I absolutely love this game and I think the awesome dungeons and side quests more than make up for the small cities but did Todd Howard really claim bigger cities than oblivion? I mean come on, the mages and fighters guilds in oblivion had more people in each city than skyrim has people in a city. I am just curios if this was really stated or it was some kind of rumor.

I was just thinking about how small all these cities are. It's pretty sad, really. There are twelve people in each city. And you can walk from one end to the other in 3 seconds. One shop. One inn. You get the picture.

What the hell kind of cities are you visiting?

Sure, they may be smaller. But, instead of having the same dialogue and all that [censored], everybody serves a separate purpose, or has different dialogue.

Now, let me lay Riften down:

Keerava, Talen-Jei, Madesi, Brand-shei, Balimund, Bersi, Drifla, Nivenor, Bolli, Haelga, Maramal, Other Mara Priest, Other Mara Priest #2, Talos Priest, Talos Priest's Husband, Talos Priest's son, Elgrim, Elgrim's Wife, Maven Black-briar, Hamming Black-briar, Edda, Other Beggar, Sibbi Black-briar, Ingun Black-briar, Prisoner, Prisoner #2, Jarl, Housecarl, Court Wizard, Jarl's son, etc.

Now for the shops: Blacksmith (Scorched Steel), Madesi's Stall, Grelka's Stall, Bunkhouse, Bee and Bard, Brand-shei's Stall, Meadery, Elgrim's Elixirs

I didn't even count any members of the Thieves' Guild, and I missed everybody on the docks and a few other people.

So, the cities are FAR from small.

They are at best towns. Certainly not a "city".

Ya what is up with that? I actually really like the quests in the cities so I didnt mind the size too bad but I would of much preferred some bigger cities. I mean I really liked white run and it was my first city I saw. I was thinking it was probably one of the smaller ones :nope:

Adebar, You take the word FAN BOY to another level. I seriously love this game. This is my favorite elder scrolls so far out of morrowind and obliv but the cities are SMALL. that is a fact. Compare them to oblivion. They are SMALL.

The imperial city feels like 5-6 times the size of Whiterun, to be honest...

Indeed. In oblivion you had a store that specialized in shields or weapons. A clothing shop, a book shop; 10+ civilians houses, houses for all the shop owners, A jewelry shop ect...

In Skyrim you have a general store, alchemy store, and a weapon/armor store.

i was wondering the same thing but i don't mind it honestly

When the Creation Kit gets released, I'll be working non-stop on populating the province. I might add a couple of static houses that lead nowhere but simple serve an aesthetic purpose.

It'll be just like my work for FoNV... except hopefully without the bugs >.>

The sad thing is that Oblivion's cities were far too small. They decided to fix this by making the next game have smaller cities. There was a reason Better Cities was so popular in Oblivion.

When I get a laptop, I will download this mod.

That's only one city. What about Dawnstar, Falkreath, Morthal and Winterhold (if you can even count this as a city)? Even the bigger cities (like Riften) are still pretty small compared to Oblivion's. And Oblivion's cities were small compared to Morrowind's. And Morrowind's were smaller than Daggerfall's.

Not a great trend...

How? Because I can place an argument that defends a feature?

You probably missed the part where I openly said they were smaller than Oblivion's. But the NPCs are more important, instead of being a different face with the same function and one dialogue option, at best. It's more streamlined, which may be good or bad. But it's Skyrim, not Cyrodiil. So there are going to be FAR less people from a logical standpoint.

But the cities are still VERY far from small.

This.

I however did not miss this part of what you said. the cities are the best ever in this series, I just wish they was bigger with the same diversity there is now. It is not impossible it would have taken a little extra more work. Sometimes things being streamlined is not a good thing more is more. We have that in terms of uniqueness, but not city size. from a logical standpoint there is much more people in Cyrodiil and the cities are a lot bigger than they actually are. In a way I feel Skyrim is bigger than Cyrodiil because of the elevation and the gameworld matches Oblivions size. So it would not matter if the cities was bigger in this game with the same varied uniqueness that they have now, it would just make the cities more interesting. :biggrin:

The cities are small size wise. :confused:

They are not far from small. They simply are small. I always laugh when people talk about districts in whiterun. What districts? 3 houses and a tree don't make a district.

This. People are ridiculousness. Why would a nordic land have huge cities anyway?

Why is "streamlining" cities by making them smaller a good thing at all? It only serves to lessen the immersion imo. Instead of a believable city like the Imperial City, we get Riften, which is 1/4 the size. I would much rather have many "different faces" than only 12 unique NPCs.

I want Open Cities in Skyrim.

But there should be multiple vendors of the same type. Not to the point of oversaturation, but to the point of realism.

God, the Market District in the Imperial city was amazing. It felt like a real, bustling market full of people who don't care about you and have their own business to take care of. Whiterun is the supposed "trading capital" of Skyrim and there are like 4 stores and some stalls.

I do understand that this might be the general atmosphere that Bethesda was going for though, a more personal and rugged world where everyone knows each other, etc.

Maybe future DLC?

Have you been to Iceland? There's pretty much only one huge city.

Riften being 1/4 the size of the Imperial City is [censored] AMAZING!

It's supposed to be the armpit of Tamriel, and it's a quarter the size of the capital city of all of Tamriel?

The cities are SUPPOSED to be smaller. It's Skyrim, not Cyrodiil.

Yes. It seems that Bethesda could have at least made them all open if they were going to be this small.

Bethesda most certainly could of made the cities bigger if they wanted, but (like the horses) they knew it wasn't Cyrodil. People claim to want realism and immersion yet this demand does not satisfy that.