In TES everything is traversable.

You can clearly see the paths in the mountains in that pic that was linked a few post up.

I can see there are some tall mountains, but to fill out the range and make it seem bigger in the limited space, they have included some which are very small but still shaped like huge mountains.

It is a low elevation mountain peak. You could argue that it is just a peak on the larger mountain, but then you could also argue that every mountain in the world is just different peaks of the same big mountain.

Well a mountain has to start smaller than a pine tree, otherwise its just a plateau with cliff walls

Yes, but at that size, it's just a hill, and doesn't form into a hugely steep and pointed shape.

Looking at those pine trees changing in size as they go back into the distance, comparing that to the rocks, and the relationship between rocks, I'm rather convinced that there's a bit of an optical illusion going on there. Probably aided by the mists, creating a forced perspective so that the mountains look further away, and there for bigger, than they really are.

Have you not noticed the entire game is scaled down? The Imperial freaking city has like 60 inhabitants and is like 400 ft across. That is a TINY city. Thats more like a large village. Also all the villages and towns are like 1 mile apart. The entire games scale has been lowered. I don't mind. As long as the moutains are a good 100-400ish ft tall I will be content with running on them.

You have never seen a big pointy rock like that? I see what your saying it that it looks like a mini mountain, but its just a very small part of the whole. The whole thing is the montain, the tree is vastly smaller than the mountain.

Sure, I've noticed that. Unfortunately, though, it leaves me with a feeling that once I get into the game and actually walking around those mountains, they won't be nearly as impressive as those screenshots. You know, since it'll become clear how big they actually are.

Yeah, we will just have to see once we can play, or get some better gameplay footage. :/

Hence why when Hannibal invaded through the Alps, which were formerly a "huge barrier" for an invading army going into Italy from the north, when in reality, the distance is tiny compared to a straight sail from Africa to Rome. The historical significance is there because terrain does make the world seem bigger and take more effort to traverse....because it does IRL.

Consider an Imperial army attempting to attack Whiterun by heading due north, instead of first taking Dawnstar from the sea, and marching south. The Nords would be more surprised by the assault over the Throat of the World, than an assault from the North by way of Dawnstar or from the East or West.

OT: I think the mountains will have pros ond cons for exploration. I know I had mixed feelings about traversing Cyrodiil's mountainous areas.

Also, holy f***ing s**t, Batman! Daggerfall was 62,394 square miles?!?! That's ridiculous! Can you imagine if you could literally explore every part of that in a game today??

sometimes it does, it depends how it erodes

for example

http://www.supertopo.com/inc/photo_zoom.php?dpid=PD46NTw9ISEn

Looking at other pictures, that is quite high up and distinclty built into the range. This mountain is basically on flat ground, and fairly low ground, next to a larger mountain, it is not a peak jutting from the mountain. These peaks do happen, but high up on mountains and caused by the mountains being pushed together so strongly, they don't form like that on flat ground. I've never seen a picture of a peak like that on the ground, anywhere close to that size and it looks pretty out of place to me.

Just my opinion. You don't have to agree.

Looking at the picture again, the elevation continues to descend indefinately into what would seem like hilly grass, which is what you suggested the beginning of a range would look like. So we arent even sure if the base of the mountain is what we are assuming. so these peaks could indeed be higher than expected.

For all we know that land could descend all the way down into cyrodill, past bruma and stop at the imperial bridge. However, I could see those formations possibly existing somewhere in the world, so I guess we don't have to agree.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Himalayas.jpg
There's the Himalayas from space. If you look you can see that the pointed peaks only exist on the really high mountains that have had all that extra pushing upwards and have had the massive size and force of other surrounding mountains pushing them into seperate mountains. The smaller ones on the edge or even between some of them are much less steep and do not have sharp ridges or points because there is less force pushing them upwards. That's what I mean. That mountain on the image is not being pushed up by any significant surrounding force. The ground it is on is quite flat and it hasn't formed large enough to have created that shape.

We seemed to have reached an impass, partner.

Now ready your firing arm and walk 20 paces.


Perhaps fractal patterns are no longer enough when trying to simulate natural structures / biological factors





Fractal mountain :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoOi-uj1J1c

The creation process:
http://scienceblogs.com/goodmath/2007/09/fractal_mountains.php

The Mandelbrot Set:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/fractal-detail.html



But this is how they make mountains, its the repetition of a single pattern built upon itself. The results are very realistic (well imo lol).

At least the process has improved since :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU6ylKQ5nf4

Well I dunno, just still seems quite unnatural to me. But oh well.

Take a look at the very end of the trailer, its the same area as the screenshot, but a different view. Its the part when the dragon is taking off from those ruins in the screenshot.

Let me know if it looks better from that angle.

The pointy peaks look a little higher up from that angle

You will recieve a pink slip on your desktop for not knowing the reference the OP used in the title. I must be off.

Skyrim map will be around Oblivion size, wether the feel will feel bigger or not is not known. Oblivion felt much larger than FO3. but Oblivion was copy/paste.

Size doesn't matter... if you can get lost in it's beauty.

I'm guessing that asking the square footage is inappropriate? Okay, how much does this piece of land cost?

I think i read somewhere it will be similar to the size of Oblivion maybe a little bigget, but with more content.

Ok I know this... early on fallout 3 was smaller then oblivion and thus smaller then skyrim... BUT then they doubled the size of the wasteland area and the game is thus somewhat larger then ob and thus skyrim.

BUT skyrim has realy cragly mountains so the actual feel should be bigger then fallout 3 as it will take alot longer to walk across.

Second result down: "Well Fallout 3 is about the same size as Oblivion (16 sq.m)..."

So, it looks like it'll be about the same size as FO3!