ScrollsOfTamriel
New Member
Replaying Oblivion after a long Skyrim run and I keep getting distracted just walking around the Imperial City. There's something about how the districts are laid out - the way you move through different neighborhoods, how the Waterfront actually feels separate from the Market District, the Gardens being this whole other vibe. Solitude is pretty but it kind of feels like you're walking in a line from the docks to the palace, you know?
I think it's because Cyrodiil's city was designed vertically in a way Skyrim's holds weren't. You're constantly going up and down, finding new alleys, stumbling into places. Whereas Solitude is more... flat? Linear? Even with mods that add stuff to it, it doesn't have that same sense of discovery.
The NPCs help too. Everyone in the Imperial City feels like they're actually living there instead of just standing in their shop waiting for you to buy something. The Waterfront gang stuff, the Daedric cultists, the random people arguing about the Oblivion Crisis - there's actual friction in the city.
Does anyone else feel this way or am I just getting nostalgic? Curious if the architecture difference is intentional or just how the two games handle scale differently.
I think it's because Cyrodiil's city was designed vertically in a way Skyrim's holds weren't. You're constantly going up and down, finding new alleys, stumbling into places. Whereas Solitude is more... flat? Linear? Even with mods that add stuff to it, it doesn't have that same sense of discovery.
The NPCs help too. Everyone in the Imperial City feels like they're actually living there instead of just standing in their shop waiting for you to buy something. The Waterfront gang stuff, the Daedric cultists, the random people arguing about the Oblivion Crisis - there's actual friction in the city.
Does anyone else feel this way or am I just getting nostalgic? Curious if the architecture difference is intentional or just how the two games handle scale differently.