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The Wikipedia page for Elder Scrolls II [0] indicates that the game world was absolutely massive: > the actual size of the map is 161,600 km² (62,394 mi²). The

The Wikipedia page for Elder Scrolls II [0] indicates that the game world was absolutely massive: > the actual size of the map is 161,600 km² (62,394 mi²). The game world features over 15,000 towns, cities, villages, and dungeons for the player's character to explore. Was that scale part of the magic and fun back then? How varied were the various quests? Did it get repetitive, or was it fun to explore? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_II:_Daggerfall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elder_Scrolls_II:_Daggerfa...

Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago
Your questions are answered in my answer to a sibling comment below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735512 Except maybe the question regarding quests. They were very varied, because there were plenty of factions giving quests, and plenty of text scripts (that were parameterized with locations, items and NPCs), from a quick search apparently 227 in total. So sometimes you would do similar quests (especially if you liked to always work for a single faction) but the variety was great actually.
int_19h 8y ago
Of course, it was procedurally generated. Later, Arcanum would try to do something similar, at least with a global map. It had premade towns and cities (and nowhere near as many of them, of course); but the landscape between them was done to proper scale, and it was all generated. So, when you reached the outskirts of a town, you could fast travel, or you could just keep walking - and the distance (and time!) you'd have to spend to walk to the next town like that would accurately reflect the size of the game map. And even during fast travel, if you had an encounter (e.g. wild animals, robbers) that dropped you into the detailed map, you'd end up in the correct spot on the generated part of it. Coincidentally, that made it possible to skip large parts of the game simply by heading to locations in advance that you're not supposed to find out about until some NPC tells you. And the game was actually designed to gracefully handle that, despite having a fairly convoluted main storyline.
- djur 8y ago
  Daggerfall, on the other hand, was not at all gracefully designed to handle that. It was way, way too easy to accidentally derail the main plot.

Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago

Your questions are answered in my answer to a sibling comment below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18735512 Except maybe the question regarding quests. They were very varied, because there were plenty of factions giving quests, and plenty of text scripts (that were parameterized with locations, items and NPCs), from a quick search apparently 227 in total. So sometimes you would do similar quests (especially if you liked to always work for a single faction) but the variety was great actually.

int_19h 8y ago

Of course, it was procedurally generated. Later, Arcanum would try to do something similar, at least with a global map. It had premade towns and cities (and nowhere near as many of them, of course); but the landscape between them was done to proper scale, and it was all generated. So, when you reached the outskirts of a town, you could fast travel, or you could just keep walking - and the distance (and time!) you'd have to spend to walk to the next town like that would accurately reflect the size of the game map. And even during fast travel, if you had an encounter (e.g. wild animals, robbers) that dropped you into the detailed map, you'd end up in the correct spot on the generated part of it. Coincidentally, that made it possible to skip large parts of the game simply by heading to locations in advance that you're not supposed to find out about until some NPC tells you. And the game was actually designed to gracefully handle that, despite having a fairly convoluted main storyline.

djur 8y ago
Daggerfall, on the other hand, was not at all gracefully designed to handle that. It was way, way too easy to accidentally derail the main plot.