I haven't seen this discussed as of late, so sorry if this has been done before, but i looked at this map here: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mfRHW3_0t1o/TUHs4l_oiyI/AAAAAAAAAGM/qgOO9CfkYUw/s1600/skyrim+map.jpg

And i squinted real hard. And, it'd appear that the following are Skyrim's enivronments:

1) Pine Forest (2)

These forest's appear to be your typical pine forests you'd find on the western side of the Rocky mountains. Reminds me of home here in Washington. Unique out of all of the environment types, it appears there are two of these forests.

2) Fall Forest

These woods are more of a classic birch type, similar to Europe in the fall. Glimpses are in the trailer.

3) Volcanic Tundra

North of the fall forest, i do not know much of these, but people tell me to think of the Taiga in Siberia.

4) Tundra

Vast area near the center. Think of a large, cold plain of short grass with mammoths grazing. Awesome.

5) The Reach

Todd mentioned this area, he said its rocky and mountainous, an enormous canyon of sorts.

6) Tundra Marsh

I haven't the faintest as to what this is supposed to be.

7) Snowy

The biggest area, probably just snow covered pine forest?

8) Northern Coast

Again, Todd mentioned this, supposed to be huge glaciers and what not.

So, what do you guys think?

That looks right. You know I have one worry about the climates, and that is that there will be too much Tundra. I hope they are loose with their definition of the term, because if that whole Volcanic tundra, tundra and tundra marsh area is completely sparse and treeless, I imagine it could get boring.

Tundra can have quite a bit of diversity, actually, depending on annual rainfall and average temperature. Antarctic tundra is far drier and colder than Colorado's marshy tundras. Hell, Antarctica gets so little precipitation it's technically a desert. I'm sure rolling landscapes, multicolored lichen, and grazing snow lizards and whatnot will round things out nicely.

Yeah, I'm sure it will be okay, but too much of the world without trees would make it feel kinda small, counteracting the mountains in a way, and trees make everything more hidden and mysterious, whereas you might look out on an open tundra and see 4 dungeons and a town at once.

I'm really looking forward to the different environments. Seems like they'll be a good amount of diversity. Hopefully the Reach area won't gave a lot of blocked off/inaccessible places.

Its confirmed that EVERYTHING in game will be accesible from the first level.

Concerning different biomes, I really really hope they will have much "smoother" and more "realistic" transitions now.
In Oblivion (and Morrowind) there could be a forest or grassy area at one place, then, if you walked for 10 more sec, you'd be in a totally different environment with rocky or snowy ground or something.

Please Bethesda, I hope you have thought of this now.

this. i want the areas to gradually become different, i dont want to see the line where pine becomes autumn forest or whatever

http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/114/1149185/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim-20110211094601315.jpg

This looks promising, we can see a few pine trees within the aspen trees, so it's probably on the distant edge of a more natural transition area.

thanks for that, that does give me a bit of hope that there will be a more natural progression between areas :thumbsup:

I didn't mean blocked off due to story reasons. I meant inaccessible because it's a really craggy area. I hope that doesn't limit it at all.

like the mountainous areas is new vegas? because that really annoyed me trying to traverse those things, running diagonally for 15 minutes up a steep slope was not my idea of fun exploration

Only thing I remember about this is that Todd has said you'll have to get around some mountains in order to pass them. I'm guessing the really steep ones, like here: http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/screenshots/DragonApproach_wLegal.jpg

Yea, it'll be interesting to see how we get on top of one of those.

Well from what we've seen so far there's a lot of trees.

In the trailer there is a snowy biome that doesn't look tundra-ish but looks huge, and it's full of trees.

Then there's fall forest and the pine forest. Images of the mountainous areas like one in the first set of screenshots are densely packed with forests.

I did feel similar to you early on, I felt like it was going to be a snowy wasteland.
I don't think you'll be left wanting for trees

I'm referring to how at least a third of the map falls under the category of "Tundra", "Volcanic tundra" and "Tundra Marsh".

I think having these areas will improve the feel of the forested areas a great deal by providing contrast, something which (and I hate to go back to it) Oblivion lacked.

An example of a great game, but with terribly lacking environment design.

I made a clearer map.
http://www.shareapic.net/View-24969041-Skyrim.html

Nice job, LS!

I hope the biome transitions are more realistic, but I'm to hyped up about the sheer diversity of the environments in Skyrim to worry about it. I will likely spend most of my time in the fall forest, considering I love going out hiking and camping in forests. I will explore the rest of Skyrim, since I will end up knowing every inch of the fall forest once I spend enough time there.

Well done, Syrimmer! Thanks!

Yeah, and like the South-Eastern City in Fallout 3. So hard to navigate >:(