world size : V - Skyrim

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:10 am

I want it to be big enough that it doesn't feel as crowded as Oblivion.

Oh I totally forgot about that. Yes I want that too. Oblivion felt WAY too crowded. I mean... just look at the map after exploring everything, there's a dungeon like every 100 feet or something. At least it feels like it.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 1:18 pm

If its big I want it to be full... pointless to have that much space with nothing in it.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:48 pm

If its big I want it to be full... pointless to have that much space with nothing in it.

Personally, I like my wilds and mountain areas to be much, much less cluttered

Maybe even some large areas with just beautiful terrain

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:20 am

Personally, I like my wilds and mountain areas to be much, much less cluttered

Maybe even some large areas with just beautiful terrain

Yah I meant more like full of stuff to kill while traveling through not just buildings and stuff.... OB you really had to look for things to kill.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:51 pm

Well, I don't know how it will be scaled, so I can't vote with numbers

I want it to be a bit bigger than Cyrodiil, as long as they fill in everything with interesting stuff otherwise I'm fine with a regular sized; detailed world than a huge; empty world.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:21 pm

I guessed 60-100 and I would want 100-150 or higher. However I am thinking it will likely be around 60-120.

Also I want to see large "hunting grounds" where large groups of deer and other animals would roam.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:49 pm

Bigger than red dead redemption. Smaller than daggerfall

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:12 pm

Maybe even some large areas with just beautiful terrain

I would like that too but I think to pull it off they need more wildlife. Not monsters mind you but passive wildlife.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 1:31 pm

I guessed 60-100 and I would want 100-150 or higher. However I am thinking it will likely be around 60-120.

Also I want to see large "hunting grounds" where large groups of deer and other animals would roam.

Yes this sounds great.

Also, make it around 100, with 100 locations instead of 200 as Oblivion had. This will make much space for grand lakes and proper sized mountais, and huge dense forrest. Also some big areas of open plains would be cool too.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:43 am

I would like that too but I think to pull it off they need more wildlife. Not monsters mind you but passive wildlife.

Absolutely!

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:48 am

The technology to render the entire planet of Nirn is already here. The problem is making a way to create believable procedurally generated content.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGMs7Iem3Vg

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 8:24 am

I am hoping for at least 30km²

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:51 pm

I'm really hoping for a huge world. As you guys have already pointed out, oblivion was really crowded, and morrowind too, however not as bad since it didn't have a magic compas. I really want to travel quite a bit to reach some lonesome mountain village

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 1:05 pm

over 4x the size of oblivion means

mountains look decent
settlements look decent
fast travel becomes neccesary to everyone, rather than a system designed for casuals
dungeons can be more spaced out
animals can be more spaced out
more villages that arent made up of five buildings
scenery looks prettier

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 12:08 pm

Big! and no "Fast Travel" I want to feel the size :celebration:

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 4:35 pm

*edited for stupidity*

Anything roughly the same size as Morrowind suits me fine

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 5:08 am

You should really give some numbers in the topic of how big some famous games are. Give examples of how big Oblivion, Morrowind, Fallout 3, Just Cause 2, Red Dead Redemption are.. etc
So we can get a real perspective of how big these square kilometers are. Otherwise I think it's pretty useless to have that many options and numbers.

Just to save you some time, I looked everything up for you:

Oblivion was about 41 square kilometers.
Morrowind was about 25 square kilometers.
Fallout 3 was about 38 square kilometers.
Just Cause 2 was very big, around 1050-1100 square kilometers (with great visuals in the game as well, despite this huge map)
Red Dead Redemption was about 72 square kilometers (with lots of quests, places, etc as in Oblivion)

I think Skyrim should be like 70 square kilometers as Red Dead Redemption. Pretty big for a world...
Even bigger is great though, as long as it doesn't severly make other parts of the game bad. It has to be a balance.
But you really have to remember that a new engine often means that things go a lot easier and faster. Therefore, worlds don't take that long to do anymore as they did before. They can do a lot more, in a lot less time with a good engine.

So... I guess the size 60-100 and I prefer that too personally.

That is hugely different than what I have heard. I heard that
Morrowind was about 138 square kilometers
And Oblivion was about 15 square kilometers

I do know that Morrowind felt a lot larger than Oblivion just from the fact that it took a lot longer to walk from one side of Morrowind to the other then it did in Oblivion.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:45 pm

MW was slightly smaller than OB, felt larger due to (slower move times?) fog, more difficult terrain, limited fast travel, and high level enemies. Which is really funny, because many of those things actually limit the area you can travel in, and should make it feel even smaller than it is, but they have they opposite effect.

Sorry if this has been posted, but everyone should see it. http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/large-video-game-worlds2.jpg

Basically, I'd like Skyrim to be about twice as large as OB was. BUT, similar number of dungeons/ruins. Couldn't turn around in OB without finding an ancient elven city. However, each city should be bigger. Cyrodiil should have been maybe twice the size, with 5x the population.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 7:24 am

That is hugely different than what I have heard. I heard that
Morrowind was about 138 square kilometers
And Oblivion was about 15 square kilometers

I do know that Morrowind felt a lot larger than Oblivion just from the fact that it took a lot longer to walk from one side of Morrowind to the other then it did in Oblivion.

Morrowind feels bigger because you walk slower, no instant access to fast travel, and no horses.

Daggerfall = 62,394 square miles /161,600 square kilometers
Morrowind = 10 square miles/26 square kilometers
Oblivion = 16 square miles/41.5 square kilometers

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 3:25 am

Morrowind feels bigger because you walk slower, no instant access to fast travel, and no horses.

Daggerfall = 62,394 square miles /161,600 square kilometers
Morrowind = 10 square miles/26 square kilometers
Oblivion = 16 square miles/41.5 square kilometers

I never use fast travel nor horses, but the walking slower makes sense.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 2:44 pm

I really don't care if it's unnecessarily huge, but if they do make it like that don't put a ruin, cave, fort, or whatever every square kilometer. Just make everything worth noticing truly ingenious, original, unique!

Just look at how Shadow of the Colossus was successful!

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 am

Actually they still randomly generate a lot of things, I don't think there are many discussions in dev team about placing tree number 1231335487 in forest 4 or 5 meters from another one;), still they probably check in results and correct mistakes, which was not possible in daggerfall.

I wonder how many seperate model of trees they use?

30-50 or so?

Maye a couple more with SI if they are considered trees.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:20 am

I doubt it will be smaller than OB, so perhaps slightly bigger to 1.5 times the size (60km) but id hope for it to be even bigger 2-3 times the size (80-120) or more

Modders can always add more fluff to fill the gaps

and id hope for a decent method of fast travel more like MW than OB.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 6:52 pm

I'll predict Skyrim is 24 sq miles.

» Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:20 am

I don't care about size all that much.

Neither does my gf really.