(Taken from Norwegian Interview)

- Can you say a bit about the differences between the caves?

- We stock them still in kit form, and it's something we've done since Terminator: Future Shock. The difference is that we have become better at it. We have been better to make the environment more organic and uses several building blocks. For example, many types of caves in the game. Overgrown moss caves and ice caves are a few of them. We also have a cave inside a glacier and an imperial fort. Altogether there are probably five or six general construction sets, but within them there is much variation.

5 or 6 cave types? Sadface...

Oblivion had 5 or 6 cave types and everything felt too samey.

1. Generic Cave
2. Aeylid Ruin
3. Imperial fort
4. Oblivion Cave
5. Mine
6. Sewers

And Skyrim has the SAME amount of dungeon tile sets... for those who would point out that Aeylid Ruins and Imperial forts aren't caves, take note that they were always set underground, and in a question specifically regarding caves Todd groups Imperial forts with them. So, it really is interchangeble to say cave or dungeon.
And in Skyrim we have the following confirmed:

1. Dwemer Ruin
2. Ice Cave
3. Imperial fort
4. Mossy cave (possibly just the same thing as a generic cave, with some minor additions, similar to the mine/cave relationship in Oblivion, further supported by the 5 OR 6 tileset comments)
5. ?????
6. Generic Cave (Depends on whether generic and mossy are same thing, but if they are, then consider there are only 5 likely unique tilesets, and so only 1 cave type is unknown at this point either way)

Don't get worried, Bethesda know what they're doing.

Oblivion had 1 dungeon designer.

Skyrim has 6-8.

Hope that answers your question. Although personally I'm more concerned about how much stuff can put in the lesser/minimum common denominator (aka, 360 DVD's).

Since when Is Oblivion relm, sewers or fort,etc "cave types" I think you mean dungeon types.

8 dungeon designers compared to 1-2 for Oblivion.

Those are just templates. When you start mixing and matching there should be plenty of variety.

Mid Summer 2009:
Don't worry about MW2, IFNINTY WARD knows what they're doing.

I really do think Skyrim will be GOTY 2011, but blindly assuming the developer is taking the best course is the most destructive force to good franchises.
(I'm looking at you Velorien)

Remember... the game takes place in a Northern land. How many different types of caves would you really expect? What else would there be?

This happened in Oblivion plenty, and while I'm sure the dungeons would have been a lot blander without that, the dungeons were still pretty bland with it.
@ 8 designers instead of 1, I really only think that will help with dungeon layouts and creativity with puzzles and such, instead of aesthetics.

there are probably five or six general construction sets, but within them there is much variation.

It's important to note this. This could easily mean that mossy cave is just a subset of normal cave. Caves are unlikely to be equally mossy all around. Also, I don't think sewers or Oblivion gates count as dungeon tilests. Sewers are in one place and spread through the city, Olbivion gates are mostly open with a basic interior tower tileset that you rarely see.

1. Dwemer Ruin
2. Imperial fort
3. Cave (includes moss cave and regular cave, possibly ice cave)
4. Nordic ruin (confirmed)
5. Some sort of mine
6. Something else, maybe ice cave if not covered by cave.

Skyrim dungeons will be good im sure... but they wont surpass Daggerfalls.

If you havent played through a daggerfall dungeon... you dont know what dungeons are.

the biggest dungeon in oblivion (sundercliffe watch?) would just be the beggining area in a Daggerfall dungeon.

That's partly because they simply copied certain cave templates then made some slight changes here and there to set them apart from each other. By the sounds of it Skyrim will have alot more areas that have been created from scratch, rather than just being clones of each other.

I'd guess the mines and caves use the same sets. I'd add Falmer ruins to that list, though, I think.

Were they part of the same tileset in Oblivion? Whichever way, it's most likely to be the same I think. They looked quite simialr at times but I couldn't say for sure. Falmer ruins are unlikely to occur, at least not as a common dungeon. If they're there, it would probably be really hard to find and maybe part of a quest, they don't even have any strong evidence that Falmer exist as far as we know, anyway. They're basically just a legend.

Yes, they were. I think they were in Morrowind, too. As for the Falmer ruins, perhaps. Then again, there's no time like Skyrim to flesh them out a bit.

As another thought, I believe I remember mention somewhere of a dragon cult? They'd probably need their own tileset.



I've played Dungeon Hack. I know what a dungeon is.

Big boring labyrinths made up of rectangular corridors?

8 Dungeon designers compared to oblivions 1. Besides, in OB most of them WERE exactly the same in twists and turns and rooms etc.

But not in Skyrim, unique dungeons is something they are looking into.

BTW: Caves =/= dungeons in general

This^

5+ years experience with current hardware + new Creation Engine.

After Fallout 3 I'm not too worried about dungeon design, they found a good balance between Oblivion's sprawling maps and Morrowind's handplaced items/exposition.

It's a mistranslation (article was Norwegian). They mean dungeons.

I take it you got lost and never found the quest item?

ask thunderjunk if the dungeons will look the same he's the level designer

That is a valid complaint about Daggerfall dungeons...