Skyrim Traveling Time

[vroix]

Skyrim is a large province. I was wondering about "lore-friendly" traveling time. It took me about 2 in game hours to "run" from Riverwood to Whiterun at 25 timescale. I used some immersion mods which add basic hunger, sleep, and thirst feature and some of those mods recommend me to set the timescale to 5. But playing with 5 timescale doesn't feels right. It takes about 10 minutes in game from Riverwood to Whiterun.

 

I've read a certain person's journal in game and it said it took a few months from Anvil in Cyrodiil to Solitude in Skyrim by ship and 3 days non stop ride from Bravil to Anvil. Also, when I fast traveled/ use carriage services from Markath to Solitude, it took about 6 hours in game (with default timescale).

 

So, anyone knows the "lore-friendly" timescale/ travelling time? Perhaps someone familiar with Tamriel/ Skyrim geography can explain?

[Error404NotFound]

I use timescale 6 for myself. 10 minutes in real life = 1 hour InGame.

But to make it "lore-friendly", i would recommend a higher value.

Since Tamriel is a "huge" continent of the planet Nirn, and Skyrim is one of the largest provinces in Tamriel, it should take nearly a full day to walk from the east to the west.

But remember, that changing the timescale to higher values, can mess up the AI of the npc's. If the timescale is to high, they will stop doing things like going to a tavern, go to "work" at a forge, getting up and go right back to bed and weird things like that. It can really mess up your game.

For the "Fast travel time" i would recommend the same value as the timescale.

 

PS: 3 days from Anvil to Solitude is a good time, but you have to ship all around Tamriel to get there. there is no direct connection from Anvil (Southern coast of Tamriel) to Solitude (Northern coast of Tamriel) that you can travel by ship. no rivers or lakes that connect Cyrodiil and Skyrim.

http://images.uesp.net/c/c3/TamrielMap.jpg

Edited August 6, 2012 by Error404NotFound

[sukeban]

I run with a timescale of 25 as well, but frequently wish that I could set it higher to better simulate the passage of time when traveling. All things being equal, I'd prefer running at like 40 so that it would take multiple days to travel from, say, Riften to Whiterun, as it is clearly meant to from in-game sources.

 

I believe that there is a book (Watcher of Stones IIRC) that states that White River Watch (where Amren's sword is held by bandits) is supposed to be "a half day's journey" from Whiterun proper. Obviously, this takes about, um, thirty seconds in game and is visible from the gates of the city. So really, there is no possible way to conform to the travel times given in lore. Off topic, but this makes me pine for procedurally generated terrain to fill in the gaps in Skyrim's geography and add length and danger to journeys.

 

If I had to sort of "make up" other values, I would say that it should take the better portion of a week to travel from Riften --> Windhelm, a little bit less for Windhelm --> Whiterun, and about a week more to travel from Whiterun --> Markarth or Solitude, making for a total travel time of about two weeks for Riften to Solitude. At timescale 25, making this journey and role-playing (i.e. sleeping when dark) takes about three-to-four in-game days, depending on random encounters with enemies. The problem with higher timescale values is that it doesn't really leave you much time to do anything during the daytime, making for rather dismal gameplay.

 

So anyway, here's to hoping that Beth utilizes randomized terrain again in future TES installments. It really does cut down on the "epic" feeling of the game when you can jog from Solitude to Riften in under one in-game day using vanilla timescale.

[Pentigan]

Anvil isn't on the south coast of Tamriel, sure you don't mean Soulrest? Anvil is practically the western coast of the central province.

[vroix]

It seems like I'm not the only one who feels something's strange with the timescale.

 

I wish that vanilla skyrim implement a dynamic timescale. The dynamic timescale mod able to do that, It's just that the mod only consist of interior, exterior, and combat timescale. A fixed timescale of 5 only when talking (dialogue) will be great.

If I change normal timescale to 40, time pass a lot faster whenever I talk to people outside (and sometimes I spend a lot of time talking with npcs outside) which is awkward. At noon, I only talk for 10 minutes real life and in game its midnight already.

 

So i guess 40 is the safest lore friendly timescale? I've read somewhere that setting the timescale more than 60 is not safe.

Or it's just that Tamriel is actually a small continent and Skyrim is a small province so that it only takes a couple of days to travel around Skyrim.

[Blackraptor31]

Go back and play Daggerfall. That little bit of map that doesn't even cover an entire province is something like 3x the size of Great Britain in game.

Skyrim is probably no larger than a small city IRL.