Forums » Elder Scrolls

• Sithis Nerevar

  

  • 37 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 3:47 AM EST

  While i appreciate how epic a scale Skyrim is, i am never the less left a little underwhelmed by the size of its main cities. I long for the day when the elder scrolls games main cities are populated with throngs of people all going about the hustle and bustle of their daily lives. I would also like to see the size of the cities vastly increased to accommodate this increased population. I no skyrim is pushing the limits of the software on current gen consoles and Bethesda to their credit, have squeezed an impressive amount of content onto the disc, but i would have gladly settled for three major cities instead of five, if it meant their scale was greatly increased. Lets say Solitude, Whiterun and Windhelm were the major cities, seen as they feature prominently in the quest-lines, the rest of the holds could have had big towns like Mortal but again on a bit of a bigger scale. Markath and Riften being slightly reduced so as not to be separate cell cities but open free roaming ones like Riverwood and Mortal. I know people have their favorite cities and i am only using this as an example, each of the five could argue that they deserved to be increased rather than the others.

  Many of you probably feel what i'm saying is out right blasphamy, but imgaine having three major cities to explore, were you could easily get lost in, lost, they are that big!! Have you never ran through city in an assassins creed game and thought to yourself, man if only Bethesda could fit a few cities like this into their games?? I know those two games are vastly different beasts, i was just comparing them purely to give you an idea of the size and the scope of the cities i would like to see introduced into the elder scrolls series, because to be honest, as much as i love Skyrim and its predecessors, i do honestly feel the cities in the games are watered down to such an extent that they can barely be called cities at all. I would love to enter a major city in Skyrim and be completely and utterly daunted by its size and need to use a map to get my bearing on all the different districts. Hell i'd even settle for one city of that size in the game and leave the rest as they are. Agree, disagree or outright hate the idea??

• Regengirl21

  

  • 2 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 4:05 AM EST

  I agree it would be awsome but honestly the game starts to lag for me when there more than 6 people in the same area - I don't think it is a matter of making some cities smaller and therefore others can be biiger - I think if there were 20 people in the same area at once it would freeze or crash.

• DesolateWolf

  

  • 5 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 4:17 AM EST

  No i agree with this absolutely. for me this is one of the problems i have with Skyrim because just I really wish there was bigger denser cities to explore or like you said perhaps just one huge city with districts. 

• Jordan Butler

  

  • 29 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 4:19 AM EST

  I would LOVE IT! But as Regengirl21 said, it just isn't possible on the current generation of consoles and PCs. Later in the series? Oh yeah! I can't see them passing up the opportunity to make cities the size of Venice, Romagna, and Tuscany if it is possible. Think of how many actors they will have to employ to make THAT game feel natural! XD

• Witschas

  

  • 10 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 5:55 AM EST

  I would love to see a game like that, but it can't happen without a cost. If suddenly there were ten times the number of inhabitants in the cities and the size was 5 times as big it would mean that the cities would be less detailed, or at least that the citizens would come with less personality. Admitted, they aren't very deep as of the current standard, but still I think the average citizen in Solitude can be told from one another.

  If Bethesda were to increase the number of people loads of them would simply become 'fillers' which you'd never get to actually interact with.

  So the question is what would be more awesome - epic scale or epic richness

  (sorry for some bad expressions above - English is my second language, so might be a bit rusty at times)

• Sithis Nerevar

  

  • 37 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 5:55 AM EST

  I no this would probably go against the grain of what Bethesda are attempting to do in their game worlds, but for the sake of adding large scale cities i would settle for a lot of the districts in them to be populated with generic no name npcs. Like rpgs of old, were they are just going around their daily business, with no other purpose than to add to the players immersion in the game and perhaps as pick pocket targets. Imagine walking through a market district that seemed truly alive, merchants selling their wares, people haggling prices, buying and selling goods, the poor begging on the side walk, children running by playing, workers carrying fresh produce to the shops and stalls, people hurrying this way and that. The sight and sounds of such a thing would truly something to behold, and that would just be the market district!!!

• Andrew

  

  • 4 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 6:08 AM EST

  I agree one hundred percent! This is something I had hoped for in Skyrim; especially when I heard rumors that all the cities in Skyrim would be larger in size than Imperial City in Oblivion! However, I still like the Imperial City best, and I don't know about if they made limitations to the cities in Skyrim, as to not overgo the capital of the entire empire. Still, I'd prefer larger cities. It is needed!
  
  Secondly, another thing I would like to see is an increased number of villages! I think the sizes of these in Skyrim are quite fine, but there are so few like the beautiful Riverrun! A few more villages, with maybe some better traders, and a possible house purchase would be very pleasant.
  After all, when we kill Alduin and are champions of the empire. Would we rather settle down in a tight polluted city? Or settle down in a peaceful little village in the countryside?
  
  I prefer the latter! 

