Or a small town? According to that Todd quote.

You can completely ignore the MQ though. That's probably an annoying prospect, I wouldn't really know, but I've seen plenty of people do it, and without mods to make it easier.

Although I will agree that going from an epic deed to a mundane one isn't preferable. I just don't think that will be the case with Skyrim. It'd be easy enough to have the dragons gets bigger and scarier as the player progresses. I'm sure there will be plenty of other things to slay that rival the wyrms, as well. And if not, oh well. The Main Quests aren't really why I play these games anyway.



Oh. Okay.

Tomato tomato.

Yeah, to recap. 5 massive cities, 4 smaller "town-like" cities, and 8-9 towns.


In reality, they are all the size of small villages.

From what I heard I imagine right off the bat your character being dragged into a village to get executed for unknown crimes and all of a sudden the Blades (or what is left of them) ambushes your captors. While the battle is going on Esbern (I forgot the name) pulls you out and talks to you before a dragon attacks the village and you fend it off. Then you learn you are Dragonborn and it jump starts the main quest. I think they said something about starting in Ravenwood or something like that and I guessed that (Its the village in the gameplay trailer when the robed guy is walking)

Todd made it sound like those 4 smaller town-like cities make up part of the 8-9 towns.

If you had read the first post you would have known that the sewers is not the issue. The issue is that Oblivion sends you on an epic quest too early in the game instead of letting you explore and join guilds. It doesn't "force" you to start with the main quest, but still...

I was under the impression that the players got to decide for themselves why they are imprisoned. I have never heard Todd confirm what you're saying, but the 'choose your own circumstances' plan from Morrowind and Oblivion has been confirmed for quite some time now.

That would go against what the wall map shows us which totals about 14 settlements.

He's talking about where you're captured, not why.

It was in an IGN video interview.

I made a clip a while back.
4:28
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N1SeaIH0Hw&feature=player_detailpage#t=268s

Reading that Todd quote definitely sounds like he's implying something else though. He is including those 4 hold towns as part of the 8-9 towns.

It is not a HUGE problem, but imagine if Barack Obama gave you a secret box to deliver to the pentagon moments before he was assasinated and it took six months for you to do it. [censored] saving the world I want to go join the Thives Guild instead.

It could mean anything, but I'm an optimist.

I must say that I liked Morrowind's main quest more because it let you build up your character before you actually started anything. Caius Cosades suggested that you go out into the world and build your own identity before you begin working for him in secret. It doesn't pick up instantly, like many good books and movies. It's the first objective you ever get, but after you do it and you're told to go do whatever you want for a while, it definitely doesn't seem like the most important thing out there to do.

Oblivion's setup, to use the example above, is like the president of the US handing you the keys to the nation's security, and only you can save the world. Morrowind's, on the other hand, starts more like some guy asking you to give a letter to his friend on some streetcorner, and as you continue to explore this, it begins to escalate into a gigantic conspiracy that threatens the safety of the whole nation.

Skyrim's sounds like it will be hard to avoid, like Oblivion's. You're about to be executed, but something stops them and you'll encounter the dragons very early on in the game. If you know that you are the savior of the world, and you see the dragons flying around all the time from the moment you can explore on your own, how do you ignore that? It might be easier if the main quest of Oblivion didn't pick up until you just stumbled upon Kvatch, instead of Unignorable Quest A leading directly into Unignorable Questline B. It'd be better if there was a point between the game's introduction and the start of the actual conflict that advises you to go out on your own and gain strength to fight the inevitable challenge that lies before you, but that challenge will not present itself until you decide to proceed.

I'm a bit disappointed that it is going to have another EPIC opening. Kinda limits the game in a way. It means i need to invent a backstory for my character that would make them likely to bail on saving the world and being a hero, just so they can rise up the ranks of the Thieves Guild. I was hoping for a more chilled out opening which actually only ends up making the EPIC ending cooler. Oh well

Well, technically the President would already be dead, and your task would be to find a suitable replacement because the Vice President was in a coma or something. And the Russians were about to nuke us into oblivion. Tee-hee.

