The amount of loading screens in this game is kind of absurd.

I'm not one of those people who insists the game needs to be one seamless world (seamless worlds are nice but hardly essential) but the number of small zones and instances in this game is greater than anything I've ever seen with the exception of a small number of handheld games like Phantasy Star Zero on the Nintendo DS.

Again, I'm not demanding the entire or even each region by one big seamless zone but loading screens while moving around different parts of the same city? In dungeons? Amdapor Keep, Crystal Tower, Haukke Manor and Pharos Sirius, to name a few are all cut up into three distinct zones abruptly separated by loading screens, three! There are games from 10+ years ago that were at least able to keep a single dungeon or city as its own zone, and it's not like any of these places are unusually large.

This isn't about not being "high tech" or "modern" enough, its about a basic sense of place. It's hard to feel a real sense of place when you have to click an orb or walk over a blue line multiple times to be teleported to a separate, discrete zone just over the course of one 45-minute dungeon.


Am I alone, here or does this feel kind of absurd to anyone else?

It doesn't surprise me since most japanese games I've played are like this.

PS3 Limitation.

I fully agree with the OP !

Come on the city districts are separate and you have to load.....ive never been in a MMO where such things exists!

Sure no loading times would be great, but the loading times I've experienced have never really been long enough for me to care.

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Originally Posted by homunyan

I'm not one of those people who insists the game needs to be one seamless world (seamless worlds are nice but hardly essential) but the number of small zones and instances in this game is greater than anything I've ever seen with the exception of a small number of handheld games like Phantasy Star Zero on the Nintendo DS.

Again, I'm not demanding the entire or even each region by one big seamless zone but loading screens while moving around different parts of the same city? In dungeons? Amdapor Keep, Crystal Tower, Haukke Manor and Pharos Sirius, to name a few are all cut up into three distinct zones abruptly separated by loading screens, three! There are games from 10+ years ago that were at least able to keep a single dungeon or city as its own zone, and it's not like any of these places are unusually large.

This isn't about not being "high tech" or "modern" enough, its about a basic sense of place. It's hard to feel a real sense of place when you have to click an orb or walk over a blue line multiple times to be teleported to a separate, discrete zone just over the course of one 45-minute dungeon.


Am I alone, here or does this feel kind of absurd to anyone else?

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How many MMOS have you played on PS3 give you access to larger chunks of land that are as detailed as FFXIV, or did you forget that this is a cross platform game and cannot be made only to the strengths of PC gamers?

While I agree that it is annoying, SW:TOR was FAR worse, and that game was PC only.

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Originally Posted by MikoteAstra

I fully agree with the OP !

Come on the city districts are separate and you have to load.....ive never been in a MMO where such things exists!

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http://arthur1977.files.wordpress.co...ffxi_logo2.png
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Originally Posted by Zaiken

PS3 Limitation.

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Even during 1.0, with no PS3, dungeons were seperated in 2 or 3 zones (or at least 2 or 3 teleporters who gave the players loading screens)

they take like 2-3 seconds... sure it breaks immersion but is it a deal breaker?

no.

Yes we have loading screens...that last for bout 5 secs max on avg...

try some of the other newer mmos...like SWToR....you spend half an hour just loading the planet in even if you were already there.. ok I exaggerate its way longer than 5 seconds tho
Star Trek Online....load...everywhere for everything including visiting a diferent deck on your ship that is generic and is the same as EVERYONE elses ship interior so there shouldn't be any load delays but there are...
Neverwinter...oh forget it ill stop mentioning Craptic Studios you get the idea with STO

TBH its not that bad, and if you have a massive delay in loading, get up grab a drink, have a book nearby...let the dog out I dunno /shrug

If the loading bothers you that much on the PS3, then you'll be better off buying the PS4 and getting the free upgrade.

To be fair and honest, I would. FF14 is a hell of a time sinker and enetertaining but not everyone has the luxury to upgrade a console.

