Cyrodiil a bit small? Options

[Pisces]

I think if Bethseda did do summerset isles (which I doubt), then they wouldn't do it the way I wanted. They would do it better, they would make it a fun game with quests to keep you occupied forever. But if I made it then I could make it specifically for me and Ibis's tastes with lots of pretty scenery with even prettier and out of this world towns and dungeons. And every dungeon or wizard's tower has its own story or past, perhaps with quest items inside them which you have to find the person who might want it (doing the "go get it" quest backwards). And I'd add heaps for a theif to do, because High elves like collecting rare items...but they will have to work for it. Life isn't easy for a stalker so I don't see why it should get it easy.

I'm not sure what people would think of my mod as a whole but I can tell you something: they won't be disappointed by Alinor. I have the artistic vision to make it amazing and unique but I don't have the 3d modelling tallent.

You know Ibis, I had to check what name you are using, its still confusing.

This post has been edited by Pisces: May 4 2006, 10:53 AM

[Furious_George]

Daggerfall took place in parts of Hammerfell and parts of High Rock. You should try playing the game if you haven't already since Daggerfall is much more better than Arena. Arena didn't even have guilds or books! Not to mention that the random quests can keep ocupied for whole years since they never end! I agree with all that's been said here about Cyrodiil being too small. You know why? Because all places of interest are practically next to eachother! Not to mention that you never do feel that you're out in the middle of nowhere because a city is always a few hundred meters ahead.

Thread comment: I still think Oblivion is plenty big, especially when I finally reach the top of some mountain and turn to look at the gorgeous scenery stretching for 'miles' around.

Comment on the post above. I tried to get Arena (been playing since daggerfall). Couldn't ever get it to open properly on my comp.

[mirocu]

Oblivion felt immensely huge for me in the beginning. But I do think that the ability to see far away makes it feel smaller. Like Pseron would say; "a model train yard"
I do however, quite succesfully I might add, make it feel larger when I play. I accomplish this by walking and generally taking it slow, looking at trees and shrubs along the way as well as contemplating about previous adventures at places I walk past.

In other words I focus on where I am atm, not where I´m going to. Very important to make the world feel bigger.

[PhonAntiPhon]

I can honestly say that I have never thought of Cyrodiil as being small.
I don't know, it's just never seemed that way to me.

[Pseron Wyrd]

After years of playing Morrowind Cyrodiil felt very small to me. There was no mystery to Cyrodiil when I could see everything all at once. In Vvardenfell I couldn't tell what was around a corner or further down the road and that made Vvardenfell's landscape intriguing to me. Oblivion's infinite view distance destroyed much of my desire to explore. I missed the mystery and beauty of Vvardenfell's fog and, fortunately, was able to fix that problem with my "Morrowind Fog" mod.

However, after playing Skyrim for months I started a game last summer without the mod to see if I could tolerate Oblivion's view distance. I found that it didn't bother me quite as much this time. I still think Oblivion's LOD looks hideous but nowadays I am choosing to try to see that as part of the game's "charm."

This post has been edited by Pseron Wyrd: Mar 11 2013, 04:34 AM

[Lady Saga]

In my case, Cyrodiil felt gigantic when I first started it up in 2008. But I was used to a multitude of games that don't allow much exploration. Games on PS and PS2, that is, with tons of invisible barriers. It took quite awhile to find one of Cyrodiil's invisible barriers. In comparison, a game like Crusaders of Might and Magic has invisible barriers as soon as we try to step off a particular path.

Nowadays, I realize both Cyrodiil and Skyrim are relatively small, but this is comparing to my real-life hometown. This all depends, though. I rarely fast-travel, instead preferring to walk from place to place. My characters usually only run if they're being chased by an enemy. I'm sure if I FT'd and ran everywhere the gameworld would feel much smaller than it is.

And I finally wanna say that there are areas in both Cyrodiil and Skyrim (unmarked roads) that can take hours to travel through. As my characters walk through these areas, the world does start to feel larger than it is.

[SubRosa]

I am like Lady Saga. Oblivion was my first open world game. So like her I was accustomed to being led on narrow rails down through the game world. Sometimes wider rails like in the Neverwinter Nights games. But still always herded along by a main quest and being unable to deviate too far off that path.

So when I first played Oblivion it felt like a huge expanse to me. Now that I know every nook and cranny of the place, it does seem a bit smaller. I can understand the Wyrdster's sentiments though, as Cyrodiil's design gives the appearance of being smaller than it really is. The unlimited view distance combined with the way the province is shaped like a bowl lends it that feeling. Sometimes you can look clear across most the province, and see the White Gold Tower from almost everywhere. In contrast Morrowind was laid out in a series of ridges and ravines, so your view distance was always curtailed. Plus of course the persistent fog, which just drove me nuts.

[Grits]

Funnily enough it’s walking everywhere (in the relentlessly gorgeous weather) that makes Cyrodiil feel small to me. If my character takes a carriage (fast travels) I can easily pretend that it was a long and tiring but uneventful journey. However walking back to the IC from Cheydinhal past the dead bandits all right where we left them this morning makes the whole province feel like my back yard. This is far from a complaint. One thing I like about Oblivion is the cheerful sense of belonging that most of my characters feel. If I want to be lost for days in a vast, unknowable nothingness I’ll just pop into an Ayleid ruin.

