For some reason I just can't enjoy exploring in the elderscrolls games.

[Damian79]

I have played all the ES games, but I simply couldn't enjoy exploring the wilderness. A lot of the areas looked the same and it made navigation hard. This is opposed to the Betrayal in -ara games which always felt good exploring. Is this a fault with the ES games or is it just me?

[animegirl]

It's you.

[sethsez]

There's only so much you can do to make forests, mountains and plains look varied.

[frostwolf ex]

Its you

[animegirl]

Uhhhh AHEM...
*points two posts up*

[frostwolf ex]

i was agreeing with you
*sobs himself to sleep*

[arjue]

Honestly, I would spend around 4 hours a day just running through the ashlands, looking for trouble (doing it ASAP too, so I was in way over my head. Amulet of shadows = winner).

[MechDeus]

I have played all the ES games, but I simply couldn't enjoy exploring the wilderness. A lot of the areas looked the same and it made navigation hard.

Experience exclusively from Morrowind: To take a wild guess I'd say it might be just learning so much ground at once. You're dropped into a world and unlike many games you've got the freedom to immediately head anywhere, it's not presented in any sort of small chunks that build up to larger chunks so that you know your surroundings before moving on to a larger area. That's a lot to learn, and when you're surrounded by trees and rocks as far as the eye can see, it's hard keeping a straight path to anywhere.

I highly recommend constant usage of the map, but that's pretty obvious. Like any large wilderness, learning the layout takes time and memorization, I can still get lost just because ponds and mountains don't always give me the path I want. I'll end up in the totally wrong direction without realizing it because the nudging into different directions can be so subtle.

[Six]

You're dropped into a world and unlike many games you've got the freedom to immediately head anywhere, it's not presented in any sort of small chunks that build up to larger chunks so that you know your surroundings before moving on to a larger area.

Which is exactly the problem I had when I first played. You *have* to stick to the task at hand, at least until you've built some skills up and got some decent equipment. After a few quests for your guilds of choice you are good to go explore where ever you wish, and you might make it back home afterwards. If you get excited and run off in a random direction first thing, trying to "Explore" you'll just explore yourself into a Daedra and a quick load from the last savepoint.

If you're playing on the PC (and you're silly if you're not) get some mods; some make the game 100x better. I'm using fpsoptimizer (to increase view distance 2x), AdventurersTC (a total conversion combining some of the better mods and a higher level of difficulty without messing with the game storyline) and a few graphical enhancements. It's like a different playing experience.

[epmode]

I have played all the ES games, but I simply couldn't enjoy exploring the wilderness. A lot of the areas looked the same and it made navigation hard. This is opposed to the Betrayal in -ara games which always felt good exploring. Is this a fault with the ES games or is it just me?

i felt the same way about arena & daggerfall. morrowind fixed all that, what with the unique geographical features, signs & excellent map system.