Ayleid or Dwemer ruins.

[QuantumNano]

Now in oblivion Ayleid ruins where my favourite type of dungeons generally full of undead and dark welkynd stones and some nice treasure that made you say AWESOME. But in skyrim the Dwemer ruins have blown me away the little spiders the spheres and some funky chests aswell and the loot is very nice and i'm finding it hard to choose between the two but i wanted to know which do you prefer :)

[NSCReaver]

Ayleid ruins were way too dark in my opinion. Also too predictable, slightly bland. Very happy to see the Dwemer ruins come back.

[PsYchotic666Joker]

Only explored 1 dwemer ruin, and so far i like them way better...but um..you forgot to mention the morrowind dwemer ruins, those were very nice too

[siviz4]

Only been to one dwemer ruin so far, but it was the largest dungeon I've visited in Skyrim! Huge and awesome.

[LoofSquared]

Actually, I'd like the Dwemer ruins to be darker, a lot more so. Not entirely pitch black, but yes, pitch black in certain areas, but I generally like extreme darkness and the feel you're always being watched. Right now I prefer the Dwemer ruins over the Ayleid ones though, but I'm sure if they included the Ayleid ruins in Skyrim, those would be as awesome.

[scot]

I prefer dwemer, although I don´t like their design in skyrim.I would rather them to be more futuristic like in morrowind.

[Rennn]

I liked Ayleid Ruins in Oblivion, but I think Dwemer Ruins are better. Both are great, but Dwemer ftw.

[rowy1]

I'd love to see ayleid ruins re-done with the skyrim engine and new puzzles, enemies and stuff. If they were made again, I think I'd like them heaps better than the dwemer.

[PharmakosChroster]

In general I prefer the Dwemer ruins, but they've lost a lot of their panache in Skyrim. The Morrowind Dwemer ruins felt claustrophobic and scary, full of rusty metal and set up in a way where you could imagine people actually living there. In Skyrim, the Dwemer ruins are large and spacious with lots of light. They also have a layout like a typical "treasure dungeon" instead of a place where people once worked and lived. The Skyrim Dwemer ruins also look insufficiently old, with not enough wrack, ruin, and rust; it's like the Dwemer disappeared ten years ago instead of aeons ago.

 

(Edit: Why were the Dwemer of Morrowind obsessed with barrels? The Dwemer of Skyrim apparently have a phobia of barrels, because I haven't seen a single one.)

Edited July 29, 2012 by PharmakosChroster

[Relativelybest]

Well, this is a tricky one.

 

On one hand, I prefer the Ayelid ruins in terms of exteriors: There were pretty much everywhere in Cyrodil - even sticking out of lakes - making for some really atmospheric scenery, and while I thought all were too small (non of them even came close to resembling a city, most not even being big enough to pass for a fortress) some where still kinda impressive. They really did give the impression of a lost civilization.

 

The Dwemer ruins are a bit too rare, however some (like Minchaleft or the Silent City) have pretty impressive exteriors. Somehow they don't fill me with the same sense of wonder, though. Maybe they've just held up too well.

 

In terms of interiors, I think both have the exact same problems: They don't feel like places where people actually used to live. The Dwemer ruins had a couple of beds, I think, and one or two of what seemed to have been debate halls. But other than that they are just long, winding hallways that lead to rooms that don't seem to have any purpose other than housing enemies and treasure chests, doors that do not provide privacy, no kitchens, etc. I kept wondering why the Ayelid insisted on living underground in these dark, gloomy stone dungeons. I suppose in that sense the Dwemer ruins make more sense since the dwarves were largely a subterranian race, but still. I'd love to find, like, a Dwemer prison or a soul gem processing plant or a centurion factory assembly floor. You know, the kind of things you expect to actually find in ruined cities. Something interesting that seems to have been built for a reason. Even the dwemer ruins that have designations like "War Quarters" still come across as very generic.

 

I also have to wonder why the hell both of these powerful elven empires felt the need to booby trap their own living areas. I know traps are a part of dungeon diving but they should still make sense. If you are going to have traps you should put them in places where you expect to have to repell intruders, like a treasury or the Inner Sanctum of the Ancient Temple enshrining the Dangerous Artifact. Not a random corridor where your own citizens will be walking on a daily basis. The Dwemers outfitted some of their facilities with spinning helicopter blade traps that could cut a person in half. The Ayelids had traps that released poison into the air. Who does that? That's crazy. That's rabid howler monkey insane. It's just one step away from putting a lava pit in your living room.

 

Oh well, I digress. I guess I like the Dwemer ruins more in concept, but they also disappoint me more in practice because they make me feel like Bethesda missed an opportunity to put something awesome into their game. I was hoping they would be the Skyrim equivalent of the the Fallout service tunnels, these really atmospheric utalitarian places full of weird machines. Really, after Fallout 3, you'd think one thing Bethesda would know how to do by now is the derelict ruins of dead civilizations. But all I found in the Dwemer ruins were just another type of generic dungeon, with a few pipes sticking out of the walls.

Edited July 29, 2012 by Relativelybest