Dungeons in Oblivion look the same?

Drakin030 · Post by **Drakin030** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:04 pm

After playing through about 10 or more dungeons, ive noticed they all look the same. Whats up with this? It seems to make it a bit less adventurous. Morrowind you would enter a dungeon and it could have statues guarding the enterance or a waterfall. Or even a series of walkways leading up.

Oblivion I see the same rooms in one dungeon as I saw in the dungeon befor. Please tell me they dont alll look like this. Tell me theres some variety or something. Does anyoen else agree?

Thrignar Fraxix · Post by **Thrignar Fraxix** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:14 pm

This could have been posted in the Oblivion Discussion Thread (To answer: I haven't played enough to notice)

Lady Nerevar · Post by **Lady Nerevar** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 7:45 pm

are you sure your not walking into the same dungeon? ive seen plenty of variety

Drakin030 · Post by **Drakin030** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:06 pm

Its not so much that the dungeon looks the EXACT same. Its the concept. You will see a room that looks just like another room in another dungeon. For isntance the main room of this one cave had a river in the center, and a small pit further down. The next dungeon had the same thing, the pit was in a different area but it was the same concept.

Greyscale · Post by **Greyscale** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:23 pm

They just use the same int peices.

it was the same with morrowind.

Lutemoth · Post by **Lutemoth** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 8:39 pm

Ahh, the good ole days return to daggerfall

If I can recall *swings back in his rocking chair*, and I do, that all the dungeon crawlings looked like the same two squids screwing. That only made it easy to get lost, and more annoying to find yourself again.. And those were the interesting dungeons!

If you can claim to comprehend 10,000 dungeons looking exactly the same across the Illiac bay without Daggerfall on file, you must be lying.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:01 pm

I must admit that I disagree completely. Especially with the very notion that dungeons were close to unique in Morrowind.

Drakin030 · Post by **Drakin030** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:21 pm

I remember daggerfall quite well. Not only were the dungeons huge but the rooms were used over and over again.

But morrowind compaired to Oblivion so far was different. Each dungeon seemed unique.

PoHa! · Post by **PoHa!** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 11:30 pm

Odd... I've not noticed any cookie-cutter dungeons (though that doesn't mean it didn't happen, of course), but you'd think that them, being modular, would be more unique than the architectural interiors, which aren't modular (except for ruins and castles which ARE modular).

CleverClothe · Post by **CleverClothe** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:32 am

<3 modular castles, this will be fun.

I don't think that Oblivion is any more cookie-cutter than Morrowind was. Although the styles in Oblivion are less strange than Morrowind, which could give the impression that there is less variety.

Silverwood · Post by **Silverwood** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 1:26 pm

I have no idea where you are coming form with this. I have explored probably over 15 dungeons/ underground caverns by now, and not one looks the same as the other. Are you in the sewers? This might be why, the sewers have a symetrical pattern in the Imperial City. (or to my extent of knowledge)

Morgoth · Post by **Morgoth** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 5:39 pm

Drakin030 wrote: But morrowind compaired to Oblivion so far was different. Each dungeon seemed unique.

Hah! Your kidding me? Just take a look at the CS, there are certain pieces in each architecture set that must have been used hundreds of times. Ancestral tombs for one, are the most repetative dungeons I've encountered in a (Recent) game. Oblivion knocks the socks off of Morrowind.

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 6:00 pm

Morrowind dungeons had a variety because they had a few tilesets. Oblivion dungeons have one tileset. And same stuff is utilized over and over again.

Orix · Post by **Orix** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:13 pm

I dunno... I've noticed Ayelid dungeons, the fort type dungeons, caves (and mines), sewers, but I've not yet been in one that was incredibly similar to any other. Also got to try out Oblivion some time too, that can be considered a dungeon, surely?

The dungeons in Oblivion use a lot of vertical space too, perhaps moreso than morrowind, there are some friggin tall caves with two levels, most sewers have various levels too. Trap as well, dungeons are so much more fun, and you have to keep your wits about you, also good for strategic stealth. I went in one dungeon and the stupid rats kept setting everything off while walking around, pretty funny.

