Remember the repetitive dungeons in oblivion? : V - Skyrim

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:49 am

@Scow2. Great post, I agree. The dungeons in OB, with a few good exceptions, weren't particulary dynamic (not sure if that is the same word). I'm quite optimistic that Skyrims dungeons will be better than OB's.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 2:12 am

I think we are going to be in for a treat with Skyrim dungeons. 8 guys working on them as opposed to the 1 that worked on Oblivion sounds much more promising.

Going by some of the concept art showing the "Dragon Lair" type caves and reading the info on the "Barrows", where they mention about underground rivers and tree roots etc. I think we are going to be very happy with the finished dungeons.

I also have more faith after hearing that the Skyrim world is done by hand and not generated like Oblivion

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:30 am

I have less faith upon hearing a world is made by hand instead of proceedurally generated. A properly proceedurally-generated world looks more natural than a hand-made one, and is a lot less resource-intense while it provides more content. Of course, it's likely they use Proceedural Generation, followed by tweaking-by-hand to get it right.

I don't like the idea of fewer dungeons... but as long as there are enough to keep me constantly hacking and slashing through them, I'll be fine.

The real problem it looks like their fixing, though, was the tendency for the differences in dungeons to be merely cosmetic. If it doesn't have a noticable impact on the way its explored, it's not different enough.

Personally, I hope the dungeons slowly repopulate over time, instead of having a binary "Cleaned out/Monster Infested" dichtonomy.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 5:33 am

4 years with 8 dungeon designers to make 120 dungeons. That's 2.5 dungeons for 8 designers to make each month. Completely within reason to make. Not to mention that it has already said multiple times that each dungeon is completely unique and don't look alike.

If this is the case, then kiss dungeon mods goodbye.

No dungeons are going to be "hand crafted" all the pieces will be hand crafted, then people will place them by hand. Maybe that's what hand crafted means. But ultimately you'll still have the "puzzle piece" design.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:08 am

If this is the case, then kiss dungeon mods goodbye.

No dungeons are going to be "hand crafted" all the pieces will be hand crafted, then people will place them by hand. Maybe that's what hand crafted means. But ultimately you'll still have the "puzzle piece" design.

I agree, I seriously doubt they have constructed 120 separate interior meshes.

Chances are very good that they have utilized the mesh tech used in FO3. Different textures can be assigned to the same mesh at run time as well as different detail nodes being toggled off an on.