Elder Scrolls Skyrim World Size

A

aFive

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 4, 2007
Messages
3,637
I know that Oblivion has always been known for its vast open world, and from what I have heard, the new game is supposed to be huge! I am mainly building a new PC because I wanted to play it maxed out :). How does the game world of Skyrim compare to MMO's such as WoW or LOTRO? I know that it isn't really comparing apples to apples, but I am just curious as I mainly played WoW and LOTRO due to their openness and ability to do lots :).
 
Game world is supposed to be similar in size to Oblivion. Compared to MMO worlds, it's nowhere near as big, though. Probably about half the size of Northrend if that's anything to go by.
 
AceCR42 said:
Game world is supposed to be similar in size to Oblivion. Compared to MMO worlds, it's nowhere near as big, though. Probably about half the size of Northrend if that's anything to go by.
Click to expand...

Ah lame. I remember playing Oblivion some, loved it, but got on it a bit too late and it simply wasn't up to par graphically to me :(.
 
fast travel make the world seem small. but it is alot smaller than mmo worlds.
 
aFive said:
Ah lame. I remember playing Oblivion some, loved it, but got on it a bit too late and it simply wasn't up to par graphically to me :(.
Click to expand...

Add mods. My modded Oblivion is better looking than all other games I've played.
 
Purely going off the map, Skyrim looks smaller than Cyrodiil, but not by much. However, I have a feeling the game will feel bigger. Morrowind felt way bigger than Oblivion did, yet Vvanderfell is a smaller area. Between the way you were required to travel and the much more varied environments, it was a much more interesting game to travel on foot and explore. I feel like I saw more more of Morrowind because of this. Oblivion was far to plain, and I would fast travel half the time since I wasn't really missing much anyway. Hopefully Skyrim is more akin to Morrowind, and therefor it will be more rewarding to actually see as much of the game world as possible.
 
Problem is, how much of the Skyrim map will be accessible? From the videos it looks like a lot of windy paths through rocky areas which somewhat limits the places you can actually adventure across.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
Problem is, how much of the Skyrim map will be accessible? From the videos it looks like a lot of windy paths through rocky areas which somewhat limits the places you can actually adventure across.
Click to expand...

Every time I've watched a video with commentary, one of the things you will hear out of Todd Howard's mouth is that every part of the map is scaleable. So while there are a lot of mountains, I am hoping you can cover more ground on them. Also, hopefully, since its a Nordic environment, the mountains are more likely to have places to explore in them.

Just a guess, but I 'spose we will know it a week :D
 
Yeah I've heard similar claims, that everything you can see you can explore, I have no doubt that there's no invisible walls stopping you from scaling the side of the mountain, but is there actually any point to doing that? Are we going to find anything interesting that barron land?

I dunno, I'll borrow the game and test it out before I buy it, that's for sure.
 
I hope you can scale all the mountains, that'd be so cool. Picking your way across a narrow path on a cliff face searching for little caves and monuments on the mountain would be awesome.
 
Not worried about it. I know I'll easily get more than my money's worth out of this.
 
Q-BZ said:
Not worried about it. I know I'll easily get more than my money's worth out of this.
Click to expand...

No doubt. If I didn't buy this at launch, the only reason would be if I were 1. a tight arse, or, 2. too busy to play it. Even worst case scenario I'm gonna get more entertainment out of it than most other games, I have no issue putting down money to buy it at release.
 
Tudz said:
No doubt. If I didn't buy this at launch, the only reason would be if I were 1. a tight arse, or, 2. too busy to play it. Even worst case scenario I'm gonna get more entertainment out of it than most other games, I have no issue putting down money to buy it at release.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

My entertainment and recreational money value/bang for the buck goes so much further in videogames vs just about any other hobby for me it's not even close even paying full price for games that I really want.
 
Tudz said:
I hope you can scale all the mountains, that'd be so cool. Picking your way across a narrow path on a cliff face searching for little caves and monuments on the mountain would be awesome.
Click to expand...

Same here. One of my favorite part of Oblivion's map is the mountain we climb to get to the town located at the snowy top. The view from the mountain over the area below is amazing too.

Man this thread makes me wanna dig out my Oblivion disc and install it again :p I hope Skyrim's world is at least as big if not bigger
 
If everything you can see you can explore is true, then how does the world end exactly? Surrounded by mountains?
 
tuaarita said:
If everything you can see you can explore is true, then how does the world end exactly? Surrounded by mountains?
Click to expand...

I have wondered about that, either Todd Howard was exaggerating or the world ends in some strange abrupt way. A wall or just a mountain face so shear you can't climb it nor see past it. My guess is Todd is just exaggerating. ;)
 
tuaarita said:
If everything you can see you can explore is true, then how does the world end exactly? Surrounded by mountains?
Click to expand...

I guess it probably is, it's how oblivion and fallout worked, the edge of the map was blocked for the most part, some sections just stopped you from moving further and told you to turn back.
 