Someone has never played SWTOR before...

The system needs to load for the surroundings or w/e computer term you want to apply, hence the loading.

Heck even RO with 2D graphics loads everytime there's a portal inbetween zones.

I understand why there are loading screens between distinct areas, even modern games like Guild Wars 2 have that, what I don't get is why there has to be loading screens just moving about in small places like cities or dungeons. Honestly many of the outdoor areas are larger than dungeons or cities but are still just one zone until you move to a specifically different area. It doesn't really make any sense. Pharos Sirius is just a lighthouse, why does it need to be 3 different zones?

In 1.x we had an Open World with invisible loading screens!
It was fun when crossing the invisible line and seeing players appear from dust or vanishing because they gone ahead... we could change Area "on the fly"
That have given a better Final Fantasy feeling and i do not like those Loading Screens.
Loading Screens are like a Cut, its odd...

However, If it makes the game playable with less lag i do not care about loading screens, but SE have proven they still have a lot problems to handle lag - try to fight Odin as example :)

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Originally Posted by Yukiko

In 1.x we had an Open World with invisible loading screens!
It was fun when crossing the invisible line and seeing players appear from dust or vanishing because they gone ahead... we could change Area "on the fly"
That have given a better Final Fantasy feeling and i do not like those Loading Screens.
Loading Screens are like a Cut, its odd...

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Yes, if they want to lower congestion I don't understand why they couldn't just have the server not send data to far away players like in 1.0. It's not a graphics issue, in limsa lominsa you can see the entire city regardless of what zone you are in since it's wide open. I also don't understand dungeons since they are not large and only have 4-8 people in them.

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Originally Posted by homunyan

I also don't understand dungeons since they are not large and only have 4-8 people in them.

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Cutter's Cry, Halatali, the Praetorium, Haukke Manor (Hard) and Pharos Sirius are the only dungeons that aren't one whole map. That's 5 out of 19, which is still really good.

Raids should definitely get a pass with this, though. The Binding Coil is obviously broken up because the different turns have such vastly different presentations and mechanics to them. Crystal Tower will probably be similar, and it's okay that even the first floor is broken up into two parts (Acheron's arena and everything else), because the place is so HUGE and incredibly detailed and animated.

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Originally Posted by Darkranko

While I agree that it is annoying, SW:TOR was FAR worse, and that game was PC only.

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this^


ff14 might have a lot of zones but they load so fast i dont even care

eq2 has loading zones btw city zones D: , and in vanilla there were like 8 zones in each city >< each name on the map was a "zone" (loading included) ,now there are only 4 zones ...:rolleyes:, i remember playing with 500 mb of ram...5min loading times werent fun ,1h to grab and hand quests around the city (that i avoided like the plague back then :P) , FFXIV has loading zones but takes what 2s?

http://eq2.gamepressure.com/all_freeport.jpg

I want seamless worlds, and it's less due to immersion or loading time, it's just that seamless feels better.

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Originally Posted by Holyhunter

http://arthur1977.files.wordpress.co...ffxi_logo2.png
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funny that you quote FFXI and relating to the cities you are partially right, but the cities were much bigger.
and in FFXI there were several big dungeons not split into zones and the game was also on console.

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Originally Posted by Thorauku

The system needs to load for the surroundings or w/e computer term you want to apply, hence the loading.

Heck even RO with 2D graphics loads everytime there's a portal inbetween zones.

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The graphic is 3D. Only the characters, NPCs and enemies are 2D

Here, I found this
Aurun Vale 1.0, no PS3 version, 4 zones

http://s1.hostingkartinok.com/upload...f6bdee9d69.png
http://s1.hostingkartinok.com/upload...bf2888ee20.png
http://s1.hostingkartinok.com/upload...116aa66c04.png

Or the old Cutter's Cry

http://s1.hostingkartinok.com/upload...8aff20b029.png