question about the size of the game world

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I just read that Oblivion will feature an area roughly 16 square miles,
so I was just wondering how this compares to Morrowind's continent. What
size was that?

Thanks.

 

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John Salerno wrote:

> I just read that Oblivion will feature an area roughly 16 square miles,
> so I was just wondering how this compares to Morrowind's continent. What
> size was that?

No idea what size Vvardenfell was/is - but 4 miles long by four miles
wide doesn't sound that much compared to the massive amount of time
spent walking from The Temple of Vivec to Sheogarath...

--
MG

 

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Jochen Gehring wrote:

> 15.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)
>
> >I just read that Oblivion will feature an area roughly 16 square miles,
> >so I was just wondering how this compares to Morrowind's continent. What
> >size was that?
>
> As we can read in the Construction-Set's help-file:
>
> "Each exterior cell is 8192 units by 8192 units or 385 feet by 385 feet."
>
> The world map can display a square from -29/+29 (upper left) to +25/-25
> (lower right) when you include cell 0/0, you'll get 55*55 cells
>
> Vvardenfell spans from -16 to +20 in X-direction
> and from -16 to +23 in Y-direction that's about 37*40 cells
> (with still a lot of water included)
>
>
> Sorry, have to calculate in metric values
>
> 385 feet = 117 meters
>
> 54*117 = 6.32 kilometers (3.92 miles)
>
> 37*117 = 4.33 km (2.69 miles)
>
> 40*117 = 4.68 km (2.91 miles)
>
> Morrowind's World-Map can display 6.32*6.32 = 40 square-kilometers,
> and that's 15.4 square-miles unless my conversion metric<->imperial is wrong.
>
> Vvardenfell itself is about 20 square-kilometers (7.8 square-miles)
>
>
> So "Oblivion's size" as described by Bethsoft, will be about as large
> as Morrowind's World-Map, and about twice the size of Vvardenfell.
>

Nice one...

--
MG

 

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15.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)

>I just read that Oblivion will feature an area roughly 16 square miles,
>so I was just wondering how this compares to Morrowind's continent. What
>size was that?

As we can read in the Construction-Set's help-file:

"Each exterior cell is 8192 units by 8192 units or 385 feet by 385 feet."

The world map can display a square from -29/+29 (upper left) to +25/-25
(lower right) when you include cell 0/0, you'll get 55*55 cells

Vvardenfell spans from -16 to +20 in X-direction
and from -16 to +23 in Y-direction that's about 37*40 cells
(with still a lot of water included)


Sorry, have to calculate in metric values

385 feet = 117 meters

54*117 = 6.32 kilometers (3.92 miles)

37*117 = 4.33 km (2.69 miles)

40*117 = 4.68 km (2.91 miles)

Morrowind's World-Map can display 6.32*6.32 = 40 square-kilometers,
and that's 15.4 square-miles unless my conversion metric<->imperial is wrong.

Vvardenfell itself is about 20 square-kilometers (7.8 square-miles)


So "Oblivion's size" as described by Bethsoft, will be about as large
as Morrowind's World-Map, and about twice the size of Vvardenfell.


Ciao,
Jochen

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Fascinating information. I'm surprised (but happy) that Oblivion will be
as big. I thought I read somewhere that they made it smaller so as not
to overwhelm new people to the series. But I'm perfectly fine with a
world just as big, or bigger, than Vvardenfell!




Jochen Gehring wrote:
> 15.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)
>
>
>>I just read that Oblivion will feature an area roughly 16 square miles,
>>so I was just wondering how this compares to Morrowind's continent. What
>>size was that?
>
>
> As we can read in the Construction-Set's help-file:
>
> "Each exterior cell is 8192 units by 8192 units or 385 feet by 385 feet."
>
> The world map can display a square from -29/+29 (upper left) to +25/-25
> (lower right) when you include cell 0/0, you'll get 55*55 cells
>
> Vvardenfell spans from -16 to +20 in X-direction
> and from -16 to +23 in Y-direction that's about 37*40 cells
> (with still a lot of water included)
>
>
> Sorry, have to calculate in metric values
>
> 385 feet = 117 meters
>
> 54*117 = 6.32 kilometers (3.92 miles)
>
> 37*117 = 4.33 km (2.69 miles)
>
> 40*117 = 4.68 km (2.91 miles)
>
> Morrowind's World-Map can display 6.32*6.32 = 40 square-kilometers,
> and that's 15.4 square-miles unless my conversion metric<->imperial is wrong.
>
> Vvardenfell itself is about 20 square-kilometers (7.8 square-miles)
>
>
> So "Oblivion's size" as described by Bethsoft, will be about as large
> as Morrowind's World-Map, and about twice the size of Vvardenfell.
>
>
> Ciao,
> Jochen
>

 

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Jochen Gehring wrote:

> A "city" like Balmora that fits into a square of 256*256 yards
> isn't much more than a very small village in real life. The size of
> Daggerfall's cities was more realistic, though they all looked the same.
>
> So Oblivion might be "small" cause it covers only one city and
> its surroundings, but this city might be scaled more realistic,
> taking up the same or even more space as the whole of Vvardenfell.

