Crystal Tower ... meh or wow?

Ostacia

^ seems like I read somewhere that Altmer descended from Ayleids? If so (and even if not) I agree with Shawn that it'd be nice to see some of those organic structures in Summerset. This is my first Elder Scrolls game and I've been playing over a year and I'm somewhat miffed about how Summerset isn't as Summersetty as I'd read/heard about.

When I ventured through Morrowind and even before that, I noted how Dunmer furnishings were quite often heavily influenced by Art Deco and I felt surely some Art Nouveau would make it into Summerset. Again, I've not seen it fully, but from what I've seen, I tend to agree that it could've been much more spectacular. We'll see...

Iselin

As long as it has an elevator...

psychotrip

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Never has Crystal-Like-Law/The Crystal Tower been described as being made of crystal or glass. The internals could very well have a lot of crystal and glass inside but just because it has crystal in the name doesn't mean it is made of the stuff. Besides, this is the first time the Tower has been included in a game since Arena.

Read my sig.

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

The entire artstyle of Summerset architecture is a bit off. It's nothing like explained in the lore. It is just Auridon 2.0 with better textures. It looks great but it is just not Summerset.

Inclined to agree. The buildings are pretty but too...quaint. It doesn't look like Summerset. I've mostly been operating under the assumption that all the pictures have been of one city and the others are made differently, but if this is all the Altmer have been fighting tooth and nail to keep outsiders from seeing, then I have to say it's a bit like hearing about a great treasure-filled tomb, fighting past traps and monsters only to find that the treasure is someone else's family photos.

I expect better from the Altmer, is what I'm saying.

They released images of the other cities. It's all the exact same style. They couldn't even give us multiple city-styles like the dunmer got in Morrowind.

Menelaos wrote: »

I think it's mentioned that Crystal-Like-Law was built to resemble Ada-Mantia or White-Gold. That would mean the early Aldmer tried to mimick the Direnni Tower architecture rather than use their own design flavors. Also, the Tower was built in the middle Merethic Era, "shortly" after the Aldmeris exodus to Tamriel. It's clear why it would look somewhat off and alien.

Also, the city of Cloudrest was said to include various types of architecture, including maybe early Sload buildings. This seems to indicate that Summerset architecture in general is a mixture of different styles.

It doesn't look alien. It looks boring. And gray, because that's the only color ZOS seems comfortable with when they don't know what to else to do.

JD2013 wrote: »

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:AR-quest-Crystal_Tower.jpg

This look like glass or crystal to you?

I've explained this a million times in a million threads but here we go again:

You understand that when that game was made, khajiit and argonians were humans, right? That elves weren't called "mer". They were called moriche, boiche, and salache.

You understand that, when that game was made, Imperials didn't even exist? The Imperial city was full of what looked like redguards with a totally different naming scheme (Yagarath, Sakirphang etc).

Arena and Daggerfall were made before The Elder Scrolls lore had officially solidified. Even the devs admit the pre-Redguard/Morrowind days were just generic DnD stand-ins. The lore wasn't fully conceived until 1998 with the release of the first "pocket guide to the empire and its environs" book.

And, for the last time, no one is saying there aren't multiple interpretations of the lore, and we're not arguing that ESO did it "wrong".

We're arguing that they decided to go for the most boring, mundane, seen-before interpretation possible. Like they almost always do, unless they're forced to do otherwise (like with Morrowind).

Darkstorne wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

I'd rather see it in some kind of crystal material, I wonder if there was a technical reason why it wasn't done that way.

@Turelus Yep, I brought this up with a big Skyrim mod team I work with, and there was a lot of speculation that the engine simply can't handle all the alpha transparency and reflections that glass/crystal architecture would require. Pretty much every window in this game has zero transparency and is just a solid block of colour, so the idea of creating entire cities and super-structures out of a material the engine can't cope with... yeah.

