Make it Modular: Reusable vs Repetitive Content (Especially Dungeon/Ruin Layouts)

Merlin13KAGL

Many of us come from TES backgrounds, so it's nice to see certain things that look and feel familiar. It's part of what helps make it an Elder Scrolls game. Those that don't get to experience a beautiful game as it stands right now.

Also, I can understand the benefit behind having certain reusable content. For instance, it makes perfect sense that the Main Quests are essentially the same for each Alliance, with only the physical starting location being somewhat different.

I can understand the benefit behind modularity in regard to design and programming, in addition to the cost and time savings gained.

However, I am direly longing for the occasional layout change in the standard and sometimes public dungeons.

Even if they made 5-10 layouts, or used the modular concept above, they could construct different dungeon layouts by putting the sections together, no unlike someone would build with Legos... (It's partially how the Construction Sets worked...) Once those layouts are made, they could be then be reused, and ever now and then, add a new one.

After that, the spawn points placed and the experience remains similar, but different.

In this great, vast, and wonderful world, it's becoming a little bothersome to have most smaller dungeons be a square or a figure eight, almost always obligated to be navigated counter-clockwise, ending post-boss at the gated exit.

The Dwemer ruins are this way. The Ayleid ruins are this way (Okay, they replaced the lever with a button...) They'll carve out the occasional nook or cranny, and of course the enemy types change...

And I realize the master dungeon designer that hired the construction crew (captives, more likely) to dig out his impenetrable design would have had many of the same features from place to place, lore to lore, legendary race to legendary race.

The occasional layout difference would help achieve this. They don't all have to be different, but it would nice if more of them were. I'd be content with an occasional mirror image layout!

Same, but to a lesser extent, with landscape features. I expect most houses in a city to look very similar, but to have 5-6 major landscape features be almost identical, with not much more than an angle change starts to appear, well, unmotivated.

For instance, in Bankorai, there's a distinct archway that appears in the desert stone. It's the one you see in the Collector's Edition map, should you have access to it.
The first time you see it's look-alike, you figure it's the Dev's being clever (or just wrong depending on your mood, making you really earn the location to that map. After you see three more, it becomes something else.

The quests can get a little repetitive sometimes. We can deal with that.

The (non-Main-line) quests/events of one Alliance vs another can be strikingly similar.

We can deal with that too.

But there is nothing more beautiful than entering a dungeon/Dwemer Ruin/Ayleid Run and being surprised... It takes away from the exploration factor if you already know you go straight ahead, down the main area, up the stairs, to the left (after dispatching the alcove on the right, of course), past the bookcases, past the alcove to the right, into the next area, and finally, out the door...

I'm not asking for the Devs to stop what they're doing and make new content.

Familiar is good. Too familiar, and it starts to lose the luster.

Just once, I'd love to go up the stairs and have to hang a right!

Enodoc

They're definitely already planning on changing the delves in some way, including making them bigger. I'm hoping that this will also involve some design changes for each one as well.