How would you expand the cities of Skyrim?

[BadMaker]

How could cities in Skyrim be bigger, better and more glorious?

 

So I think we can divide the cities of Skyrim into two camps. Cool, unique cities and small, glorified villages. Heres some ideas I came up with off the top of my head.

Cool Unique cities:

 

Whiterun - Big in size and it has a lot of sprawl around it with the nearby farms and other outposts. Adding another wall layer would make the city truly huge. But what would be put there? More farms?

 

Markarth - Very vertical in nature, I would like to see a reservoir/lake put in front of the front gate with building lining the side and a large staircase out front that needs to be climbed to gain entrance.

 

Riften - I feel like this city needs to wrap around the lake more and expand out to the island that is inhabited by Goldenglow estates. It also needs to be more "double layered" with the canal running through the middle truly feeling like a parallel city full of rime and poverty.

 

Solitude - I would love to see this city expanded down to the stables and encompassing the entire dock area. I feel like as the capital, it needs to be just larger, though it does feel like a capital right now, it could still be better. I also think that the blue palace needs to be a lot larger.

 

Windhelm - It feels so cold and barren, I feel like it needs some warm places, especially in the gray quarter. This could help emphasis the contrast between cold and warmth a lot better. I feel like some parts of the city are just too barren too, like the bridge leading into the city.

 

Small, glorified villages:

 

Dawnstar: This city could be a lot more, I would expand the mining operations, expand the docks and possibly incorporate the nearby lighthouse into the city better. Also, it just needs to be bigger.

 

Falkreath: This place needs a huge mausoleum sorts of like the graveyard in Windhelm which has alters placed into the stone. It also needs to have an even more active lumber cutting operation. Maybe even some treehouses as well.

 

Morthal: I don't know what to do with Morthal. Give it some crannogs?

 

Winterhold: I feel like there needs to be signs of some sort of effort to reclaim the city from the sea. Perhaps the player can get some quests to help fish some buildings out of the water. Also, the surviving buildings should more closely resemble the architecture of the College, or have at least a few ruined buildings resemble the college.

 

So what ideas do you all have on expanding cities in Skyrim?

[satsujinka]

morthal as home to a vampire quest should be a bit more hospitable to such. Also it's on a swamp, it should be sinking. What I'm imagining is layers of houses sunken into the ground with platforms and new houses built on top. The vampires and maybe other monsters live in the abandoned sunken buildings and there's a tunnel between them and the cave that the quest for morthal takes you to.

For suggestions read the Dresden files' description of undertown.

[AtlasS]

Dawnstar: player house

Falkreath: player house

Morthal: player house

Winterhold: player house

 

ok, so my disagreement with lack of housing out of the way.

Dawnstar: I agree it could be larger, maybe more defined tiering like whiterun?

Falkreath: Falkreath is a beautiful city in my opinion, and I feel that if you spread north into the woods you can get a much better design. possibly have some botanical gardens and a public bathhouse due to the location?

Morthal: Epic room for expansion, go vivec on its ass with floating and non floating houses. its a marsh afterall, use the landscape better and more willingly

EDIT: I agree with satsujinka on morthal, and thats what i was trying to describe... yer pretty obvious what would look cool there

 

Winterhold: Rebuild quest? people are asking for a "rebuild helgen" mod but I think there should be a "rebuild winterhold" quest, and expand it down to the southeast, gods know there is plenty of neat terrain

Edited December 26, 2011 by AtlasS

[huntsman2310]

Winterhold: Buildings cut into the cliff face underneath the current town, could be a few mines there as well.

Morthal: Some more houses built on platforms in the swamps.

Solitude: More places inside the arch that Solitude sits on.

Windhelm: Needs a lot more houses, and some more buildings around the Central part.

I like your Riften and Windhelm Ideas by the way so I won't add anything there.

[Lachdonin]

To be honest, i would break one of, IMO, the main problems with Skyrim. Relative scale. The interior and exterior of a city, in Skyrim, are the same. I don't even really see the point in having them in differnt cells.

 

I would personally scale down everything within a city to fit more in the cell, while keeping the overall design. Basicly 'Bigger on the Inside'. Yes, it would skew thigns a bit, but there should be a reason for having them in seperate cells.

[AtlasS]

To be honest, i would break one of, IMO, the main problems with Skyrim. Relative scale. The interior and exterior of a city, in Skyrim, are the same. I don't even really see the point in having them in differnt cells.

 

I would personally scale down everything within a city to fit more in the cell, while keeping the overall design. Basicly 'Bigger on the Inside'. Yes, it would skew thigns a bit, but there should be a reason for having them in seperate cells.

 

Then don't. make all building interiors, part of exterior.....

"open houses", cos "open cities" is pointless since 1/2 the hold capitals are external

[KratosAurion777]

i Thought about Rebuild completely Winterhold , with a quest involving a lot of gold , the city have a big potential i think .

Helgen can be rebuilt to .

 

)Actually i don't see any room for make the other city bigger without break the charm , I think the only true possibility is to Create New entire Town , i think about Remake the North of cyrodiil and Bruma once the creation pack will come .

[AssyMcGee]

I honestly don't think I'd do anything to the major cities of Skyrim. They at least have a unique architecture and feel to them. I mean perhaps I few more houses could easily be placed in the open bits of grass in the Plains district of Whiterun just to fill it out, and I'd personally love for some of the rocks to be cleaned up from the streets of Windhelm and from inside Understone Keep in Markarth.

 

My issue is, and has been with the smaller cities. Those cities should have their own unique architecture too. I actually made a thread awhile back discussing the possibility of creating some new meshes for new houses for each city.

 

Dawnstar: A supposed large port city that exports a lot of ore. That'd make the city wealthy and important for trade. I imagine the buildings as a combination of early 17th century Colonial American architecture combined with Nordic themes. Sort of along the lines of the houses of Windhelm, but more closely resembling the early houses of Boston, or houses you'd imagine from the Salem Witchtrials.. For example the House of Seven Gables: http://smalldogs2.com/VisitingMassachusetts/mass%20house%20of%20seven%20gables.jpg

 

Winterhold: I would love to see some crumbling remains of the old city. Pieces of the city wall, old gatehouses, maybe a few towers. Old walls hanging along the edge of the cliff, piles of ruble in the sea below. And of course the architecture would match the College. This one I wouldn't mind some of the little wooden houses existing in between old crumbling buildings. It'll be a nice contrast of the old city and the cities survivors trying to eek out an existence amongst the ruins of their ancestors old city.

 

Falkreath: I'd love for the graveyard to be expanded on. For the largest graveyard in Skyrim, it's rather pathetic. Some mausolems, and more graves would add to the atmosphere. The buildings should also be more gothic, I mean Falkreath was at one point in its history part of Cyrodiil, so it can have a more Imperialistic style of architecture, sort of along the lines of Solitude. Lots of over hanging gables and dark wood and stone.

 

Morthal: I too am at a loss for this one. Maybe buildings on stilts? It's hard because it's a swamp yes, but the town is also half covered in snow. I keep thinking of an architectural style along the lines of some small bayou town in Louisiana or Mississippi. But that doesn't work because of the different climate.

[BadMaker]

I think Winterhold would not be completely rebuilt, but I feel like some ruins could be built into the cliff-face nearby and later re-inhabited after a series of quests. Perhaps the east-empire company could be involved seeing as Winterhold used to rival Solitude in greatness?

[huntsman2310]

Sounds cool man, could also be a idea to put most of the old city's ruined buildings and walls and such underwater, perhaps for a new area to explore, complete with treasure?