What Is Your Favorite and Least Elder Scrolls Architecture?

Sygil05

Dunmer cantons are the most evil architecture in this game.

Chrysa1is

My fave is definitely Argonian, as i love the mayan/aztec aspects they have.

Worst hands down is Bosmer. They nasteh

madchuska83

Dwemer

haelene

Least liked : Redguard (adobe, yuck) or Breton ( boring). Argonian is at least interesting and different.

Favorite : Khajiit

DenMoria

Any architecture NOT shown in ESO... oh, wait... none of the architecture in ESO is even vaguely ES so, I guess none.

AuldWolf

@haelene

Wait, what? What's wrong with adobe? Besides, Hlaalu style is very adobe-esque, too. Especially notable with the curved walls.

LadyNalcarya

Most favourite: Summerset. Reminds me of Anor Londo/Irithyll.

Least favourite: argonian. Mud huts and stuff. I kinda hate the Hist for not saving the old argonian civilization that left those aztec style ruins.

haelene

AuldWolf wrote: »

@haelene

Wait, what? What's wrong with adobe? Besides, Hlaalu style is very adobe-esque, too. Especially notable with the curved walls.

Adobe as a material itself isn't necessarily the problem, it's the style it implies - which is that sort of Middle Eastern or Mexican style with the detailed arches. I live in an area where its pervasive and so I am tired of seeing it. Plus I just find it unappealing.

Nightfall12

I must be alone....but I like the Breton...Perhaps its I can appreciate that it at least tries to mimic some of the real worlds past styles, I love the looks of the Breton cathedrals.To me this is where the imagination starts...I enjoy the redgaurd stuff too. I love the landscape of Nord lands and the building fit that nicely.
Not that the other stuff is bad, but i dont find the "plain" to be boring at all, i think that having too many super fantastical things makes them become too common and less interesting.
I find the original Altmer style to be too cartoony for me. That being said I do love Summerset, where they took some historical elements and spiced them up.

Varana

Sygil05 wrote: »

Dunmer cantons are the most evil architecture in this game.

That's a hold-over from TES3:Morrowind where they used those cantons for performance reasons. I actually like what they've done with them, esp. having them prettied up with decorations and ornaments. If you really want to appreciate their evilness, imagine them being larger (taking longer to run through) and without any ornamentation at all, just brown-ish concrete.

As for the question:

I have a soft spot for Redguard architecture - vaguely middle-eastern fancy homes are just nice, Abah's Landing has a really good city layout, and ancient Yokudan is great for ruined stuff.

Summerset is really beautiful, esp. just walking through a city away from the main road (wayshrine-bank-daily plaza-crafting area) in Alinor. You can sit in one of those porticoes in a plaza and wait for the waiter to bring your chilled wine. It takes the best of a Mediterranean flair and transposes it to a fancier architectural style.


Least favourite: Breton, for the reasons cited. It's boringly medieval. Also, Argonian huts. I really wish there would be a Maya pyramid-style home - those things in the jungle are beautiful, unlike the mud huts.

Orjix

Well just like everything else in life the answer is the same. The Dunmer have the best architecture and the argonians have the worst, isn't it amazing how life works like that?

ghastley

I'm looking at it from a different perspective, perhaps, but I don't like the way so many of the building styles look like they just wouldn't work in practice. The Summerset buildings all have unsupported stonework that would just fall down. The Khajiit buildings have support posts that are too thin for the weight they need to support. The Argonian mud huts have bulging curved walls that would collapse under their own weight.

The Bosmer homes perhaps can't be called architecture at all, as they were grown, but at least they look as if they're stable.

MajesticHaruki

I never liked the wood elves' architecture. The textures are very bad and there is not really much content.

EvilCroc

Most Favorite - Summerset Altmer. High, white-stone and majestic. Auridon altmer is fine too.
least favorite - vanilla dunmer. What great house does it represent? Indoril, Dres, both? Where is Hlaalu architecture in Narsis? If Kragenmoore is Dres city, where is Dres unique style there? Why no more velothi style in mainland Morrowind? Yes, I know Vvardenfell was realeased later, but I still do not like mainland dunmer style. It hurts my lore-feelings.

But I like ESO architecture chooses mostly. I like khajiit, it is very unique. Orc style fits them well. Marvelous redguard style, generic but fitting breton style, etc.

nudel

Redguard or Summerset are my favorites.

I despise Altmer architecture. I was actually worried that I'd dislike the look of Summerset because it would just be another copy pasta of Auridon, a zone which ranges from ugly to boring in appearance for me. Summerset wasn't and I'm actually really enjoying wandering in it.

From the geography side, Hew's Bane is really pleasant to wander in.

MarrazzMist

They did fantastic job with upgraded styles, like in Hew’s Bane, Wrothgar and Murkmire.

Still, my favourite style is original nord architecture.

Rebirthment

Favorite: Redguard. Especially their furniture

Least favorite: Orc. I don't really like the lack of color or detail.

