Is Daggerfall‘s Map Bigger than Skyrim‘s? A True Elder Scrolls Behemoth

As a hardcore fan of Bethesda‘s Elder Scrolls series, I am constantly awe-struck by the incredible breadth and depth of their vast open game worlds. And when it comes to sheer map size, one early entry called The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall completely dwarfs its successors like Skyrim. With a staggering map size estimated at 161,600 square kilometers, Daggerfall‘s realm of High Rock and Hammerfell is over 4,000 times bigger than Skyrim‘s map!

What drives such a huge difference, and how would these worlds compare from a player perspective? As we explore these questions, it becomes clear why Daggerfall remains an ambition unmatched in Bethesda‘s catalogue – as well as gaming history itself.

Breaking Down the Map Sizes

Let‘s start by looking at some key size figures across various Elder Scrolls games:

As this table illustrates, Daggerfall‘s territory is astonishingly vast compared to later titles. At 161,600 sq km, it is over 277 times bigger than Oblivion and 4,218 times bigger than Skyrim!

To put that into perspective, that is larger than the actual countries of Great Britain (209,331 sq km) that Daggerfall was based on, or Greece (131,957 sq km). Vast stretches of terrain and oceans separate over 15,000 explorable towns and cities scattered across its provinces.

Traversing the Maps: Crossing Daggerfall on Foot

The sheer physical scale of these game worlds directly impacts the player experience. Using an average walking speed of 5 km/h in-game, here is how long it would take to walk across the maps:

At a blazing fast 25 km/h sprint speed, Daggerfall still requires over 800 hours of non-stop running to traverse on foot. And that‘s not counting all the distractions like dungeons, enemies, and questing along the way!

Clearly playing Daggerfall strictly on foot imposes physical limits. Instead, players rely on swift transportation via routes and magical teleportation between cities and towns across its gargantuan breadth.

The Double-Edged Sword of Scale

Daggerfall‘s pioneering use of procedural generation enabled such a massive scale. And instead of hand-crafted environments, thousands upon thousands of locations like dungeons and towns could be crafted algorithmically.

This brought effectively limitless scope but at the cost of unique detail and character in its locations. As game worlds moved towards more detail and visual quality, physical scale has become more constrained.

However modern advances like cloud streaming could breathe new life into gargantuan game worlds. With servers handling rendering and physics, future elder scrolls games powered by technologies like Microsoft Azure may rival even Daggerfall‘s vast expanses by freeing clients of performance limitations.

Bethesda‘s Design Evolution: Richness Over Scale

Examining Bethesda‘s subsequent Elder Scrolls games following Daggerfall reveals clear design changes:

Morrowind (2002) adopted more handcrafted detail over raw procedural acreage – yet retained impressive variation with ashlands, forests and volcanic regions sprawling across its island setting.

Oblivion (2006) ignited critical acclaim through intricately modelled environments and vistas, at the expense of overall size. Lush forests gave way to arid badlands across gentle rolling plains.

Finally Skyrim (2011) delievered Bethesda‘s most visually stunning and dense gameworld yet realised. Verticality played increased importance accentuating towering peaks, with layered caverns and secret passes threading beneath ice caps. Favouring richness over scale remains Bethesda‘s mantra for single-player RPGs to this day.

Conclusion: Unmatched Ambition

Daggerfall‘s pioneering procedural world building has yet to meet a rival within Bethesda‘s subsequent Elder Scrolls universe. Although later entries trade unfathomable acreage for deep environmental storytelling and dazzling sights, Daggerfall‘s ambition still proves captivating as an open fantasy sandbox like no other.

Perhaps future entries will blend immense landscapes through clever technical innovation like cloud streaming computation and AI generation – while retaining exquisite world detail. Until then, Daggerfall remains one of gaming‘s most incredible virtual worlds unmatched in breadth and scope over 2 decades later!

Have you braved the wilds of High Rock and Hammerfell yourself in Daggerfall? Share your favourite moments traversing (or getting utterly lost) in its sprawling ancestral terrain!