How would you feel about a floating island zone?

Erickson9610 · November 12

In other words, a new zone that takes place on a floating island — whether or not it's on Nirn. There exists one floating island in the lore called Umbriel, but it wasn't seen in Tamriel until after the Oblivion Crisis. If we can't visit that one, maybe we could find a different floating island with new lore?

Here's a few ideas that could make this feature stand out:

The floating island zone could periodically move around the map of Tamriel. While it would be cool to look up and see the island from the zone it's currently floating over, it would at least be interesting to see something happen on the map of Tamriel. There ought to be a toggle of some kind (like scrolling in) to hide the floating island from view if you wanted to travel to a wayshrine on the ground. Maybe the weather changes on the island depending on which zone it's floating over?
There could be a cave system on the island that adds more verticality to the overland of the zone. For instance, you could enter a cave that would lead you to an opening at the bottom of the island that you could look out at the horizon from. This would most likely be accomplished via a delve or other instanced zone.
If such a zone is the subject of an expansion, maybe the major feature could have something to do with levitation magic or flying mounts.

Overall, I think the biggest appeal of a floating island zone would be the scenery. There's really nothing like it in ESO yet. Maybe some clever gameplay can be designed around it, too.

I know this idea is a stretch, but please leave feedback explaining whether you'd like to see something like this and whether this would fit in ESO!

Soarora · November 12

Conceptually it's cool but I think it'd HAVE to be Falinesti. Otherwise, Umbriel's uniqueness as a floating island would get diminished. Falinesti would also add some dynamics to the game since it'd presumably move between sites based on the IRL Northern Hemisphere's seasons and be a clear progression of time in the game (since it's currently missing).

SummersetCitizen · November 12

No more islands. We have a half blank map to be completed as it is.

Gabriel_H · November 12

SummersetCitizen wrote: »

No more islands. We have a half blank map to be completed as it is.

And still only on one of several continents.

Nemesis7884 · November 12

Since there are no free flying mechanics and you teleport to it anyway i dont see benefits to a normal island

LunaFlora · November 12

would be awesome.
instead of boats we could use tamed gryphons to fly(teleport) elsewhere, like the Welkynar's gryphons.
would also be a good opportunity to add Dwemer airships to ESO

^ from Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, which is a few centuries after ESO. Obviously airships would have to exist somewhere in eso in-universe in some unknown dwemer ruins.

edited to add another picture, both pictures are from uesp
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Dirigible

Erickson9610 · November 12

LunaFlora wrote: »

would be awesome.
instead of boats we could use tamed gryphons to fly(teleport) elsewhere, like the Welkynar's gryphons.
would also be a good opportunity to add Dwemer airships to ESO

^ from Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard, which is a few centuries after ESO. Obviously airships would have to exist somewhere in eso in-universe in some unknown dwemer ruins.

edited to add another picture, both pictures are from uesp
https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Dirigible

I wasn't even aware of these airships! I'd definitely want to see those in ESO. Those look really cool!

frogthroat · November 12

Soarora wrote: »

Conceptually it's cool but I think it'd HAVE to be Falinesti. Otherwise, Umbriel's uniqueness as a floating island would get diminished. Falinesti would also add some dynamics to the game since it'd presumably move between sites based on the IRL Northern Hemisphere's seasons and be a clear progression of time in the game (since it's currently missing).

I'm not sure how Falinesti (or Elden Root) would float in the air. I mean, sure, as a complex system of bridges and lots of treehouses it could work, but treehouses are not really floating islands.

Umbriel, on the other hand, could be used. Why not? The attack on Blackwood won't happen for another 900 years or so, so perhaps the Vestige could lead an invasion of Umbriel. That could even add to the lore as one of the reasons why Umbriel attacked Tamriel. Payback.

Functionally both would be (near) identical. Both Falinesti and Umbriel would have a nice view and falling would mean death. So the difference would be artistic. Umbriel would be more Coldharbour style and Falinesti would have Valenvood Wood Elf aesthetics.

I think I would prefer treehouses instead of Coldharbour style. But the floating island is not a bad idea, like the Dwemer airship mentioned above. Could be some Dwemer city, similar to Bioshock 3's Columbia -- and use of grapple to traverse could be utilised. That would be cool.

FatnissEverdeen1 · November 12

It's not a zone per se, but The Underweave public dungeon is a floating island, and Coldharbour is a bit of a floating archipelago too if you think about it.

Danikat · November 12

I agree it could be really interesting, I've seen floating islands done well in other games, but I'm not sure it would work for ESO. Any time you're inside in this game you're actually underground in a seperate section or in a entirely separate map. If all you want from a flying island is a cool but static view out a few gaps in a cavern that could be done, but anything that actually plays with the physics and the location seems to be impossible in this engine.

