I hope Bethesda finally moves away from the cookie-cutter design for Elder Scrolls VI.

8 people instead of 1 making cookie-cutter dungeons is still cookie-cutter dungeons.

What do you mean with "cookie-clutter design"?

What? Where are you getting that from, that Skrim will have cookie-cutter dungeons? They're talking about tilesets, not dungeon layouts..

It was from one of the newest interviews. Todd said they are still creating dungeons the same way they have forever. Which is basically they have all these different cookie-cutter pieces and they put them together in different ways, add in aesthetics/baddies/treasure and call it a day.

--They actually show this process a little in the Oblivion Behind the Scenes disc.

Link? I honestly mean no offense, but it seems like they wouldn't say that they're making the dungeons more varied then turn right around and say that they're making them like they did in Oblivion. Doesn't really make any sense at all to me...

More dungeon designers means they will pump out dungeons faster, so they can take time with each dungeon. That doesn't mean variety, dungeons won't be less bland, but they might be less repetative and more interesting. More dungeon designers doesn't mean that they will make 5-6 tilesets any better than the ones we had in Oblivion.
New engine doesn't mean much, especially when its based off of their old engine.

Their best hope (imo) for making dungeons more unique is for each one to be interesting, be it through unique design or layout, or improving how loot is generated.
Some dungeons in Oblivion had some interesting sections, which for a brief instance made that dungeon better.
But after so many dungeon halls you realize that every dungeon has the same loot, and its never interesting.

It would be nice if there were more tilesets, which might be true. Im following the assumption that in this article cave and dungeon mean the same, Todd even included imperial forts which are not caves. Having 12-14 tilesets would help, but in the end we need more than just tilesets. But the promise of more dungeon designers hardly makes it better, there is no guarentee they will make dungeons more unique but there is the possibility.

Well having 5 or 8 different level designers I still don't have faith. How many people make roads? 1000s of people make roads through out the world. Guess what, at least in North America, they all look the same, and feel the same. Sure some of the curves are different, and turns may change but they are still the same.

Even though there are 5 or 8 different people doing the dungeons they are still all using the same graphics, same material, so they can still look exactly the same.

While Oblivion was a great game, the dungeons have become repetitive and boring. I guess Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind was the same, EXCEPT, if you entered the wrong dungeon at a paticular level, you would die and wouldn't last long in there. In Obivion, with level there is no FEEL of DANGER really going into a cave or dungeon that they really all felt the same then.

I find it pretty PATHETIC that when going into Anivl the first time at level One was basically the same difficulty going in at level 10. The creatures have changed who you battled but it at least for me, was a bit tough, but still doable. Either fighting Scamps at level one or Dremora or what not at level 10+ it is the same.

I tried playing the game a different way, by first time doing the Main Quest right away and next time doing it later, but it still FELT the SAME. So it became BORING going into the Oblivion gates and trying to close them. Yes they looked different, but they FELT THE SAME, so now all I do is `TLC and fly straight up and just close the dang boring gates to get over it.

Now what I call fun after 15 or 20 times doing it.

*edit* For me being so disapointed with Oblivon at first, I have no faith in Skyrim. Bethesda is not the greates comapny any more. I guess you can say, Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. I eventually loved Oblivion but still the way it was hyped became a big disapointment.

To be fair, I see a totally different change in how Todd and Bethesda are hyping the game now, way different with Oblivion, so I see lots of promise in Skyrim and believe it will be an awsome game as well. Still been burnt once, just more cautious this time that is all.

They only had a handful of cave/dungeon tilesets for Morrowind, and I don't recall complaints about those.

I certainly don't expect them to come up with 200 different tileset designs!

I don't know if you have ever used the construction set for either Morrowind or Oblivion, but the pieces are like Lego blocks - small angular pieces that snap together to form bigger shapes. It is as different or samey as the imagination of the person who makes it - just look at the tens of thousands of house mods out there, using exactly the same building tilesets.

What makes a good dungeon level for me isn't something simple enough to write down - it's when all the disparate elements come together of spatial design, lighting, object placement and enemy spawn points to create a specific and unique atmosphere to that place.

My favourite part in Morrowind was an Ashlander quest where you have to collect an artifact from an ancient tomb in a network of caverns, and it was one of the most awe-inspiring and creepy levels I've played.

It was using exactly the same tileset as dozens of other dungeons in the game.

Ooh, and also the puzzle dungeon in Knights of the Nine where it goes all 'Indiana Jones' - superb level design, again using existing pieces.

If anything I want to see more variety, sure they had plenty of different dungeon types, but each dungeon in whatever type looked the same. I'm told that they have more dungeon designers in this one, so I wouldn't worry : )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWvbVhfWnK0

Cut to the 7:00 minute mark to see the cookie cutter/lego pieces they make these dungeons from(Which Todd says is the same way they are making Skyrim's). That's why when you roam through one after a while it's like, "Damn, all these places look the friggin' same!"

This is the part of the process I wish they would change and just make dungeons from scratch, even if that means no easy modding dungeons for PC users.

The roads all look and feel the same because they are standardized so that when two roads come together, they can meet up with no issues.

Level designers are artists. Take a look at the Tom and Jerry cartoon, or any long running comic series that has used multiple artists. Each has their own vision of what it should look like, and will look very different from anothers. Having more level designers will give a lot of variation to the dungeons.

Okay, like I thought, I didn't understand what you meant. Like princess_stomper said, the pieces can go together to make totally different dungeons, houses, and whatnots. I don't think it's a big problem. The devs (and modders) still have tons of freedom in how they make stuff, and they can create tons of variety despite using the "Lego pieces". I have faith in them.

I respectfully agree

But we shouldn't worry about that as it's all already confirmed to be already done.

LOL you are pointing out your own foolishness, I take it?