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Could we be heading back to Cyrodiil and Vvardenfell?

  • Posted by Paul November 22, 2011 - 638 views

    Gaming sites are buzzing today with speculation about a discovery by Finnish gamer 'Jesse' who discovered that Bethesda has already provided much of the landmass of the provinces used in Oblivion and Morrowind.

    How does this work? Well, if you go to the very bottom right hand corner of the Skyrim map there's a location called Stendarr's Beacon. Travelling down the path from this location, you eventually come to a stone arch with an invisible wall. Using a 'no clip' workaround it is possible to cut through this otherwise impenetrable barrier and enter into Vvardenfell....

    Now, the further that one goes into the 'extra' territory the more the textures become degraded. And, of course, there are no people, creatures or interactions there - just the landmass, mountains, trees and water. However, apparently Red Mountain, the central focus of Vvardendell - and the climactic point of the main quest in Morrowind - can be seen. And so can the Imperial City (photo on the right) at the heart of the province of Cyrodiil.

    Inevitably this leads to speculation that Bethesda have already laid the groundwork for DLC or even full-blown expansion packs that take us back those previously visited territories. Wouldn't it be awesome to go back to those wonderful Morrowind locations, but with the massive graphical improvements of Skyrim?

    But, of course there are other possibilities of course. It seems to me there are 3 options:

    1. This work has been done by Bethesda to create a platform and 'starting point' for PC modders to do the work of adding in Cyrodiil and/or Vvardenfell. If so, then it is a great gesture by Bethesda, although I doubt we'll see any seriously cool mods for some time as re-creating the content rich atmosphere of Morrowind or Oblivion isn't going to happen overnight.

    2. This is simply an 'Easter Egg' by Bethesda, put there because they just knew that someone would use the NoClip exploit to get beyond the invisible barriers. I have to say that it would seem an awful lot of trouble to go to create something that is only a bit of a joke!

    3. It genuinely is the foundation and building block for a future series of DLC based on going back to the other provinces of Tamriel. That would that be a HUGE break from the recent tradition of recent DLC from Bethesda (it blows throwaway trash like The Orrery and Horse Armour out of the water.

    What do you think?

Comments

36 Comments
  • Niko Anonamix
    Niko Anonamix   ·  December 3, 2011
    Would be great, but i think kyle is probably right about it being for the map.
  • Ryan Clark
    Ryan Clark   ·  November 24, 2011
    I was thinking on this as I was playing the Civil War quest again with my second character. What if the Cyrodiil expansion (assuming there is one) has us traveling to the heart of the empire to try and liberate it from the now Thalmor controlled Aldmeri D...  more
  • Dieter
    Dieter   ·  November 24, 2011
    Also if those lands aren't included for an expansion pack, than why are they in the xbox and ps3 version as well, they can't fill in these lands with mods and they would only take up space.
  • Carl Charlbury
    Carl Charlbury   ·  November 24, 2011
    Word
  • FunnyMan
    FunnyMan   ·  November 24, 2011
    Kyle, they would not have to make the red mountain or Gold Tower, those are way to far off for them to have to make them. Show me a picture of red mountain or white gold tower from the normal skyrim map I will believe you. Until then, it's anybody's guess
  • Therandomkid321
    Therandomkid321   ·  November 24, 2011
    I dont think it would be an expansion pack. Well. If it could be compatible with Xbox 360 and PS3 it might be. But I dont think bethesda would just do that. It doent seem like an expansion game to me. Mayby Kyle has a point.
  • Kyle Jackson
    Kyle Jackson   ·  November 24, 2011
    It's neither. They made it for the rendered map. You can see a big chunk of Tamriel with the map and since it streams from the actual world they had to make low res versions of those parts 
  • Kyle Richardson
    Kyle Richardson   ·  November 23, 2011
    Also look back before oblivion was released! "oblivion has radiant AI" no it's didn't.... Maybe oblivion had the features (scripting) but saved it for skyrim cause they new it was gonna be realised in the same generation console and so maybe they can brin...  more
  • FunnyMan
    FunnyMan   ·  November 23, 2011
    It would be much simpler to do this, as it will take a while before the next system(four and a half years or so for consoles) they could very well release the next game and just connect it to Skyrim. they could use the same engine and not have to redo the...  more
  • Ashley Matthews
    Ashley Matthews   ·  November 23, 2011
    Remember, guys, Cyrodiil was an entire game. Even the biggest DLC is hardly ever an entire game. They would have to add 100s of hours worth of gameplay for it to feel like Cyrodiil or Morrowind. I'm not saying it won't happen, but it's very unlikely.
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