The only way it connects with other cities on the water is by the huge waterfalls and rapids near Ivarstead. In other words, the only place ships can travel to from Riften docks is to Ivarstead or the honey farm and back, and even if they did go to Ivarstead the ships would have to dock upstream so they didn't get caught in the rapids by the town. The Honey farm has a perfectly functional road and bridge that leads right to Riften, and if you think about the time and money it would take to build a dock between the two, it's far cheaper and just as fast to take the road.

So...why does Riften even have one of the biggest docks in Skyrim? The boats can't get to or from the docks to anywhere else of note, and the only way they could have gotten ships to Riften in the first place would be to build them there.

(Probably thinking to in depth about this, but it's been bugging me ever since I saw Riften )

Lol yeah, the waterway system doesn't work in any way. But isn't there a fishery in Riften, that's why I believe. The dock si for the fishing.

Yup, a huge dock for a couple of fish in a lake.

This came up a few weeks ago in regards to Oblivion. The consensus we reached was that http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jg7lc-DiyaI/TV8JZlcEGcI/AAAAAAAAAJE/DtYOz7Jd3Qg/s1600/fitzcarraldo-05-g.jpg. Who knows, the descendants of those Argonian Porters who carried the Bloated Float down unnavigable portions of the Niben may be performing the same service for ships in Riften.

There's a dock because the town is on a big lake. People who live on lakes own boats. They tie their boats up to docks.

Isn't Riten's waterway connected to the border? So shouldn't Riften lead to other provinces? (No, I'm not suggesting the player should have that power, but it fits the game's universe)

Didn't Riften used to be a well used port? Plus, there is a fishery there and they need a dock.

This.

Yes, but from what I remember the dock has a couple of warehouses and a big meadery backed up to it. Why would people that use merchant boats for recreation need a big warehouse?

i was just thinking this earlier

This is what happens when you make games solely based off of questions like, "If Apple made a game, what would it look like?"

I'm under the impression the lake was supposed to be a lot bigger, and either tie into a river leading to Cyrodiil or even reaching the area itself. Tullius makes a comment about how the lake is useful to restock Riften during Season Unending. The comment doesn't make sense as the lake is right now.

I think I remember reading a book that said that there was some river that connected Riften and Skyrim to Cyrodil or some such thing, and that's what the docks were there for, aside from the fishing industry.

Absolutely impeccable logic.

World scaling...

The lake in the lore is much, much, much, much, much bigger. Vvardenfell is smaller than Skyrim lorewise, however because of world scaling the world of Morrowind is significantly bigger than the world of Skyrim and that even though Morrowind was scaled down quite a bit compared to Daggerfall.

fridge stupidity has always been with beth and the docks they make, look at the imperial city, the only way they are getting a boat out to the sea is if layawiin (i forgot how to spell it ) gets flooded

Lake + Fish + Dock = Riften Fishery.

That was fixed by the Better Cities mod, it included a canol that connected to the sea on east side of the town. But yes, they seem to forget what they are doing occasionally.

Oh, and in the lake west of Riverwood near the Lady stone is a sunken ship, similar to the ones found at the northern coast. Now how did that get in there? That lake has no docks, nor any towns or villages at it's shores, and the only way that lake is connected to anyhing is via the rapids going past Riverwood and Whiterun

it goes with some of the quest....

This. It is a scaled down version. I don't know if you have seen the MERP skyrim project, but they have made that a tiny replica size of middle earth and it is massive. It is 20+ times the size of Skyrim and is probably like the size skyrim is meant to be. It takes many realtime hours to run across the map.

guess that argonian porter idea might not be so far off after all

Doesn't it say something about the canol that runs through Riften used to be important?

I'm guessing it ran off into Cyrodiil possibly eventually connecting up trade routes to the Nibenay basin which would make Riften a once important trade town. Is my memory correct that a river to the Nibenay flowed out of Cheydinhal?

It must be tectonics and evolution at work. In about 2 or 3 ages, geography of Tamriel will look completely different.

If we take a look at a http://majamaki.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/skyrim-map-bethesda-todd-howard-lg.jpg (in this example, our dear Mr. Howard appears to be saying "No, no, no - not more Skyrim!" ) then there isn't any evidence of rapids/waterfalls etc.. along the river out of Riften and the lake does indeed connect to the northern coast.

Seems like something was overlooked when they came to actually build the world...

(https://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=skyrim%20map&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&authuser=0&ei=iquST569AYH28QOYhLjNDA&biw=1422&bih=898&sei=i6uST9SmDsWu8AO78cXNDA)

Riften has a dock because it's on a lake. It's that simple.

You can ask the same question about the Waterfront in Oblivion's Imperial City.

The game is not mean to be 100% realistic in all aspects. It just fits for a town near a big body of water to have a dock.