College of Winterhold

[SpartanSamuel]

So I know how to get everywhere, that's not the problem. My problem is that this damn college is breaking physics. You the main building of the college on the first floor, the "Hall of Elements." The door on the left will lead to the Arch-Mage's Quarters while the right leads to the Arcaneum, the library. I've tried to draw this out, and to the best of my knowledge the main building of this campus has three floors. The Arch-Mage's Quarters occupies simultaneously the third and second floor, the Arcaneium occupies simultaneously the second and first floor, and the Hall of Elements occupies, as it should, only the first floor. Okay, my reasoning:

 

Arcaneum

Taking the door on the right in the Hall of elements will find you at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Take one flight up, turn, and another flight, and you're there. Now, you have the option of taking another pair of flights on the same side of the building in order to enter the Arch-Mage's Quarters. That would make sense if it applied to the laws of physics as it should: Hall of Elements on the First floor, Arcaneum on the Second floor, and the Arch-Mage's Quarters on the Third floor. Here's where it get's tricky.

 

Arch-Mage's Quarters

Taking the door on the left in the Hall of Elements will find you at the bottom of a flight of stairs. Take one flight up, turn, and another flight up and you're there. At this juncture, you may traverse the foyer and acquaint yourself with the opposing stair case. Descending the pair of flights, you will find a door labeled the Arcaneum. Hence my problem: If you go up a flight of stairs, then come BACK DOWN the flight of stairs, you should still be on the first floor!

[runforitkyle]

It's a college of MAGIC.

[InuyashaFE]

A wizard did it.

[gblouin86]

The builder was a master of illusion magic.

[Hutchie28]

I was pretty disappointed by the college, having hoped for some epic Hogwarts-esque architecture and styling. Using identical accommodation buildings either side of the the courtyard is pretty lazy and downright confusing when trying to find a specific character.

 

EDIT the library is cool though

Edited November 14, 2011 by Hutchie28

[DownLikeClown]

Well, the builders of the College knew that their buildings would take up too much space, so they built separate parts of the college on different parts of skyrim and connected them with teleporters, activated when you go through a specific door. They weren't able to have alternative entrances to the same place because one half of your body to go one way, and the other go the other (provided there were two).

 

Idk man, its magic.

[DamageInq]

As an engineering student, I found the design of this building very impressive.

 

But in all seriousness, I was very close to just breaking out a pencil and piece of paper and counting my steps to map it out. I'm glad I'm not the only one... it just doesn't make sense.

[Inithis]

Pieces of the building are rerouted through Oblivion.

[TwiggySkyrim]

maybe it was built by bloody stupid johnson

[SpartanSamuel]

Lol, I'm waiting for someone to say, "Why? Because f*** you, that's why."