Skuldafn

[Stemin]

So I've been playing Skyrim since Nov. on PS3. I can't get the dumb XBox 360 PC controller to play right with Skyrim on PC, so I've been unable to enjoy it.

 

A guy on gamefaqs found out some interesting stuff about Skuldafn. I was wondering if the same thing is possible on PC and maybe if someone with the Creation Kit could look into why this happens...

 

It turns out when you go to Skuldafn, you can actually climb out of the valley and explore outside Skuldafn. (I've tried this myself). It actually doesn't exist in Skyrim, but over or under it. Once you get outside you will find a snow covered valley that leads to what looks like an ocean. Or you can travel over the far mountains and end up in the same area. When you get out there, you will find that the "ocean" is only knee deep in most spots, but there are spots where you completely submerge under water. There are also large squares of dirt that act like platforms. Regardless of the elevation of the platform, as soon as you pass under it you will be transported on top of it. When you step off of one, you have about a 50/50 chance of stepping on to another one or falling. Become Ethereal Shout is a necessity for exploring this area.

 

I have traveled far into Morrowind and far to the west, way past Markarth. I have never found anything outside of what the original poster on gamefaqs pointed out. With one exception.

 

The landscape just kinda loops, but you're definitely moving because when you look on the map your position changes.

 

There are only two landmarks in this massive... null space. One is the "island" of Skulldafn. The other is a large black monolith. He called it a large rectangle. I called it a tower. It's basically a huge black rectangle you can see to the west of Skulldafn after a bit of travel. When you get there, as you approach you can see lights.. like from a building. They are outlined as though it's windows on a building that has a corner right there. The lights can be walked right through and they are not attached to the monolith. Once you reach the monolith you find out it is not solid. You can walk right through it, but when you walk back you will fall. On the other side of the monolith when you look back on it, it's got a hole in the middle.

 

The only other thing we found out here, was he discovered that west of Skuldafn you will encounter a dragon. If you use dragonrend on it, it will fly off a ways and do circles, but it never lands. If you are in the water it won't attack you, but if you are on a platform it will. But again if you take it down to near death when normally a dragon would land, it flies off and does circles.

 

The one thing I discovered that he did not, is the named dragon, Nahagliiv. He's supposed to spawn from a dragon mound near Rorikstead, and I discovered him in this null space about the same position as he would be in if I were really in skyrim. About an icon's width east of Rorikstead on the map. Except the wikia shows Nahagliiv as red, like an ancient dragon. The one I encountered was green. He attacked me, and I took him down to near death and he flew away. Just when I was about to give up, he came back and I "killed" him. Except he didn't die. His health bar disappeared, and he flew away and did circles. He travels closer to you as you move away from him, but he never attacks again.

 

Using call dragon causes the dragon to show up, but he will not recognize Nahagliiv as a threat and he flies away, but your shout becomes frozen and never "cools down" to let you use another shout. I had to reload.

 

 

Anyways, I can link you to the gamefaqs thread if anyone wants to see the pictures the guy posted. I have some screenshots on my PS3 that I haven't loaded to my PC yet that are probably better quality than his cell pics, but I have to get off my lazy butt and transfer them.

 

I was wondering what someone with some programming knowledge and access to the Creation Kit could make of this area, assuming it exists on PC?

[GomuGomu64]

I'll take a gander. If it's possible to make a map "Loop", that'll do wonders for worldspaces :3

[Stemin]

I'll take a gander. If it's possible to make a map "Loop", that'll do wonders for worldspaces :3

 

I'm not really sure what it is. I also found a similar area outside Sovreigngard, btw. You end up in a large ocean that you actually swim in. There are some islands out there made of plain dirt. There is a large barrier that surrounds Sovereignguard, made of dirt, but there is also an opening in it that lets you go outside the ocean. The area outside is similar to the area outside Skuldafn, but not the same exactly. The rectangular "platforms" exist, but they're almost seamless and you can kinda walk around without dying too much. There are also "tunnels" for lack of a better word where you can see a valley and water over top of it. If you enter the valley you end up under water, even though you're entering it from the side. I found several tower like structures out there as well, but didn't get to check it out. I died and decided to take a break. These areas are pretty bland.

 

I'm a novice when it comes to programming. Used to do some work on MUD's back in high school. I can't really think of a good reason for these areas. Unless the Skuldafn one is just a holding pen for dragons to spawn, but I only encountered the two I mentioned. I understand making the surrounding area bigger so that if someone DOES climb to the top of the mountain it gives some perspective and maybe they just forgot to add a forcefield to keep people from crossing, but the area outside that... just weird. Maybe this is what happens when you enter the game engine without having a map to position your player on?

 

Again.. I'm playing on PS3, so it's not like I have fraps or anything, but when you save the game it does take a low res .png file. I could post those I suppose if anyone was interested.

Edited April 8, 2012 by Stemin

[GnatGoSplat]

Strange that you can't get the XBOX 360 controller working right on PC. Mine works fine, it's pretty much plug & play.

 

I had also ended up in this null space week before last when I went to Skuldafn and discovered I was ill prepared for the draugr swarm that awaited me. With no ability to fast travel, I successfully managed to climb over the mountain, only to discover this null space. I made a beeline for the monolith. PC version didn't seem to have any outline of windows or lights. After walking through it, I ended up running towards the horizon because it sort of looked like more mountains, although it wasn't. Just low clouds, I think. I never came across any platforms or deep spots, it stayed knee deep for me the whole way. I did see the dragon overhead at one point, but he never came down close enough for me to shoot him.

 

My guess is this place exists because maybe the world has multiple different layers, all about the same size. They put Skuldafn on its own layer so you can't find it on your own, but since each layer is the same size, that's why there's just endless nothingness. Kind of like how caves and dungeons are on a different layer.