Size of Skyrim

[sukeban]

IMO, I think it would be monumentally neat if the next TES iteration did roll with some elements of procedurally-generated terrain to fill in some of the "gaps" between cities. I agree with the OP when he says that the scale of Skyrim feels a bit off. I also agree with the post about Solitude being 12 houses large. I really couldn't care less if Solitude required a couple of doors and loading screens (like the Imperial City in Oblivion) to walk through if that allowed the city to feel like a properly inhabited and powerful town.

 

Procedurally-generated terrain would be AMAZING if placed (disclaimer: I know nothing of software engineering or programming) in certain cells between cities. Beth could spend time making "hand-placed" terrain near and around cities while relying on PG terrain for more outlying areas. We've come a long way since the days of Daggerfall; I'm sure that PG terrain could actually be very good now and would make the world feel FAR more expansive than it is when everything is hand-placed.

 

Imagine it actually taking a couple of in-game days to get from Solitude to Markarth, imagine it taking an in-game week to get from Solitude to Whiterun. Perhaps a two-week journey to traverse the province from Solitude to Windhelm? You could maybe have clusters of PG cells surrounding hand-placed cells where dungeons would be found to heighten the sense of exploration. In vanilla Skyrim, it is almost laughable how few feet you have to travel between dungeons and locations; in some places they are almost stacked on top of one another. Rolling with PG would also give WAY more of a reason to hire a carriage or buy a horse and would jive perfectly with stated lore about Tamriel being a large continent that takes much time to travel in.

 

How you work that out with PG LODs and all of that... I honestly don't know. But as computing tech continues its advance, I can't imagine that such a thing would remain as issue for long.

 

Finally, how awesome would Skyrim's random encounters in PG terrain be? You could get lost, disoriented, actually have to use your compass or ask for directions because you honestly don't know the way. IMO, that would make for the best TES game ever!

[3WINTERS]

I'm sure many of us have seen the lands that lie beyond the invisible borders, I personally agree with the theory that they're just there so you don't feel like the word ends beyond the natural confines of Skyrim.

 

I have two questions though, could these outer border areas be built on to have an expansion of land?

As I understand it, and I could be wrong but, the skyrim land up is made up of many small cells. If so, and if you can build on the outer borders, could you shift certain cells containing some of the cities and such to the outer areas and fill in the gaps with generated or personally shaped terrain? Thus, creating a greater distance between one city and the next, or is this way beyond the capabilities of the engine?

[tetradite]

I'm sure many of us have seen the lands that lie beyond the invisible borders, I personally agree with the theory that they're just there so you don't feel like the word ends beyond the natural confines of Skyrim.

 

I have two questions though, could these outer border areas be built on to have an expansion of land?

As I understand it, and I could be wrong but, the skyrim land up is made up of many small cells. If so, and if you can build on the outer borders, could you shift certain cells containing some of the cities and such to the outer areas and fill in the gaps with generated or personally shaped terrain? Thus, creating a greater distance between one city and the next, or is this way beyond the capabilities of the engine?

 

 

I'll hazard a guess that it would be so much work to move stuff, compared to the amount of extra space you'd get (and the fact that the landscape would then just "end"), that it just wouldn't be worth it. I don't believe there's a simple way to "shift cells".