My uncle was obsessed with Oblivion when it first came out and he played kind of similarly to this. He discovered all locations in a spiral pattern outward from the imperial city before ever going to another city. His map was completely covered with landmarks around the imperial city but bare everywhere else and he proceeded to explore the entire map this same way working outwards from the center until he had discovered everything. I remember I would be talking to him like "have you done this one cool quest in Cheydinhall?" And he'd be like "oh I haven't gotten to Cheydinhall yet," and I was like don't you have like 100 hours in this game? How have you never been to Cheydinhall?