SE, we need to talk about your zone ceilings

[Naunet]

<snip>

WoW runs on potatoes and not once have I ever thought, "Dang, I can't reach _____ because the invisible ceiling won't let me."

[Kyonika]

WoW runs on potatoes...

That just made me think of Lalafels running in a treadmill powering an old MMO. ROFL.

(That was too funny!)

[Chiramu]

The invisible wall was annoying in Yanxia for me most. I wish you could fly over the mountains(they are massive) instead of going right around the river ><. There also are areas of map that are behind invisible walls but it looks like you can fly there.

Also I have a problem with areas you can land. Bits of the coral at Shoal Rock are unable to land on(I wanted to fish there XD) and a LOT of mountains are unable to land on too .

[KisaiTenshi]

WoW runs on potatoes and not once have I ever thought, "Dang, I can't reach _____ because the invisible ceiling won't let me."

WoW and Mabinogi (good gawd both these games are still running) also have much smaller origin zones, and the maps that they allow flight in are very-very-very empty.

Archeage probably does the best air-to-sea transitions (you can quite literately jump off the airship and fall for quite a while and hit the ocean), and has some of the best looking water physics in a MMO game. That said, in terms of scale, lots and lots and lots of essentially empty space everywhere.

And this is a hard thing to balance really. You want the world to feel like it's lived in, not that all 10,000 players live within a quarter mile. In fact in pretty much every MMORPG, there is a "home" area that is where the game logic is better tied to, and then there are expansion areas that even when they include buildings, you often can't go in them, all the quest NPC's are hanging out outside.

In terms of scale we keep talking about continents, but really, it's closer to describing something like Manhattan Island as an Continent Island the size of Australia, because the game doesn't have the scale of the real world. One of the things Fallout 3 did was replicate the layout of Washington DC without actually making it the scale of Washington DC, yet, notice how empty it is.

It would suck taking 20 minutes in a game to walk half a mile in a video game, as least I don't feel tired in the game.

So in terms of scale, yes the world has to be smaller because a 1:1 scale with reality would have loading zones for every city block in a game like fallout 3, or GTA 4. By comparison with MMORPG's, you'd have loading zones if they weren't seemless you'd be hitting the loading screen when you walk inside and outside buildings as well since it would need to switch between outside and inside models. That's why the vast majority of PC FPS games take place outside. Many MMORPG's do the same by convention.

One day we will get a simulated world that isn't hellbent on giving us invisible walls (want to fly your airship into space? alright, go for it, but you're gonna die without a suit) but mostly the reason they exist is because the way the vehicle in the game exists is unrealistic in the first place. The mounts have no fuel or stamina.

[Enur]

This is from WoWs latest expansion. It is the huge city of Suramar, approx the size and capacity of Kugane and Dalaran, same size as WotL and the broken shore rendered in the same Phase with no issues. WoW has stepped up their game big time in legion .when it comes to graphics going from a ridiculously long draw-distance to incredibly solid texturework. These areas are far from empty featuring the most NPCs ive seen in any MMO- though it shall be noted Suramar utilised a specialised "Elf" model for the large crowds.


Really makes the FFXIV areas feel lacking when you really all we have is small-ish gray/brown zones with low rez textures and invisible walls aplenty.

[alimdia]

The invisible wall was annoying in Yanxia for me most. I wish you could fly over the mountains(they are massive) instead of going right around the river ><. There also are areas of map that are behind invisible walls but it looks like you can fly there.

That one in Yanxia was made intentionally to prevent you from crossing to the north side until the main story takes you there, as you get flight in Yanxia way before the MSQ takes you north.

[Klonoa7]

My guess is... when you get reaaaalllllyyyy high up, the ground models and textures start to look like garbage, the maps start to have noticeable holes/gaps in them, and the textures start clipping all over the place. It would become an eyesore.

This is the case for World of Warcraft If you don't set your view distance and environmental detail settings all the way up so could probably be true here too (Not a good idea for casual play). Of course Enix does not give much in the way of graphic adjustable options so there no way of knowing how it'd be handled here.

Here's an idea of what to expect with extreme elevation
http://i.imgur.com/x3WXvsi.jpg

[Kaedan]

None of FFXIV's zones feel claustrophobic.

[Naunet]

That just made me think of Lalafels running in a treadmill powering an old MMO. ROFL.

(That was too funny!)

HAH! Great image. xD

<snip for length>

I really don't get the point of your post as not once have I demanded an in-game zone with real world scale. I was expressing my disappointment at how low the zone ceilings are and that they feel claustrophobic. It's a bit frustrating to see something you should be able to land on literally within arms' reach and yet there's an invisible wall blocking you from getting there. And M'naago gets to defy the rules by standing on the flag pole!

[Morzy]

Some of my two cents.

I like the wall in Yanxia because frankly it made the zone feel like two zones which I think is awesome. IT was also fairly obvious that the other side was closed off for story reasons. I mean if they want to incorporate seclusion in a story, then why not? Are you really angry that you can't fly over a towering mountain that is clearly meant to keep people out? Okay...

HW areas do feel larger in terms of Z-axis limits. While flying in SB for the first few zone that I unlocked, I did have a weird feeling like something was off but I didn't think much of it at the time. Like... It feels like SB areas might be wider but HW were taller in terms of Z-axis limits. I personally might compare the two expansions to see if the Z-axis increases at different rates while flying (assuming they have the same capacity) and if they do, then I will question SE.

Zones aren't claustrophobic and this is a joke. Honestly SE could have made the Z-axis ceiling smaller because GUESS WHAT we have literally little reason to even fly that high. While I agree it was nice in HW, it didn't really server much purpose unless there was a structure very high up or below islands that you needed to get to (yes, I'm looking at you, Churning Mists).