Is the city of ANVIL depicted better in ESO than in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion?

ariseraw

Anvil is my favorite city from The Elder Scrolls 4. The inner part of it is so nice looking, and the port area is beautiful. I loved it so much that I made up a story about my character retiring there after the events of Oblivion (in Benirus Manor after removing the curse of course).

I think ESO did a pretty good job depicting the city. They kept it mostly faithful to The Elder Scrolls 4 version. Everything is so spaced out however, and a lot of the colors and textures are different. The lighthouse seems to be basically in the same spot. The chapel looks almost exactly the same from the outside. I noticed that the mermaid statue is different, it's sitting in a different position.

There is a comparison video I made on youtube. I really want to say that I prefer the TES4 version, but thats purely out of bias and nostalgia. What are your opinions. Which other cities do you think ESO depicted well in comparison to the versions on the single player series? I really hope that cities like Whiterun or Balmora will not be screwed up if they ever appear in ESO.

https://youtu.be/qznQ8i43hGw

Elsonso

Anvil in ESO is faithful to the one in Oblivion. That is all that needs to be said.

ariseraw

lordrichter wrote: »

Anvil in ESO is faithful to the one in Oblivion. That is all that needs to be said.

Not entirely. The version in ESO is bigger, the walls are different, the mermaid statue is sitting in a different position. the landscape around the city is changed a tiny bit. I know I'm nit picking, but I think they did pretty good with ANVIL compared to other cities in the game.

Moloch1514

The tavern by the docks should have been called The Flowing Bowl, as in Oblivion. There is a blue drink in ESO called Flowing Bowl Port, so it should exist in Anvil!!

Shogunami

The ESO version is incredibly more beautiful than it was in Oblivion in my opinion. It's way more fleshed out and detailed and in general everything looks better.
I'd say that ZOS really stayed true to the original vision of Anvil. If anything I think they should've made it bigger, but at the same time I feel that the size of the old cities and cities in TES games in general are kind of "just right" so as to not make them too big and noisy.

(And if they add Balmora and mess it up I'll.. I'll.. ....)

MasterSpatula

ESO is... what... eight hundred years before Oblivion? I'm surprised there aren't more differences. That's a long time for a city not to change.

As for the relative sizes, I have always felt that TES cities were meant to represent much larger cities that what we actually experience. I mean, how many real cities have about fifteen buildings and no children? There's a lot more to the cities (and the zones) than what gets depicted in the games. Otherwise, even the largest of cities in Tamriel are tiny villages, and these Alliances could never have the population to field significant armies.

ariseraw

Shogunami wrote: »

(And if they add Balmora and mess it up I'll.. I'll.. ....)

You'll what? lol. I really want Balmora to be faithful to the Morrowind version, because thats one of my favorite cities in the series.

A city like Markarth however has to pretty much look the same, because although it had a different name during the 2nd Era, its supposed to be an ancient Dwemer ruin that was eventually converted into a settlement. You cant change the ruins because then they are not the same ruins anymore. It would screw up the Lore for ESO to change that city very much.

I haven't gotten a chance to really look everywhere around ESO's verion of Cyrodiil to see if the Ayleid ruins look the same or are in the right spots, but who has time for that?

Neirymn

The events in ESO take place hundreds of years before the Oblivion crisis, so a lot of things might have changed since. It's like comparing LA nowdays and LA hundreds of years ago. ^^

Oblivion is an old game now, Anvil in ESO is more detailed, I like it more.

Eradrann

Yeah, I was going to also mention the change over the years also.

Skyrim was the first Elder Scroll game I played (yes, I know I'm a late bloomer). It was cool to walk around Windhelm and Riften in ESO and see some aspect of what is to come. Need to do another Oblivion playthrough...

SolarCat02

MasterSpatula wrote: »

ESO is... what... eight hundred years before Oblivion? I'm surprised there aren't more differences. That's a long time for a city not to change.

This. If anything, I don't think there were enough changes. ESO's Anvil doesn't look newer than Oblivion's.
I guess they take their maintenance and historical preservation seriously?

Nestor

MasterSpatula wrote: »

ESO is... what... eight hundred years before Oblivion? I'm surprised there aren't more differences. That's a long time for a city not to change.

As for the relative sizes, I have always felt that TES cities were meant to represent much larger cities that what we actually experience. I mean, how many real cities have about fifteen buildings and no children? There's a lot more to the cities (and the zones) than what gets depicted in the games. Otherwise, even the largest of cities in Tamriel are tiny villages, and these Alliances could never have the population to field significant armies.

Anyone who thinks that bigger cities would be fun in a game just need to load up Daggerfall and go visit one of those cities. It took forever to get from one end to the other. Well, not really forever, just way more time than I want to spend in a game.