[ghastley]

I hadn't thought about it much before you mentioned it, but I came to Oblivion from a game where you couldn't fall off a bridge, because there were invisible edges to the "walkable" parts of the landscape.

It took me quite a time before I discovered that you could swim in the water (previous games had boundaries at all shorelines) or walk down mountainsides that were too steep to climb back up. But then I spent a while drowning, and falling too far if I ran or jumped injudiciously. It's a completely different style of play, and I can understand people having preferences for one or the other.

With one exception (a game world that was topologically a torus, where going due north/south looped you around, and the same east/west) there aren't any that don't have a boundary somewhere. Even with the space games, the edge of the galaxy often was a logical boundary, as you'd stop going anywhere, and turning back instantly re-entered "known space".

But Oblivion's probably the only game where, on a clear day, you can see the opposite edge of the world. Maybe that's why I've added Valenwood and Elsweyr to mine! I don't like fog, which seems to be the standard view limiter used. The lack of it is one of Oblivion's plus points, IMHO.

[Acadian]

Buffy has the best of both worlds. Astride Superian, she has a commanding view for great distance. When on foot in the wilderness though, her view is pretty much limited to the blades of grass in front her face. Quite literally, she has to hop up on rocks to see where she's going. Fortunately, detect life keeps baddies from sneaking up on her in the grass.

[Lady Saga]

I have noticed something, comparing Cyrodiil to Skyrim. In TES: IV, we can see clear across the province, however the vanilla game will not draw ruins, forts, and other structures, unless you're maybe a couple hundred feet away from them. Only White Gold Tower/Imperial City can be seen from anywhere.

Well in Skyrim, it seems as if we can see across the entire province, but the draw distance is actually rather limited. If I get on top of a mountain near Riften for instance, it seems as if I can see all the way to Markath, but looking carefully, the draw distance doesn't go that far. It goes maybe as far as the Throat of the World/Ivarstead area, the rest of the world from there is usually fogged out. However, there is a lot more detail within this limited draw area. Bleak Falls Barrow can be seen from multiple places, for instance. It can be seen from a mile away, I am guessing. If Bleak Falls Barrow appeared in Cyrodiil, we'd only be able to see it once we were actually nearing it.

It's the game engine, right? It's because the two worlds are using different engines. Gamebryo vs. Creation.

[SubRosa]

Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, and Skyrim use the same game engine. Todd Howard lied when he claimed that Skyrim would have a new engine. All they did was slap a new name on it. They did improve the coding in the game a lot however, as in Oblivion's time it was very poorly done, wasting huge amounts of resources (for example, everything on the surface of the water is drawn not once, but twice).

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Mar 11 2013, 09:25 PM

[mirocu]

I think no matter how big the world is, eventually we get to know every nook and cranny and that´s when it truly begins to feel small. Cyrodiil could have been twice as big, seven years down the road it would still begin to feel like a model train yard.

[Acadian]

As much as I love Cyrodiil, I do find that the occasional expedition to Elsweyr (mod) or the SI is both fun and leaves me anxious to return home to Cyrodiil.

[mirocu]

As much as I love Cyrodiil, I do find that the occasional expedition to Elsweyr (mod) or the SI is both fun and leaves me anxious to return home to Cyrodiil.

Absolutely! But the last few trips to the Isles made me wanna go back almost immediately

[Lady Saga]

Funnily enough it’s walking everywhere (in the relentlessly gorgeous weather) that makes Cyrodiil feel small to me. If my character takes a carriage (fast travels) I can easily pretend that it was a long and tiring but uneventful journey.

Yeah, this makes sense. The fact that time does pass when we FT (it's not an instantaneous teleport) means that the sun or moons are gonna change position, and it's not immediately obvious how much time this is.

[King Coin]

I had never played an open world game before Oblivion so it felt huge. It wasn't until 2010 when I first started realizing how small it actually was.

[ghastley]

I think no matter how big the world is, eventually we get to know every nook and cranny and that´s when it truly begins to feel small. Cyrodiil could have been twice as big, seven years down the road it would still begin to feel like a model train yard.

QFT

We're definitely the exception when it comes to continuous play of the same game. It was designed for players of an average attention span, plus a bit more because by that time they knew their audience.

I play a large number of diverse characters, mainly for mod testing, so I'm frequently picking up a game with no recollection of where I left off. I'm always surprised at how I know where I am even when I've saved in the middle of nowhere. The arrangement of rocks are starting to be familiar, and it won't be long before clumps of trees do too.

[SubRosa]

Funnily enough it’s walking everywhere (in the relentlessly gorgeous weather) that makes Cyrodiil feel small to me. If my character takes a carriage (fast travels) I can easily pretend that it was a long and tiring but uneventful journey.

Yeah, this makes sense. The fact that time does pass when we FT (it's not an instantaneous teleport) means that the sun or moons are gonna change position, and it's not immediately obvious how much time this is.

I remember the first time I fast traveled from Anvil to the Imp City. Two days passed!

[PhonAntiPhon]

As much as I love Cyrodiil, I do find that the occasional expedition to Elsweyr (mod) or the SI is both fun and leaves me anxious to return home to Cyrodiil.

Actually, even having said what I previously said, I must admit that the occasional "holiday" if such as it can be called, is never a bad thing...
...but even Niamh would admit she likes to come back...