Skyrim needs to be BIGGER than Cyrodiil : V - Skyrim

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:24 am

In before obvious Yoda joke:

"Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you?"

As long as Skyrim is fully detailed, I don't care how small it is.

If they'd just make the player Yoda sized, they could give us a Skyrim that's Cyrodil sized and we'd never finishing exploring it!

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:36 pm

it really doesn't 3 ES games are in the top 5 biggest games, they are fine just work on content
Fallout is also in there some where

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:19 pm

Just remember in future there will probably be expansion.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:32 am

They are saying that given that they will have the same amount of dungeons, this is what it should be. As in a size to no. of dungeons ration. Say Oblivion had 200 dungeons (probably way off but it's just an example) and took up 16square miles. They want Skyrim, if it has 200 dungeons, to take up 32 - 48 square miles, or if there are 100 dungeons, 16 - 24 square miles.

EDIT: I think.

I see what you are saying. The larger they make the world, the more spread out dungeons will be.

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:34 am

I feel like with all these various landscapes, such as a forest, snowy/icy areas, a marshy looking area, and mountainous and volcanic areas, Skyrim will need to be larger than Cyrodiil. I mean, each area, such as the Reach, needs to be at least 1/3, maybe 1/2 ideally, the size of Cyrodiil.

This is a bit of a difficult concept to explain, so let me put it this way. There are around 7 or 8 different regions/landscapes in Skyrim. If Skyrim would be too similar in size to Cyrodiil, it means each of these regions will feel small, reducing the sense of size in the gameworld.

So, to account for each of the regions to be large enough, Skyrim needs to be at least 50% larger than Cyrodiil, but IDEALLY, at least 2x the size of Cyrodiil.

Any thoughts/feelings?

The terrain type plays a large role in the projection of landscape size. If you look at it, Cyrodiil was a decently sized region (though it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I personally like the size and layout of Vvardenfell and the fast travel strider system in place) but it felt kind of unrealistic to be able to walk from "City x" to "City y" on foot in no-time, let alone if you are in a real hurry you can fast travel there with the click of a button. The fast travel system in Oblivion was less immersive than the Silt-Strider system of Morrowind. Having to pay x gold to travel somewhere through NPC interaction seems more realistic than clicking a city in a user interface and instantly ending up there. I believe a solid fast travel system (a system that implores more than clicking on a map in a menu) is one big step in the right direction to project a feeling of a larger open world.

Red Dead Redemption I believe really nailed this system to the post for a sandbox, but that's a little off topic. In sheer size, yes I would always love seeing a large world, so long as focus isn't taken off more important features, however it is a little bit more of a complicated matter than it may seem. Many other factors and the design approach of the world play a role in shaping a game world. Lore, geography, locations of interest, realistic scaling, and others, all play a role in how the world will be shaped in their design approach. I doubt when discussing Skyrim's geography the artists and designers start off by saying "Oh since we want Skyrim to be better than Oblivion, it needs to be physically bigger". Bigger might be better, but there are numerous other factors that compensate for size, and even determine size.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:03 am

An "I don't care" option, please.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:38 am

I saw a released video of some alpha testing of skyrim on YouTube, leaked...pretty sure it was legit. What I saw were soldiers fighting on a bridge hundreds and hundreds of feet high above a HUGE snowy mountain valley, looks about the size and length (as seen in the clip) of minimal distance of imperial city to perhaps cheydinhal (perhaps maybe a small exaggeration, but running along the bottom of that canyon would make a hell of a long walk from one end o another). What I am saying is that I hope that the size of that area, a scenic site, is only so minimal of a fraction to the size of the whole entire Skyrim lands, while it indeed remains HUGE for beautiful landscape. Another way to put it, I guess, would hope to have it not take up too much space on tier development servers to be able to fill it very, very generously to max capacity before release. Not for our hard drive, but for all available space in the disks that they will produce.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:18 am

Where's the VASTLY LARGER option?

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:02 am

Doy, anyone who's played Red Dead Redemption can attest to the magnificent views offered by a vast world. Heck the latest Assassin's Creed (Brotherhood) is nearly twice as big as Oblivion and is all city.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:48 pm

Less walking, more exploring. I'm all for something slightly smaller but full of life.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:56 am

As long as it's filled with unique stuff and incentives to explore It could be the same size and I would be happy. Does anyone know how large Fallout 3 was compared to Oblivion in terms of map size? The capital wasteland felt HUGE to me.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:43 pm

I think it should be 400 square miles or larger. Just Cause 2's map size was 400 square miles and it's shockingly impressive looking in detail and diversity, despite being completely open-world and free-roam. There shouldn't be a reason why it can't be on a similar type of scale. I just think all open-world games should strive to embody a scale that large, now that it can be done and it feels so good. Oblivion's map was 16 square miles, I really hope it can be insanely larger so I can feel that wonderful freedom vibe of Just Cause 2. All things such as ruins, caves, camps can be spread out so it won't require a ridiculous amount more added to Skyrim, this will service to be a lot more realistic as well.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:49 am

I'm ok with it being the same size, as long as there is more stuff and random events going on.

