http://misslizz.deviantart.com/art/lore-s-imperial-city-maybe-77506324

I hope the link works, I'm not that technically abled. It's just a little top-down map thing, done for fun mostly.
No clue if I did any of the design right, I've never actually seen a canol-ridden city except a bad print of a 14th-century Venice. The 1st Ed. PGE made the city sound so alive and interesting. This right here probably doesn't do it justice, but it might be fun to wander through.

What do you think?
Ysbal, or Liz, if you like.

edit: I hope it works now. Sorry.

It doesn't. Mayhaps you should try again.

The link didn't work.

Eek, sorry about that. First day on the boards, so I'm still muddling with some of the stuff. It should be fixed now.

Sorry again.

Personally I like it, though I would suggest adding some more details to get more of a medium between what you're trying to achieve(more Lore orintated?), and the oringinal circular walled design from OB. Also, a problem I can see is that you don't include the Elder Council Chamber at the base of the Tower (or you currently are, but it's not big enough). Also, I like the use of Islands in it (trying to establish waterways?), but it is one singular Island that the imperial city is on, that's been established on maps for a rather long period, though that's not saying there isn't rivers, and waterways throughout the city (mentioned in the First PGE). You've also missed the prison district.

One word: Epic.

I believe that, according to lore, there were seven islands, so you're one over. But that doesn't matter... it's more lore-correct than what we ended up getting.

Also, I believe PGE1 contains the only description of the Imperial City, so I think you're safe.

It's cool looking, which is all I think you should be concerned about.

You're acting as it was physically possible for them to have made a city like that. It would have taken at least two years longer to finish Oblivion.

And you said it yourself, the pge barley even described it anyway.

This Imperial city crap is getting old. It just wasn't viable. And, the pge is not immaculate.

The tower was just pencilled in because I didn't know exactly how big it should be and I wasn't quite ready to do anything concrete with it. The council chamber is there, however, it's just hard to see. The prison district is that little crescent-shaped bit that's more or less attached to the market district. There's a slightly broader canol surrounding it. And I suppose the largest waterways could be considered the shipping lanes or a sort of highway system rather than island seperations.

Most likely, I've just screwed up the scaling of things.

Even the most biased, politcized authors can count.

That picture is incredibly cool. But I find myself missing the wheel shape for some reason.

Pretty awesome man, I really like it. Truly.

They didn't even tried. The IC is the worst city of the game. Even Bravil is more interesting.

Very cool map, BTW.

Not Boring and Therefore Not Wrong.

Excellant.

Perhaps it wasn't viable, but if it wasn't, it was indeed due to time constraints. Some things just had to take precedence, I suppose. Like coding Parallax mapping into the engine, deciding that it wasn't viable, and removing it again. I suppose you can't ask them to do everything.

Cell-design is probably one of the least time consuming parts of using the CS. I speak from experience. I take meticulous detail with my cells, and none of them have ever taken me more than two hours to build. It's even faster if you have detailed concept art and plans for the cities. Bethesda did. They just didn't use them. It's plain to see that Oblivion was poorly designed in most respects.

Don't know how immaculate texts enter into it, really... but the PGE made Cyrodiil out to be a holy utopia, and the Imperial City a city of splendours.. Oddly enough, that's not all too far from how it was portrayed in-game. Except for the city of splendours part.

I like the map. I will have to get a copy of the first pocket guide. The Imperial City portayed here, why are 2 islands not populated with many buildings?
One reason they did not do it like the original was because Of space. We would all be happy if the world was immense as Daggerfall, detailed as Oblivion, and interesting like Morrowind. But that would have been a grand undertaking, requiring hundreds of people on the team and perhaps 5 years. OH you would get your dream game, after all thats more than enough time for testing and improvement.
Do the devs actually looks at the TESV thread?

I don't think a rough approximation of the PGE 1st Ed city would be too difficult. It's already naturally separated into quarters thanks to the islands. That said, if they wanted to design large cities they'd plan an engine for that. And large cities are a priority, since they are part of the issue sof choice and exploration that are at the heart of TES. I don't want more of one of three different types of dungeon conspicuously dotting the landscape.

To the OP: Nice work.

Its possible that the IC's smaller islands have been made into one, similar to how the spaniards drained the lake around the Aztec city when they made Mexico City.

Nope. The City Isle is more or less one large hill in Oblivion. Not enough differences in the landscape to warrant more than two or three islands... and besideswhich, if it were, those islands wouldn't be large enough to build anything on, really.

I think the map of the city the OP posted is more realistic than the map in TES4. If one thinks about the city in terms of geography and whatnot, the city land mass seems too perfect. Most of the islands and areas around the city are similiar to one another. Before water was in the place of where the island is, it doesn't seem right that a perfect landmass like that existed. So when water formed around the city we know today, it is more likely it would be more imperfect so the Ayelid, and then Imperial Builders would have to adapt to the land, instead of the land offering a perfect building environment.

Thanks, ya'll.
And I really want to say something to add to the discussion but... I can't think of anything that won't sound idiotic other than: well, I tried. I am glad my little doodle sparked this pretty fascinating conversation. Always enjoy these.

I'd kill the bridge to the mainland and the long one to the south east island. They're a little too long to be build by people and not really needed because you can do almost everything by boat.

Looks awesome otherwise.

The bridge to the mainland I kind of pictured looking a lot like a Roman aqueduct with all those lovely arches. It would be huge though. The south east island is the Arcane University so... maybe magic? Or more of those layers of arches. Maybe they managed to operate a Dwemer crane. :rolleyes:

And thank you kindly.

That's great.
If the Imperial City looked like that in Oblivion I might have actually spent some time there.

Well, PGE1 was the only general description. There are a few others but they only reveal snippets. When DCProject was around we used to sift through every mention of the city in the Library so as to paint a better portrait for ICReborn (may it rest in peace).

All in all, I love the image. There are some small things I would change, but you did an infinitely better job than Beth did. White Gold tower is the Imperial Palace, IIRC.. Which was told to be.. what was it.. some reference to being a block away from the Blue Palace and the Temple of One. I'm a bit rusty, but I think that was from Barenziah.. Astion, I know you are the man to correct me there.

I'm going to dive into the library for a while then to find it, but I get sidetracked so easily there I may end up on another province.

I like the map. While a few of the islands could use a little cleaning up and maybe some size/shape adjustments, I think that you've got something going.



Proweler: I'm pretty sure I remember reading in The Real Barenziah that there was a grand causeway/bridge connecting to the mainland, but I thought it might have been going North/South instead of East/West (even though that goes against the previously established map in Arena).

I guess it's back to TIL for me as well.