That does of course beg the question of why they decided to attempt Summerset at all, but I guess they realized most of their playerbase already doesn't care about how poorly implemented locations like Valenwood and Mournhold are, so they could get away with it assuming most players know nothing about the lore. So long as Bethesda Game Studios ignore all of ESO's visual direction when they get around to these provinces, I can live with it. This game will just always feel like fan fiction.

What team do you work with, if you don't mind me asking? Good to see an explanation from actual coders. But, don't you think this was just a massive step in the opposite direction? I mean, even if they couldn't go hog wild on the glass, that's only like one part of what people were expecting / hoping for based on the lore. Isn't there a middle ground between something the engine can't handle, and this medieval peasant country? It's just annoying how they'r enot afraid to go a little weird for Valenwood and Morrowind, but Summerset gets shafted by this...well...giant stone shaft.

PelinalWhitestrake wrote: »

Ask Fëanor to slap a Silmaril on that tower and you can't tell the difference.

Jesus, at this point I'd be BEGGING for some Noldor ***, compared to this

Darkstorne wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

I'd rather see it in some kind of crystal material, I wonder if there was a technical reason why it wasn't done that way.

@Turelus Yep, I brought this up with a big Skyrim mod team I work with, and there was a lot of speculation that the engine simply can't handle all the alpha transparency and reflections that glass/crystal architecture would require. Pretty much every window in this game has zero transparency and is just a solid block of colour, so the idea of creating entire cities and super-structures out of a material the engine can't cope with... yeah.

That does of course beg the question of why they decided to attempt Summerset at all, but I guess they realized most of their playerbase already doesn't care about how poorly implemented locations like Valenwood and Mournhold are, so they could get away with it assuming most players know nothing about the lore. So long as Bethesda Game Studios ignore all of ESO's visual direction when they get around to these provinces, I can live with it. This game will just always feel like fan fiction.

Except ESO is canon. So this is Summerset now. There's no way Bethesda, even without actually controlling Zenimax, would sign off on this if they didn't like it. These companies meet at least once a year to discuss what they're working on (according to a recent interview with Todd Howard). This wasn't sprung on them out of the blue, and they're not going to split the canon into two branches. This is the super advanced society that only a giant robot god could conquer. This is Summerset.

Ajaxandriel

AzraelKrieg wrote: »

Never has Crystal-Like-Law/The Crystal Tower been described as being made of crystal or glass. The internals could very well have a lot of crystal and glass inside but just because it has crystal in the name doesn't mean it is made of the stuff. Besides, this is the first time the Tower has been included in a game since Arena.

Right, thinking of it... the White-Gold Tower is made of stone, not gold.

THe Crystal Tower is still different from its Arena version :

Ironically, Arena Crystal tower fits to the style of ESO:Summerset cities... And I prefer the Tower as it is now, tbh.

Its atmosphere seems nice and a bit otherworldly while remaining "realistic".
Maybe too much realistic... It would have been more impressive if the shape was exaggerated, like miror cones facing each other or another geometrical object ? or like "infinitely high" ?


how I imagined Crystal-Like-Law (The Place Promised in Our Early Day 2004 anime)

Kajuratus wrote: »

Agreed. I feel that Alinor being exaggerated is still stupid though, because how can anyone justify human traders mistaking what we saw in the trailer for a glass city? Do you go up to a church or cathedral with stainless glass windows and think to yourself "yep, thats a glass building there"? Whats so frustrating is that they've got the outline of Alinor right, with the docks being towered over by those impossibly high towers. How did people mistake that for architecture reminiscent of insect wings?

Two solutions that I can see.

Weither the architecture have evolved between ESO and PGE time. Look, real life european capitals are made of stone too, while their newest trade buildings are made of glass and steel (compare Paris intra-muros / La Défense)

Or the autor of PGE was a liar and never landed on Alinor.
Look, just imagin ...
What if I told you... Septim never conquered Alinor but managed a continent-scale propaganda to get anyone believing so ! In fact Summerset was an autarky and would never had allowed foreigners to land again (except the hero of Arena)
This allowed the Empire to spread its propaganda freely. But centuries later, the Thalmor arose after the famous oblivion crisis from the same Empire and decided to conquer it, to restore the cosmic order (erasing the Lie-God Talos in the process) Hahaha that would fit the part of the c0da when Summerset repelled the Brass God attack - and this is the sole part of c0da I found genuinely interesting. Maybe my altmer bias though.