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:32 pm

I saw a released video of some alpha testing of skyrim on YouTube, leaked...pretty sure it was legit. What I saw were soldiers fighting on a bridge hundreds and hundreds of feet high above a HUGE snowy mountain valley, looks about the size and length (as seen in the clip) of minimal distance of imperial city to perhaps cheydinhal (perhaps maybe a small exaggeration, but running along the bottom of that canyon would make a hell of a long walk from one end o another). What I am saying is that I hope that the size of that area, a scenic site, is only so minimal of a fraction to the size of the whole entire Skyrim lands, while it indeed remains HUGE for beautiful landscape. Another way to put it, I guess, would hope to have it not take up too much space on tier development servers to be able to fill it very, very generously to max capacity before release. Not for our hard drive, but for all available space in the disks that they will produce.

hey you got a link to that or something?

EDIT: dude, that's the preview from Nehrim!

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:12 pm

Is bigger always better? I cannot say how I feel about this idea. All I will say is whatever space they do have, hopefully it is used appropriately and to the right capacity.

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:07 am

Heck the latest Assassin's Creed (Brotherhood) is nearly twice as big as Oblivion and is all city.

Can you enter all or even most buildings? Are there items everywhere? Do the NPCs hustle and bustle about their daily business?

Apples and oranges.

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:35 am

i have a question. just because its called skyrim, does that mean that it can only take place in skyrim. Has it been annouced that the game will take place only within the borders or has a definantive game map been released?

edit: heres a link to what i assume is the supossed video in the post above im pretty sure its fake and done by mods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goLz9-g2Nko&feature=related

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:55 pm

If making the game larger can add something to it I'm perfectly fine.

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:07 am

definitely needs to be bigger. I don't think cyrodiil was properly scaled, it should take longer than 5mins to walk from one major city to another, just look at real life cities & how far apart they are.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:09 am

oblivions cyrodil is only a representation of the province. skyrim will probably be alot bigger. Because it is that games representation of skyrim. I'm betting the next game with cyrodil in it will look nothing like the one from oblivion. Look at skyrim in Arena and the imperial city in Arena....absolutely notingl ike they r now. so don't worry abou how big cyrodil is. that won't matter in a new game because its already become outdated. They can make it bigger if they wish to do so. Then you must take it that cyrodil is even bigger then that only the oblivion representation was smaller...with that said. skyrim will most definitely be bigger then then morrowind or oblivion...how do i know...because we've been complaining the past 5 years or more about how we wish it was bigger.. i think they took the hint.

» Fri May 13, 2011 1:39 pm

definitely needs to be bigger. I don't think cyrodiil was properly scaled, it should take longer than 5mins to walk from one major city to another, just look at real life cities & how far apart they are.

Do you know how shrunken Cyrodiil is? Tamriel is supposed to be a continent, but it's 80 times smaller than the biggest island of Hawaii, Oblivion-wise.

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:57 pm

i have a question. just because its called skyrim, does that mean that it can only take place in skyrim. Has it been annouced that the game will take place only within the borders or has a definantive game map been released?

edit: heres a link to what i assume is the supossed video in the post above im pretty sure its fake and done by mods http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goLz9-g2Nko&feature=related

Yes, I believe it's a total conversion mod called Nehrim. It's obvious it's Oblivon.

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:01 pm

I think it should be 400 square miles or larger. Just Cause 2's map size was 400 square miles and it's shockingly impressive looking in detail and diversity, despite being completely open-world and free-roam. There shouldn't be a reason why it can't be on a similar type of scale. I just think all open-world games should strive to embody a scale that large, now that it can be done and it feels so good. Oblivion's map was 16 square miles, I really hope it can be insanely larger so I can feel that wonderful freedom vibe of Just Cause 2. All things such as ruins, caves, camps can be spread out so it won't require a ridiculous amount more added to Skyrim, this will service to be a lot more realistic as well.

But then to have realistic sized cities for that scale, they'd have to be 25 times that of Oblivion. And that would be pretty freaking hard to accomplish. In Oblivion, you're supposed to be able to go into every building. That's just too big.

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:50 am

Here's a picture so you can grasp how small Oblivion's map was.
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/9508/scale.png

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:03 am

pretty sure this was already confirmed.