This is just something I haven't seen on the forum thus far. In Oblivion, you could pretty much run up any incline. Even on some of the steepest mountains, you could zig zag up. I think that this is an o.k. feature to have, but in Skyrim I'd like to see at least a couple mountains that are simply unscalable outside mountain passes that wind around the mountain. Skyrim is supposed to have the tallest peaks, so it seems natural that we shouldn't be able to just walk right up them. What do you guys think? Some people I've talked to seem to think that it takes away from the whole sandbox-freedom walk wherever you want thing, but I disagree. It would add realism, and wouldn't have to be for every peak.

Absolutely. I would love mountains like this
http://www.designyourway.net/diverse/landscape/Mountains_by_tiger1313.jpg

I didn't know mountains could even look someone telling you not to hotlink. hmy:

I'm hoping they'll go beyond using simple heightmapped terrain for the entire geography. You can't do actual, good-looking cliffs with that, much less other features like overhangs, etc.

It's very hard to do sheer cliff faces without a smarter terrain system. Unless it's programmed otherwise, making landscape features that are too steep will stretch textures horribly. It'd also be nigh impossible to stretch the terrain outwards. It would also make for some pretty poor looking details if not done properly. It'd be nice to have such stark contrasting features like that, but the open worlds of Elder Scrolls games make it very difficult to accomplish in ways that games with limited environments aren't hindered by.

Haha oops. Just imagine that I posted a picture of a really cool steep mountain.

Thanks for the info. I didn't know it was that hard to make radical landscapes. We can only hope that Bethesda finds a way. Even if they don't, I would expect it to still be a very uneven landscape, which will probably be enough.

Shouldn't the terrain be rotated to fit on the ground facing any direction rather than just up and therefore causing the stretching when you have something vertical?

I say we should still be able to climb mountains, but not by spamming the jump button..

Which is why they can't just use old fashioned heightmapped terrain for all of the geography.

Heightmaps works fine, "just" increase their resolution. OB heightmaps are just fine, especially if combined with "cliff objects" if you want i.e. overhangs. Many methods to break up planar texture stretching such as 3D procedural textures and/or local detail UVs, not that this is an extreme problem in OB. Does any game engine struggle with this anymore?

I hope they pay some more attention to where and how roads are carved though. Some roads in OB are ridiculous, and seems to be a result of exaggerated elevations and/or compressed area to allow small view distances. Surface quality and slope should modify how fast you move, where dry flat roads on a light foot and encumbrance is where you move the fastest. Being able to *run* at full pace along a 70° cliff side, in what should be slippery conditions, wearing heavy armor and a tonne of goods, is just beyond belief.

First add real climbing animations/physics, being able to grab things, etc. So instead of spamming the jump button you actually climb...
Second, yes some unclimbable areas (or at least extremely hard). Could be useful to have a jump spell then or something similar
Even better would be if some of these very hard-to-reach areas had something special. Like a cave... or a wizard's tower. Making it even more tempting to try to climb, and if you fail... haha you die!
I would love something like that.

I'd like to see some higher, steeper mountains that we can't fly up the side of by spamming the jump button.
Though I don't want to see unreachable peaks.

I think a climbing skill or winding pathways would both be awesome solutions.
^_^

Only if I can levitate to the top of them to admire the view.

No... levitation would be too easy
They shouldn't include levitation in the game imo, or ... at least keep it only for a very very short time, or keep it very very hard to get or use the spell.
I think they should include powerful jump spells and similar stuff like that though.

What would be sheer awesomeness IMO would be ice picks! Climb up mountains the realistic way it could have its own skill or maybe be part of a survival skill set...

Yeah, we need ice picks to scale those treacherous heights!

Rather than having them unclimbable, I want to feel like I've accomplished something by climbing a tall mountain. Imagine how cool it would be to scale the side of High Hrothgar and get that feeling like you just climbed Everest.

You ever played Red Dead Redemption?

World is even larger than Oblivion, but they have cliffs and beautiful landscape.

Also, http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/large-video-game-worlds2.jpg

I've never played Just Cause 2, but that's pretty impressive.

Just Cause 2 was pretty crazy. Stealing a jet and flying around in that game was incredible. You could literally fly for 10 - 15 minutes just to get from one corner of the map to the other. Also, if you flew as high as possible and jumped out it took several minutes of falling incredibly fast before you would hit the ground. That game was awesome, haha.

Well I actually agree. Levitation as a pure flying spell would make things too easy. At least it could check against slopes or some maximum altitude, where some cliffs just couldn't be handled with magic. But I think most places should be reachable, even for a magic user. He might have to go up the longer and more cumbersome route, and rely on slowfall to get down. I don't think it's wise to alienate certain types of characters. But the approach may have to differ. If he had a jump skill to begin with (in my setup you can't get all skills, too many of them to show), he could fortify his jump skill for the next jump.



I agree. Proper gear coupled with a proper skill would be *the* way to go. But I'm more into ropes and hooks than ice picks, as it makes more sense for a stealthy character. To me anyway, but who knows... Maybe both?

Voxel terrain. I'm sick of Bethesda sticking a bunch of rock props into steep hills and referring to them as "mountains".

In before Dwemer Jetpacks?

On topic, I'd like to see some real cliffs and mountainous terrain, but not anywhere I absolutely cannot get to. That just chaps my buns. The UL mods for Oblivion have some great terrain made with Oblivions assets and limitations, including cliffs and such, I'd like to see some of that quality in the base game.

Also, despite the apparent switch from the Gamebryo renderer to something else (even that is just an assumption really, they haven't said anything definite or transparent one way or the other), I think anyone who is expecting a completely brand new revolutionary engine for this game is in for a serious letdown. Fundamentally it is going to be just another rehash of the same tech they're using now. Which means the terrain is likely going to suffer from the same limitations it does now.

I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

^ At least we'll be able to climb ladders, hopefully.

I'm still all for alteration spells including more powerful jumps, levitation, and slowfall; as well as a climbing skill. If not, hopefully it's easily moddable.

I thought Red Mountain was the tallest mountain in Tamriel? Wasn't very hard to scale that, but I guess mountain passes would be cool.

TES 4 only had access to final Xbox 360 hardware for 6 months, so they went with what they knew. They have had time and experience to innovate...I hope.