I just hope it's "dense".
Morrowind, outside Seyda Neen, had too much terrain with too
little in it (in my oppinion), not to speak of Daggerfall etc.

Even as there where many dungeons, most offered too little of
a reward.

I'd like to see more stuff to find like in Ultima7 ...

 

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On 16 Sep 2005 01:53:36 -0700, "mysterious giant" <blue@rsed.com>
wrote:

>No idea what size Vvardenfell was/is - but 4 miles long by four miles
>wide doesn't sound that much compared to the massive amount of time
>spent walking from The Temple of Vivec to Sheogarath...

Uh - you WALKED that? (That's the vow of silence quest right?)

I've done that quest multiple times and ALWAYS using levitation from
the statue to do it!

(Of course I favor alchemy so always have a stock of levitation
potions but the blessing from the statue just around the corner is
usually enough to get you there to complete your vow)

 

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Jochen Gehring wrote:

> In real-life 16 square-miles isn't really big.
> You need maybe 2 hours to walk from one corner to the other
> A medieval metropolis like Rome or Paris surely was a lot larger than that,
> and Oblivion plays in Tamriel's capital, TES's equivalent of ancient Rome

Is Oblivion set in Tamriel like Morrowind is set in Vvardenfell, or is
the game set mainly in Cyrodiil? If it's just the city, that kind of
worries me about exploration. I see your point about a thief, but it
seems like if the game is mainly in a city (like Tribunal), there isn't
much exploration to do (especially exploration like going where you feel
no one has gone before, as opposed to a city where nothing should really
be all that 'new' to anyone).

 

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On Sat, 17 Sep 2005 18:48:08 -0400, John Salerno
<johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote:

>> Uh - you WALKED that? (That's the vow of silence quest right?)
>>
>> I've done that quest multiple times and ALWAYS using levitation from
>> the statue to do it!
>>
>> (Of course I favor alchemy so always have a stock of levitation
>> potions but the blessing from the statue just around the corner is
>> usually enough to get you there to complete your vow)
>
>There's always teleportation, too.

Most spells involve speaking - do you know whether recall can be cast
without speaking?

 

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17.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)

>Is Oblivion set in Tamriel like Morrowind is set in Vvardenfell, or is
>the game set mainly in Cyrodiil? If it's just the city, that kind of
>worries me about exploration. I see your point about a thief, but it
>seems like if the game is mainly in a city (like Tribunal), there isn't
>much exploration to do (especially exploration like going where you feel
>no one has gone before, as opposed to a city where nothing should really
>be all that 'new' to anyone).

AFAIK it will play mostly in an urban setting, like Daggerfall.

The imperial city is the largest known city of the TES world.
The rest of the province is mainly jungle, so there is much room
to boldly go where no man has gone before.


Have a look at the map here: <http://til.gamingsource.net/pge/cyrodiil.shtml>

and then let's speculate a bit about Oblivion's layout:

The isle in the center contains the imperial city and it's outskirts, beyond
the river is jungle. If I were Bethesda, and had to find a convenient and
reasonable way to prevent the player from going to the other provinces,
I'd either make Oblivion play just on that isle (about a third the size of
VVardenfell) or allow the player to cross the river, but make the jungle
inpenetrable, virtually cutting Cyrodiil off from the rest of the continent.

Since there wouldn't be much point for the horses and designer-tools
like the automatic forest-generation, when there isn't any wilderness,
my guess is, that Oblivion will play along the river with impenetrable
jungle and open sea as borders; beside the imperial city there will
be only a few farming-villages and maybe a sea-port.


Ciao,
Jochen

 

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Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

Jochen Gehring wrote:
> 17.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)
>
>
>>Is Oblivion set in Tamriel like Morrowind is set in Vvardenfell, or is
>>the game set mainly in Cyrodiil? If it's just the city, that kind of
>>worries me about exploration. I see your point about a thief, but it
>>seems like if the game is mainly in a city (like Tribunal), there isn't
>>much exploration to do (especially exploration like going where you feel
>>no one has gone before, as opposed to a city where nothing should really
>>be all that 'new' to anyone).
>
>
> AFAIK it will play mostly in an urban setting, like Daggerfall.
>
> The imperial city is the largest known city of the TES world.
> The rest of the province is mainly jungle, so there is much room
> to boldly go where no man has gone before.
>
>
> Have a look at the map here: <http://til.gamingsource.net/pge/cyrodiil.shtml>
>
> and then let's speculate a bit about Oblivion's layout:
>
> The isle in the center contains the imperial city and it's outskirts, beyond
> the river is jungle. If I were Bethesda, and had to find a convenient and
> reasonable way to prevent the player from going to the other provinces,
> I'd either make Oblivion play just on that isle (about a third the size of
> VVardenfell) or allow the player to cross the river, but make the jungle
> inpenetrable, virtually cutting Cyrodiil off from the rest of the continent.
>
> Since there wouldn't be much point for the horses and designer-tools
> like the automatic forest-generation, when there isn't any wilderness,
> my guess is, that Oblivion will play along the river with impenetrable
> jungle and open sea as borders; beside the imperial city there will
> be only a few farming-villages and maybe a sea-port.
>
>
> Ciao,
> Jochen
>