Lylith

red_emu wrote: »

So as hyped as I am for Summerset (and taking all my 8 Altmers back home) I couldn't stop cringing when I seen the Crystal Tower in both trailers. It looks awful. Like big, giant concrete .... cucumber!

We were expecting this:


But instead we got this!:



What's up with that? I can accept the concrete block, medieval cities as it's been speculated before that the visitors to Alinor might have been exaggerating a little with the glass houses and insect wing architecture, but come on. Something as epic as The Crystal Tower should have been done properly! It's meant to be on par with the White Gold Tower and Direnni Tower. This dreadful looking industrial chimney is not what Altmer would be proud of

'vaguely phallic...'

Rosveen

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

grizzledcroc wrote: »

The physical towers were all suppost to have been made like the Adamatine one so they cant differ extremely, and like everyone's pointed it was never really described as being crystal only by name.

You realize that of the aforementioned towers, one is a volcano, one is a mountain and one is a number of walking trees right? And another is a giant robot? They can and do look different. White-Gold was explicitly a replica of Adamantia, but that was stated beforehand.

I'm pretty sure they were talking about Towers that are actual towers, so White-Gold and Crystal-Like-Law (hell knows what Orichalc looked like). They were both built to emulate Ada-Mantia.

psychotrip

Darkstorne wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

Darkstorne wrote: »

Turelus wrote: »

I'd rather see it in some kind of crystal material, I wonder if there was a technical reason why it wasn't done that way.

Turelus Yep, I brought this up with a big Skyrim mod team I work with, and there was a lot of speculation that the engine simply can't handle all the alpha transparency and reflections that glass/crystal architecture would require. Pretty much every window in this game has zero transparency and is just a solid block of colour, so the idea of creating entire cities and super-structures out of a material the engine can't cope with... yeah.

That does of course beg the question of why they decided to attempt Summerset at all, but I guess they realized most of their playerbase already doesn't care about how poorly implemented locations like Valenwood and Mournhold are, so they could get away with it assuming most players know nothing about the lore. So long as Bethesda Game Studios ignore all of ESO's visual direction when they get around to these provinces, I can live with it. This game will just always feel like fan fiction.

Couldn't they just make it a purple texture with some other colours. I mean we have soul gem models etc which could work on a bigger scale. Although maybe that just ended up looking too ugly.

Pretty sure it would look hideous

Their art team are phenomenal and produce AMAZING work. I buy the physical CEs exclusively for the art books. If there was a way to make glass towers look good, these guys would have found a way. And I'm sure they wouldn't have ignored this key piece of lore without good reason. The fact they're refusing to address this concern even seems to suggest they feel kinda bad about it, which is a shame, because I'd love to hear them go into the details of "why", and not deflect with talk about "transcription errors" in the in-game books. It would be great if @ZOS_GinaBruno could float this idea by the art team so we could get some insight into how they work, and how they make these decisions, but I don't know how open they want to be about it all. It would be incredibly interesting though

I agree with others that 100% glass/crystal clearly wouldn't work, mostly for privacy reasons But glass spires and features, the parts of the city that make up the skyline and are visible at distance or upon arriving at the docks (towering over the rest of the city), reflecting sunlight and emanating their own like inner starlight... that would be my interpretation if tech and hardware weren't a limitation:

Each of these images is more impressive and creative than what we got. Seriously, it's a conrete cylinder. That's the best they could do. Also, two of the towers are literal mountains, and one is a tree. They're not made to necessarily look like Ada-Mantia. They're designed to fill the same symbolic role.

psychotrip

Wintergreen wrote: »

^ seems like I read somewhere that Altmer descended from Ayleids? If so (and even if not) I agree with Shawn that it'd be nice to see some of those organic structures in Summerset. This is my first Elder Scrolls game and I've been playing over a year and I'm somewhat miffed about how Summerset isn't as Summersetty as I'd read/heard about.

