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?

agreed.

Eh it doesnt need to be bigger it jus need to be more detailed compared to oblivion.

I would love it to be bigger then Cyrodiil but looking at the map and comparing it to Skyrim, Cyrodiil looks to be the biggest out of them all and Morrowind being the second biggest but if Bethesda can somehow make it bigger that would be amazing

Size is not as important as making the terrain a challenge to travel trough.

The content within the map is more important than its overall size. FO3:NV was supposed to be bigger that FO3 but I found the content better in FO3.

One thing I still have trouble believing is that Oblivion's Cyrodiil was larger than Morrowind's Vvardenfell. Maybe it was fast travel or something, but Cyrodill felt way smaller. So as long as they make Skyrim feel bigger I'll be fine.

If the world is smaller then Oblivion then the terrain wouldent be done much justice, it would be cramped and horrible. With mountain ranges comes space requirements otherwise it feels underwelming and fake.

Well I couldn't step more than a few paces away from a city in Oblivion, to find an unexplored ruin. It definitely needs to be bigger.

skyrim needs to be 4x bigger than oblivion's version of cyrodil

size matters!

morrowinds moving speed was just a lot lower, it made the whole world seem a lot bigger

Install a mod making trees bigger and maybe another one creating fog and your perception of Cyrodiils size will change completelly.

Yeah and that 'unexplored ruin' was the same one u explore on the other side of cyrodill.... it doesnt need to be bigger, the only reason oblivion seemed small was cause of the over use of fast travel

Bigger only because Oblivion felt cramped.

I feel that Skyrim should be larger simply for the enjoyment of us gamers and for the betterment of Bethesda.
They always raise the bar with every addition to the series. They have a reputation to uphold.
Also, I don't think the regions will be so drastically different as to only make sense in a huge world.
I think they'll be different, for sure, but still similar enough to make sense in the area of Skyrim's boundaries.
I mean, think of Iceland and Norway and Alaska and Siberia. They have tundra, glacial coast, volcanic areas, snow-covered mountains, huge forests, swampy areas, and bits of chilly grassland.
Lots of variation, all in relatively the same type of climate.
To me, it seems that there is plenty of space if Skyrim is roughly 1.25X or 1.5X the size of Oblivion.

Just my two cents....

I would like it to be bigger than oblivion, but bigger isnt necessarily better. What has to happen is that it has diffrent environments. Morrowind felt bigger than oblivion because of the varied environments, and grander scope of things. Oblivion had... what... 3 environments at most? snow region, forest region, oblivion region.

If you want size, go get Daggerfall!!!!

Roughly the same size would make for a great big map. A little smaller might lead to greater detail. It's an even trade in my easy going book.

Skyrim is smaller than Cyrodiil but they could always add more isles, etc.

This is of course a trade off that's not really in the poll.

For example, all things being equal, of course I'd like the land to be bigger. But if being BIGGER than Cyrodill means that it will have less detail or interesting places then no.

As a case in point, although I really haven't gotten into New Vegas yet, if you look on those boards there is a lot of discussion about how New Vegas is about as big or bigger than Fallout 3, but not nearly as good for exploring. Because there is nothing interesting in those places. And large regions are inaccessible.

So I wouldn't want it to be bigger than Cyrodiil if it was just full of uninteresting and unique places. (and yes Cyrodiil has many many interesting and unique places, so let's not go there please).



Jeepers. Cyrodill: Snowy, Lush Grassland (skingrad), Forrest, Dry Grassland (Anvil), Marshes (Leyawiin), hills (eg north of the IC), mountains (far west and east) and if you want to count it Shivering Isles; Morrowind: swamp, grass land, lots and lots of barren rocks, and rocks with dust storms. Sorry I just couldn't let that go.

I rather have a detailed world then something that is big for the sake of being big.

Very good point.
If the terrain is actually difficult to travel through, then that would make the game at least feel a lot bigger.
Skyrim is supposed to be the most rugged and unforgiving terrain in Tamriel, so we'll see.

Just because lore wise, Skyrim is smaller than Cyrodiil, doesn't mean the developers can't make it bigger. All that matters is what technology they are using to produce Skyrim, how much can be handled by the software/hardware.

I agree. Vvardenfell seemed much larged than Cyrodilil, even though Cyrodiil was larger. For me, i think it had to do with the tower. No mater where you went, you could always see that tower in the capital. And i never felt i was that far from it. I want a feeling of getting lost. That's how i felt in Vvardenfell. I want that feeling again in Skyrim.

Morrowind felt bigger because there was terrain blocking your way that you had to navigate around. In Oblivion you have lots of open plains that you can just take your horse for a short-cut across. Not to mention that Oblivion always point you in the exact direction you need to be going with the compass. So Morrowind was definitely a game that was richer in the explorer aspect.