Skyrim; Populatuion: 750

[JamesIsADeadbeat]

Yea, in all of bethesda's games it has always bothered me how small the cities were. In fallout I can just dismiss this because of the whole "nuclear apocalypse" thing, but oblivion? The imperial city capital of the empire... with an entire >200 people of which at least 30% are guards :O

 

I remember in the Nehrim mod the capital (erothon or somethin like that) actually felt a lot better... not big enough for a thousand year old city, but it was definitely better than anything bethesda has made.

Take whitrun for example... i think its a joke that they even named "districts" when you can see the entire city from outside its walls.

Ahh but before i sound like a troll i should say that I DO NOT think its because of the programer's laziness, nor do I think I could do any better... pretty sure it would just make the game too big if it had more realistic cities.

I just want them to release the creation kit already >:/ re-textures are fine and all but how many do i need :P

I can't wait to see what modders come up with :D

[jackalhead]

I think it would be cool if someone went through and just doubled or tripled the size of each city.

[Catnoise]

Don't get me started on Daggerfall, but Morrowind had over 5000 Npcs.

[Gnarfouski]

I just had a thought about how one could manage high density population : if a city is expanded to host more NPCs, it could still feel empty because of the

( NPC number ) / (city area) ratio. And it would even more confuse the player due to large, low-density sections.

 

What should be possible is to replace actual city buildings by ones designed to host a LOT of people. Most of the Skyrim architecture is composed of personnal, two- or three-stored houses (including the basement). I only played TES IV and V, so I don't know if the previous games featured apartment buildings, but in any case I think they are the solution.

Furthermore, I think that some architectural styles can really benefit from vertical building (over-ground for areas like the Imperial City, and underground towers for Dwemer cities like Markarth ).

 

If that was the case, each building ( let's say 4 apartments per floor, 5 floors per building, one lounge (or whatever), and a central staircase ) could host 20 families, meaning 30 - 50 NPCs per building ! That way, any high-density area could get its 300 citizens for a very moderate space. :biggrin:

[raatorotta]

I tried to make a battle between 30 bandits and 30 guards. Everything was okay till they actually attacked each other. Only 60 actors moving at same time made the game freeze. Had to reboot. Population is small for a reason.

[Gnarfouski]

I tried to make a battle between 30 bandits and 30 guards. Everything was okay till they actually attacked each other. Only 60 actors moving at same time made the game freeze. Had to reboot. Population is small for a reason.

 

What is your PC configuration ?

[Aluminumfoil]

All of this centers on the foolish notion that every NPC has to have a home, a bed, and a life. I simply don't care whether a random NPC with three lines and no personality has a bed to sleep in at night, or even /exists/ at night. Ideally, the game will let me despawn NPCs when they are no longer wanted, allowing things like markets that are full when you visit them in the day time and empty if you visit them at night, etc. That's more advanced than I initially intend to do, though. I'll be concentrating on interior spaces first - taverns, keeps, etc. A half dozen housecarls here, a dozen commoners at a tavern there, and pretty soon Skyrim should start to look like there hasn't just been a nuclear war that killed everybody.

[Darksun45230]

All of this centers on the foolish notion that every NPC has to have a home, a bed, and a life. I simply don't care whether a random NPC with three lines and no personality has a bed to sleep in at night, or even /exists/ at night. Ideally, the game will let me despawn NPCs when they are no longer wanted, allowing things like markets that are full when you visit them in the day time and empty if you visit them at night, etc. That's more advanced than I initially intend to do, though. I'll be concentrating on interior spaces first - taverns, keeps, etc. A half dozen housecarls here, a dozen commoners at a tavern there, and pretty soon Skyrim should start to look like there hasn't just been a nuclear war that killed everybody.

 

Or a plague. Of Corpus.

 

*hint for quest*

[DorkDiva]

Yes this bothers me greatly as well... But then again i dont think the land is very big either. ; )

 

 

 

Yeah I agree. As "huge" as it was said to be I find myself doing many circles and seeing where I just was in a lot of areas, and it is easily traveled quickly through without the fast travel feature or a horsey.

[Kunrokh]

Making such a mod, would benefit from the situation that many people want to create more quests. More quests = more people, personally I would love to see more killing missions wihtout feeling im thinnning out the entire world....