When I ventured through Morrowind and even before that, I noted how Dunmer furnishings were quite often heavily influenced by Art Deco and I felt surely some Art Nouveau would make it into Summerset. Again, I've not seen it fully, but from what I've seen, I tend to agree that it could've been much more spectacular. We'll see...

Ayleids are "heartland high elves". So if anything it's the other way around. The ayleids were altmer who settled in Cyrodiil and little bits of Valenwood and Black Marsh (until ESO decided they're everywhere dwemer aren't), and even though they technically swore fealty to Alinor they eventually became their own distinct culture and race.

Either way, the crystal tower looks even more boring and featureless than White-Gold. There's no reason for ZOS to have made it this way except their own determination to make the world more mundane and to relegate half the high fantasy elements of the world to "transcription errors"

The "unreliable narrator" schtick is just such a lame, tired excuse at this point. They took an element of the world's mystery (that there are multiple accounts of history) and then decided to use it as retro-active excuse for whenever they want to "tone down" the world. I'm sick of it.

grizzledcroc

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Thevampirenight wrote: »

Are you sure that is even the tower it could be another structure you know.

Unfortunately it's labeled as such on the promo site. Scroll down to 'Explore Summerset' and click 'Crystal Tower' -> there is the pic.

grizzledcroc wrote: »

The physical towers were all suppost to have been made like the Adamatine one so they cant differ extremely, and like everyone's pointed it was never really described as being crystal only by name.

You realize that of the aforementioned towers, one is a volcano, one is a mountain and one is a number of walking trees right? And another is a giant robot? They can and do look different. White-Gold was explicitly a replica of Adamantia, but that was stated beforehand.

I though I read somewhere that white gold and glass tower were suppose to be similar to Adamantia was what I was referring too when I said physical . Should refer to something else.

grizzledcroc

one thing I will miss from it's original design is it's open walkways , I can imagine how windy it must be.

Jade1986

Enslaved wrote: »

crystal meth tower

that could be super fun, or catastrophic. lol

psychotrip

grizzledcroc wrote: »

one thing I will miss from it's original design is it's open walkways , I can imagine how windy it must be.

This is not canonical. It's from Arena. The visuals of Arena are in no way canonical.

When that game was made, khajiit and argonians were humans, right. Elves weren't called "mer". They were called moriche, boiche, and salache.

When that game was made, Imperials didn't even exist. The Imperial city was full of what looked like redguards with a totally different naming scheme (Yagarath, Sakirphang etc).

Arena and Daggerfall were made before The Elder Scrolls lore had officially solidified. Even the devs admit the pre-Redguard/Morrowind days were just generic DnD stand-ins. The lore wasn't fully conceived until 1998 with the release of the first "pocket guide to the empire and its environs" book.

So in short, we've never really seen the Crystal Tower before, nor have we been to Summerset. Side note: also note that the Crystal Tower seems to be next to a desert canyon. So, once again, that's not really consistent with the current lore.

Seraphayel

I mean the tower is so ugly, I really don't know what to say. It really looks like a tampon.

MasterSpatula

WhiteCoatSyndrome wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

The entire artstyle of Summerset architecture is a bit off. It's nothing like explained in the lore. It is just Auridon 2.0 with better textures. It looks great but it is just not Summerset.

Inclined to agree. The buildings are pretty but too...quaint. It doesn't look like Summerset. I've mostly been operating under the assumption that all the pictures have been of one city and the others are made differently, but if this is all the Altmer have been fighting tooth and nail to keep outsiders from seeing, then I have to say it's a bit like hearing about a great treasure-filled tomb, fighting past traps and monsters only to find that the treasure is someone else's family photos.

I expect better from the Altmer, is what I'm saying.

Or lockpicks.

