For those who cannot tell, the political climate in skyrim is meant to place you in an Elder Scrolls version of the Fall of the Roman Empire, which is also referenced quite heavily by their attire, now I'm a big picture kinda guy, so naturally I like details like that. BUT Oblivion was very clearly Cyrodil during its most romantic, most would say even Renaissance-esque. Now in our world the Roman empire existed in 476 and the renaissance one thousand years after that, now add in the fact that we are missing the crossbows we had in morrowind and you've got a game franchise with a Benjamin Button effect, every game says its happening later, but keeps regressing in technology. I personally see no lore or otherwise reason this game wasn't set during the original fight with the dragons.

Why do we keep claiming to go forward when stepping back?

(The game is great, but by now non-mages would want the power of a mage without magic e.g. guns, so they could effectively take them on. Now I'm not saying I want Call of Skyrim: Dragon Warfare, but a musket or blunderbuss that takes 2 minutes to reload while dealing massive damage seems feasable)

You are comparing technological progress of earth to Nirn, which makes no sense. Earth never had magic. Magic not only changes the way people see the world it changes the very laws of the world and everything in it. For thousands of years technological levels have remained basically the same, in fact since the Dwemer went poof the level even went down. That is just the way it works here, and the Dwemer with all their technological wonder used magic for a great deal of it.

Explain no more crossbows then, that wasn't magic that was technological progress that inexpilcably went poof, or explain using armor that is less protective than the armor used two hundred years ago. Not everyone in TES uses magic, the nords are extremely opposed to it.

Umm..

Technological and societal development never progresses in a straight upward line as time progresses. It's the natural flow that there will be regression somewhere down the line. Our real-world history shows that, Elder Scrolls history shows that. And mirroring real-world events and progression to Elder Scrolls events and progression makes little sense. They aren't parallel.

No crossbows is because like Ma'iq implied in Oblivion, having multiple ammo types for one specific weapon was seen as unnecessary.

Also worth remembering that The Dwemer represent a hard learned lesson in Tamriel. That technology is not always a good thing. Rely on it too much, exchange your Gods for your own ability, and you might just wipe out your entire race in a heartbeat.

I'd imagine that would put off a fair few people trying to invent new machines and weaponry.

You miss my point, TES is in a line as time prgresses. A downward-line.

The earliest I've played in TES was morrowind, which had the most advanced technology and cities, then Oblivion, which lost a good deal of the technological advancement made in morrowind, then skyrim, which lost all the advanced armor styles from oblivion. Its not like there was a black death to halt growth after oblivion. There was the thalmor attack which led to war. and in every single example from our world (which admittedly doesn't have magic) war has always led to massive technological advancements. But there are none of these things in skyrim

Nordski has a fair point there though.

History doesn't always work like that, though. Technology doesn't always advance in a straight line.

I mean here in Britain, under Roman Occupation, there was civilised society, heated baths, central heating, sewerage systems.

When the occupation was driven out did the people of post-Roman Britain embrace such things? Did they take that technology and use it? Improve upon it?

Well, no. They burnt it all to the ground to remove the stain of the Romans off their land. It was hundreds of years before those pronciple and technological advancements came to be used again.

Once again missing my point, there is literally no technological development from one to the next, anywhere. Its always going backwards. Never forwards.

Not really. You are generalising a little. Crossbows aren't everything. And technology does not progress in one straight line. You're not playing Civilization here...

Crossbows have been taken out for gameplay reasons, it's not that they don't exist anymore it's just that you can't see them in game. The same goes for many spells, spears, throwing weapons and the differences in armor, but if you want to use gameplay then they discovered weapons and armor that won't weaken no matter how much you hit with it.

Other technology that would create machines or things like electricity are frowned upon, Because necessity spurs innovation and what's the necessity of most of earths technology when you can use magic? And equally important, who would invest in Technology after seeing what happened to the Dwemer? People are probably not really interested in that knowing what they know about the Dwemer.

