I still can't get over the change between the caves in Oblivion and the ones in Skyrim. The difference is night and day. I remember watching the bonus disk of oblivion and saying how making the caves was like lego, and how they just stick them together, but after going to a certain cave with a certain tree i can see that they no longer do that.

What are some of your favorite caves in Skyrim? mine is deffinatly the eldergreen grove.

You are not supposed to get over them, you're supposed to go in them

And that's how Skyrim's dungeons are constructed too, they are just hiding it better and using more unique features.

The Lost Knife Hideout's main hall is pretty nice.

Caves are not to hide in anymore, they are for you to explore.

There are some amazing dungeons in Skyrim and you don;t want to miss even one of them.

I like them in this game, while I hated it to even be obligated entering them due to a quest in Oblivion. I especially love the ones with natural scenery.

Some of the most incredable ones are little outta the way ones some people never see because the have no connection to major quests if any at all.

Yes the uniqueness of the dungeons, caves, building interiors is one of my favorite parts of this game. It doesn't bother me that resources were reused. There's no real way around that. But they did such a great job making all of them look unique. Some of them are quite amazing. Not sure what my favorite is. There are lots of interesting locations in the game.

It's so great that they had a larger staff for the Skyrim design. I'll always love Oblivion even though there was more repetition. It's just the way it was then. Now we have more of everything and it's gorgeous. Imagine what it could be in another 5 years as tech moves forward.

I agree.
Walking into a cave that has an open roof through which you can see the sky, trees growing in them, I love those caves.

What I also really enjoy are the dungeons within dungeons, I once found a ruined tower inside a cave, or dungeons that give access to otherwise unreachable outside areas.

Jump higher!

Btw. My favorite cave is Eldergleam Sanctuary, too. I prefer my caves without necromancers, zombies and skeevers. I like a place where I can lay on a flowerbed and stare at a tree.

They're caves, silly. They're underground. Not many trees or flowers there

I like Haemar's Shame. It's not really unique or anything, but it's frozen all over and I love me some ice. Not to mention that giant statue - I feel bad for Clavicus, he's entirely forgotten. I doubt anyone ever visits him, it's like the worst place ever to build a shrine.

I like ones like Eldergleam sanctuary and bloated mans grotto, they make nice additions to caves, partly due to the flora that they contain. Also Blackreach will always be one of my favourite as well , it just looks amazing

I don't. The guy's a jerk.

OT: Yes, the dungeons in Skyrim are much, much more interesting than they were in Oblivion. But that's just a natural consequence of having a an eight person team working on them this time rather than just one guy.

What is really cool is every cave or dungeon has a story, if you know where to look. Some even lead to quests or other activities.

Yes, when I stumble across a new cave/dungeon in Skyrim, I'm totally psyched. A lot of care and effort went into creating a unique look and story for just about each one.

IMO most of the caves with stories are equal. Then again most of them do have stories so there are a lot of good ones. I can't really pick a favorite.

Darkwater pass was incredible. Very atmospheric.

The one with the shipwrecked boat insde is pretty legend....wait for it...dary!

Indeed, Beth did a nice job in the caves, forts, dungeons in SKyrim. I NEVER went inside the caves in Oblivion unless it was from a mod. They were all boring..Im talking about the vanilla caves.

They still build the dungeons (including the caves) from 'lego' pieces. They had around 8 developers working on Skyrim's dungeons, while they had only 1 working on Oblivion's dungeons. With that extra developer-power, they were able to make much better dungeons (probably because they were able to make more pieces and more template types).

I think the is a very wide diversity of dungeons in oblivion. It seems to me that say they are all the same is just demonstrably wrong. Some are huge and cavernous, some have tiny winding tunnels, some are linear, some are mazes, some required very odd traversal patterns (like needed to go from zone 1 to 2 back to zone 1 and then 3) vs the linear Skyrim dungeons, lakes and waterfalls and forests in Oblivion dungeons, odd things like ships or classrooms in dungeons, caves in Forts, Forts in caves, Aylied Ruins in caves, Caves in Aylied ruins, lots of backstories, some unique items, etc, etc, etc.

So the premise that Oblivion caves are boring and all the same just doesn't factually hold up.

It appears the origin of this persistent myth appears in the above quote. If you are a person that "I NEVER went inside the caves...They were all boring" then of course you won't see the diversity - it just follows. If you believe they are all the same and then don't look, well I guess you'll always believe that.

Skyrim dungeon layouts seem smaller and more linear by comparison, but there generally tend to be more extensive backstories.

OP, that was one of the first quests I did in this game and I still remember that cave as being my favorite. Actually that cave changed my playthrough. I was thinking of being a "bad" character, but once I saw that tree my character's heart warmed and I saw the light, so to speak. Ever since then I have been a hero of the people and acting more of the Robin Hood type. That eldergreen cave was definitely awe inspiring.

this is why im confident in beth thats like the biggest thing i remember being disappointing in oblivion and they just went nuts making it awesome i love the caves they are amazing

I didn't say they were the same.

They lack a lot of reason to venture in them. Even my primary interest to kill endlessly in TES doesn't lead me to fight in them..

There was one like that I actually found yesterday, Darkwater Pass. I had never checked it out before, but then the Radiant Quest system sent me there for one of Arniel's quests. Freaking beatuiful, underground river, fantasic design, just gorgeous.

This is why I didn't like Oblivion dungeons. Too many of them have no story behind them, I go in them and..it's like ok? Vilverin always sticks in my mind. That little story in there was interesting.

In Skyrim, MANY have little stories and I get all in to them.