Hey again. First of all I'm not trolling lol By the way I only made this thread this morning I think and I'm just back from home. Some people have lives . I was seriously interested in your ideas of transport.

Although I could be mistaken, I think there were some tracks for carts in the oblivion mines, and with trains you don't necessarily have to imagine gigantic smoking machines...
Maybe it's wacky, but I'd download a mod with trains.

Not a good idea. Not at all... hahaha

Yes. Although I do agree that trains are probably out of place here, there's no reason, other than magic, why technological progress would not exist (or somehow stop on a high medieval level). This is in fact merely another fantasy staple inherited from Tolkien, who would have loved nothing better than a world stuck in the 13th century.

I prefer TES games to remain in the fantasy "middle age" setting. That said, I don't think the idea is so out-to-lunch that it deserves the level of scorn its receiving.

This is something that all High Fantasy settings (ie. those where magic is so common as to be "normal") struggles with sooner or later. High Fantasy practically demands a crash course with Steam Punk without some very good lore to explain why not. The problem is energy. In our own history our progress was limited to the density of energy we could leverage. In High Fantasy settings, energy is mostly drawn "from nowhere" relatively freely.

Take flame atronochs. Being on fire, they can likely boil water just by standing near it. That steam can be used to drive a turbine. You don't need a constant supply of coal, and the flame is basically perpetual.

I imagine this is how the Dwemer powered their steam centurions, and it makes absolutely no sense how the thinkers of Tamriel can't piece together Heat+Water=Steam combined with Abundant Magic = Cheap Fire. So though my preference is for "no trains in TES", I know that the series doesn't explain the lack of that advancement.

trains??!!!!

DIE :flamethrower:

Thank you all for your opinions.
I would like to make clear though that it isn't my idea to include trains. Merely a speculation, to see how you would feel if it happened or what other ways of transport you would like to see.

I could imagine some kind of ancient subway that can be accessed in Dwemer ruins (and that is mostly broken/non-functional). But a regular train above ground would be a bit out of place (imo).

To ship large quantities of goods great distances without having to walk through the Mages guild each time. Just pay for miles of steel rails, then place a Flame Atronach inside a steam engine, add water and a turbine, then attach as many carts as you need. Then you get all the freight shipping you want for the cost of one Atronach summoning, rather than hundreds and thousands of teleportations with your pockets full.

yes 200 years, not 800 years after Oblivion -.-

Assuming that the Atronach doesn't get pissed at you for using him as a slave :hubbahubba:

I suppose that's a risk, but what does it matter to the Atronach what his summoner wants him to do? Hell, just tell him to "sit down and relax"... so long as he's sitting under the boiler chamber.

If proximity to the summoner is the problem, then hire washed out Mage Guild members as train conductors, or contract them to teach your current conductors how to perform the summoning themselves.

That's the problem with High Fantasy settings. The commonality of Magic acts as a source of extremely cheap energy, and at some point you have to address why that energy isn't being applied to completely banol matters such as transportation and industry. I think the logical conclusion of any High Fantasy setting is a Steampunk future.

Die silly thread, die.

Your forgetting that someone still has to design the steam engine, train carts, railroad tracks, and somehow pay for that when the only government that can is falling apart. There's also no reason to use an atronarch to power a steam engine. With magic you can just enchant the train to move. Might need soul gems but those are less dangerous then atronarchs in boilers. Personally, I would like to see the harvesting of souls become an industry that fuels the magical efforts of Tamrielic society.

Your premise is flawed. You're assuming that massive transportation or the industry from which it derives, are needed or even sustainable. Imagine a Dragon or, more relevantly (since the dragons aren't known until the game starts) a villain with powerful magic, trying to destroy all the tracks in the world. A world of High Magic would simply not be a very good place for these long-distance projects that can only take so much strain and damage over time before needing maintenance.

Not really forgetting it at all. I'm just saying its extremely likely in a world with so much access to magic (your enchantment idea is even better than my atronach engine). Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating trains in Skyrim. I'm not hoping for a steampunk addition to the game. I'm just saying the suggestion isn't as stupid as a lot of the responses on this thread want it to sound.

Well okay, you got a point here.

I'll settle for a wagon train

As Macros says, you have a point there, but right now new infrastructure doesn't really work. I think I would find mages tinkering with new spells/enchantments that could revolutionalize society quite reasonable, but from a political perspective I just don't see the funding for building new infrastructure on a Tamrielic scale materializing itself.

NONONONONO!!!

Whoooaa! NO!

No trains!!! That would just make it a Renaissance game! (Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just I don't want it in mah TES!)


*EDIT* This game is based on Conan the Barbarian, did he use a train? And no Dwemer locomotives, that is just lame, no Dwemer yet.



Although... In a future Renaissance style TES game, maybe the Dwemer return and do something really stupid, like recreate the Heart of Lorkhan.

No, I don't think there will be any trains, not in Skyrim, not in any future Elder Scrolls games either.

Are you Kirov Class in disguise?

On a serious note. I'm pretty sure the dwemer may have invented something like this. They did invent a sky ship.

But of course it would take a dwemer to operated it effectively. As with what happened to the skyship, it crashed.

Maybe there could be a train track used for mining carts but no steam engines.

No It wouldn't fit in the TES series as a whole.. The TES series is all about mid-evil ( Not a Red Dead Redemption era ) time setting, and is the last traditional RPG game around that stays true to the roots/lore.. Trains, Plane and Automobiles ( Great movie too ) would Destroy anything and everything that made this series so Great.. Any how TES is a fictional time and era.. It has nothing to do with this world or the same timeline of how guns, a rail system and etc was made and the times it came out..

I don't feel steam trains and that kind of thing would fit in with the world of Elder Scrolls, personally.

Boats, horses, etc., I understand and would feel right at home seeing within Skyrim but trains seem too futuristic for the time setting.

Seriously, where do people get this logic where 200 years later = moar technology lulz!!!

I'd give real life examples, but you should already know 'em. It's plainly obvious.