The difference of the dungeon in that video with typical Oblivion dungeons is that the dungeon of the video had no light source at all.
There where dungeons in Oblivion though that at some of their rooms or halls you couldn't see anything if you didn't had a torch or a spell.

I think that regarding graphic representation the darkness is enough to make dungeons creepy.
What Bethesda could do to make the dungeons more fearsome is to add creepy ambient sounds.

Now regarding the nights on the field I think it would be good if there where some places of the map that will make you fear when you pass from them,but not all places have to be this way.

For example they could make the things darker during night but then there should be torches at least across the main roads,so someone who wants to travel from one big town to another doesn't have to freak out.It would also make sense if there where torches placed across roads the same way we put electricity lights across our roads today.

But darkening everything is only one factor to make things more fearsome.Clever use of specific ambient sounds could add A LOT to fear immersion! :hubbahubba:

That troll from the new vid/screenshot/hubdate looked like it could make me crap my pants. At least the first time. Good sign. :thumbsup:

I want to see Nehrim-level spooky. Now THAT was an amazing mod! I know they had a lot more time to work on it, and a lot more freedom than the original devs, but a page or 50 should be taken from their book...

No dungeon felt "generic." They all had their own feel, and creepiness, and seemed to have a purpose. You could get in over your head, which was just about impossible in Oblivion vanilla. There were real surprises, and the puzzles were more interesting. The lighting was more varied, which turned out to be a good thing. Less generic-feeling. Everything seemed to fit into he world for a reason, instead of "okay now we plunk in generic_fort_32 down in this cell."

The clutter should seem to be there for a bit more of a reason than "okay let's put down some broken crates in this corner." It should make you wonder "why did that end up there?" Stimulating curiosity would be great. More activators, less endless combinations of generic corridors. Give a sense of danger and mystery.

And for the love of all that's holy, don't make it like the endless boring generic depressing broken-down subways of Fallout. I hated those, ended up "noclip"ing almost every single one. Same with the factories. You can make a maze if it's interesting. You want a long hall that goes nowhere? Okay, but put something interesting to look at at the end, maybe some kind of a treat, or something to stimulate the person along the way.

And if there's a spooky dungeon, and spooky is awesome, then there should be some reason to want to go in there. Leveled loot isn't going to inspire anyone to slog through a dungeon. Unique items that mean something will. Remember in Morrowind when finding glass armor was a big deal? More of that! I'll deal with a sudden troll ambush if it means I might get something cool and hard to find after. If it's a chest with yarn, calipers, 5 gold, and a wormwood leaf... not so much.

Pitch black dark please.

i still havent managed to get myself to finish that game........i can only play for 20 minutes at a time before i have to quit. i love it.

I want some to be closer to the spirit of Oblivion while still embracing the style of Skyrim, with some being far closer to the video in terms of character and tone. So yeah, a mix of both.

Defiantly!

To me, the only way to feel fear in a game is when the character is limited.
Which is why Amnesia was so scary. Because all you could do is run, or die.

The dungeon in the OP video isn't scary or creepy at all...because I already know about Oblivion's engine and limits, and I know that I could easily pull out a sword and kill anything. :\

The player in the video was checking corners and watching his back: Why? Enemies aren't programmed to be able to purposely hide in a corner from you, or sneak up. They just wander around loudly, then sprint at you and start attacking you. It's not scary.

If Skyrim has some scripting where enemies will hide, and pop out at you for a sneak attack, then it could potentially be scary. Although with the knowledge that I'm a big nordic badass with a sword, I probably won't be scared then either.


If a dungeon somehow took away all of your weapons and magic, and your health was incredibly low, then it might get scary.

Yes Beth give me scary lol

But you know, games like Dead Space and Amnesia are scary because you as a character dont have a whole lot of things to protect/heal yourself with. They wouldnt be as scary if you always had full plasma gun ammo or plenty of healthlol

To make Skyrim dungeons "scary", Im thinking the best rout is to definetly darken them, add good ambience, make things like torches really limited in usage time, and adding special surprise random encounters. (like falling through a hole and ending up in a dark tunnel full of zombies :bolt: )

I think some should have a brighter feel to them. Like snowy ice caves could be a little brighter then say a typical dungeon or cave.