Berret

Summerset looks like Highrock 2.0 and it's very disappointing that they decided to go with the generic Lord of the Rings Aesthetic. None of it matches the Motifs either which is even more confusing.

psychotrip

Berret wrote: »

Summerset looks like Highrock 2.0 and it's very disappointing that they decided to go with the generic Lord of the Rings Aesthetic. None of it matches the Motifs either which is even more confusing.

Yeah. This looks nothing like the same place elven armor and weapons supposedly come from.

ArchMikem

No one knows what Summerset looks like, its never been visually depicted until now, and still people want to complain cause it doesnt match their imaginings.

I like it. It looks like a modern skyscraper. And remember, that image is its LoD render. You dont know yet how it looks up close, there could be tons of legit Crystal woven into the structure.

I highly doubt a tower that tall made of 100% crystal is structurally sound..

Vanya

By the Gods, exactly! *Scrolling through the rest of the thread* One of the reasons Indeed I never have had very high expectations in general., often people do get disappointed or frustrated with such a mindset. No matter what they fashion, players aren't happy or they do not know how to be happy and embrace the current implementation.

I witnessed the Tirion upon Túna. The city of the Noldor from Tolkien's Legendarium ,Silvermoon Crown jewel of the Blood Elves and so on , where have I witnessed the Tirion, in my mind only indeed. Tis is book{The Silmarillion, a creation myth of singular beauty and my favourite} Absolute masterpiece.

The version posted within Thread is the work/Illustration of Ted Nasmith. Of course it shall not live with their expectations because there are infinite versions of Tirion, why Infinite? Because ever single reader shall imagine it differently. It exists only in their's or yours mind, very powerful creative, visualising mind. If you do google Tirion do not be surprised to end with less impressive versions or it could be the case with any other high fantasy work., One of the examples.

I'll be perfectly honest here. If you desire similar concept or creation you might consume yourself within the world of Azeroth or Arda,I would rather have the unique creation of Alinor rather than borrowing the ideas of the structural design of other imaginary worlds.

Let us Consider what do we have and we "know" or perhaps we've been told wrong or manipulated/deceived and tricked since the very dawn. Do not forget the High Elven unrivalled mastery with the magic ~

Lore/The Memories of the sightseeing:

"Located on Summerset's west coast, human traders were only allowed at Alinor's ports, and they described the city as "made from glass or insect wings." Imperial emissaries of the Reman Dynasty described the city as straight and glimmering, "a hypnotic swirl of ramparts and impossibly high towers, designed to catch the light of the sun and break it to its component colors, which lies draped across its stones until you are thankful for nightfall."[1][3] It is also described by the Alinori scribe, Alanya, as a well-lit city with a temperate climate.

Crystal Tower ~

The Crystal Tower was the pinnacle of magical education until the foundation of the Arcane University. The name could be miss-leading, does it need to reflect the name, Does it need to be constructed from Crystals? Was an ancient, mystical structure. I believe it appeared as very shinning glass substance almost blinding and vibrant to those at the port of the sea.

Indeed only allowed at Ports and Traders only. An idea sparked in my mind, have you thought Elves enchanted the City and could cast Illusions as well so the city might appear unreal, bizarre and beyond comprehension. You see only what they want you to see.The access to the city is restricted.

It is possible. If you wish to keep your enemy confused and perplexed not even knowing the exact appearance and of particular city/land.

Ambassadors of the Second Empire were only allowed in the capital of Alinor, and thus all descriptions of the Altmer and their homeland were confined to that city alone ~ Ambassadors and let us assume there weren't a lot of them. Dozens by far, ultimately disciplined and would keep their mouth shut. The selected few each year eventually would, but there is another theory, what if they were forced to lie or again the illusions were placed to warp their mind.

My other theory, The High Elves are the most advanced race , but they aren't Demi Gods not they could create marvels of extraordinarily often over-magnified creation.

