First of all you need to keep in mind that ANYTHING that causes the player to die and thus reload is out of the option. Also, like said countless times before I'd rather have invisible borders because these don't break immersion for long. But the developers will have to make sure that the borders are placed on locations that make sense (not in the middle of a field) and that we get a message with in-game context some time before we meet them. And as in Oblivion you should be able to remove the walls by editing the .ini file.

Wrapping Skyrim in impassable mountains just doesn't make any sense.

People DO get in and out of Skyrim. They've been doing it for hundreds of years. Why should the region suddenly be an enclosed, inescapable bowl?

I'd like something more elegant than invisible walls (such as a Far Cry 2-style pass out and reawaken, just with a dense mist that rolls in instead of heat stroke), but even the "turn back" invisible barriers are better than making the region absurdly confined by natural barriers.

(Moreover, there shouldn't ever be such a thing as impassable mountain slopes - all terrain should be climbable with the right skill)

Overwhelmed by 20 wolves/wild animals, almost died but to be revived vack by wandering travellers, traders and village doctors (there should be a variety). How about that?

the invisible wall will do. plus its good for modders, makes them able to add locations outside the borders and extend the map easily.

The invisible wall is fine telling you to turn back. I mean it's not like you spend the entire game hanging around the borders so it shouldn't be a problem.

I vote for

1) Randomly generated never ending but seemingly mob-empty land
2) Natural blocks like tall mountains


Just combine the two.

An army of Fargoth's, the annoying fan, and Gaenor would be very plausible. Just think about it. Gaenor asks for money, Fargoth wants you to help find his ring, and the annoying fan, well... I think we all know where this leads.


I just know if I ran into all three I would never even consider going back that way.

A massive cliff racer swoops by, picks you up, and drops you off in its nest. Then you need to make an epic escape! :toughninja:

Infinite border. You keep going, everything behind you shrinks and fades away, when you turn around you can reach the game again in a minute or two, no matter how long you've been running.

Okay, I think my other idea of running into Fargoth, the annoying fan, and Gaenor would work, but this...

An army of scribs/cliff racer hyperbreed swoops in and not only do you hear the annoying shriek of the cliff racers, but every time they hit you, you're paralized for three seconds per hit. I think at least a 100 of this hyperbreed should be enough to keep anyone from going any further.

I think this could be solved with the scaling of enemies... Simply put the formula responsible for determining the level of critters the deeper you travel into the wilderness on hyperdrive for the last mile of travel through the mountains... I'm sure as the character is barraged by spells from thousands of angry Super Lich Lords they'll give up... On the off chance this does not work though, I've always been for the Mobeus Strip effect, which will result in you ending up where you started no matter how far you travel, thus giving you the odd illusion of turning around in your minimap no matter how straight you try to run, but at the same time leaving you in an eternity of mountains.. Likewise, somewhere within this impenetrable mind maze they should throw in a giant easter egg cavern with some sort of epic boss and an awesome treasure, but the route to the location should not be mappable by any convenient means due to the incomprehensibility of the border of the game...

My 2 cents, and might I point out these type of algorithms are easy even within a logical 3D engine, but would require a fog distance to prevent any really weird looking artifacts such as land-masses seeming to ben into each other, and mountains and cities in the distance merging disappearing and reforming... Paradoxes are hard on the human mind .

I've been using the OOO mod for Oblivion and encountering the Skyrim Bandit Clans with my current character. This mod also lets you enter Skyrim and explore past the border. I haven't gone very far since there doesn't seem to be anything going on other than trees and rocks, but it's cool enough to have at least entered Skyrim.

It would be great if (eventually) you could travel between Cyrodiil and Skyrim (as well as the other provinces) with the same current character. I think someday this will be a possibility, even if it requires switching game discs as you cross the border.

Until then, there's always the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS8Mg-JWSg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I16_8l0yS-g&feature=related

I always wanted something like this in a game and I would be in awe id they do something like this

if not then this:


In fact I think it would be a great Easter egg for something funny like this to be implemented.

Cliff racers... thousands of them.

HEY I SAID THAT TWO PAGES AGO.

But yes. Cliff Racers- EVERYWHERE. Wanna levitate over these mountains? HAVE FUN WITH THE CLIFF RACERS! They're also God-mode-busting Cliff Racers.

A massive, invincible Abominable Snowman comes out of nowhere and proceeds to mutilate you in ways previously thought impossible, then drags your broken, bleeding body back to the correct side of the border and dumps you there. You get to start from there with 1 health, 1 fatigue, 1 magicka, and all your equipment broken.

Pretty simple: make the game world so good, I don't want to leave it.

You won't be doing THAT again haha.


Genius idea!

The only problem with those was that sometimes I was trying to take a shortcut, but got cut off by the walls... the area North of Leyawiin was infamous for doing this...

So I'll go with mountains, and if you get past them? There's an invisible wall, past which you can see some scenery reminiscent of the area.

That would be fine.

Maybe some kind of magic like the ghostgate in morrowind.
Not sure what kind of lore would work with that but it's an idea. /shrug

We have already established that, given the northern borders of Skyrim meet the ocean, mountains wouldn't be feasable for the entire border.

It seems like a difficult issue. For me seeing land that's blocked from you always brings me an unsettled feeling. It makes me crave to climb the mountains that I can't get to for example, in Oblivion, and I feel unsatiated. But because of the nature of having the game set in a landmass of other provinces and only providing access to one there's not much to do, ostensibly. My favorite is when there's just water to the horizon for the edge of the map, like Just Cause 2. I can see having a barrier though, since it's focusing on one province and it's apparently their style to make it feel like you're within a greater map, instead of Grand Theft Auto IV where it's New York which should connect to land yet there's just water all around. I just would not like to see a message such as "You cannot go that way. Turn back." I'd just prefer an invisible wall with no text that pops up. The message for Oblivion projects for me a moralistic nature of limiting freedom by its forcing of you to "turn back" and absolutism of "you cannot go that way." So, just an invisible wall would be desirable. My biggest negative feelings towards the invisible wall in Oblivion is that it didn't seem to end at the edges of Cyrodiil, but rather ended before you were at the end of the province. It feels like being cheated of space. I think it would be kind of nice to have an option in the menu to turn on and off a visible line or something that would show you where the invisible wall exactly was. This would help to know exactly where you can walk freely, assuming the map is like Oblivion where it's very imprecise.

I'm all for the idea of something novel that isn't an invisible wall though. Hopefully it's like that.

i dont like the impassable mountain thing cuz then its like... how the heck does anyone communicate with each other anyway... if nobody culd get past these mountains.... so impassable mountains make no sense. plus that way u feel like u live in a dome or a bowl and thats not a good feeling. i like how in oblivion i \uld look out there at least i wudnt stuck in a bowl. infinite water to the north like in morrowind so when u turn around u come right back to land lol. its like u dont go anwyehre but u do. then invisible walls where ur about to go to another province.

Turn Skyrim into a globe. You walk north far enough you end up in the south.