Likewise there are no genuinely flying creatures. They look like they're flying just above the ground, but they'll go around even small ledges as if they're walking (because functionally they are) instead of going up/down them.

Soarora · November 12

frogthroat wrote: »

Soarora wrote: »

Conceptually it's cool but I think it'd HAVE to be Falinesti. Otherwise, Umbriel's uniqueness as a floating island would get diminished. Falinesti would also add some dynamics to the game since it'd presumably move between sites based on the IRL Northern Hemisphere's seasons and be a clear progression of time in the game (since it's currently missing).

I'm not sure how Falinesti (or Elden Root) would float in the air. I mean, sure, as a complex system of bridges and lots of treehouses it could work, but treehouses are not really floating islands.

Umbriel, on the other hand, could be used. Why not? The attack on Blackwood won't happen for another 900 years or so, so perhaps the Vestige could lead an invasion of Umbriel. That could even add to the lore as one of the reasons why Umbriel attacked Tamriel. Payback.

Functionally both would be (near) identical. Both Falinesti and Umbriel would have a nice view and falling would mean death. So the difference would be artistic. Umbriel would be more Coldharbour style and Falinesti would have Valenvood Wood Elf aesthetics.

I think I would prefer treehouses instead of Coldharbour style. But the floating island is not a bad idea, like the Dwemer airship mentioned above. Could be some Dwemer city, similar to Bioshock 3's Columbia -- and use of grapple to traverse could be utilised. That would be cool.

I mean, Falinesti isn’t a floating island but it is known to walk around. So, it’d be grounded but the actual area we’d be on would be in the air since the city proper is in the canopy of the tree. I mentioned it in part because it’s not a floating island. I think if we had a proper floating island on Nirn it’d have to be Umbriel or else Umbriel loses what makes it special. That said, I think having Umbriel would also take away from the books about it but I also know most people haven’t read the books. Umbriel is not at all Coldharbour-esque, it’s a piece of Clavicus Vile’s realm that Umbra cleaved off. It’s pretty up there but also… weird. It’s a weird place.

Carcamongus · November 12

I love floating stuff, so I'd be game for a floating island, especially if it didn't have anything to do with Coldharbour. I mean, I appreciate Molag Bal's aesthetic sense, but I'm undergoing Prince of [censored] fatigue right now. To keep things simple, the island could just stay in place, so no big changes to the world map would be necessary. Bridges would connect the main landmass to smaller islands for more breathtaking views.

There's another example of a floating island in the main questline for Southern Elsweyr and I did take many screenshots while there.

Edit: apparently one of Molag Bal's titles is a no-no word, so I changed the text to avoid trouble.

TX12001rwb17_ESO · November 12

A Floating Island Zone? you mean like Coldharbour and Apocrypha?

cyclonus11 · November 12

Just fill in the existing map, please. No more islands!

AvalonRanger · November 12

SummersetCitizen wrote: »

No more islands. We have a half blank map to be completed as it is.

100% agree. There're so many of epic place in the Tamriel.
Don't need small Island anymore.

madman65 · November 13

Coldharbour is a floating island.

Gabriel_H · November 13

Erickson9610 wrote: »

If such a zone is the subject of an expansion, maybe the major feature could have something to do with levitation magic or flying mounts.

They cannot do this without a signifcant content addition that would hamper performance.

Aside from wayshrines/boats, you can access other zones on foot. Where this happens there is typically a gate you have to interact with, or an "open door" that shows you some of the landscape, or other obstacles reducing the field of vision.

Adding anything airborne would mean having to render massive amounts of the next zones landscape.

MageCatF4F · November 13

Sorry I can't resist - completely nuts about airships.

Note: This one is heavier than air, as opposed to the familiar "gas bag" - as in real world helicopters. The only limitation is power to weight ratio. For helicopters it is conventionally set to "1" minimum. Power is the rate with which energy is transformed. So it comes down to fuel energy density and transformation tech. Real world aviation fuel has an energy density of about 50 MJ/kg mass of fuel. But, the energy density of 95% enriched U 235 is about 150 million MJ/kg mass if used for controlled fission, with ideal 100% eff.

Obviously, very heavy airships using traditional helicopter blades or ducted fans or turboprops or you name it could be built with any nuclear energy source.

Fission powered airplanes were researched in the 1940s and 1950s. There were many technical problems surrounding shielding and horribly serious disaster/crash issues. Not so much an issue for military ocean going ships like nuclear subs and surface vessels, which obviously exist. I'm sure the Dwemer airship technologists have a handle on all the issues.

Sorry about the "popular science" style essay.