And that guy Dovahkiin is cutting up, he was pretty close too.


Anyway, it's interesting that people bring up diversity, but it has to be cohesive diversity that makes regional sense.

But you have to look at it, building itself up, like you would a settlement in Real life. The Land defines the People, and the people define the architecture.

Going back to our overused friend, Morrowind, you see in the Redoran people, despite being as Morrowind-native as their Telvani rivals, are very different. The Redoran themselves are very defensive, and even their structures represent that, taking the shape of an arthropod's armored exoskeleton. But why? Well, you can look where they live, in the shadow of the Red Mountain, with nearly unrelenting blight pelting their homes with ash. This feeling of "At war with nature" a foe that really can't be bested, seemed to have colored the disposition to be "Dig in and stand your ground" types.

Conversely, the Hlaalu inhabit the fertile regions of the Island of Vvardenfell. They're generally warm and welcoming, and their large, open structures and settlements reflect that. Their Liberal attitude likely is a result of being in close proximity with the Imperial settlements, which, coming from Cyrodiil, must have looked at the Ashlands as anathema to their way of life, rather than fight an unstoppable force, they embrace the Imperial way and prosper with it.

The Telvanni are a little harder to lump up like that. Telvanni wizards are individuals of extraordinary power, so perhaps it is they who can choose the land, rather than the other way around. But, Telvanni prefer to settle away from the mainland, on small islands around Vvardenfell. If this seclusion is a result of their elitism, or the other way around, I think only the people who created the Telvanni would know. But their mentality is more obviously reflected in their architecture more so than any other culture in Vvardenfell. Their labyrinthine towers cannot even be explored without some affinity for the Arcane.


Anyway, my whole point of that rant, is to show that there's more to the diversity of a city, than the actual, superficial architecture of it, of which we really haven't seen enough of anyway. It's the people that define the city, not the other way around.

I think Markarth looks awesome! More unique than anything I remember from Oblivion. That stone structure looks awesome.

Exactly what I wanted to hear. You hit the nail right on the head. :cheers:

How will they always be far away? Pete said they purposefully weren't showing a lot of NPC's up close in the trailer, because they didn't want to show the races off at that time.

that was a joke, just because something was in the trailer doesnt mean it is going to represent the entire game

This. While I liked the diversity, I would have loved to see a distinct "Colovian" and "Nibenese" style of architecture, to give the regions contrast, while having variations in those two architectural archetypes within each city/county. I would have also liked it more if the villages within a certain region shared architectural features with that present in the main city. That way, you could be visually cued that you've arrived in a different county without minding the map. And so that the little villages don't all look the same.

And I think its already been said, but I'm glad that the cities of Skyrim are going to be huge. City (and village size) was an issue in Oblivion.

Morrowind did this exceptionally well. It's these small things that people take for granted until they've experienced them, and then had them taken away.

In Oblivion, the culture of a city died outside the gate, they didn't seem like they extended their aura of influence beyond those walls. Every settlement out in the countryside was the same generic log-cabin (Beautiful log cabins though, the Inn west of Kvatch is probably my favorite building in the game), so it came off disjointed.

I think diversity of buildings within a style is as important as diversity of styles
After all there are no developers building estates of identical houses

Well, since they haven't really shown much, it's a little early to judge... also considering they've also only shown a couple places. I'm positive they'll show a little more at E3. They might want the big city wow factor to be when you play the game and enter it for the first time. Not give too much away before hand.

Please, let's not compare AC to TES.

Don't forget Skyrim is "low tech".


Pete was touting the location not the screenshot, he has actually played the game.

Indeed.

I think that screen is stunning. Anyone else think so?

Anyone who is not impressed with the look of the architecture get over yourselves this is all lore fitting and the best the tech can offer at this point.
Whiterun will look like Edoras in Rohan in Lord of the Rings i bet im the only one that can tell this from the concept art and the movie
And as an Architectural major they look great at this point. The Devs are slaving over a computer all day to bring you one of the greatest rpgs not to here a bunch of wieners

I mean, Bruma is the northern-most city of Cyrodiil, right on the border of Skyrim. It was designed to reflect the culture and architecture of Skyrim. It makes sense for the cities in Skyrim to resemble Bruma on some level.

Also, to compare TES cities to cities in AC is really unfair. Cities in AC might cover a lot of surface area, but they don't have anywhere near as much detail as a town in TES. In AC, very few NPCs have names or dialogue with the player. The NPCs are basically all randomly generated with generic models and actions, like walk, freak out, run away, or fight. you can't pick up any item in an AC town, with the exception of weapons and money. And in AC, you can only enter the interior of a few buildings, unlike in TES, where you can enter every room of every building, search every container, talk to every NPC, and pick up any object.

A certain suspension of disbelief about the scale of populations is necessary in a game like this. Assassin's Creed is all about cities, there's almost nothing else but cities. In a game where cities aren't the overwhelming focus, the devs have to make some concessions.

Can I go into every building I see, with full interiors, with numerous objects I can loot and pick up and move in AC? Can I talk to every single NPC? Do they have schedules, or just walk around in circles. Oh wait....

Hopefully when they do show off some of the bigger "cities" we'll be impressed. I know the cities won't be truly rumbling and bustling due to console CPU limitations, but I hope they do a better job than before with making the world feel more living and breathing.

Considering that we haven't actually seen enough to form a opinion such as the one you had made.......