Size of Skyrim

[iamlegend999]

Alright. So I have heard and read that skyrim is about 16mi^2 (44km^2). Fair enough, I guess, except that seems hilariously small for an area in which it take several days to travel from one end to the other. Seriously, I'm confused! This seems like a glaring error that Bethesda should have spotted right away, and either fixed their timescale or fixed their land size (A better adjustment). I mean RPG games like Skyrim are all about fantastical reality, and the least they could have don was added something to the lore about this! If Skyrim is 16mi^2, then Tamriel is so small that I don't even want to think about it! And even if we assume Tamriel is small, in the lore, it takes them like months to get from Cyrodil to Skyrim. I just don't think the size is relative to the timescale, honestly. On another note, the 7000 steps are no where near that much, but that, I suppose I can understand. This article says that skyrim is about the size of Oklahoma,, which seems much more reasonable:

"5. ZERO-EFFORT CARDIO

Do you get out of breath when you walk up a flight of stairs? How about when you clamber out of your car? Kiss those problems goodbye in Skyrim. You can traverse the game's rolling landscapes without having to set foot inside a gym. Skyrim contains over 68,000 square miles of painstakingly-constructed terrain to explore, all of which combined is roughly the size of Oklahoma. Have you ever wanted to jog from Kansas to Texas? And while carrying a shield? Now you can."

 

 

So which is it, 68000 or 16 mi^2?

Source: http://www.adultswim...-real-life.html

 

Map of Tamriel: http://images.wikia....Tamriel_map.gif

Edit: LOL wait... I should have looked more into that article lol. It appearsto be all a joke. Gullible me :)

However, this still doesn't change my question as to why the size and timescale are so off.

 

Edited June 20, 2012 by iamlegend999

[PsxMeUP]

When your capital has a dozen houses you know there's something wrong with size.

[eric31415]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

[InuyashaFE]

If they made Skyrim the proper size it would blow up your computer every time you tried to run it.

[iamlegend999]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

 

So,,, why not use a newer engine perhaps? Just sayin'. I mean, there engine still uses dx9, so..

Also, what does setting the timescale to a lower number do? Are you sure changing it even sightly won't cause problems?

Edited June 20, 2012 by iamlegend999

[InuyashaFE]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

 

So,,, why not use a newer engine perhaps? Just sayin'. I mean, there engine still uses dx9, so..

 

Bethesda? Use a new engine? You crack me up. :P

[iamlegend999]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

 

So,,, why not use a newer engine perhaps? Just sayin'. I mean, there engine still uses dx9, so..

 

Bethesda? Use a new engine? You crack me up. :P

What do you mean?

[tetradite]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

 

So,,, why not use a newer engine perhaps? Just sayin'. I mean, there engine still uses dx9, so..

Also, what does setting the timescale to a lower number do? Are you sure changing it even sightly won't cause problems?

 

It just changes how many real world hours are in a "Skyrim day". The number in the "set timescale to xx" is how many times faster than real life you want it to be. I.e if i's default at 25 then that will mean 1 hour in real life = 25 hours in Skyrim. That's way too fast for me.

 

I'm the same as Eric, I use 10 - it's a nice balance and I've had no problems at all with it at that speed (used this on Skyrim and FONV with no problems). There's less risk (IMO) in changing the timescale than there is in using most mods. As long as you don't take it to extremes.

[iamlegend999]

That's a limitation of the game engine, i think the maximum size of a single worldspace is limited to 16km x 16km.

 

They run the timescale so fast to give the impression that it is much larger.

 

Note that you can easily set the timescale via console - set timescale to 10. 10 is what i use, vanilla is around 25, don't go lower than 5 or you might run into weird problems with quests.

 

So,,, why not use a newer engine perhaps? Just sayin'. I mean, there engine still uses dx9, so..

Also, what does setting the timescale to a lower number do? Are you sure changing it even sightly won't cause problems?

 

It just changes how many real world hours are in a "Skyrim day". The number in the "set timescale to xx" is how many times faster than real life you want it to be. I.e if i's default at 25 then that will mean 1 hour in real life = 25 hours in Skyrim. That's way too fast for me.

 

I'm the same as Eric, I use 10 - it's a nice balance and I've had no problems at all with it at that speed (used this on Skyrim and FONV with no problems). There's less risk (IMO) in changing the timescale than there is in using most mods. As long as you don't take it to extremes.

 

alright then, thanks.

[iamlegend999]

So... why doesn't bethesda use a new engine? This might be stupid, but I am seriously extremely new to Skyrim and video games in general. What prevents them from updating their equipment?