Poll: Seamless+CopyPaste VS. Zones+Variety

[Preypacer]

I had no problem "zoning" in XI or any other game especially when a more beautiful area is awaiting me on the other side. My only issue with XI's zoning was that chat that gets lost in "limbo" while zoning, not sure how the other games worked around this but XI is the only one that I recall that zoning loses all chat that was sent or recieved while zoning.

I think it's based on the chat server being separate from the zone servers, so while one is loading new data, the other is continuing to stream chat text to you. Or, perhaps, it queues any chat text and then updates it once the zone loading is complete.

When I play Age of Conan, which also uses zones, I can zone into a new area and when I load into the new one, all the discussion that took place while I was zoning will be updated in the chat log. I won't have missed a thing.

[Zenaku]

I think it's based on the chat server being separate from the zone servers, so while one is loading new data, the other is continuing to stream chat text to you. Or, perhaps, it queues any chat text and then updates it once the zone loading is complete.

When I play Age of Conan, which also uses zones, I can zone into a new area and when I load into the new one, all the discussion that took place while I was zoning will be updated in the chat log. I won't have missed a thing.

no your right The chat system have it own server like FFXIV the chat is by itself so when you zone you still getting chat. The game server could be d/c and you still can talk to others without issue to the game fully D/c you.

sadly ffxi did not have this tho ; ;

[Meridian]

The list of games that achieves seamlessness and variety is longer than I care to list, and I'd only invite people flaming me saying "This isn't WoW/Rift/whatever" if I did start writing that list, so I will not.

However, it is clearly technically possible to achieve both variety and seamlessness.

Citing texture memory as the issue for having repetitive physical features also points to issues within the engine itself. You, theoretically, should be able to map textures onto other landscape models.

I voted for the second option, purely to get some variety in the game. However I must emphasise that it is technically possible to achieve both, and I am unsure as to the actual reasons they are unable to...

[Preypacer]

The biggest complaint I have right now is when you zone in the areas like thanalan to black shroud, you instantly from arid climate to tropical forest??? what??? how did that happen??? I would be really happy with a zone in the middle to take you naturally from one climate zone to the next to make things more fluid.

Black Shroud isn't a tropical forest.

But you're right, the change is rather drastic. Though, there was the same thing in XI, so... nothing new there, really.

[Demacia]

Black Shroud isn't a tropical forest.

But you're right, the change is rather drastic. Though, there was the same thing in XI, so... nothing new there, really.

Can you give an example? I can't think of any as extreme as Thanalan > The Black Shroud. Qufim and the northlands maybe but the lore kind of explains it.

[Munba]

Can you give an example? I can't think of any as extreme as Thanalan > The Black Shroud. Qufim and the northlands maybe but the lore kind of explains it.

I remember LaThein to Valkurm was similar (not so drastic though). In any case it would be neat to have a better transition between zones.

[Arcell]

I'd prefer option #2. Split up the existing areas or make them smaller and add more variety. My problem with the zones isn't the "copy/paste" which I rarely actually even notice. My biggest problem is that the zones currently just feel empty. It feels like there should be more unique set pieces about. Farms, ruins, camps, etc...

Hell the R20 Miners class quest SPOILERS highlight to read: mentions an ancient city once being present in Thanalan. Where's the remains of it? Shouldn't chunks of it still be there, even if ruins? END SPOILERS.

The could even break down parts of the zones for transition between major zones. There should be a transition between the Thanalan desert and the forest of The Black Shroud.

[Jennestia]

I remember LaThein to Valkurm was similar (not so drastic though). In any case it would be neat to have a better transition between zones.

It explains Thanalan used to be more forested than what it is now. Dunes wasn't a desert despite it's name so the transition was less dramatic and you can see beyond the zone line anyway -- in XI we're "skipping" the transition portion of the maps, just like Sanctuary of Zi`tah > Ro`Mave you can see the cerment hall of gods from Zi`tah at the zone line.

So they got better about transitions in the expansions and the vanilla areas were the biggest culprits.

[Matty86]

Like this post if you want

A world that has smaller zones, with loading time in between zones, that allows the game to load a greater variety of textures per zone and give the artists more leeway to make the environments more detailed and less monotonous.

I want a bigger world, whit bigger maps and bigger variety without any loading at all.
Tera successfully accomplished this task, and it's even less hardware demanding than this.

[Nuru]

I want a bigger world, whit bigger maps and bigger variety without any loading at all.
Tera successfully accomplished this task, and it's even less hardware demanding than this.

Lets not go through game engines again. Please read the entire topic. lol (joking, but we've discussed this plenty)