Well, you can come up with explanations if you try really hard, but to stop them having holes they just have to end up seeming a bit ridiculous. If Skyrim is experiencing really harsh weather, why do you only experience this exactly atthe edge of the province, and ALL THE TIME? If Skyrim is in civil war, a) Why would they put all their main energy into border patrol and B) What trouble to the Empires control over Skyrim could be better achieved outside of Skyrim than in?

An improvement to the current invisible wall system would be to have it so that you stop the running animation when up against it, so it doesn't look like an invisible wall and more like your character just doesn't want to go beyond that point.

If you cross the border, you become a crazy cat lady. That would stop most people.

I think a mix of different features should be implemented.

To the north, the further you swim out a scripted frost damage death occurs after one or two warnings, makes sense considering you are swimming towards the bitterly cold continent of Atmora.

At the Morrowind border, lots of high mountains of course, but in my opinion an endless range of unscalable mountains is just as immersion breaking as an invisible wall, so the further you venture across that border a scripted death occurs after one or two warnings, wherein you choke to death on ash from red mountain.

To the south, high unscalable mountains in places of course :unsure:, but also maybe remnant imperial legion or what ever troops Titus Mede has at his disposal has cut off trade with skyrim, closed the border to prevent unrest spreading and thus has barricaded all roads. Basically, its an invisible wall with a face, few troops you can talk to, perhaps a big gate ala the Arcane university entrances, or a wooden palisade.

As for high rock and hammerfell I can only suggest what I suggested for cyrodiil, combination of high mountains and barricaded roads.

I suppose I don't mind invisible walls, but I hate the thought of an endless uncrossable mountain range, I mean what ? Does Skyrim only trade goods with other provinces via the sea ?

EDIT: I'm a little shaky on my 4E lore, perhaps Titus Mede is dead, maybe one of his heirs so, you get the picture.

Morrowind, being an island, had the simplest solution - water that went on forever! My money's on Skyrim having unscaleable mountains.

But what if they only swam a few metres out to sea and swam around the impassable mountains?

HALT! HALT! HALT! HALT!

Eh, I like invisible walls.

That way I know that I"m not supposed to try and climb that mountain, find a narrow point to cross the uncrossable river, to dream the impossible dream of getting to a distant land....

Ya, if it's not obvious to me that I'm not supposed to go there...I'll just keep trying for a while. Swim because I know some damn developer snuck a dwemer cave under water again! Climb that cliff because there has to be a nice price in a bird's nest.

What can I say....i'm dumb :rofl:

What if the greybeards know where you are and get pissed if you try to leave Skyrim before your destiny is fulfilled and could then conjure up a powerful wind to blow you back? As to everything else they just don't care.

I do this too. I always try to find holes in the impenetrable fortress. I remember the early Oblivion days, climbing the Jerall mountains, running along the edge, tapping jump, trying to find a point not too steep to get to the top. Finally, I did it! And then I found out I couldn't pass anyway. Wish I'd found that sooner.

Lol, sure may as well throw in a naval blockade on both sides. On the Morrowind side Rebel forces have it all blockaded up and on the high rock side loyalist forces have it blockaded off. Ships with Magika cannons ftw, gg. :celebration:

Yeah, Skyrim has some pretty damn intense border security, lest, God forbid, a single random citizen went to another province.

I used to be for alternatives (a dense mist rolling in, pass out and wake up back within the borders Far Cry 2 style), but I've since seen the light and am fully in favor of invisible walls.

Just look at this topic. Virtually every alternative is absurdly terrible. Unscalable mountains? Endless packs of beasts? An eternal blizzard?

If any of those ideas were implemented (especially impassable natural borders, as that is the worst corruption of both lore and common sense ever), the game would suffer for it.

Invisible walls may feel a little contrived, but they at least leave the world looking natural. You can see the other provinces. The terrain leads naturally into them as you would expect in real life provincial borders. You just can't go there. Too bad.

Better to have a believable landmass with invisible borders, than a ridiculously absurd landmass with borders you can see.

I rather like the previously mentioned idea of just running or swimming forever in a direction with landscape seeming to pass by but without actually getting anywhere.

:violin:

Normally I'd try to be polite about this, but as game designer at heart I must say only fools complain about invisible walls. An unrealistic and ambiguously placed mountain, ravine or valley is even worse than an invisible wall. Nothing reminds you more that you are in a game than some out of place mountains that blocks off the distant landscape, and was clearly placed there just to do so. New Vegas did this and it bugged the hell out of me.

Deal with it, I'd rather see a sprawling landscape in the distance than have a mountain block my view and freedom of movement. It's cheap and cheesy.



This is a good idea, and it's somewhat believable. Just make some blizzard slowly start up that causes frost damage as you wander out too far, and forces you to turn back.