I think cities should be models of larger cities, with reductions in geography so that it is easy to get to game related locations in the city, but not so crammed together that everything is on top of each other. ES usually gets the city size just right for gaming. DF was a little different in how that game's landscape was generated.

To the OP's point, Anvil does look the most like the city example in Oblivion, where as Daggerfall in ESO looks nothing like the Daggerfall in Daggerfall, other than architectural style.

notimetocare

"Is something from now better than a decade ago when it was made with the same layout" This... this is what is called a dumb question lol

Of course is is depicted better. Many cities are depicted better than previous games. Only question becomes is it more accurate for the time.

dsalter

ariseraw wrote: »

Shogunami wrote: »

(And if they add Balmora and mess it up I'll.. I'll.. ....)

You'll what? lol. I really want Balmora to be faithful to the Morrowind version, because thats one of my favorite cities in the series.

A city like Markarth however has to pretty much look the same, because although it had a different name during the 2nd Era, its supposed to be an ancient Dwemer ruin that was eventually converted into a settlement. You cant change the ruins because then they are not the same ruins anymore. It would screw up the Lore for ESO to change that city very much.

I haven't gotten a chance to really look everywhere around ESO's verion of Cyrodiil to see if the Ayleid ruins look the same or are in the right spots, but who has time for that?

Balmora is barely existant in this timeline

Runefang

senhavran wrote: »

The events in ESO take place hundreds of years before the Oblivion crisis, so a lot of things might have changed since. It's like comparing LA nowdays and LA hundreds of years ago. ^^

Oblivion is an old game now, Anvil in ESO is more detailed, I like it more.

More like comparing London or Paris. LA didn't exist not that long ago.

McI

Since ESO takes place hundreds of years before the closest Elder Scrolls game to it in the timeline; is anyone else curious about why there hasn't been any real breakthroughs with technology, materials used to craft with, and growth of the cities themselves?

Is it because this world has magic and people just want to develop new spells and potions to fix all their problems? Wouldn't you think that there would be some sort of architectural advancements, growth in population, and new forms of transportation?

Or am I just a nerd and need to just enjoy the ride? Could be that, I bet it is that.

ariseraw

Nestor wrote: »

MasterSpatula wrote: »

ESO is... what... eight hundred years before Oblivion? I'm surprised there aren't more differences. That's a long time for a city not to change.

As for the relative sizes, I have always felt that TES cities were meant to represent much larger cities that what we actually experience. I mean, how many real cities have about fifteen buildings and no children? There's a lot more to the cities (and the zones) than what gets depicted in the games. Otherwise, even the largest of cities in Tamriel are tiny villages, and these Alliances could never have the population to field significant armies.

Anyone who thinks that bigger cities would be fun in a game just need to load up Daggerfall and go visit one of those cities. It took forever to get from one end to the other. Well, not really forever, just way more time than I want to spend in a game.

I think cities should be models of larger cities, with reductions in geography so that it is easy to get to game related locations in the city, but not so crammed together that everything is on top of each other. ES usually gets the city size just right for gaming. DF was a little different in how that game's landscape was generated.

To the OP's point, Anvil does look the most like the city example in Oblivion, where as Daggerfall in ESO looks nothing like the Daggerfall in Daggerfall, other than architectural style.

Mournhold is a city in ESO that looks practically nothing like the TESIII: Morrowind version.

Oh and yes I am one of the few who have also played "The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall" that game is enormous and the cities are frustrating to navigate. It's hard to figure out where you are supposed to go for quests because the locations are not shown in a very helpful way on your map (like future Elder Scrolls games were). The reason why the first two Elder Scrolls games were so huge is because the landscapes were just randomly generated.

Nestor

McI wrote: »

Since ESO takes place hundreds of years before the closest Elder Scrolls game to it in the timeline; is anyone else curious about why there hasn't been any real breakthroughs with technology, materials used to craft with, and growth of the cities themselves?

Is it because this world has magic and people just want to develop new spells and potions to fix all their problems? Wouldn't you think that there would be some sort of architectural advancements, growth in population, and new forms of transportation?

Or am I just a nerd and need to just enjoy the ride? Could be that, I bet it is that.

This is the thing about any Fantasy Setting. For example, the world in the Eddings Books Belgarion and Mallorean. Clearly the time line is more than 7,000 years as the main character is that old. In that time, our race went from subsistence farming to written language, to science to the technologies we have today. I think the gods are limiting people so that when they are done fighting, there is something left over. This is based on the Trope that the gods can not interfere directly as their powers would be cataclysmic to the world just pushing each other around. So, they limit scientific discovery to keep the military technology to a reasonable level.

I know, it sounds dumb, but it makes as much sense as a society being around for a few thousand years and they are still slipping in the horse manure in the streets.

RebornV3x

McI wrote: »

Since ESO takes place hundreds of years before the closest Elder Scrolls game to it in the timeline; is anyone else curious about why there hasn't been any real breakthroughs with technology, materials used to craft with, and growth of the cities themselves?

Is it because this world has magic and people just want to develop new spells and potions to fix all their problems? Wouldn't you think that there would be some sort of architectural advancements, growth in population, and new forms of transportation?

Or am I just a nerd and need to just enjoy the ride? Could be that, I bet it is that.

It could be for the fact that magic is so abundant in the Elder Scrolls that theres no need for technological advancement when people can open magic portals from one place to another its surprising caravans and ships are still a thing why would people need guns when I can shoot a fireball out of my hand if for some reason magic was unable to be used we would probably see an industrial revolution of sorts.

nimander99

Great comparison video.

I'll say though that I disagree with ya, I think ESO's Anvil is better. They stayed true to the design and layout while also making it look like it was in the past.

It ultimately boils down to personal preference. ESO is an MMO set in the Scrolls Universe, that makes it an uber win for me any day of the week and on holidays

CapnPhoton

aheck1111_ESO wrote: »

The tavern by the docks should have been called The Flowing Bowl, as in Oblivion. There is a blue drink in ESO called Flowing Bowl Port, so it should exist in Anvil!!

Things change over time. Like here, the former McDonalds is now a Mexican takeout...

Silver_Strider

I mainly avoided Anvil in Oblivion as it was relatively far away from the rest of the game and there really wasn't a whole lot in that direction to keep me interested (Also, impossibly fast Mountain Lions p***ed me off).
Having said that, I do believe that that the area look very much like it did in Oblivion, with some minor liberties that I can understand/accept.

The Mermaid statue changing positions could easily be explained away, 1000 years is a long time after all. Maybe a mage did it in an experiment, maybe Sheogorath was bored. Either way, not that huge a deal.

That house at 3:49 in Oblivion. F**K THAT HOUSE.

Duiwel

That's amazing! I didn't remember Anvil that well whoever did that video kudos and well done to the team who made the area it's practically the same. The few things that changed are better.

I mean it's practically a decade difference so OP come on... things had to improve from the old

Soleya

I have to say in hundreds of years between ESO and Daggerfall, Wayrest Castle kinda went down hill.





lol.

Hard to imagine those graphics used to be awesome.

Gargath

If the Anvil was made so equal, I wonder why Throat of the World was not .


Directions on compass and place of taking pictures are both the same in ESO and Skyrim.
Even a thousand years should not move that mountain from one place to another or change it's shape .

DaniAngione

When I see the cities and such being different (like Windhelm, which is similar in layout but very different in style) I like to imagine what could've happened in these 800 years (to Oblivion) or 1000 years (to Skyrim) that made things change so much.

ESO is canon too - and the most hardcore fans gotta learn to understand that. It's not our decision what's canon or not. It never was.

So if things are different, rather than comparing and trying to say which is better or which is not, what was "ruined" or what was not, I think it would be much nicer if we just wondered "Woah, how things changed?"

Take the mermaid statue, for example. Yes, it is different, but the upper part is quite similar. If you notice, the lower part is very different and TES IV one has some kind of base that didn't exist 800 years before.

My guess? It eroded over time because of the contact with water. It had to be reformed, the lower part was mostly lost so they just built that base around it, protecting what remained - the upper half.

KICHZY

In ESO the walls surrounding Anvil have windows on them, sadly half of the merge into the terrain all the way around and makes they place looked rushed.

Korah_Eaglecry

McI wrote: »

Since ESO takes place hundreds of years before the closest Elder Scrolls game to it in the timeline; is anyone else curious about why there hasn't been any real breakthroughs with technology, materials used to craft with, and growth of the cities themselves?

Is it because this world has magic and people just want to develop new spells and potions to fix all their problems? Wouldn't you think that there would be some sort of architectural advancements, growth in population, and new forms of transportation?

Or am I just a nerd and need to just enjoy the ride? Could be that, I bet it is that.

Because its perpetually in a state of being a fantasy. Its like asking why in Fallout people living in 2165 was still using technology that was outdated in the 1960s or why technology doesnt really seem to flow the way it should in Star Wars. Its more about the story than the technology. If youre worrying about technology in a perpetual fantasy setting. Youre missing the point.

jcaceresw

I like all cities on ESO game to be open not closed like in Oblivion and Skyrim games (to be fair, only the main cities are closed on Skyrim). About ESO Anvil, its like been in a Oblivion remasterization of that city.