It's more than snow. But it still sounds pretty boring. Hopefully Bethesda will contradict their lore to make the game more interesting.

I'm sick of snow. Oh snap...you are talking about Skyrim.

I would hope they would have valleys all lush with forest and flowers that bloom and high places with snow that stays all year round. Sort of like my home.

Indeed, simply being further North doesn't necessarily result in more snow or colder temperatures. I live in Scotland and whilst we're at the same latitude as Newfoundland and Moscow, it's warmer here in winter than it is in New York or many places in southern Europe. Things like sea currents (e.g. the gulf stream bringing warm water from the Caribbean) can make a big difference to temperatures.

Getting a bit off topic, but bottom line is it would be quite permissible to have areas in the North have less snow than some areas further South.

Bruma was a mountainous terrain. Up in the mountains it is colder and snowier. That means that we cant be sure of anything yet.

im going to agree with the last statemen. if you look at a map of all of tamriel, skyrim is about half the size i would say of cyrodil...why would they shrink the map size? why not add another map area along with skryim...

How did you get sick of the snow? Half of it was forest...

Like others said:

A) gamesas has never made an Elder Scrolls game where the entire landscape is homogenous (FO 3 was pretty homogenous, but that wasn't an ES game). They are not going to start now. I can say with 100 percent certainty that the entire outdoor environment in the game will not all be snowy tundra.

B) As others have said, lattitude is not the only factor in determining weather. Proximity to large bodies of water, can have a huge effect on weather. Northern Europe and England, should, by just looking at lattitude, be *much* colder than they are, but the Gulf Stream keeps most of Europe pretty moderate.

C) As others have said, the northern part of Cyrodill is mountains. Inland mountains to boot. Inland mountains are pretty much universally cold and snowy in their upper reaches - I went hiking in NEW MEXICO in June (IIRC) back in the 90s, and some of the tallest mountains had a tiny bit of snow on top of them. Denver, Colorado gets much worse winters, I believe, than Seattle Washington, even though Seattle is substantially farther North - because Seattle is a lowland-coastal city, while Denver is an inland mountain city.

D) There can be volcanic landscapes in very far northern areas. We saw volcanic landscapes in MW. We did not in Cyrodiil. I don't know if they *will*, but the devs certainly could have some volcanic regions in Skyrim.

E) Magic: There could be areas where powerful wizards (or simply 'naturally' occuring magical phenomena) have created magically-induced temperate regions

F) Stuff none of us have thought of but the devs have, that give them a premise to create other types of landscape.

If the transition from previous titles is any indication, the maps are not to scale with each other. Skyrim's landmass could be half the size or twice the size of Oblivion's. But there's also the possibility of the map spilling over into neighboring regions. We'll just have to wait and see.

Maybe there will be a weather system that implements seasons, so in winter its snow everywhere and in summer it melts! Maybe even with freezing lakes and so on

Very unlikely to happen, but would be a great idea for future games :happy:

They aren't going to make Skyrim half the size of Cyrodiil. None of the games are to scale with each other. Skyrim may be quite larger than Cyrodiil, for all we know.

EDIT: Ninja'd



I don't see why that's unlikely. Maybe not freezing and meltiing lakes, but changing seasons shouldn't be that hard to implement.

The reason it is so snowly in northern Cyrodil is the mountains.

Once you get back down to level ground, there will be less snow. Imagine, some super icy parts. And then your Canada. And then your Michigan. Cold, but not barren.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1148422-the-landscape-of-skyrim/page__view__findpost__p__16789446


To answer another comment I see way to often, discard any and all beliefs that the map size of previous games should affect the next. Morrowind and Oblivion had terrible scale, terrible. Vvardenfell is probably bigger than the area of Tamriel that Daggerfall occupied, but that didn't stop Morrowind's map size from being a tiny, insignificant blip compared to Daggerfall. The next game could occupy only a quarter of Skyrim and if you wanted to accurately represent it you'd still have a game world hundreds of times bigger than Oblivion's. I don't want them to shrink the map size, and I want even less for them to include more than one province. I'm tired of this awful scale that lets me frolic from one side of a country to another in 20 minutes.

This is what many seem to not get in their heads. Northern Cyrodiil was cold and snowy because it was close up to the mountains, that does not mean Skyrim will consist of only mountains and snow. If the terrain is low enough, you'll probably have green grass and forest.

Let's face it, Skyrim could be the equivalent of the North Pole and as high as Mount Everest and they still wouldn't make it all snow. Having an attractive game is more important than a minor breach of geographic consistency.

I personally dont see myself getting sick of the snow. I loved the Bruma area and style and would love the entire province of Skyrim to be similar.

You are getting caught up on Earth climate patterns. This is Nirn. There is no equator of Tropic lines, or poles for that matter. It doesn't follow the same pattern as Earth.

It's cold in Bruma because of high elevations. Where there are mountains, there are valleys and in those valleys where it is low, will be the grass plains, rich forests and stunning rivers winding through them.

It's pretty boring to be honest

I'd prefer a varied environment and not just one

I really wouldn't worry about it. There will be snow, and probably a lot of it. Especially in the mountains.

However, Beth is going to put more varied environments in there. Even if it doesn't match existing lore, they know better than to make it all snow.

Northern Cyrodiil's borders are covered in snow because they are the highly elevated Jerall Mountains. Of course they're going to be covered in snow and ice. It's freezing at those altitudes. As you go further north, and descend from the mountains, the temperature warms again. Though I expect northern Skyrim and all the mountaintops throughout the province may well be almost entirely snow, the southern reaches and the valleys will be verdant and green - if not a little too fresh for the average Imperial's tastes

Think of Scotland: The Cairngorm Mountains are fairly central in the Scottish highlands, and covered in snow 365 days of the year at the highest, wildest altitudes. Further north though, as the mountains subside, the snow gives way to grass and forest again, with fresh flowing streams escaping from the harsher mountainous climates. If you get bored of the snow in Skyrim, just climb down from the mountains and explore the valleys for a while

Have you ever been to the mountains? It's not all snow and frozen tundra like you may think. I once hiked Mt. Rose on the California/Nevada border with my family once. It's your typical mountain in the Rockies - very high altitude, very beautiful. But not all of it was snow and tundra even in the fall. There were a few valleys and flowers and tree lines, running rivers and such like that. We didn't hit the universal cold until the tips of the mountains.

So Bethesda has options. The shores of Skyrim are bound to be bountiful in warmer climates, as well as some of the regions leading into the other provinces. Not to mention valleys inside of the mountains. And then they'll be forests and everything else.

So sick of the snow? God no. So many opportunities for variety. And snow's always beautiful in my eyes. I just hope that it means we'll see a lot more clothing/armor that's befitting of the environment. Furs and capes and cloaks and hoods and all that. I'm really hoping that Bethesda will learn from the modders of Oblivion and add some really great variety to the outfits.

I live in Scotland too and the guy's right; the seasons fluctuate wildly, and so assuming 1. Mundus follows the same climate rules as Earth does and 2. there will even be changing seasons, then Skyrim won't be just plain snow 'n' mountains.

Now, being realistic: there is not a strong chance of dynamic seasonal weather; however, it would be a poor design choice to make the whole world space a mountainous Solstheim. I can't imagine the great folks at Beth doing that. I'm expecting some taiga with lovely boreal pine forests, as well as some deep spring valleys, perhaps. There's potential for micro-climates, even in a small area like that. And, of course, the dragons could cause some kind of environmental shift of the province...

As if I'm not already excited enough.

Ambitions for 2011? Trekking through Skyrim snow in a great fur cloak and Nordic armour. Oh, yes.

Edit: sorry for the double post there! Jumpy mouse!

Psychonaut, there's an option called the "edit button." You should learn how to use it so that you can avoid double and triple posting. That can get you into serious troubles on forums.

If they do it right then not for a looong time (if there is only snow).