lobby). :-)
More seriously, it would be nice if you could pass some time more easily (in a different "incarnation" of Tamriel you can at least "loiter" for up to 3 hours, on your own risk).
And, of course, the hard-working people of Tamriel prefer to sleep at night - that said, the inns and pubs appear to be quite busy around the clock, perhaps these are the guys you don't want to meet outside (or who don't want to meet you)?
If you compare the night situation in Tamriel's towns with that of some of our own towns, Tamriel's don't look so bad, do they? You have a map where interesting places are marked by a red dot, and cut-throats are said to exist in one or the other real-life town, too. And inns are a lot more numerous.
Have fun! :-)

Try doing the Oghma Infinum quest twice in a row (using the same town as your base of operations) and return to that base of operations. At that point, the labels disappeared on me. The thing is, the way the game presents it, it is physically impossible (rather than illegal) to rest outside in towns, and it feels like an arbitrary restriction in a game that lets you rest everywhere else.

From a gameplay perspective, the decision to not let the player rest outside in town hurts the game rather than helping it, and therefore they should have let the player rest outside in towns.

I don't mind the dangers of the nights in Tamriel's towns - the risk to become the target of a killer even adds to the atmosphere and immersion of the game, in my mind.
When I am attacked and feel too weak for a fight, I try to either leave the town or find an inn (which is recognisable without the map) - great role-playing experience! Same in Daggerfall, by the way.
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