• Sithis Nerevar

  

  • 37 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 6:22 AM EST

  I was very surprised that there was no houses for sale in the rural towns as i would also much rather settle in one of these instead of having to travel back to the major cities each time. I would have also liked the option of buying some predetermined plots of land around the different holds in Skyrim, were we could choose to build our own house, fit for the Dragon Born.

• Guy Corbett

  

  • 426 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 7:12 AM EST

  It would be nice but like others have said it would come at a cost. The only they could keep it at the same level would be to split it into chunks by loading screens. Which Im not sure about u would drive me mental. A game this big cant do everything unfortunately. 

  I try to justify it in my mind by trying to not think of them in comparison to cities in other games or my understanding of a city. In skyrim thats what constitutes a city. 

• Paul

  

  • 773 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 9:45 AM EST

  I agree that the overall size of the cities is a bit of disappointment in Skyrim.

  I'm sure we were told - not rumour - that all of the five main cities would be bigger than anything in Oblivion and I'm pretty sure that is not the case. If you take Whiterun, for example, I mean its a pretty city and all, but is it any bigger than Chorrol or Anvil from Oblivion? I would say not. And there isn't anything in Skyrim as large as the Imperial City, though that was a special case since each district was a separate cell.

  I'm very pleased with the smaller towns in Skyrim. I mean, Riverwood and Morthal are massive step up from the likes of Pells Gate and Weye which were nothing more than a pub and two cottages. So that's a big step forward, but the cities are - for me - not as epic as they were made out to be pre-release

• Sithis Nerevar

  

  • 37 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 1:50 PM EST

  Again i no its a completely different sort of game but for example, look at how Rockstar created Liberty City, its one of the most detailed and believable cities created in a video game ever!!! Of course if Bethesda attempted this with their cities, you would have a lot of filler citizens but is that so bad? Just because your the hero, you cant really expect everyone in a city to have something to say to you or a task for you!!

• Witschas

  

  • 10 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:01 PM EST

  True, but I don't care for fillers in GTA either. They are just targets for my weapons. And I believe that NPCs without a name nor purpose would end up annoying me actually. I am ever so tempted to just kill the courier who delivers messages to me simply because I know he is of absolutely no significance to the game once they've delivered the message.

  For some reason named NPCs (of significance or not) become real to me, and suddenly wouldn't even consider raising my sword against them (I am usually a good character). So I actually prefer the game this way, even though I agree that it would be awesome to have much larger cities with far more NPCs. But I don't want it to be like Assassins Creed or GTA where it is generic NPCs that all look alike. They are important in their respective games, but in Elder Scrolls I expect more richness to each and every character.

• Sithis Nerevar

  

  • 37 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:12 PM EST

  I agree fully with you, i don't want all the cities to have look a like fillers but if the cities in Skyrim were to be more populated you could not expect everyone to have a quest or something significant to say to you, sure they could have names and radiant routines but their sole purpose would be to make the cities become more believable, hence they would be "generic NPCs".

  also on a side note, GTA without filler npcs = empty city!! 

• Mathersfrench

  

  • 16 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:18 PM EST

  Totally agree. Skyrim lacked in cities......at least in Oblivion there were 8 pretty good sized cities plus the Imperial city. And almost every person in every city had a quest. In Skyrim there are 4 tiny open towns, and 5 cities.

• Mason

  

  • 739 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:34 PM EST

  On the other hand every town in Skyrim is very unique compared to the next. Cities are built to house there citizens, if the cities were large like assassins creed for example with tons of hustle and bustle yes it would look better initially but the content that went into each npc would then be left lacking somewhat. I think they have balenced quality above quantity pretty well.

  I do think that more effort should maybe have gone into the capital of the province, in Skyrims case Solitude. But then i think back to Vivec which was sometimes annoyingly large, and involved alot of mindless running about.

• Jordan Butler

  

  • 29 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:44 PM EST

  Personally, I didn't think of this until something was said. I love the game the way it is, and anything more would have felt like a push for more content.

• Mitch Brendard

  

  • 7 posts
   

  January 15, 2012 2:51 PM EST

  The AC city's are HUGE so idk if they could be that big, remember in AC ( ive only played and am talking about, brotherhood by the way) 90% of tht game was in rome and thats it, so it would be hard for skyrim to have gigantic citie like that.

  I agree some cities like whiterun couldve been a little bigger, but as for the cities the only ones i dont get lost in are winterhold, whiterun, and windhelm, ( the other cities i havent spent the amount of time i have with these three though.) for example i thought solitude was pretty darn big, i think the little cities, like winterhold, and other non-capital cities coudve been bigger, but the main cities are pretty good size.

  I like your idea of two-three really big cities, but in my eyes, maybe three-four cities slightly bigger then solitude. And the noncapitol cities more the size of whiterun.

  Also the villages like riverwood and ivarstead and those type of cites: they couldve been a little bigger i feel like winterhold size, or have them be the size they are but, more of them, and less empty space in the wild.