If you want a great dungeon, try Goblin Jim's Cave, northish of Skingrad, it took me about 2-3 hours to get through it, one helluva crawl, but in the end it left with with an incredible amount of blade and block skill (both minors).

In comparison to Morrowind, I'd say that so far, Oblivions dungeons are similar on unique levels, apart form the addition of traps, although so far most seem to be poulated by goblins, probabaly because I'm a low level.

Sload · Post by **Sload** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:45 pm

Mine are full of imps. Maybe that's because I'm even weaker than you.

Orix · Post by **Orix** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:56 am

I dunno, I've encountered hard imps and piss-weak imps, but only in wilderness and outside dungeons. I reason that its all levelled and changes depending on what you are

.

sirwootalot123 · Post by **sirwootalot123** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 3:34 pm

Which reminds me, the leveled item system is taken too far. Sacks stuffed with brooms, shoes, and paint palletes? timberwolves with lockpicks? someone needs to fix this...

Stalker · Post by **Stalker** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 3:57 pm

I'm more concerned about hordes of dead Dwemer in Ayleid ruins actually.

Gez · Post by **Gez** » Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:07 pm

Dungeon styles in Morrowind were more contrasted -- you had one cave set but with several different skins, and then you had dwemer, velothi, and fortress. These three hand-built environments were each very distinctive, in shape and in colors. The sixth house trappings were also used to good effect to make some dungeons different from others using the same tileset.

Oblivion looks much less varied this way. Blue-gray Ayleid ruins, dull-gray fort ruins, greenish-gray sewers... Plus the outer Imperial City stuff is ayleidish too.

Razorwing · Post by **Razorwing** » Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:03 am

I think Oblivion can feel more repetetive than Morrowind because the tile sets are so highly detailed in this game that you recognize them easier. I.e. you notice that the same intricate details are repeated over and over. Whereas the tile sets in Morrowind were so basic that you didn't reflect on them being repeated, it just looked like rooms and hallways. I dunno. But I'll say this, each and every dungeon I've explored beat out anything from standard Morrowind ten times over, and I can tell they put more effort into them.

Talin_Trollbane · Post by **Talin_Trollbane** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 1:46 am

I dunno... I've noticed Ayelid dungeons, the fort type dungeons, caves (and mines), sewers, but I've not yet been in one that was incredibly similar to any other. Also got to try out Oblivion some time too, that can be considered a dungeon, surely?

after like the fourth closed Ob gate they all start to look the same.... i hurried trough the MQ just to get rid of them all, even if i know i'd lose those sigil stones.

gravedigger84 · Post by **gravedigger84** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 9:12 am

Lutemoth wrote:Ahh, the good ole days return to daggerfall

If I can recall *swings back in his rocking chair*, and I do, that all the dungeon crawlings looked like the same two squids screwing. That only made it easy to get lost, and more annoying to find yourself again.. And those were the interesting dungeons!

If you can claim to comprehend 10,000 dungeons looking exactly the same across the Illiac bay without Daggerfall on file, you must be lying.

Dungeons were the problem in Daggerfall. Although it had others too. Yet it still had unique things also making it good. The illusion of huge world without invisible borders or mountain blocked borders. Thats why i always liked it more than Morrowind, but stopped cause of dungeons for time to time.

Indoril · Post by **Indoril** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 3:45 am

Well, within a region, dungeons have to be relatively similar. Dungeons are usually abandoned ruins of some kind. The ones in Cyrodil that I've seen thus far are abandoned forts. In Morrowind, they were Dwemer cities and Daedric shrines. This means that they were all generally built by the same people groups. That said, it would make sense if, for the most part, they looked so similar or even the same.

Lutemoth · Post by **Lutemoth** » Mon Apr 10, 2006 4:07 am

gravedigger84 wrote:Thats why I always liked it more than Morrowind, but stopped cause of dungeons for time to time.

Amen to that. Daggerfall was the first game at that time to have taken my breath away at the absolute immensity of the cities, and the time it took to cross a single town (although today it's laughably dwarfed to skyscraping oblivion in engine size)