Oblivion & shivering isles for me

I wish Cyrodils wilderness had more trees and plants in it

I picked Morrowind's climate as my favorite, NOT because of the ash, mountains, swamps, and lava, but because of the lush Ascadian Isles, the arid and stony but living West Gash region and Azura's Coast areas, and the wide grassy expanses of the Grazelands, IN PROXIMITY to all of the wastelands and swamps. The Bloodmoon expansion added a snowy wilderness and glaciers, as well as pine forests. It was the variety and interplay between those climate zones that made Morrowind's landscapes so much more satisfying than Oblivion's relatively bland and boring forests.

Oblivion had nice forests, just not enough of anything else for its supposed size and diversity. On top of that, most of it was just dead space, with nothing of interest except more of the same bland "scaled and levelled" garbage as anywhere else (although I was briefly impressed by the plane of Oblivion itself, until about an day later when the novelty wore off and it became as repetitive as the rest of the game). I may never feel the urge to load up OB again, but it sounds like I might acutally like the areas added by the SI expansion.

I like Cyrodiil's the best. I'm fine with all though.

I want something different for ES V. We haven't explored desert, snow, or swamp very much...

I thought Shivering Isles was best. I prefer varying unique terrain throughout. Keeps things interesting.

Cyrodiil's climate was a good idea, unfortunately the terrain was left very uninteresting. Not enough uniqueness.

I thought that Cyrodiil's world & weather worked just fine, but I really enjoyed the huge diversity you got in Morrowind.
By contrast the Imperial Province's weather was just a little too tame: no cracks of thunder to make you jump or Ash storms to blind & terrify you. Perhaps it was also too real - not that different from real European landscapes. In a fantasy RPG you can afford to take little liberties with realism - it worked brilliantly in Shivering Isles.

For me one of the major strengths of Morrowind was being able to get away from the forbidding harshness of grey mountains and head for the swampy bitter coasts; or even head to the forests and blizzards of Solstheim.

Cyrodiil had its snowy mountains and swampy bogland, but they had a major drawback: these more "different" areas were mostly on map edges and largely dead space in the world - you did not have to traverse them at all other than if you were determined to do some serious back-country free-form exploration. Believe me, I did. And it was only when I did that I began to appreciate the diversity & beauty of the Oblivion game-world. But it was too empty with almost no settlements / structures or NPCs to make it worth your while.

It's sometimes the random things that add to the plausibility of the world: in Morrowind it was the outcast Ashlander yurts or abandoned ruins or derelict shipwrecks or beached silt-strider shells that not only made exploring worthwhile but also rounded out the history of the place. There's a lot less of that in Oblivion - I'm not talking necessarily about dungeons here, I mean unimportant landmarks from a plot point of view that nevertheless make the world that bit more believable.

I think the only way to go with this is to add all kinds of environments setting differant regions and such TES IV was limited for several reasons it had already been defined in other games

i liked Cyrodiils humid jungl...oh i forgot, they missed that little lore part.

morrowind for its diversity, it got everything.
have to admit shivering isles are very good though.

If they are going to have the shivering isles there should be a violent weather system ever so often which does last damage such as tree fall over and then you see locals heal the forests. This would get rid of the problems of getting bored due to the perfect world. skyrim on the other hand they need real peaks with even crazier weather that can change several times in 60 mins !!!!!

personally i am all for putting shivering isles to last in about 2020 where the map is the whole of the world.

I would absolutely love to see a TES game take place in Black Marsh.

I just hope Beth adds some sort of real snow affect where you can trudge through snow up to your waist. Or at least make the snow more fluffy and realistic like in some snowboarding games.

Dense forests and snow

.. and mountains.

I seem like the only person who wouldn't interested in sheer cliffs, ice, and snow.

I mean, swimming would be a problem because of hypothermia, the forests would be dead (except for pine trees), the adversity of life would be minimal (foxes, wolves, bears, rabbits), and it would snow all the time.

I guess I'm just really weird. I like lush jungles, forests, swamps, canyons, deserts. Snow's the one thing I get sort-of bored by. Then again, I live where it snows, I know how boring it can be to be snow-shoeing through a field just like: "Yep... Snow shoes..."

I just find snow boring.

Falling to your death would be a bigger problem, and 90% of the adventure would happen inside of a cliff or a building because people don't run around outside all the time when its cold.

I wonder if they'd add hypothermia.

I'd be much more interested in Akavir, Summerset Isles, Black Marsh, or Valenwood (although that might be a bit boring)

I'm buying the next game regardless of what it ends up being though. Even if I have to tolerate the whole time.

Great response, I feel the same way. At the same time Morrowind is also so alien but strangely familiar. I really don't have a way with words so it's hard for me to type the way I feel about it, but the game had very strange flora and fauna on top of the unique (but again familiar) landscapes Kovacius described.

I hate to elaborate beyond the climates, but I think it's also the many personalities clashing on that little island that really made the game feel the way it did.

Tropical/Rainy/Damp (Black Marsh)
Well,yes. But I would have liked to see a different one..
It was okay just not compared to Cyrodiil

Fixed some of your spelling to.

to tell you the truth i think that the Solstheim from the morrowind expansion really captured a geat feel... the snow and the forests mixed with the mystical unknown feel... not to mention whn you first see the ice castle thingy (cant remember the name to save my life) but it really gives you this sense of mysticism... i think that was one of my favorite climates... plus the creatures and expansive gameplay throughout the raven rock questline really pulled through and gave it that much more

I have quite a bit of ease imagining a game in Hammerfell, with both beaches and deserts and not so deserty places!
But mostly desert!