I do not believe in "Impossibly high towers" statement or Insect wings/ city as 'made from glass. They believed because they've seen again what they wanted you to see Glass city /Impossibly high. It does sounds they were under the effect of incredibly powerful illusions.

The fact is we do not know for sure. My statement or yours is incorrect. We are ultimately left by the theories. It's up for reader and Developer to create, if you aren't satisfied, create your own world or immerse yourself in another one.

As for in game version of the Crystal Tower I am satisfied. it makes perfect sense. Even "such un-impressive "cucumber" stone shaped wonder is by far the most powerful and impressive all of the towers. We haven't even explored the tower in it's fully glory. It's to early to be very judgemental and incredibly dispirited.

To sum it up ~ We shall never agree because it is paradoxical in the very end. I respect the desires and wishes , but I disagree with adding or heavily involving the work of other fantasy realms.Some players have impossible wishes.

Be glad with the current version.

Kind Regards

Vanya

LadyAstrum

For me, it's not so much it's material, it is the shape. Reminds of these exercise weights:



In-game, perhaps it looks more impressive than it appears right now, but we'll see.

starkerealm

Wintergreen wrote: »

^ seems like I read somewhere that Altmer descended from Ayleids?

Not exactly. The Altmer and Ayleids were both descended from the Aldmer (along with nearly every other elven race in TES).

OtarTheMad

I agree with @Vanya 1,000%. (which is also why ZOS shouldn't make a necromancer class, it won't live up to players dreams no matter how good it is)

Plus the Crystal Tower is called that because it holds a powerful crystal called Transparent Law at the top.

Vanya

OtarTheMad wrote: »

I agree with @Vanya 1,000%. (which is also why ZOS shouldn't make a necromancer class, it won't live up to players dreams no matter how good it is)

Plus the Crystal Tower is called that because it holds a powerful crystal called Transparent Law at the top.

Indeed! Otar The Mad , wasn't he one of the Eight Dragon Priests from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Yea! Within the Ruins of Ragnvald! Shor's Bones! It brings memories. *Uses and Elder Scroll* Gets Zapped by Lighting staff xD

I did not know about the Crystal. I haven't read at all. Thanks for the insight

Kikke

JD2013 wrote: »

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:AR-quest-Crystal_Tower.jpg

This look like glass or crystal to you?

what he said

red_emu

Again. I did not state at any point that I'd imagined the tower made entirely of crystal. The first picture in my post is meant to represent how magnificent and impossibly beautiful we were expecting it. What irks me is the shape and simplicity! I mean, it's a concrete cucumber with a corset. I can take the cities and their romantic gothic architecture but where's the light being reflected and refracted to the point you are grateful for sunset? Why one of the most important structues in Summerset is so unimaginative? I mean, even if it was there for millennia, I'm sure the Altmer would have improved on it over time. I'd rather it looked like the Disney castle cities, with arches and windows and intricate carvings.

I think I would be way more happy if he entire architecture of summerset was simply the Ayelid architecture but in its prime. So organic, magical and delicate.

I still hope that when the chapter hits PTS we'll be able to dispel all the worries about art direction.

TelvanniWizard

kikkehs wrote: »

JD2013 wrote: »

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/File:AR-quest-Crystal_Tower.jpg

This look like glass or crystal to you?

what he said

Well, at least the roofs look like made out of malachite, i.e. "crystal".

red_emu

And to anyone saying, we're only seeing the top of the tower, and that it might be beautiful up close, we are not. Look at the trailer. There's the part where CP is fighting a winged monster in first person with the tower in the background. Couple of floors of wide arches. Everything is gray and dull and made of stone. No colour of shimmer to be seen

Go to 0:47

https://youtu.be/sy3cjqj-RZE?t=47

MornaBaine

Carbonised wrote: »

Not inaccurate...but it can also be argued that it's a giant middle finger. I'll let people draw their own conclusions as to what that might mean.

MornaBaine

Carbonised wrote: »

Not inaccurate...but it can also be argued that it's a giant middle finger. I'll let people draw their own conclusions as to what that might mean.

