Poll: Seamless+CopyPaste VS. Zones+Variety

PS3 has already created giant seamless worlds.. Red Dead Redemption is a prime example.

Of course, there is much more that goes into MMO processing than just the terrain and textures, but it is possible.

My guess is that the rather dull and limited terrain textures are there to keep memory open for the vast amount of gear and weapon textures that the game will eventually have.

Still...

Stop posting about re-doing MAPS and stuff. You have no idea of what you are asking from a developper's point of view. Might as well redo the game from scratch. The game was designed this way and it will stay this way in the future too. They won't add smaller zones with zoning in the future as well. They will still follow the same pattern as they are now but try to make it more seamless due to all the complains.

That being said you won't see this till after the first expansion of the game so instead try talking about stuff that they are working on right now.

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Originally Posted by Onidemon

Stop posting about re-doing MAPS and stuff. You have no idea of what you are asking from a developper's point of view. Might as well redo the game from scratch. The game was designed this way and it will stay this way in the future too. They won't add smaller zones with zoning in the future as well. They will still follow the same pattern as they are now but try to make it more seamless due to all the complains.

That being said you won't see this till after the first expansion of the game so instead try talking about stuff that they are working on right now.

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YES, THEY MIGHT AS WELL REDO THE GAME FROM SCRATCH. Maybe then they'd actually make a profit somehow.

I'm kind of torn on this. For an MMORPG, loading screens for go a long ways towards killing immersion. On the other hand, so does the complete and utter lack of variety.

However, I just want them to change it somehow. They didn't even get the seamless part right - every zone funnels you through these tiny little tunnels that stretch for half a mile to hide the zone boundaries. That's not seamless, that's patchwork.

Seamless worlds with huge variety can be done: WoW, Lineage2, and LotRO all have wonderful, open worlds. Yet, for some reason all of the newer MMOs can't seem to manage it.

Given the choice between not-really-seemless and variety, I guess I'll pick variety.

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Originally Posted by Onidemon

Stop posting about re-doing MAPS and stuff. You have no idea of what you are asking from a developper's point of view. Might as well redo the game from scratch. The game was designed this way and it will stay this way in the future too. They won't add smaller zones with zoning in the future as well. They will still follow the same pattern as they are now but try to make it more seamless due to all the complains.

That being said you won't see this till after the first expansion of the game so instead try talking about stuff that they are working on right now.

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seeing that almost everyone hates the current way the maps/leveldesign is i don't think that we won't see any changes. Since if so the game will not really get a good ps3 start either. Boring lvl design is a core problem and has to be resolved.

If not the review will be like :

After the incredibly bad launch ffxiv had in september 2010 it got fixed and worked on for over a year.
The results are not very convincing. Everythign is sill copy pasted. The ui definitely got a bit better, even though its still slow and though pretty disappointing. All that really had been added are some incredibly flat side stories and 2 dungeons.
The leves are still flat and boring and extremely repetitive.
The good thing though is, most people dont need to bother with the game anways since unless they play it on ps3, its not enjoable on an affordable PC the way it currently is

rating 6/10

I prefer variety and i don't care how they do it. That's their problem.

The zones are so bare atm, but if they keep adding more things like hamlets, quest hubs, or any kind of landmarks then the world will start to seem less Copy/Paste. There are long stretches of terrain though, so this would require alot of additions. Don't really see it happening.

At any rate, it's not something i'm going to worry about. But i hope SE doesn't forget about it either.

Perhaps a good solution would be to break the main maps into 3rds with new texture maps and some terrain variety in each area...

Even if there is some copypasta in the new maps, it would be enough variety in the overall landscape that people wouldn't care too much.

There was quite a bit of that in FFXI as well. I recall encountering the exact same topology in certain sections of many different caves across Vana'diel, but the variety of textures kept most people from noticing it.

A handful of new "tiles" (including a few more unique ones) and some variations on textures might be enough to fix this issue. I especially like the idea of the Black Shroud having slightly more coniferous forests in the north and a bit more tropical in the south...

Also, part of this is looking to the future as well. Even if they don't change anything with the current zones, at least they will know what the players prefer when making new ones.

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Originally Posted by Anty

seeing that almost everyone hates the current way the maps/leveldesign is i don't think that we won't see any changes. Since if so the game will not really get a good ps3 start either. Boring lvl design is a core problem and has to be resolved.

If not the review will be like :

After the incredibly bad launch ffxiv had in september 2010 it got fixed and worked on for over a year.
The results are not very convincing. Everythign is sill copy pasted. The ui definitely got a bit better, even though its still slow and though pretty disappointing. All that really had been added are some incredibly flat side stories and 2 dungeons.
The leves are still flat and boring and extremely repetitive.
The good thing though is, most people dont need to bother with the game anways since unless they play it on ps3, its not enjoable on an affordable PC the way it currently is

rating 6/10

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Yes we will see changes but not what you guys are asking for. You guys ask to redesign the whole game and use FFXI's design pattern instead and this my friend will never happen. It is ridiculous to think they might even think of doing that. All they will do is tweaks here and there to put a little bit of variety. They won't scrap all zones, design smaller ones from scratch and make them you zone everytime you change areas.

Once they add good content you won't have time to notice to copy/pasting. The new camps/quest hubs are Yoshi-P's answer to all the copy/past complains. This is the type of stuff you will see and new zones will be more carefully designed.

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Originally Posted by Onidemon

Yes we will see changes but not what you guys are asking for. You guys ask to redesign the whole game and use FFXI's design pattern instead and this my friend will never happen. It is ridiculous to think they might even think of doing that. All they will do is tweaks here and there to put a little bit of variety. They won't scrap all zones, design smaller ones from scratch and make them you zone everytime you change areas.

Once they add good content you won't have time to notice to copy/pasting. The new camps/quest hubs are Yoshi-P's answer to all the copy/past complains. This is the type of stuff you will see and new zones will be more carefully designed.

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well... i dunno why you know what i think but i never said they would redo it all from scratch.
Changes on the current environment, sometimes bigger changes would work, im pretty sure.
And a dungeon and even 20 dungeons won't change anything. As long as there are these huge distances with boring level design it will always be an issue. I would go change that rather sooner then later, since the gameworld is a very important immersion factor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Onidemon

Stop posting about re-doing MAPS and stuff. You have no idea of what you are asking from a developper's point of view. Might as well redo the game from scratch. The game was designed this way and it will stay this way in the future too. They won't add smaller zones with zoning in the future as well. They will still follow the same pattern as they are now but try to make it more seamless due to all the complains.

That being said you won't see this till after the first expansion of the game so instead try talking about stuff that they are working on right now.

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Arent they redoing the Black Shroud? Either way, they dont have to redo the entire zone layout for places like La Noscea and Thanalan, but just add structures and other things such as the encampments to the landscape. Once this new battle system foundation gets implemented, i'd hope they would be able to move forward faster than what they've been doing now.