I love all the other tilesets, but can't stand the dwemer stuff. It's just too steampunkish, which breaks skyrim's otherwise rather medieval look. I actually avoid going into them whenever possible. Thankfully they're not very numerous.

The Dwemer ruins have nothing to do with current Skyrim as they are thousands of years old. As for the ruins being Steampunk, the Dwemer are Steampunk, they tinker with machines making complicated devices.

I don't understand how you can't enjoy the beauty of skyrim. The graphics are so gorgeous

I avoid them when I can also because I just don't like the feel of them. To me, they're too alien. I don't care for Markarth for the same reason.

given a choice, i'd say the caves are >> dwemer ruins, but they don't bother me that much.

I'm sure you're not alone but I love those ruins. They're so different and mysterious and make me want to know more about the missing people who built them. I feel the same way about the Psijic Monks. I'm really hoping for some DLC that gets into these missing stories/missing pieces of the history more.

Actually...the Dwemer ruins in Skyrim are significantly less steampunkish than the ones in Morrowind, at least IMHO. They use a lot more stonework, whereas the ones in Morrowind were http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/17/16542/Dwemer_Ruin_3.jpg, particularly on the interiors--I remember being surprised that pretty much everything was made of metal in the MW ruins. Even barrels, tables and bedframes. Most of the stonework was on the (still very recognizable and steampunky) http://neon.chem.bg.ac.rs/morrowind/atlas/bthanchend/outside.jpg.

I actually like the look of the Morrowind ones a lot better than I do the Skyrim ones. They blend into the rest of Skyrim's environment too well, as opposed to being completely alien like the Morrowind ones. (Which is very fitting, if you know the lore behind the Dwemer. They basically rejected all the "quaint" Dunmer notions in favor of science and their "gods" of Logic and Reason. Yeah, they're steampunk, but there's a lore reason behind it. They were miles and miles ahead of all the other races in terms of techno-wizardry when they disappeared.)

....That's the point.



Different cultural subset of Dwemer? Even in Cyrodiil, there were major differences in the architectural motifs of each town. And even in Skyrim. Morrowind dwemer preferred DwemerBrass, Skyrim dwemer preferred stonework.

I wouldn't mind them if they weren't so linear.

I always feel "on edge" exploring them. So, I guess it works.

I love what they did with the Dwemer ruins, although the spinning blade traps seemed out of place. I do understand that newer players to the series don't quite get it though. Oblivion and the rest of Skyrim are so stereotypically medieval that if it wasn't for the well-established lore, they'd seem out of place in Skyrim. The uniqueness of Markarth is what instantly made it my favorite city.

Morrowind was just bizarre in every fashion with Dwemer, Telvanni, Redoran, Daedric, and Temple architecture. Even the Hlaalu buildings were less customary than Skyrim's architecture, and you could argue some of the Empire designs (Seyda Neen's Census Office, Caldera Mining) were as well. The alien feel of the Dwemer was just one of many.

No, you're not alone. The style and design is great, but my issue is their enormous size. They're so huge, it's easy to get lost and miss out some area, and coincidentaly it's always the area required to clear in order to proceed in the quest/deeper in the crawl. So when a quest brings me to yet another dwemer ruin, I frown and crawl them for some time, then just exit the game and get back to the dwemer chore the next day.

If anything, Skyrim lacks that alien, elder scrollish feel.

Everyone has opinions, tastes, likes/dislikes... so I'm sure you're not alone. I, personally, like the Dwemer ruins (I have since Morrowind). Especially because they creep me out and Falmers can kill you quite easily if you aren't careful. Aside from finding the occassional Vampire den, these are some of the most challenging dungeons in the game.

Actually what I don't like is that most of the ruins are overrun by the Falmer. I would much more enjoy them if there were more Dwemer constructs inside. Hell, Dwemer ghosts would be nice.

I love Skyrim's Dwemer ruins. In fact, they're probably my favorite dungeon type from the last three games. I like them even better than Morrowind's Dwemer ruins - which was probably my favorite dungeon before Skyrim came out.

And actually, one of the reasons is because of Falmer. The whole story behind these people is extremely interesting to me (and sad). As a dungeon enemy, I feel the Falmer have more 'personaility' than just about any other dungeon enemy in the last three games. I thought Bethesda did a phenomenal job with not only the design of the dungeons but the story behind them.

Thing is the Dwemer ruins were basically the same way in Morrowind. Maybe I am not up on exactly when steampunk became a common word, but I think Morrowind predates that.
Steam-engines are too steampunk, as it were.

I really enjoy them. They are one of the few dungeon areas that actually have various pathways to take instead of being a single corridor. I like that they are so different because it keeps the game interesting. The mechanical devices also require different strategies at times depending on your character of course. My only complaint is that they all devolve into falmer territory at some point. I wish some of them would just stay pure dwemer or maybe have something else in them besides falmer. I like when some of them have bandits in them in the earlier levels.

I don't "hate" them, but the Dwemer ruins are among the more disliked tilesets of mine. Markarth is butt-ugly, and I stay away from it as much as possible. Though I think the thing that grates on me most about Markarth is how everything feels so cluttered, claustrophobic, and random. It really doesn't feel like a place where people should live.

I "love" Dwemer ruins. A chance to stock up on soul gems, gems and Centurion Dynamo Cores for a "nameless" forge.

at first i love them but they get old pretty fast

Love the look of them. The artists did some really fine work on them.
As for them being mostly linear so are just about all of Skyrims dungeons and ruins, its not a fault particular to them.

I completely agree with the OP, all those golden metal structures really start to be a bore on the eyes after a while. Much prefer the wide open spaces of Skyrim.

I love the look of Markarth and the Dwemmer ruins. What I can't stand is the inhabitants (of the ruins). Falmer and the Dwemer mechanical devices just annoy me to no end (always seem to kick my tail regardless of level). Dwemer ruins are the only time I take multiple followers with me (PC - UFO mod), and let them gang tackle the inhabitants while I needle with arrows or spells. Other areas I go solo or just a single follower.

Dwemer ruins and Markarth are inextricably linked for me, the first Dwemer ruin I explored was the one under Markarth and it was early in my first playthrough and Skyrim is the first game of its type that I've played and I was still learning the ropes... let's just say the learning curve in there was very steep. Probably also my first experience with Falmer, who I have come to absolutely hate like no other enemy except perhaps the giant spiders (not so much for difficulty factor, which with Falmer can be an issue, but for overall creepiness). After a very trying first time through I got a quest to find an object that the game places in some random location and guess where it was? Yeah, same Dwemer ruin. So I had to go back in there again and go all the way to the end of the damn ruin to get the new thing I was looking for.

Adding all that to the fact that Markarth itself left a bad taste in my mouth from early on for reasons having nothing to do with the architecture... well, it's a recipe for an immediate and very negative gut reaction to any foray into Dwemer territory. Any time I know I have to go in one, my reaction is just... "ew." Even at very high levels when I know I'm a match for just about any enemy and with a powerful follower watching my back, I still cringe a little just thinking about it.

And I can't even hear the sound of steam hissing without thinking I'm about to be jumped by Falmer, it took me a while to realize it was Dwemer machinery making that noise, I actually thought it was some kind of weird sound the Falmer made like an animal hissing at an enemy to warn it off. Now even though I know it's just the machinery working away it still creeps me out.