Lyserus

Darkstorne wrote: »

My favourite is Khajiit, partly because it genuinely is a very unique look that suits their culture, and it isn't something that feels cliched in fantasy like the Argonian "lizard-men are Aztecs" architecture ZOS also opted for. But also because most of Elsweyr is untouched so far, so it doesn't suffer from the issue most provinces do of "one architectural style for the entire province". Imagine if TESV Skyrim used Whiterun's architecture for every city in the game. That's the ZOS approach to architecture Hopefully a future Elsweyr expansion doesn't fall into that trap.

Least favourite... I can't decide between Argonian and Altmer. Argonian because, as said, it's cliche as f***. Altmer is more difficult because the architecture is incredibly beautiful and detailed, but isn't even remotely lore friendly. And that makes me insanely confused! I really want to know about the discussions that took place at ZOS, because they must have discussed the gleaming towers of crystal and glass that Alinor is so renowned for. They must have played around with the idea of at least adding glass and crystal spires to the tops of stone towers. But for whatever reason they decided to completely ignore existing lore and opted for 100% grey stone square castles and towers with a gothic vibe, leaning on the old "in game sources were lying" crutch for the umpteenth time.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here and assuming there's a completely valid reason why they couldn't make a glass and crystal theme work, because they're clearly a talented team. I just really would like to know what that reason is. As a long-time TES it's eating me up inside

My most hated aspect of architecture in this game though is the scale. Seems it's something they're stuck with, because they can't rescale all the buildings in the game, and if they made new expansions work with a realistic scale then it would highlight how bad this problem is when you returned to older parts of the game. But here you go, check out my max height Redguard standing outside this "small" house! What a useful window this must be, made for giants so that no man or mer stands tall enough to see through or out of it Every single building in the game suffers from this.




What were they smoking when they decided this was the scale all buildings should adhere to?

Insert “Look at me. I am the lore now” meme

Enemy-of-Coldharbour

Favorite: Breton
Least Favorite: Argonian

Rex-Umbra

Hews bane red guard

WhiteCoatSyndrome

Sygil05 wrote: »

Dunmer cantons are the most evil architecture in this game.

This is actually a very good point. Not enough to change my answer, but a good point nevertheless.

Varana wrote: »

If you really want to appreciate their evilness, imagine them being larger (taking longer to run through) and without any ornamentation at all, just brown-ish concrete.

In addition to that, there were more of them - half of the cantons haven't been finished in ESO yet! There was a sewer level to each of them in ES3:Morrowind, there were more cantons you had to navigate on top of that, and no quest arrows to find your target in the entire horrible-to-navigate mess. The only things offsetting that were the Levitate spells and Mark and Recall spells.

Korprok

ZoS done an excellent job in creating ESO, some truly amazing visuals overall I think I got to hand it to the Orcs as my personal favorite.

Taleof2Cities

Favorite: Colovian, Redguard

Needs Improvement: Telvanni

Aarlur

I enjoy imperial and dark elf, but I just hate wood elf architecture.

_Salty_

Fave Nord.
Least Altmer.

DenMoria

_Salty_ wrote: »

Fave Nord.
Least Altmer.

It is fun to play a Cave Man from time to time. Trouble is my knuckles always end up bloody and the inability to do more than grunt gets annoying quickly.

Kalante

whatever this monstrosity is

Sicardus

Favorite: Argonian, and I'm talking about the wooden houses (or huts, but they are pretty much like houses given their detail is superb to real life reed hut counterparts). My Grand Topal Hideaway is beautiful. I also love their Mayan inspired temples and buildings. Mazzatun was great, despite the fact that ZOS doesn't seem to want to do a very well preserved temple on the inside (hopefully for Murkmire). I think there's actual stone houses added as seen in the Murkmire teaser. At launch, Mud Huts really bothered me. I feared ZOS would only portray Argonian civilization through that ultra primitive style. Thankfully, it seems the only region of Argonia carrying that style is where the Dunmer have spread their influence. Nowadays I actually enjoy the fact that there is a Mud Hut style to accompany the beautiful wooden homes and Xanmeer architecture. It's better than any sort of copy and pasting, even better than the Mud Huts not existing and only the other two variants. I like contrast in the provinces. So yes, I'm happy ZOS gave Argonia diversity of Architecture.

Least Favorite: I hate to say it, but Ayleid. Why is this? I mean it's clearly beautiful. The problem is that ALMOST EVERY SINGLE RUIN IN THE GAME IS AYLEID. Murkmire is probably going to add a bit more as well, unfortunately. This is the most copy and pasted style in the game.

psychotrip

DenMoria wrote: »

_Salty_ wrote: »

Fave Nord.
Least Altmer.

It is fun to play a Cave Man from time to time. Trouble is my knuckles always end up bloody and the inability to do more than grunt gets annoying quickly.

Honestly altmer architecture barely looks anymore advanced than what you'd find in Windhelm, so I'm not sure why you're comparing nord architecture to something made by primitive cave men.

But to answer the question:

Favorite: Khajiit

Least favorite: Altmer

JaZ2091

MLGProPlayer wrote: »

1. DLC Redguard (see Hew's Bane)
2. DLC Altmer (see Summerset)
3. DLC Dunmer (see Vvardenfell)

I agree with this.