ESO: Morrowind Size Comparison (Now With A Summerset Update)

Dominoid

Many will have seen this in the closed Beta forum, but I wanted to bring the post out since the NDA has been lifted.

The Video Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lMxZZ3l8-U


So a recent MMORPG.com article showed a map of Craglorn side-by-side with a map of Vvardenfell with a blurb "Vvardenfell is indeed the game’s largest single zone to date". Well this has lead to many saying it's the same size or even smaller for various reasons.



We've also heard repeatedly from ZOS that Vvardenfell is the "largest zone to date". But is it really? That's the task I set out to prove or disprove.

First let's talk about that huge volcano everyone likes to reference. Yep, it's there. Yep, it not explorable space. So with huge props to Reddit user LonelyTank, who did all the work, let's remove all unexplorable space from the maps of Vvardenfell, Craglorn and Wrothgar.





Now let's count the pixels of explorable space. Seriously.

• Vvardenfell has 84,259 pixels
• Craglorn has 66,348 pixels
• Wrothgar has 70,091 pixels

So in simply pixels of overworld explorable space, Vvardefell is 27.00% larger than Craglorn and 20.21% larger than Wrothgar. But that's not the whole story.

Comparing maps comes down to the scale of each map. How do we determine that? For this mission I got an assist from the add-on Map Coordinates and here's what I did. I went into Vvardenfell took my starting XY coordinates, /coords with the add-on installed, walked (technically it's running) in one direction for 10 seconds and stopped. I recorded the XY coordinates of my finish point and calculated the distance. I did this three times and came out with an average of 1.4958 units. All maps start at 0,0 in the upper left and end at 100,100 in the lower right. I did the same for Craglorn and got an average of 1.9348 units and in Wrothgar I got 1.9026. The fact that I traversed less distance on the Vvardefell map in the same amount of time means the Vvardenfell map is larger. In fact it is exactly 29.35% larger than Craglorn and 27.19% larger than Wrothgar. This means when adjusted for scale, Vvardenfell's pixel count becomes 108,986 when compared to Craglorn and 107,170 when compared to Wrothgar.

This makes the explorable overland space of Vvardenfell 64.26% larger than Craglorn and 52.90% larger than Wrothgar.



Thanks for your time - Dominoid


PS - As the video says, I'm working on a content comparison.

Davor

Size doesn't matter. Skyrim was smaller and still awesome.

jorgeh401b14_ESO

Davor wrote: »

Size doesn't matter. Skyrim was smaller and still awesome.

Skyrim was awesome because if you saw something most likely you can visit/enter and interact with it. not alot of cut off/walled off areas.

Elsonso

jorgeh401b14_ESO wrote: »

Davor wrote: »

Size doesn't matter. Skyrim was smaller and still awesome.

Skyrim was awesome because if you saw something most likely you can visit/enter and interact with it. not alot of cut off/walled off areas.

Personally, I think that a condition for being hired as a person who lays out worlds should be an intense dislike of invisible walls. "

andreasranasen

Bigger is always better

WalksonGraves

Oh boy the high ratio of empty space v content is what I look for in a game.

Vaoh

Ty for this Dominoid! Cool stuff.

Just by traveling to a wayshrine and walking away from it, you start to realize how massive Vvardenfell really is.

Tandor

WalksonGraves wrote: »

Oh boy the high ratio of empty space v content is what I look for in a game.

I look for enjoyment.

I'm having plenty of enjoyment playing through the early part of Morrowind with a new warden. She's just hit level 6 and has around 3.5 hours played. There seems to be plenty to access and explore to me. I'm confident there's plenty of value for money in completing the content with one character, but having done so as a new class my first warden will have the rest of Tamriel to explore, and then of course there'll be another couple of wardens to roll, on top of which there's the rest of my original characters to run through Morrowind as well.

Thanks @Dominoid for the time and effort put into this research, quite fascinating but not really surprising except I imagine to those whose glass is always half empty rather than half full, not least where ESO is concerned !