I've also read from two different sources that half the area of the game
is forest, which suggests that we'll be spending plenty of time outside
the city itself.

But still, I think I'm going to miss the feel of Morrowind: multiple
cities spread across a vast land. The prospect of just one city and its
surrounding area doesn't sound as fun, but I sure won't let this stop me
from getting the game and probably enjoying it just as much as Morrowind!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.morrowind (More info?)

FYI Tried to attach a map of ancient
Rome but it would not post, the radius of the city was about 4km (approx 2,2
miles if you
prefer) remember it is the city of 7 hills and the society then was agrarian
with the city really being only an administrative centre (much the same as
Morrowind towns and cities) There ends the history lesson, if Oblivion is to
be based around one principal city it should approximate a medieval town, I
walked arount the Altstadt (that is the medieval walled city) in Nuremberg
(Nurnberg if you prefer) in less that 2 hours and that was outside the Moat
line!

With any luck they are already developing expansions as they did with
Morrowind!


"John Salerno" <johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote in message
news:BIKdnVXaMOnHUbDeRVn-hg@rcn.net...
> Jochen Gehring wrote:
>> 17.09.05, John Salerno (johnjsal@NOSPAMgmail.com)
>>
>>
>>>Is Oblivion set in Tamriel like Morrowind is set in Vvardenfell, or is
>>>the game set mainly in Cyrodiil? If it's just the city, that kind of
>>>worries me about exploration. I see your point about a thief, but it
>>>seems like if the game is mainly in a city (like Tribunal), there isn't
>>>much exploration to do (especially exploration like going where you feel
>>>no one has gone before, as opposed to a city where nothing should really
>>>be all that 'new' to anyone).
>>
>>
>> AFAIK it will play mostly in an urban setting, like Daggerfall.
>>
>> The imperial city is the largest known city of the TES world.
>> The rest of the province is mainly jungle, so there is much room
>> to boldly go where no man has gone before.
>>
>>
>> Have a look at the map here:
>> <http://til.gamingsource.net/pge/cyrodiil.shtml>
>>
>> and then let's speculate a bit about Oblivion's layout:
>>
>> The isle in the center contains the imperial city and it's outskirts,
>> beyond
>> the river is jungle. If I were Bethesda, and had to find a convenient and
>> reasonable way to prevent the player from going to the other provinces,
>> I'd either make Oblivion play just on that isle (about a third the size
>> of
>> VVardenfell) or allow the player to cross the river, but make the jungle
>> inpenetrable, virtually cutting Cyrodiil off from the rest of the
>> continent.
>>
>> Since there wouldn't be much point for the horses and designer-tools
>> like the automatic forest-generation, when there isn't any wilderness,
>> my guess is, that Oblivion will play along the river with impenetrable
>> jungle and open sea as borders; beside the imperial city there will
>> be only a few farming-villages and maybe a sea-port.
>>
>>
>> Ciao,
>> Jochen
>>
>
> I've also read from two different sources that half the area of the game
> is forest, which suggests that we'll be spending plenty of time outside
> the city itself.
>
> But still, I think I'm going to miss the feel of Morrowind: multiple
> cities spread across a vast land. The prospect of just one city and its
> surrounding area doesn't sound as fun, but I sure won't let this stop me
> from getting the game and probably enjoying it just as much as Morrowind!

 

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19.09.05, Glen Petrie (gpetrie@iinet.net.au)

>FYI Tried to attach a map of ancient Rome but it would not post, the radius
>of the city was about 4km (approx 2,2 miles if you prefer)

And that's an area of 50 km^2 or 19 square-miles


>There ends the history lesson, if Oblivion is to be based around one
>principal city it should approximate a medieval town, I walked arount the
>Altstadt (that is the medieval walled city) in Nuremberg (Nurnberg if you
>prefer) in less that 2 hours and that was outside the Moat line!

Well, since I was at vocational college in Nuernberg, I know the city
quite well. The city-wall spans about 5km (3.1 miles). That's a radius
of about 800 meters (0.5 miles) and an area of about 2 square-kilometers
(0.8 square-miles)

Nuernberg is a nice little town but there's no point in comparing it
with ancient/medieval metropolises like Rome or Paris

</nitpicking mode>



Ciao,
Jochen