Geography of ARR vs. 1.0

[Alenore]

Ever been in real forest sonny? And not the one in parks. lol

Cause I did, and got lost there too. Which is why the old Shroud really reminds me of that experience. XD

A real forest isn't made of paths carved in the ground with wall of trees around you. They're wild and unpredictable. Not vegetation corridors.

[Kicha]

I never played 1.0, but it sounds like, from how you're describing it, that the old Shroud was designed more like a dense jungle. If you ever go in a dense jungle, yes, it can be like a wall of vegetation that form into corridors from either animal trails or man-mad trails....though that shouldn't be how a temperate forest should be designed....

[Nutz]

I never played 1.0, but it sounds like, from how you're describing it, that the old Shroud was designed more like a dense jungle. If you ever go in a dense jungle, yes, it can be like a wall of vegetation that form into corridors from either animal trails or man-mad trails....though that shouldn't be how a temperate forest should be designed....

It was a bit like this, except that the 'trails' were wide and very well cleared, however, they led to all sorts of useless places. It might have made more sense if there were direct routes from A to B, but it was just endless corridors like a hedge maze. The scenery was pretty though, I'll give it that. ARR's Black Shroud might have gone too far in the other direction in that, while it's clearly wooded, it's not nearly as densely wooded as the tree line just outside my apartment complex.

[Akoree]

Of course, the end result is a number of 1.0 players are now wondering whether they made a mistake, now thinking that 1.0 zones might have been better, but that's life I guess - they made this monster, now they can't complain that it's stomped on a city.

Nobody actually "misses" the old maps. Back in 1.0 nearly 100% of the population agreed that the maps were boring hallways of copy/pasted terrain filled with random monsters placed there for no other purpose than to grind. There were a few areas like the red labyrinth who actually had some sort of "unique" feature such as have red rocks that that's where it ended. Some people here on the forums still claim they miss 1.0 but I assure you that, when those people aren't trolling, it is only nostalgia fueling their words and that none of them would really rather play 1.0 than what we have right now even if they wouldn't admit it.

[Kyana]

wrong comparison. The 1.0 picture above are eastern Thanalan, while the ARR version you put below are central Thanalan. lol

I think I missed the point where I said that these maps show the same zone/area. Help me find it please.
No matter which zone you look at, the difference will be the same, so keep your lols for yourself please.

[Holyhunter]

I never played 1.0, but it sounds like, from how you're describing it, that the old Shroud was designed more like a dense jungle. If you ever go in a dense jungle, yes, it can be like a wall of vegetation that form into corridors from either animal trails or man-mad trails....though that shouldn't be how a temperate forest should be designed....

No, 1.0 shroud wasn't like a dense jungle. There was quite literally a carved path you had to walk in with small cliffs to your left and right, and the trees were on top of those.

There were some open areas that had a few trees though.


But after walking past the exact same creek 50 times in 50 different places, it got very old

[TinyRedLeaf]

ARR's Black Shroud might have gone too far in the other direction in that, while it's clearly wooded, it's not nearly as densely wooded as the tree line just outside my apartment complex.

Huge chunks of Dalamud had presumably crashed into the forest during the Calamity. And Bahamut likely added to the destruction when he briefly ran amok. Five years of slow recovery would hardly be enough to replace the entire groves of the thousand-year-old trees destroyed during the disaster.

At least, that's why I think the 'Black' Shroud looks the way it does now.

As for what I don't miss about the 1.0 maps: I'm certainly more than glad to see the complete end to aetheryte camps. They were pathetic, demonstrating an absolute lack of commitment to design plausible towns or settlements, pockets of civilisation amid the wilderness. And I remember how Aleport 1.0 was no more than a collection of a few grey buildings with hardly anyone around, a far cry from how it looks today.

One thing that I do wonder about is when Toll goes full city will they zone it and add more land to Mor Dhona and connectors to both sides with out going through Toll to adjust the size?

Actually, I kind of feel sorry for future players who will never get to experience how Revenant's Toll literally grew before our eyes.

Unless there are plans to introduce the settlement to new players in phases, like how players won't see the Domans until they've completed the main story quests from patch 2.2? Another example perhaps be the Waking Sands, which would look different, depending on how far into the main story quest the player has gone.

Is this already the case for Revenant's Toll?

[Sakasa]

Most people referred to the shroud as hamster/gerble tubes as the map belayed the simple method of placement, but the actual forest was hard to figure out where you weren't (Where you are on a path was easy to figure out but how far you are from anything else was lost) from visuals alone as there were few landmarks mostly the mob levels and the bridges were it, but because alot of 1.0 was done with out choco or the ability to sprint (go go DOL movement buff) the shroud had many useless twist and turns that made it more maze like then forest region.

Well we have found pieces of the some maps like the battle of big bridge is the long bridge zone loading point for corethas but what we lost for in size we gained in character, which matters alot in zones you can't easily teleport around in.

One thing that I do wonder about is when Toll goes full city will they zone it and add more land to Mor Dhona and connectors to both sides with out going through Toll to adjust the size?

[Rasenore]

I think I missed the point where I said that these maps show the same zone/area. Help me find it please.
No matter which zone you look at, the difference will be the same, so keep your lols for yourself please.

That's just silly, though. When you draw a comparison to show changes to a place, you should be comparing the new version with the old. I could share Southern Thanalan and compare it with modern Central Thanalan, and they'd look really different, even though Legacy Southern Thanalan was different to how the other maps in Thanalan were.

As for the pictures you showed, if you compare the old Central Thanalan with the new one, there's still some resemblance. Not as much as Central Highlands in Coerthas, but you can see they used the original as a base to work with. Similarly, Eastern Thanalan may look really different, but if you split it in half, it's a little more like ARR's Eastern Thanalan. The lower half? That's actually now part of ARR's Southern Thanalan.

The geography is definitely different, with crevices, canyons, and mountains that didn't exist before or no longer exist, but there are still clear traces of them usually being the same place, minus the odd location change. It's also worth noting that the maps only tell half of the story. I think the easiest example would be Old Gridania. The lower area near Greatloam Growery was there in the original, but inaccessible (and thus not on the map). Similarly, the entrance to the cave that lead to Stillglade Fane and the Amphitheatre are sealed off by a cave in, the paths still visible, but is what has lead to their movement.

So no, the difference will not be the same.

[Eltaire]

Actually, I kind of feel sorry for future players who will never get to experience how Revenant's Toll literally grew before our eyes.

Unless there are plans to introduce the settlement to new players in phases, like how players won't see the Domans until they've completed the main story quests from patch 2.2? Another example perhaps be the Waking Sands, which would look different, depending on how far into the main story quest the player has gone.

I only recently got to the point where the Domans relocated to Mor Dhona, and I can confirm that they were not there until after I had completed the scenario for it which suggests that players may be introduced in stages.