Labrynthian isn't even all that long though?
It's THE longest dungeon in the game and without being slowed down by enemies it'd be lucky to be 15mins long.

I wouldnt be opposed to that idea. As it stands right now though I really doubt that will happen. They had recall or something like that back in morrowind and they had problems with plot skips and jazz because of it. Maybe if you restricted the spell to be only useable in the last room of a dungeon or something. But I never see bethesda putting in that kind of time. After all, go look at the list of confirmed bugs on the 360 forum alone? It's almost three pages long printed out. Sadness.

This is one reason I'm glad Bethesda is designing the game and not the critics.

Guild guide magic circa Morrowind.

Heck, Mark and recall and divine/almsivi intervention magic circa Morrowind, or even cart/shipping transport system circa Daggerfall.

I love them. Skyrim is a game afterall and is supposed to be fun rather than tedious. The smaller caves/dungeons make you go back the way you came which isn't much of a hassle but the larger dungeons? ... [censored] that.

They are a welcome addition and if they weren't included I bet that there would be a lot more noise from these forums.

A great excuse to use the "Become Ethereal" shout and jump off!

Why?

People managed to live without it for a long long time.

It does seem a little too convenient at times, but I don't have a big issue with it. I just wish the dungeons weren't so linear and easy to navigate leading upto the exit.

Also as far as realism vs player convenience goes, I consider lighting to be a far bigger issue. They light up dungeons far too much. Thankfully there are mods to fix it.

pretty much agree with you

Its not just easy, you literally can't miss the exit in some caves as you have no choice in direction.

especially since alot of them are between one and five rooms......

Connecting alone is not bad thing but it part of almost every dungeon there is with the few exclusive ones of the very small ones or dwemer ruins which have exceptions in a lot more areas as well.

Do I what to back track? not in everyone some would be nice but since each dungeon was "hand crafted" supposedly I would expect have more variety. Such as the storage area under solitude at the end of it it lead to a cave that if entered prior too it would just be full of mobs with nothing else. Or Dwemer ruins that have various separate exits/entrance and the few by riverwood that is just a path through a mountain is fine.

Skyrim Dungeons in general are highly predictable and very linear you have maybe two ways that you can go for giggles but they are dead ends not exists. I expected more really when they stated "Each and everyone dungeon is handcrafted" I expected for each to be quite original then it just turns out that they are pretty much lines that go in a circle making the majority compare Oblivion's dungeons which were by one guy with 3? presets.

yeah....i still don't think anything could be as bad as oblivions dungeons....yes, skyrims dungeons are way easy....but oblivion was literally the same three dungeons over...and over....and over....and over again.

I'm not that picky as to deny the utility of this design, in absence of mark/recall. I for one would prefer much less (maybe half of Skyrim's number) bigger dungeons with less corridor design, I don't mind at all being lost sometimes in a huge underground maze, that's part of the sense of exploration I think, but I much prefer mark/recall to any convenient backdoor or clairvoyance feature.

Much like the "Compass", it's there to be used if you want it and may be ignored if you don't.

Az

I think one of the problems is that Skyrims dungeons are linear, you hack your way to the end and then that's it.

In Morrowind and Oblivion you could choose which corridor or wing you wanted to explore first, and then explore another one on your way back out.

It's simply immersion-breaking after a while. In Oblivion, if I remember correct, some of the dungeons had connection chambers back to the start, some didn't. This was perfectly fine because generally the longer dungeons had the connection chambers, whereas the shorter ones did not, so they weren't overly common.

Here? Here you get the sense that the basic rule of Nord architecture is that there needs to be a connection chamber, or that bears will ONLY hibernate in caves that have a circular form. After a while it's just kinda like "really? I can walk back yknow, this cave is small enough..."
The Dwemer ruins for example. Their "connection chamber" is generally an elevator. This is believable without breaking immersion. That cave inhabited by bears? Am I to believe these bears ordered 20 tons of TNT off of Amazon.com and then built the connection chamber themselves or what?

^ this.

Hi there coolcatkyo! Good to see you.

The way I see it the problem lies with the fact it's pretty much a staple. By the time you get to your fourth dungeon you just know there is going to be a short way back to the begining. Such predicability, coupled with the re-hashing of many building blocks, entire chambers even, claw mechanisms, and what not, lends a pervasive Deja Vu aftertaste to the whole dungeon experience. That's my take.

Well said, Press Z to debunk. It's not the design itself that bothers me, it's getting familiar with it that leaves no room for surprises. Yes, many are ecstatic about the dungeons of Skyrim because they present puzzles and more tileset variation, but in my opinion that's just part of a dungeon's role. There is another part of being challenged with multiple paths of which some are deadly traps and not all lead to where you want to go, discover alternative routes, being lost and forced to think your way out (it's such a shame that the wonderful physics are not exploited in this game to solve puzzles like they are in the good old Half Life 2!). I wish there were some surprises in my way out, to put my mind to work, but it's usually just a lever or a chain.

I should think some dungeons would make you backtrack all the way out. However, in those cases, there should be a random wandering monster or npc spawn somewhere on the way out or even outside so its not just a dull uneventful walk back to the surface.

I don't even understand the question?

This is probably the best candidate for the "dumbing down" argument. As much as I hate the term. The dungeon traps and puzzles are, well dumb.

LOL

That would be very cool to be sometimes ambushed by treasure hunters who let you do the hard work and wait at the entrance to collect