TheShadowScout

Davor wrote: »

Size doesn't matter...

[snip]
...wait, what were we talking again?
Vvardenfell?
Oh, right...


Anyways, cool map comparison!
And yeah, its neat when the place has some space to it, and Vvardenfell certainly doesn't disappoint in that regard. Makes the exploring really fun, especially seeking all those skyshards, sermons and tomb rubbings...

I also keep wondering if they will someday add the northern isles as DLC to the Expansion... I'd love to explore Dagon Fel in ESO!

[Edited to remove Inappropriate Content]

Acrolas

Honestly, I'm still too busy repeatedly looting Cold-Blood Cavern to even get to Vvardenfell.
I think I was looking more for that type of grotto/ruins/cave exploration than overworld size. You can make even a small zone huge with vertical implementation.

And, really, if a guy can jump over Morrowind it's not really that big.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxRSr_JoPf0

Dominoid

Acrolas wrote: »

Honestly, I'm still too busy repeatedly looting Cold-Blood Cavern to even get to Vvardenfell.
I think I was looking more for that type of grotto/ruins/cave exploration than overworld size. You can make even a small zone huge with vertical implementation.

And, really, if a guy can jump over Morrowind it's not really that big.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxRSr_JoPf0

Ya. I used that exact video in my breakdown video above.

Rohamad_Ali

Did you add up all the subterranean maps ? Craglorn has a ton of delves .

andreasranasen

TheShadowScout wrote: »

Davor wrote: »

Size doesn't matter...

...speak for yourself, I prefer at least eight inches...
...wait, what were we talking again?
Vvardenfell?
Oh, right...


Anyways, cool map comparison!
And yeah, its neat when the place has some space to it, and Vvardenfell certainly doesn't disappoint in that regard. Makes the exploring really fun, especially seeking all those skyshards, sermons and tomb rubbings...

I also keep wondering if they will someday add the northern isles as DLC to the Expansion... I'd love to explore Dagon Fel in ESO!

Yooo!!! yassss

WhitePawPrints

Size is irrelevant without content to make it worth exploring. No Man's Sky learned that the hard way.

AzraelKrieg

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Did you add up all the subterranean maps ? Craglorn has a ton of delves .

Even with that, Vvardenfell would be larger. Forgotten Wastes and Nchuleftingth are massive on their own with multiple levels inside them. Even the delves in Vvardenfell are pretty expansive

Dominoid

Rohamad_Ali wrote: »

Did you add up all the subterranean maps ? Craglorn has a ton of delves .

Not yet and probably never. I am putting together all the sub maps of Vvardenfell though. Craglorn's delves are small. The two public dungeons in Vvardenfell alone probably makeup a bigger space than the delves of Craglorn. People get caught up a bit too much in the "number" of things.

Morvane

size does matter cause they STEAL MY DAGON FELL ISLAND

Uriel_Nocturne

Some people say "Size doesn't matter; it's not the size of the boat, it's the motion of the waves".

To those people I say: "Yeah, but it still takes a long time to get from England to France in a rowboat..."

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Thanks for all that work @Dominoid, great job. What I would rather see is a side-by-side comparison of the available content of those areas (quests, dungeons, trials, etc.). That's the real size that matters.

For me, it seems like I completed Morrowind a lot faster than Wrothgar.

Junkkis

Davor wrote: »

Size doesn't matter. Skyrim was smaller and still awesome.

skyrim had mods...

Mashille

Nevermind, I'm wrong.

ClockworkCityBugs

summon @Dominoid new comparsions about Summerset in progress?

Wreuntzylla

Catch us next week when we show how Coldharbour Surreal Estate is much more massive than Linchal Grand Manor!!!

asuitandtyb14_ESO

Don't necro threads dude, there's no redemption for people that do that. Close this thread.