It would be nice to have dungeons dark gloomy and creepy but not everyone I think should be like that. Make some bleak in nature and some just normal would be the correct word but overall each cave and or ruin should all be diverse in some way they need to all be unique. All the dungeons in Oblivion repeated the same textures and designs overall it got repitive real quick.

It would be interesting to have some Lovecraft inspired themes with a Nordic influence.

Initially voted Lovecraftian. But having played Amnesia.. I really don't want to have to prepare myself mentally every time I open a bloody door.

one thing i wish they would do with night eye is temporarily blind you if you use spells kind of like turning on lights in a room when someone is wearing night vision supposedly blinds you. or make is so that the more you use night eye the more of a headache you character gets if you use it to many times in a 24 hour period. some method of preventing constant spamming would force people to use torches.

im one of the few people that like morrowind non regen magicka ( i had it modded to regenerate in my game but it was so slow that i still had to wait to refill my bar if i didnt want to sit their for 5 minutes). it prevented abusing spells because i had to think "do i really want to waste spell points on night eye now since i several torches in my inventory?"

Problem is, TES series is not something that could be scary. You know you'd find no more than the same dull skeletons and little else but the series is not geared towards causing that effect.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS SCARY??
Amnesia: Dark Descent, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, Thief 1/2/3, Dead Space, Clive Barker's Undying, Condemned: Criminal Origins, System Shock, Blood... you'll literally sh*t your pants with any of those.

TES is just different. Dark dungeons will just have you effort your eyes, not that they would be scary.

I just want diverse dungeons. :confused:

Dark dungeons are awesome for dungeon crawling. I love the forbidding atmosphere. But a dungeon doesn't have to be dark or have horror elements to add that feeling of adventure to the game. Some definitely should. Others should simply be exciting with a variety of challenges outside of killing the occasional troll. More than a dark dungeon, I want an epic dungeon where I am running from my life as chunks of ice are falling from the ceiling with enough weight to smoosh a mammoth underneath them. A dungeon where I could zipline across a long ravine, or have to use a pounding waterfall to steathfuly scale down a crowded room unnoticed. I want the ground to start shattering beneath me while I sprint to the other end, or to get stuck in a fight with a wizard who happens to be a master of illusion. So I must shatter all the mirrors in order to dispel his illusion and be able to harm him. Wage battle with ricklings while on a slippery icy bridge that threatens my life should I make a wrong step, or slide into icy tunnels, hoping that I take the right tunnel or else I will wind up impaled on a stalactite.

My point is, I want creative use of environmental hazards that really add to the action and the exploration of a dungeon. Do I expect any of the examples above to be used? Nah, but its simply what I would prefer over a silent hill dungeon.

Damn it all, you beat me to referencing Dead Space.

One thing that would be awesome to have back are "deep" or "big" dungeons.

It was awesome in Daggerfall or arena the dungeons so big after a time you where WTF where i am did i pass there or went that way ?
Should i continue of fall back.

And for hell sake no refill or awesomely slow or logical slow refilll, for example if you clean a bandit hideout and leave flesh eating creature would make their lair there because they have a good stock of easy food.

resill is good for sode, for dungeon should be used with a pinch of salt.

Why am I the only one who seems to not want this? It isn't a survival horror game, stop trying to make it into one.

tes should encompass all genres

your not the only..........2 more people out of 140 think like you do. :tongue:

in my opinion, dungeons and caves should make me want to crap myself, I love the feeling of walking into a dark cave with copses everywhere as i search for some old relic, suddenly some crazy powerful undead creature rises from a pile of corpses and just smacks me.

I love being scared in video-games

I second all of this diversity is a must I would hate to have to tread threw the same thing over and over again ala Oblivion, I want each Dungeon to offer unique experiance with its backstory look atmosphere. It would also be wonderful to explore an ice cave such as one listed above. :drool:

It would be cool if when you died in game all saved games made with that character were locked/deleted.

+1 :shocking:

If I invested say several hundred hours in my character and he died and then deleted I would be livid I would abuse and slam my game system, :brokencomputer: just joking about that but I would be highly irritated and very angry... :banghead: