Will familiar places and areas from games like Oblivion and Skyrim still be around. If so, is Zenimax just going to take the original map scheme and paste it onto the game? Opinons?

Firstly...Welcome to the forums.

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There is an ongoing discussion here that may address your topic suggestion.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1371317-how-will-the-cities-look-compared-to-their-single-player-counterparts/

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Yes they'll be around and (mostly) recognizable. They're not copy and paste.

Welcome to the forums man!

Just a note: there is already a similar thread on this subject. --> http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1371317-how-will-the-cities-look-compared-to-their-single-player-counterparts/page__pid__22164149__st__30#entry22164149

I fear this one will get locked.

You're not asking about opinions, you're asking about facts. We're not Zenimax, we don't know what they're going to do.

But yes, we will see familiar locations. Major cities should be in place, a little different of course - we're a millenium into the past, after all - but similar enough so we can easily recognize them and think "Aha! I've been here before." I doubt they're going to copy&paste anything though. At the very least the scale will probably be different.

I'm hoping to see some of the destroyed forts etc. before they became ruins. Maybe as one of many fortresses we'll capture in Cyrodiil? It will certainly be interesting.

Plenty of places will still be there. "New" places will be added, "old" places will be gone.

Much of Vvardenfell, if they keep true to lore, will be uninhabited for instance. Vivec city, and a few towns here and there will be present. Not sure if Balmora or Ald-Ruhn will be there, however. But certanly not Ebonheart, Caldera, and Pelagiad.

Vvardenfell was opened up in 3E414 for settlements; previously it was a Temple preserve. Most of the towns we are familiar with would be built AFTER Vvardenfell was opened up.