ClockworkCityBugs

asuitandtyb14_ESO wrote: »

Don't necro threads dude, there's no redemption for people that do that. Close this thread.

why? this thread is useful

TelvanniWizard

Now the comparation should be between Auridon and ridiculously tiny Summerset, wich instead of a volcano has four huge unaccessible mountains. What a scam. Glad I didn't pre order it.

Dominoid

TelvanniWizard wrote: »

Now the comparation should be between Auridon and ridiculously tiny Summerset, wich instead of a volcano has four huge unaccessible mountains. What a scam. Glad I didn't pre order it.

ClockworkCityBugs wrote: »

summon @Dominoid new comparsions about Summerset in progress?

Quick and dirty . . .

Most of the arguments I've seen are like taking a map of the world that is 10" x 10" and comparing it to a map of my city that is 12" x 12" and declaring my city is larger, because the map is larger. Looking at a map of Auridon and a map of Summerset and comparing just the map size is . . . well . . wrong.

You need to know the scale of the map. For that we have two options. The first is number of in-game cells which to the engine is a standard unit of measure. Vvardenfell is 81 x 81. Summerset is 144 x 144. Can't find base-game zone sizes right now.

The second is to measure how how far one walks on the Tamriel map over a fixed set of time. For example getting an assist from Map Coordinates and walking in one direction for ten seconds in Vvardenfell you traverse 1.4958 Tamriel map units. Doing so in Summerset, you traverse 1.2179. Doing so in Auridon, you traverse 1.7084 units. This makes the scale of Summerset 40.27% larger than Auridon. That would look like this:



Are there mountains? Yep. Can you get UNDER those mountains (no spoilers)? Yep. . . . maybe I'll do more. And Don't forget about Arteum as a zone too which is part of Summerset the Chapter.

ClockworkCityBugs

Dominoid wrote: »

maybe I'll do more.

thanks! waiting for more if you will do it
like comparsion Vvardenfell vs Summerset, pixels, etc, but first need to know how many overland+artaeum pixel we have

TelvanniWizard

Dominoid wrote: »

TelvanniWizard wrote: »

Now the comparation should be between Auridon and ridiculously tiny Summerset, wich instead of a volcano has four huge unaccessible mountains. What a scam. Glad I didn't pre order it.

ClockworkCityBugs wrote: »

summon @Dominoid new comparsions about Summerset in progress?

Quick and dirty . . .

Most of the arguments I've seen are like taking a map of the world that is 10" x 10" and comparing it to a map of my city that is 12" x 12" and declaring my city is larger, because the map is larger. Looking at a map of Auridon and a map of Summerset and comparing just the map size is . . . well . . wrong.

You need to know the scale of the map. For that we have two options. The first is number of in-game cells which to the engine is a standard unit of measure. Vvardenfell is 81 x 81. Summerset is 144 x 144. Can't find base-game zone sizes right now.

The second is to measure how how far one walks on the Tamriel map over a fixed set of time. For example getting an assist from Map Coordinates and walking in one direction for ten seconds in Vvardenfell you traverse 1.4958 Tamriel map units. Doing so in Summerset, you traverse 1.2179. Doing so in Auridon, you traverse 1.7084 units. This makes the scale of Summerset 40.27% larger than Auridon. That would look like this:



Are there mountains? Yep. Can you get UNDER those mountains (no spoilers)? Yep. . . . maybe I'll do more. And Don't forget about Arteum as a zone too which is part of Summerset the Chapter.

That is not an accurate scale comparison. Take a look at this:

https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/comment/5066171/#Comment_5066171

Seraphayel

Oh man, some guys still claiming Summerset is bigger than Auridon or Vvardenfell when everybody can just travel it on PTS and see that it's not. And no, the underground "content" is no excuse.

Gargath

I'm dreaming about the wonderfull underground Dwemer cave system from Skyrim. One could enter on the east and leave it using many different doors on the west, south or north as they all were connected in one huge cave hub. In Eso we usually have single way in and out which is quite boring. Some caves have alternative way out, but only few and they are one way only.