Anyhoo, this could easily be applied to Morrowind as well. Dagoth Ur is just as much of an urgent threat as Mehrunes Dagon, it just doesn't feel that way because when you first travel from Balmora to Ald'ruhn, the place isn't getting tore up by Ascended Sleepers. The worst old Loincloth Man comes up with or without your progress in the MQ is the Blight, which isn't that bad if you don't go inside the Ghostfence.

The Morrowind MQ is much easier to ignore, but the only real reason for that is the limitations inherent to Morrowind-era technology. If Skyrim had been the the third ES game, and Morrowind was up next, I'm certain it would be a very, very different game from the one we know. The Imperial Legion would be clashing with Ash monsters all over the place, an avatar of Dagoth Ur would appear before you out of nowhere to deliver his messages more personally, Tel Fyr would be on an island floating in mid-air instead of on water, when you battle the nigh-nekkid one he sits on Akulakhan's shoulder and has it try to squash you like a bug, all kinds of crazy stuff.

Come to think of it, I really wish Morrowind was the next game instead of Skyrim, because all of that just be so amazingly epic.

I see the Imperial Prison sewers the same as Seyda Neen :shrug: something to get you started and mini tutorials. The only difference between Morrowind and Oblivion is that Oblivion forces you to do the tutorials which is what I was talking about in my post.

The way I see it is Morrowind starts the same as Oblivion main quest wise (albeit Oblivions was a bit more involved, with the emperor and such), in Morrowind they give you the package and in Oblivion you get the amulet. After that it was just explore. As far as I remember there were no quests in Seyda Neen that sent you to anywhere special other than the main quest, just the little tutorial quests.

[edit] Ah I think I got you now after reading some more of your posts. What your saying is that Oblivion's main quest is too hard to ignore. What I thought you were saying is that it's difficult to get into Oblivion's other quests because they drop you in the middle of nowhere, and only give you info in the main quest.

It's both actually.

I liked Oblivion's beginning better. It felt more open ended.

Morrowind was interesting ...

First you were on a prison ship and were released, totally unknow to Vvardenfell born on another part of Tamriel, you leave the ships visit the local 'douane' get you papers, get you mission ... You walk to the next large town, 'Balmora' you talk to the local blades representatieve there, Caidius Cosidus (wrong spelled), who is also a Skooma addict if you later learn ....

He Caidius is pretty laid back first you need to get on with the local, joining up with one of the guilds or one of the houses ....

After you have done that, only than the real fun starts ....

In Oblivion you really feel ' the pressure' it is also a way, but not to learn the world, in Oblivion you are directly given direction the Weyon Priory .... Where you if you want it or not directly feel the Pressure, ....

Agreed. And even if you decide to play nice and bring the orders to Caius Cosades straight away, he'll tell you to get a 'undercover identity' first by getting some experience by doing some freelance work or joining one of the guilds.

There are blighted creatures around and rumors of Dagoth Ur and those weird Sleepers in town, but the game doesn't scream 'It's the end of the world come save us!!' right from the start. Though you can head right into Red Mountain if you want (no 'needs a key' lock on the ghostfence or Dagoth Ur's base ) if you're crazy like that.

Goodluck with that first you need to pas the valley of a thousand cliff racers if there aren't more, still have nightmares of that Oh yes not to forgot you need to pass that imperial lunatic on the dwemer bridge If i remember correctly ...

The "pressure" is a good way of putting it. For a game that pushes the notion of creating many different characters, that pressure can be a real pain in the ass.
Ha i loved that part about Caidius, gave him real depth.

Well I liked it , and you did eventually did get weird dreams about you prophecy ...

You went to Cadiius, you could even kill him he wasn't immortal like the majority of quest givers in Oblivion ... But I loved he wasn't a perfect 'character' .... Nice fellow I really need to buy a new disc of Morrowind some time, the disc I currently have is to far gone to install the game ...

After some nice and long conversation with him you heard about the political system of Vvardenfall and the like ... I must admit a bit I missed that in oblivion there you did get this pressure, go to some kind of priory where the blademaster is ... A guy who doesn't know you and you don't know him, and he trust you directly .... A bit rather strange not , for the seem part you killed Baurus taked the Amulet from him and are a spy of Mehrunes Dagon himself ....