I was just thinking of how the TES series could be if it was on a larger scale (not like Daggerfall, but let's say about 100km squared (like 10X10 compared to Oblivion's 4x4)). In Oblivion, you just bunny hopped between towns, even if you didn't use fast travel. It just took no time to get anywhere and people were constantly sending you off on short little missions to the opposite end of what should be a 500 mile long continent. It didn't feel like a massive and vast world (It will feel mroeso in Skyrim due to mountains, but will still have some similar issues). Imagine when you start off, you can't just take 5 minutes to run between capital cities, rather it takes something like 20 minutes to half an hour. Capital cities are large and feel like an important community, and around each of them, there will be smaller communities around that you can get to fairly easily. Now rather than your mages guild hall member sending you out from Leyawiin to Bruma to help get them some artifacts or whatever, you are sent out to one of the surrounding towns, which are smaller, but more like real towns than the ones in Oblivion, and some may even have guild halls or meeting places. They each have their own attractions and quests, and aren't all the same style. Some larger ones will be uniquely styled and like smaller cities. Moving between main cities isn't an incredibly casual event, you have to spend a lot of time moving between smaller towns to stock up on supplies and through the wilderness, exploring and finding interesting places to explore. You can take transportation, but it's relatively expensive. Some quests would require you to go to other cities, but most would be in more nearby locations. I think this would make the world feel much more exciting and real.
Well, anyway, it's just a small idea, haven't thought it through much, would need to be worked out better, and obviously would require more work, but I want to know what your opinions all are on this concept.