Iselin wrote: »

As long as it has an elevator...

You mean a long loading screen? Pretty much guaranteed.

psychotrip

red_emu wrote: »

Again. I did not state at any point that I'd imagined the tower made entirely of crystal. The first picture in my post is meant to represent how magnificent and impossibly beautiful we were expecting it. What irks me is the shape and simplicity! I mean, it's a concrete cucumber with a corset. I can take the cities and their romantic gothic architecture but where's the light being reflected and refracted to the point you are grateful for sunset? Why one of the most important structues in Summerset is so unimaginative? I mean, even if it was there for millennia, I'm sure the Altmer would have improved on it over time. I'd rather it looked like the Disney castle cities, with arches and windows and intricate carvings.

I think I would be way more happy if he entire architecture of summerset was simply the Ayelid architecture but in its prime. So organic, magical and delicate.

I still hope that when the chapter hits PTS we'll be able to dispel all the worries about art direction.

Exactly. People are completely missing the point. This isn’t a matter of our expectations being too high to ever satisfy. This isn’t just a matter of different accounts and unreliable narrators.

The problem is that none of this is consistent with anything we’ve seen from the altmer in-game. Sorry, but you can’t “transcription error” your way out of this one.

Tell me guys: does this style even look consistent with anything we’ve actually seen from the altmer before? Not talking about “unreliable narrator” stuff this time, but things we’ve actually seen within the elder scrolls universe?






Elven stuff has always had this weird blend of deliberate angles and abstract, organic shapes. What happened to all that?


Let’s not forget what the “elven style” looked like in Morrowind (yes, the glass armor in Morrowind was made by the altmer, according to the in-game dialogue and the fact that altmer own most of the glass mines in the game)




Also, this begs the question: where are the altmer getting all this malachite? It’s supposed to be volcanic glass. And yet the Summerset in this game doesn’t seem to have any volcanoes, and it’s not like Skyrim where we can assume a lot of the mountains once displayed volcanic activity. Judging by their resources, I always imagined Summerset as some sort of hot, hawaiian-esque volcanic island.

But I digress, does any of this look compatible with the supposed “real” Summerset? Does it look like the same culture even made this stuff? It’s more suited to bretons imo.




To those pulling the “exaggerations / unreliable narrator” card: No one is saying there aren't multiple interpretations of the lore, and we're not arguing that ESO did it "wrong".

We're arguing that they decided to go for the most boring, mundane, seen-before interpretation possible. Like they almost always do, unless they're forced to do otherwise (like with Morrowind).

I swear, Zenimax seems so afraid to take artistic risks. Is gray stone really the best the altmer can do? Medieval humans in real life had more advanced, colorful, and creative structures than this. Come on. If humans did this:



The Altmer should be capable of something, anything more. This is supposedly a civilization so advanced that it could only be conquered by a giant robot god, and yet none of that advancement is showcased here.

I can’t imagine showing ZOS something like the image above:

"Hark! What is this lunacy? What strange race of monster built this? There's nothing realistic about this at all! And why is there so much color? Where's all the gray? Madness, I say! It's like these people are making buildings out of poetry!"
- Zenimax, probably.

This decision to turn Summerset into yet another old-timey european landscape just reeks of creative bankruptcy.

At this point, they so clearly use the “unreliable narrator” trope as a selective crutch to retroactively justify their decisions. Then we’re stuck with the most boring interpretations possible. It’s just so see-through at this point. They hide behind transcription errors when they simply don’t want to embrace the more unique aspects of this IP.

If you dont believe that they either ran out of time, ideas, or both, then riddle me this: why, after Morrowind released with at least 3 unique art styles for the dunmer, are the altmer stuck with 1? That’s right, all the cities in Summerset use the exact same models. Unlike with Morrowind, they can’t ride the coat-tails of past games this time. This time, they had to do the artistic leg-work themselves, and this is what they come up with. Jesus.

Maryal

I like how the cities / buildings look and I'm totally hyped.