No expansion pack? Ever?

Bauble on 31/5/2006 at 02:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by RarRar: Bethesda never does more than one province in their games, at least not since Arena. Another province would require an ES V, not an expansion for ES IV.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shevers: There is no way they'd do another province. Why's it even being discussed? It goes counter to everything they've done so far in the series and there's been no suggestion that it would be done.

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Half of the Elder Scrolls games have taken place in more than one province. The Elder Scrolls: Arena took place on the entire continent of Tamriel. Of course, that leaves the rest of the planet of Nirn untouched, such as the continent of Akavir and whatnot. The Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall took place in the provinces of Hammerfell and High Rock; primarily on the borderlands between the two, but two provinces nevertheless. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind was the first one to be confined to a single province. So I don't know what you're talking about when you say doing another province for an expansion "goes counter to everything they've done so far in the series."

Komag on 31/5/2006 at 02:42

Where do Redguard and Battlespire take place?

Shevers on 31/5/2006 at 14:52

Quote Posted by Bauble

I don't know what you're talking about when you say doing another province for an expansion "goes counter to everything they've done so far in the series."

It's not like every game is one whole province - Morrowind was only Vvardenfell after all. But the devs have said often that each game will deal with one area of Tamriel, after Arena:

"Since Arena encompassed the entire world of Tamriel, it also felt too generic, so it was decided that each successive game in the series would focus on more specific areas of the Empire." - that's on the official website. And it just seems to go against how they've been doing things to add more provinces to Oblivion.

As for the large areas - the mountains are obviously there for show, while the large flat lands, strange as they are, don't seem like they were laid out to put parts of the game on.

And about this being the first game to have the "You cannot go further" points - that's just because the devs couldn't do what they did with Morrowind and have it surrounded by water.

And for whoever asked if Tamriel had a shape, (http://til.gamingsource.net/maps/EmpireOfTamriel.gif) Here's a map although some city details will be different to in Oblivion.

YogSo on 31/5/2006 at 15:07

re: Battlespire

(Taken from (http://til.gamingsource.net/tsobs/part01.shtml) The Imperial Library)

[INDENT]The game takes place in the Third Era, during Jagar Tharn's imposture [that means, somewhat concurrent to the events depicted in TES: Arena]. The player's character is an aspiring Imperial Battlemage who enters the Imperial Battlemage war college, the Battlespire, (which is in a pocket dimension in Oblivion) through the Weir Gate, supposedly for his/her final admittance test. Instead, he/she quickly finds out that the Battlespire's staff are dead and that the war college has been overrun by Daedra. There is no way back to Tamriel, because the Weir Gate is blocked by a Daedric sigil.[/INDENT]

re: Redguard

This adventure takes place on the little island of Stros M'Kai. You can easily locate it at the slightly outdated (http://til.gamingsource.net/maps/big-tamriel.jpg) map of Tamriel as depicted in TES: Arena.

---

I agree with Komag: Summurset Island has a larger area than Vvardenfell, and it very much could be the next setting for a future TES VI.

Quote Posted by Bauble

I don't know what you guys are talking about. Half of the Elder Scrolls games have taken place in more than one province. (...) The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind was the first one to be confined to a single province. So I don't know what you're talking about when you say doing another province for an expansion "goes counter to everything they've done so far in the series."

I think they refer to the fact that Bethesda has intentionally reduced the seer size of the game area in each incarnation of a TES game, something that has allowed them to detail these worlds in a better way each time, giving NPCs a little more personality, making the different locales feel more unique, and, in general, giving the player the experience of be exploring a 'real' world instead of a randomly generated terrain. So the equation, to say it so, was: less sized area = more detailed world.

BUT (and this is, I think, a quite big but) for the first time since the series started, the use of 'automated terrain generation tools' (or whatever their proper name is) may change this trend. Maybe, in future years, the extensive use of the more advanced versions of these tools would alleviate the work of the mappers and designers to the point that creating a huge game area would not imply a less detailed environment, something that has already occured (according to the interviews I read) with Oblivion. So one can dream with a future installment of the TES saga that comprises a big chunk of the Tamrielic continent...

Edit: Damn. I'm so slow writing that Shevers has already answered (and in a much better way) what I was trying to explain. Sorry for the redundant message.

Shevers on 31/5/2006 at 16:11

Oh and by the way, The Imperial Library website linked at the top of YogSo's post is seriously useful for all this Elder Scrolls lore stuff. It was linked at the top of the Morrowind boards, it should probably be linked at the top of this board. It's probably the most complete and useful source of TES info on the intarweb.

dvrabel on 31/5/2006 at 17:52

24 replies and no one has noticed that there's another 5 GB available on the Oblivion DVD?

Shevers on 31/5/2006 at 18:41

Is it not more like another 0.5GB? Or am I missing something? What size is the DVD, then?

I also have a hard time believing that Oblivion uses less than half of the DVD.

Komag on 31/5/2006 at 19:54

Well, 360 is supposed to be able to handle dual layer DVDs (or soemthing like that) up to 9 gigs or so.

Shevers on 31/5/2006 at 20:12

Sure, but dvrabel was talking about there being and extra 5GB on the DVD in the first place. Either it was just a typo, or one of us has got it wrong.

RarRar on 31/5/2006 at 20:31

From (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox360#DVD_drive) Wikipedia

[INDENT]A 12X DVD-ROM SATA drive, capable of reading DVD+R/DVD+RW discs and DVD-R/RW, is part of the console, with game titles shipping on single or dual-layer DVDs. Only 7GB of the 7.95GB capacity of a dual-layered DVD is available for developers to use for game content[/INDENT]