How is this game so big?

[DOS32]

Its amazing the scale of this game compared to anything on the market.

How was this made? It cant all be procedurally generated. Has anything been said about the development of the game?

[Ralzar]

It was generated back in the mid 90s. Then they added some handcrafted stuff to special locations and probably fixed a bunch of weirdness caused by the auto-generation.

[xrogaan]

Daggerfall is generated using a procedural techinque. So little is hand made, but the rural areas are also not that interesting.

[seal cub clubbing club]

walking through daggerfall is like walking on the surface of mars :)

[Doom MD]

Originally posted by DOS32:

Its amazing the scale of this game compared to anything on the market.

How was this made? It cant all be procedurally generated. Has anything been said about the development of the game?

It’s been decades since I played but iirc there are 3 hand made cities and some hand crafted dungeons. Everything else is procedurally generated. This led to some jank like dungeons that you can’t complete. Playing this when it came out in the 90s was absolutely mind blowing. That they somehow managed to top it with Morrowind was one of the most incredible gaming memories ever for me. Both are masterpieces for entirely different reasons.

[lonetrav]

What do you mean by "big"? Classic Daggerfall is a less than 200 MB download and about half a GB on disk (full install). This was an issue when it was released (and Bethesda offered smaller install sizes then, with the rest played from the CD). Daggerfall was also quite demanding for the PC's at the time.
But today? I'm aware that the size of the Daggerfall GOG Cut is 6 GB - this is not classic Daggerfall, but classic Daggerfall + DFU (which in itself isn't much either) + DFU mods (among them huge graphics mods). If you don't want them, just delete them (or don't install them in the first place). My personal installation of classic Daggerfall + DFU + DFU mods is less than 800 MB.

Edit: As Thaecrasis pointed out correctly (see next post), I misinterpreted the topic issue: It's about map size, not file size. My apologies!

[Thaecrasis]

Originally posted by lonetrav:

What do you mean by "big"? Classic Daggerfall is a less than 200 MB download and about half a GB on disk (full install). This was an issue when it was released (and Bethesda offered smaller install sizes then, with the rest played from the CD). Daggerfall was also quite demanding for the PC's at the time.
But today? I'm aware that the size of the Daggerfall GOG Cut is 6 GB - this is not classic Daggerfall, but classic Daggerfall + DFU (which in itself isn't much either) + DFU mods (among them huge graphics mods). If you don't want them, just delete them (or don't install them in the first place). My personal installation of classic Daggerfall + DFU + DFU mods is less than 800 MB.

Pretty sure they're talking about the map size

[lonetrav]

Map size? I suppose you're right! I'll update my post above. Thanks for telling me!

[Unexpected]

its a big game but there isnt really much in it, a few cities are unique and there are several unique quests, but otherwise it tends to be randomly generated and next to nothing happens outside of population areas, you can just use this game as a life simulator and pick which fiefdom you'd like to call home

[Rat]

daggerfall(500gb) is the biggest game in the world Ark is the smallest (1gb)

[lonetrav]

Originally posted by Unexpected:

... there isnt really much in it, a few cities are unique and there are several unique quests, but otherwise it tends to be randomly generated and next to nothing happens outside of population areas,...

Not quite. For details, you may read the World and Factions sections of the Daggerfall entry of uesp.net. For example, a quote from the Places subsection of World:
"Daggerfall contains a total of 15,251 cities, inns, homes, temples, graveyards and dungeons. Contrary to the randomly-generated wilderness separating them, these locations are all pre-determined. ... There is a total of 4,229 dungeons in Daggerfall, which contain various enemies and block types. Depending on the location, they can include haunts, dens, laboratories, caves or graveyards, among others. ... The total amount of Towns in Daggerfall is 5,090."
There are many political entities, factions, guilds, temples, etc. you can join and make career in (or fight against) scattered across Daggerfall - a role-player's paradise (in my opinion, Morrowind and Oblivion are more immersive, but Daggerfall has a lot of content for people who don't expect handholding and direction for every step they take). Moreover, you can play vampires or werewolves, and / or get in touch with witch covens. I wouldn't call this "nothing happens outside of population areas".
In addition to the content of classic Daggerfall I mentioned above, DFU mods add more factions, quests and other role-playing content.

[Tomcat]

Technically it's a big game.

But there's only one main quest.

I don't know how to explain it but once you actually bother to do the main quest. You'll find the game is pretty shallow. 99% of the cities exist only to be a destination to deliver some item or to kill some person in a house.


And if you don't fast travel, It's alot of empty terrain.

[lonetrav]

Originally posted by Tomcat:

... But there's only one main quest.
I don't know how to explain it but once you actually bother to do the main quest. You'll find the game is pretty shallow. 99% of the cities exist only to be a destination to deliver some item or to kill some person in a house.
And if you don't fast travel, It's alot of empty terrain.

Depends how you play. If you simply want to play the main quest once and then move on, you're right. But the TES games try to deliver a much broader roleplaying experience. There are even not so few players who don't play the main quest at all.
I have completed the main quests of the first four TES games, but spent most of my time playing these four games doing other things, associated with living (in a roleplaying sense) in the social and political worlds with all their inhabitants (including the less friendly ones) and assuming different roles.
Moreover, you can complete the main quests in many different ways. I've completed the Daggerfall main quest only once, a long time ago, as a spellsword, but, for example, the Morrowind main quest at least three times, among them as a fighter with hand-to-hand fighting only, or as someone who tries to avoid fights completely (doesn't work perfectly, but quite well), the Oblivion main quest several times, too, for example as a conjurer who doesn't fight himself but uses healing spells, if necessary, and who uses no weapons and no armour at all (eventually, the conjurer learnt some destruction spells, for convenience). Right now I've started playing Daggerfall again using a custom race character with a stronger focus on magic and the ability to wear highly protective equipment. For the time being, I'm ignoring the main quest, but will eventually play it I suppose.
You can also climb the hierarchy ladders of the Daggerfall factions, guilds, temples, etc., of the Thieves Guild, the Dark Brotherhood, you can play as a vampire or as a werewolf. Just travel cross-country and visit the places (not only the towns) you find (there's more than 15,000 of them!), try to find work or loot or simply adventures. What more do you expect?

By the way: How many main quests did you expect?

[Ralzar]

Originally posted by Tomcat:

But there's only one main quest.

As opposed to?
I am honestly having a real problem thinking of a single RPG with more than one Main Quest.
Heck, Daggerfall basically has two main quests. They just end up getting combined at the very end.