It's not 99% based on the ancient cultures. It's more like 70% Drow lore, 30% historical.

@SilentColossus-- I didn't say it was a 1:1 ratio. Bethesda took a generic D&D race/setting, they blended it with historical influences and their own existing wellspring of lore, then released it as a "unique" setting. I don't have a problem with them doing this, the issue is that people don't realize that's exactly what they did with Oblivion as well.

Of course, as I said before there's certainly areas where they had to make sacrifices due to time constraints, working with unfamiliar tech, etc. Unfortunately, Bethesda decided to release Oblivion as an Xbox launch title, and had to meet something close to that deadline whether they were totally happy with the final product or not. They did delay it once, if you remember, and took quite a lot of flak for even that. The problem, as I see it, is that the artistic decisions that Bethesda made (turning Cyrodiil into a forest versus a jungle, the inspiration they took from LOTR, etc.), the gameplay streamlining that went on, and the development problems that they had (like having to cut the planned questline for the player becoming the Count of Sutch), all get muddled together in peoples' mind into this big mess called "Bethesda dumbed Oblivion down." As well as straight-up nonsense, like "Oblivion's world is randomly generated."

What I don't get is why people think Bethesda took the "easy way out" or whatever where the environment is concerned. Really, with 2006's level of graphical fidelity, the difference between a jungle and a forest would have been a different set of textures and some palm trees, essentially. It would have looked nearly identical in terms of the meshes used, the placement of objects, etc.

EDIT: Vivec City, compared to the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-Concept34.jpg, was just as much of a letdown as the Imperial City, compared to the PGE.

EDIT II: To say nothing of the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:MW-Concept11.jpg

In Morrowind you can expect alien, outlandish environments. In Oblivion you can expect very earth-like, fantasy environments.
In Skyrim you can expect something different yet again. It'll be rugged and rough, with rocky terrain and large mountains sprawling through the province. However it'll also be mesmorising, as you'll be dwarfed by huge structures created at the top of huge mountains, and there'll be mammoths and giants wandering freely. There'll also be awesome ruins hanging dangerously of the side of mountains, sprawling cave systems, and an assortment of other goodies that we're sure to witness.
That's how I see it anyway. Much like how we all loved Morrowind's fantastic atmosphere with it's crazy mushrooms, we'll all love Skyrim's environments. I think that, coming in to TES VI, we'll be wishing that the new game had more of Skyrim's amazing features, much like how we all wish that Skyrim had more of Morrowind's amazing features. :blush:
Oh, I can't wait!

I don't know how to describe it other than Morrowind FELT interesting. It felt like it was worth exploring, And... Oblivion lacked that for some reason or another. On the other hand, based on the trailers, Skyrim seems to have that feeling again.

:shrug:

I had no problems with Oblivion - I thought it was an interesting and pretty place to explore.

But, then, I haven't read the lore, and didn't walk into it with expectations beyond "Wow, those environment screenies in the magazine look great!"

:shrug: