Thread: Why did they changed this from version 1.0 ?

Oh great, another "the areas aren't gigantic enough" thread.

For ARR, they opted for smaller, more-well-crafted areas instead of having giant areas that required lots of reuse of textures and terrain chunks to make ("copy-pasta"). There's no point in having a giant area when you don't have enough assets and content to fill it with.

The old areas are just bigger- they aren't more beautiful. They are very boring because everything is so spread out and you only see the same terrain repeated over and over and over. It just plain baffles me how anyone could like it better. ARR's areas are actually thoughtfully designed with more beauty and detail in one square foot than 1.0s areas have in their entirety.

Another thing is because they were designing smaller areas with zoning instead of large mostly contiguous areas they were able to get rid of those awful 'loading corridors'. Remember Uldah in 1.0? how you had to walk through those long side tunnels (which still exist but are blocked off) and the main gates were closed? Now they could open the main gate since they didn't need the loading corridors anymore. All over the game you had long narrow spaces that served to mask the transfer from one area to another on the server side. But since there was never anything in these spaces (and players nearby crossing at the same time would momentarily vanish) it was just meaningless padding.

You have to sacrifice details to make areas bigger. Most wide-open-world games are single player as a result (Oblivion, Skyrim for example, where you've seen one cave or house, you've seen them all)

You are so right. Looking at a black loading screen while you do nothing is so much more immersive and better design than actually moving through the world and the game designers designing the world in such a way that you don't have to stop and wait like this is a game from 10 years ago.

Because forcing people to take indirect routes through long corridors to so obviously mask loading / area transfer is just SO much more immersive. Personally I'm happy i can just walk out the gate instead of having to walk a mile to cover a distance that could otherwise be covered in 5 seconds. Seriously, it sticks out like a sore thumb and cancels out any immersion bonus. On top of this, 1.0 STILL HAD LOADING SCREENS ANYWAY.

on't know how anyone could ever disagree with this. It's crazy.

My reaction to anyone liking 1.0 areas better is exactly the same. I don't know how anyone could ever disagree with ARR's areas being far superior. It's crazy.

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Oh great, another "the areas aren't gigantic enough" thread.

For ARR, they opted for smaller, more-well-crafted areas instead of having giant areas that required lots of reuse of textures and terrain chunks to make ("copy-pasta"). There's no point in having a giant area when you don't have enough assets and content to fill it with.

You lost the point of this thread: we are wondering about why the actual, amazing designed, world is not a big single block without loading screen where you can see ppl running on capitals far miles from the gate, live.

Tell me, didn't you dreamt ff14 was something like this too? Well it's not gonna happen with actual wallmart Pentium 2 servers, for sure
And maybe never.

Originally Posted by Fawkes

I think it was explained with that "Final Fantasy feel" reason, so that when you enter a new area you get a little title card so you know you're in a new zone. And the blue dots that mark the zone line are kinda like FF12.

And I think they recognized that some people hated all the running you had to do in 1.0, so they got rid of it.

Also, probably PS3 limitations. I mean maybe it could've run it, but what about several expansions later? That's kind of what happened with FFXI and the PS2, it was fine until they added a million things. Maybe it's more future proof this way.

I doubt anyone hated the feeling of a real alive open world We hated copypasted trash over and over.
This game on a single block would have been such an awesome gem, with a real feeling of an alive world, a real solid huge space to run or teleport watching people running up and down from capitals
Obiouvsly requires better servers, way better coding, and no ps3 limitations haha
Million things may be added like expand the actual world (on an imaginary single block) not ruining the game, when a designer do his work properly as they did. Our game just lack of a proper IT management imho

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

For ARR, they opted for smaller, more-well-crafted areas instead of having giant areas that required lots of reuse of textures and terrain chunks to make ("copy-pasta"). There's no point in having a giant area when you don't have enough assets and content to fill it with.

You're creating a false dichotomy of options here. We do not have to pick between claustrophic, invisible-wall-infested zones with varied terrain and larger zones with copy-pasted terrain. It's entirely possible to have rich environment design without the annoying corridor-style layout and overuse of invisible walls that we have now (and had still in 1.0). They just need to stop blocking off 75% of the zone.

Originally Posted by Naunet

You're creating a false dichotomy of options here. We do not have to pick between claustrophic, invisible-wall-infested zones with varied terrain and larger zones with copy-pasted terrain. It's entirely possible to have rich environment design without the annoying corridor-style layout and overuse of invisible walls that we have now (and had still in 1.0). They just need to stop blocking off 75% of the zone.

To apply that to the current environments, you'd have to make better use of the Z-axis as well... And personally, I'd be all for that.

While I'm not huge the way GW2 executed it, the ability to jump and climb around on the terrain was probably one of the best moves it made. With few exceptions, if you could see it and you could realistically jump to it, you could reach it.

That would be great to have here. There are too many things 'off-to-the-side' that I'd like to get to, but are blocked off. :-(

Originally Posted by Alhanelem

Areas should be sized appropriately for the scope of the content placed within.

This isn't something I really agree with. Well, I do agree with the statement, but not with the intent.
To me the environment itself and the exploration it lends itself to is 'content' just the same as anything else. So in that sense, yes. The area's size should be appropriate to its content.

Really though, I feel they should design the area. Figure out a scale that makes it feel immersive, engaging, and real. Then figure out the ways to best distribute other forms of content throughout.
I honestly hate it when it feels like the world and environment only exist to serve as a container for quest X, event Y, etc. This is one of the major things GW2 did NOT do right, IMO; you had this huge world, but there was a scout or an outpost always within shouting distance and each section of each zone felt like it existed just to provide a place for a dynamic event to occur.

In my mind, some places just need to 'be'. They should be parts of the world that are important simply because they are part of the world. Maybe they have their own stories and personalities, but those things exist independent of us; we're just passerbys and observers. I'd love it if I could just wander a half hour into the wilderness, not as part of a quest and not to reach some location as part of the story, but simply to explore. No mobs every 3 feet and no scouts. Maybe have hidden caches, caves, etc. but don't place them out there as a focus or goal, but simply as things you can stumble upon.

But I dunno. Maybe that's just me. :-/