Stuff I Miss From 1.0

I don't see why we can't have huge zones without any copy and paste.

Ohh the crafting music XD. We dont have the *whistling* music anymore :/

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Originally Posted by Fensfield

The optimal armour system wasn't fundamentally dumb, it just wasn't properly balanced. At all. Plenty of games have proven systems like that work perfectly well with the right balancing but sadly the rush to launch v1.0 just.. didn't allow for that. Still at least we'll be getting that dress pattern setup soon-ish..

As for me? Well, despite the inevitable spitefulness is going to come from people on account of it apparently just being.. 'fun' to hate on the original without bothering to think why Yoshida and co. kept the things they did..

Well, I do miss the combat, even in its oldest form. I also desperately miss the original mystery driven format of the main scenario - it's fairly obvious most of the stuff we're just told at the start was actually plot twists originally (like Hydaelyn being sentient and the source of the Echo, for instance).

The old Coerthas was certainly nicer I think.. and I Really miss the old Lalafell walk, although the new run is alright. The race-specific armour designs are also a horrid loss.

Beyond that? The original main scenario format was more my style, too. It was a bit far toward the hapless bystander for the main character sure, but at least it tried to make you feel like you were part of the game world. The new one on the other hand is obsessed with setting you apart from it, constantly shrieking about how awesome and special you are, even going so far as to lie with things like claiming you beat party-only bosses single-handedly.

I also miss the original designs for the game that were never realised at all, but.. I guess looking back we know now that the problems with the engine would never have allowed for a lot of those things; not without Hiromichi Tanaka getting the same rebuild opportunity Yoshida did.

Oh and the old animations. I don't buy the 'necessary for gameplay' argument they offered in the least. Simple overrides would have solved that. No, it was budgeting reasons - probably in the long term especially.

For the record though? I still blame Wada for basically everything wrong with the original launch, even if Tanaka and Kitase did screw up a fair bit. The buck stopped with him, he had the power to veto the launch, and his track record suggests he was behind a lot of the lies about the game and all. It's.. I'm glad he got fired in the end, even if he did manage to scapegoat the blame for the v1.0 debacle on anyone besides himself.

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Agreed with all of the above, save the last part concerning blaming Wada. I think the push to launch was a mistake made by a lot of top level people, and I'm not sure it's fair to try to place the blame soley on one person, be it Tanaka or Wada or anyone else.

There was so much in the original launch that was very obviously unfinished, but 1.0 had a very real charm to that is, bizarrely, missing completely from 2.0. I'm enjoying myself, sure....but given the choice, I would have taken a re-realization of Tanaka's original vision over what we have now.

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Originally Posted by Uriahnool

I still don't know why people said that the environments in 1.0 were copy/paste repeating and boring textures. Sure there were things repeated - but a big forest is going to have repeating trees. a desert is going to have repeating rocks. Fields are going to have repeating grass. But each zone, even with the "repeats" seemed to be vast and there were many variations in the landscape. Different camps and steads, and stone archways and bridges and towers - no area in 1.0 seemed to me like it was dull or boring or without the variation. Even the "maze" landscape of gridania felt very nice. A pain to navigate with a map, but it felt very much like a deep forest once could get lost in.

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I don't think people understand that with the repeating stuff, they we're able to create a huge single zone, with different monsters at each crossing.

Now thats just not possible anymore.
Everything has to be "unique"

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Originally Posted by Risae

I don't think people understand that with the repeating stuff, they we're able to create a huge single zone, with different monsters at each crossing.

Now thats just not possible anymore.
Everything has to be "unique"

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You mean five, uninspired zones with clusters of mobs sprinkled around the lack of any landmarks to differentiate them from other parts of the same zone.

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Originally Posted by KiriA500

You mean five, uninspired zones with clusters of mobs sprinkled around the lack of any landmarks to differentiate them from other parts of the same zone.

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This post is an example of everything that is currently wrong with MMO zone design right now. Not every single inch of space needs to be unique or have a purpose. In fact, when trying to create a sense of scale, quite the opposite is true.

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Originally Posted by Ksenia

No shard farming.
I really hate the shard farming.

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There was also shard farming at the beginning in 1.0
I remember that I farmed Dodos who dropped wind shards.

And lighting elementals in the caves around Humblehearth to get some lighting crystals for weaver.

I find the new Coerthas Central Highlands good, but I miss the Coerthas Central Lowlands (the area around Camp Glory).

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Originally Posted by Uriahnool

I still don't know why people said that the environments in 1.0 were copy/paste repeating and boring textures. Sure there were things repeated - but a big forest is going to have repeating trees. a desert is going to have repeating rocks. Fields are going to have repeating grass. But each zone, even with the "repeats" seemed to be vast and there were many variations in the landscape. Different camps and steads, and stone archways and bridges and towers - no area in 1.0 seemed to me like it was dull or boring or without the variation. Even the "maze" landscape of gridania felt very nice. A pain to navigate with a map, but it felt very much like a deep forest once could get lost in.

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They not just copied a rock, they copied a whole montain. They not just copied grass, they copied the whole grassland. Each canyon in the same region was the same canyon, from the entry to the exit.

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Originally Posted by Dreamer

This post is an example of everything that is currently wrong with MMO zone design right now. Not every single inch of space needs to be unique or have a purpose. In fact, when trying to create a sense of scale, quite the opposite is true.

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It's quite possible to give things a sense of scale without having them just be copy/pasted terrain. It just takes proper development, which 1.0 did not have.

Essentially, what you're saying is the top picture is better than the bottom picture, simply because it has more stuff on it, regardless of quality.

http://i44.tinypic.com/28hpo5c.jpg
http://6269-9001.zippykid.netdna-cdn...-Wallpaper.jpg

Remember, "not every single inch of space needs to be unique or have a purpose."

I miss the vast space of 1.0, it felt like undertaking an adventure in its own right when going from say Uldah to MorDhona...The sense of accomplishment when you managed to get to hard to reach camps, managing to sneak past level 90 mobs without getting aggro is something thats missing from the game now. The areas as they stand are far, far too small. I understand the areas outside the cities are meant to be relatively safe but when you can go anywhere via chocoporter under 3 mins it kind of diminished the open world experience.
As a fan of 1.0 in its later phases i also miss the combat, it was far less spammy now. Unless you have ADHD theres no time to think, just button mash on the melee classes. Mages have a slightly better time of it as they get to stand back and miss the multicoloured fireworks display that blocks out the mobs your supposed to be fighting when up close.
On a final note i hope Skirmish makes a reappearance!

2.0 zones make me feel like I'm in a miniature golf setting. It is so compressed and congested.

I certainly like the vision of 1.0 more. It's very sad that they chose to re-cut that gem instead of polishing it. I'm glad to have experienced it if only for a few months though.