From what I've heard and read, the actually measurement of the world is 10km square, which is about the same as Oblivion. However, content density within that area has also been lauded as being much larger. Less walking through seemingly endless forests with nothing to look at but the same tree model repeated 1,000 times in the same area. I'm sure the mountains also help with the illusion of making the world seem larger.
 
Map size is one thing, ingame content is another, and Skyrim should be one of the biggest ingame worlds.
 
I am more impressed with their claims about the world being hand-crafted than being huge. If it is both, that would be awesome.
 
Blackstone said:
I am more impressed with their claims about the world being hand-crafted than being huge. If it is both, that would be awesome.
Click to expand...

That's what I was alluding to above. While the world dimensions are the same as Oblivion, they have constantly stated the they've been hard at work ensuring there are tons of hand-crafted areas in the game. They even hired on a bunch of staff for the sole purpose of designing dungeons.
 
I loved exploring every nook and cranny of Cyrodil. ... Up to getting mauled by a pack bears. Lol.

The mods that came after release has been nothing but a godsend to the game. It really keeps the game fresh. New towns and even a new area to explore. For an old game, a texture pack upgrade even makes the game look better.

I can't wait to see what the mod community comes up with for Skyrim if modding will be allowed. It's like a dying art in terms of PC games.

I'm definitely looking forward to Skyrim.
 
From what I hear much more content than Cyrodil (which was barren emply) and the same content but less landmass than morrowind.

Edit: And in terms of overall land lets see.... id say 1/2 northrend is a good approximation. Definitely less then either Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms though. By a good bit.
 
Cali3350 said:
From what I hear much more content than Cyrodil (which was barren emply) and the same content but less landmass than morrowind.

Edit: And in terms of overall land lets see.... id say 1/2 northrend is a good approximation. Definitely less then either Kalimdor or the Eastern Kingdoms though. By a good bit.
Click to expand...

but there ought to be a lot more to explore than just lots of wandering mobs, like in WoW.

Also, mod tools are definitely in!
 
yea the map for Oblivion i think was said to be 16 square miles cant be sure and if memory servers me right Skyrim is supposed to be much the same.
 
So we have Morrowind, Cryodiil and Now Skyrim. I kind of hope they continue on this path and get another 2-4 games out of the rest of the Tamriel areas we haven't seen. I'm not counting any of the games before these three.

Then to end the series have a game that has ALL of Tamriel in one huge game...might be wishful thinking on my part :)

Has anyone heard/seen their plans for the future anywhere?
 
octoberasian said:
I loved exploring every nook and cranny of Cyrodil. ... Up to getting mauled by a pack bears. Lol.

The mods that came after release has been nothing but a godsend to the game. It really keeps the game fresh. New towns and even a new area to explore. For an old game, a texture pack upgrade even makes the game look better.

I can't wait to see what the mod community comes up with for Skyrim if modding will be allowed. It's like a dying art in terms of PC games.

I'm definitely looking forward to Skyrim.
Click to expand...

They confirmed mods months ago so yeah modding will be a thing. Bethesda still supports the modding community unlike every other major studio these days.
 
Seelenlos said:
So we have Morrowind, Cryodiil and Now Skyrim. I kind of hope they continue on this path and get another 2-4 games out of the rest of the Tamriel areas we haven't seen. I'm not counting any of the games before these three.

Then to end the series have a game that has ALL of Tamriel in one huge game...might be wishful thinking on my part :)

Has anyone heard/seen their plans for the future anywhere?
Click to expand...

IMO, if they tried to redifine the genre (ie, not just copy wow like starwars is doing), they could have one sick MMO on their hands... and a fuck-ton of money to go along with it
 
aFive said:
I know that Oblivion has always been known for its vast open world, and from what I have heard, the new game is supposed to be huge!
Click to expand...

how much bigger will Skyrim be then Oblivion?...Arkham City is apparently 5 times bigger then Arkham Asylum...I want some numbers :D
 
Todd Howard explained in an interview that a lot of content in Oblivion was procedurally generated. That's why a lot of the environments and dungeons looked the same. In Fallout, which has a smaller game world they went back to hand placing and creating the world.

For Skyrim they kept the world the same size as Oblivion but hand placed everything in it like Fallout. So hopefully we'll have the best of both worlds.

polonyc2 said:
how much bigger will Skyrim be then Oblivion?...Arkham City is apparently 5 times bigger then Arkham Asylum...I want some numbers :D
Click to expand...

Skyrim and Oblivion are roughly the same size.
 
I think Howard mentioned something along the lines of 200 unique dungeons in Skyrim?...or maybe just 200 total?
 
polonyc2 said:
I think Howard mentioned something along the lines of 200 unique dungeons in Skyrim?...or maybe just 200 total?
Click to expand...

Regardless, that would make me a happy man lol. Maybe I csn tame a timy dragon. Y'all better not shoot my dream of pet dragon down lol
 
Do they have hand placed uber items this time around, or is it all randomly generated crap like in Oblivion?
 
aFive said:
Regardless, that would make me a happy man lol. Maybe I csn tame a timy dragon. Y'all better not shoot my dream of pet dragon down lol
Click to expand...

well, you do get a pet dragon
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top