We've lost the advanced magics, we've lost the advanced armors, we've lost the advanced architecture and we've lost the advanced weapons. NOTHING has moved forward. only back. I get that in reality it doesn't move in one direction, but in TES it does. Backwards. That is my point. Not to mention when the TES designers parrallel history in the wrong order (Which they mention in several places that Oblivion was the renaissance and this is the roman empire, one instance being the making of DVDs) Tell me one thing that has advanced in skyrim, just one. And no the biggest feature cut from Morrowind to Oblivion was not crossbows, it was the very expansive and real feeling cities.

Read the post above yours, and you will find one example.

I did, and all you did was mention an element of their new gameplay mechanics.

And everything you mentioned is gameplay mechanics as well. Technology has not really progressed but it hasn't gone down-hill either.

The armor used during the roman empire in our world was vastly inferior to the armor of knights during the middle ages, we used the knight styles of armor in Oblivion and morrowind, now we are using (for the most part) Roman and Viking armor.

That is pretty clearly downhill

Rome fell to Barbarians. The Empire is threatened by the Thalmor who are the High Elves. Not really a parallel here.

Because Rome fell to Barbarians then much of their knowledge was lost. Architects looked at domed structures at the beginning of the Rennaissance and thought "How on earth did they do that"?

This was because the specialist knowledge was lost.

What this thread is actually about is that you miss the multiples pieces of armour and crossbows you had in "Morrowind" and you're trying to paint the developers as being "stupid" for not including them.

Sorry you miss these features.

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

And once again technology, society, architecture... all these things do not advance in a straight line.

To go back to the previous example.

Roman Britain:

Civilised centrally governed society.
Brick built buildings.
Central heating and sewerage
Ornate shields and Sword smithing


Post Roman Britain:

No centralised government
Buildings made of crude wood and clay mixes
No heating, or sewerage systems beyond ligting fires and [censored]ting in a bucket. :0
Far les complex shields amd wqeapon forging


Because the natives wanted to be free of being ruled by invaders.

To believe that everyhing is going backwards because a few items aren't available anymore, or practices approved of, is a sweeping generalisation.

Skyrim is a backwater compared to Cyrodil or Morrowind, and not a 21century backwater either where you can find iPhones in inner Mongolia but an year 1600 backwater.
Its not all bad, the sawmills are pretty much a year 1700 sawmill but the millstones are pretty old fashioned.
Some is practical, wooden houses are cheaper to build and warmer than stone houses, then you don't have to build so thigh they are better.
Some are cultural, Nords don't like magic, mostly as it has been used against them in many wars.

@Zaria, I had admittedly not taken those into account... And so far are the best counter-examples here. maybe I should just not worry about it and enjoy the game. But my biggest question remains, since the technology has not advanced since then, why didn't they just set Skyrim during the original battle against Alduin? Is it just so they could play with the empire which wasn't around at that time? I feel like the story would have been more complete if you were playing through a legend that is already a part of the lore.

And if I recall correctly the Dwemer were still around then (could be wrong). I wish the dwemer played a more active role in the elder scrolls universe.

Actually I must agree with somethings and, then, disagree with some others.

Think about game design. Lore creation and stuff.

Elder Scrolls evolving from a mid-era world to a "nowdays" magicka world is something weird. Weird.

The armor still has the same value, it's a matter of design choices. The Skyrim armor looks a lot like the one in Morrowind, it was just the one in Cyrodiil that was different. This was explained by the devs back then as a design choice. You are using gameplay examples to try and show a decline, when there simply is none.

No religious supression and tech downgrade with Humans..... At least that must sound odd if you think it through.

Steel plate armor is pretty much knight armor, same goes for ebony. Elven and orcish armor is plate and scale armor, all of them are pretty advanced.
yes the lower end armor are cruder however iron armor was pretty crude in Oblivion to.

Not so odd with an Empire still in place though. Should it fall though...