Open up the world, please! Part I

[Galka_Rock]

No thanks. Otherwise you get completly unnatural rectangle maps where you go from a desert area to a cold tundra after going through a little tunnel.
Yes, I'm talking about GW2, as it was used as an example in this thread.

Besides, nobody would take the time to walk or fly. Everyone would still use fast travel anyway.

And finally, it's probably technically impossible at this point. So I'd rather have meaningful content than them going submarine-mode during two years to then say "hey, look, you can go from southern Thanalan to center simply by walking!!11!1! How awesome is that!1!11!!! You know, the maps where you have seen for five years now and that you have no incentive in going back!!1!"

Again, no thanks.

Well, except the stories and quests actually do keep bringing us back to old zones.

[Galka_Rock]

And that's why there would have to be restrictions.Like you can't fly past this point. Something already in place.
Also, the connecting areas are tunnels, anyway. Even in newer maps.

[Galka_Rock]

[QUOTE=IveraIvalice;4293426]Since a transition area is just a connecting area between 2 major zones, there isn't anything stoping the player from flying high up in one zone to the point that they could look into the other zone over the transition zone. That would mean the other zone's assets have to be loaded in already while being in the first zone which isn't possible if they are making full use of the memory for each zone which they of course would be.

And that's why there would have to be restrictions.Like you can't fly past x point. Something already in place. Also, for older syastems, perhaps they could have a "Turn seamless off" function.

Also, the connecting areas are tunnels, anyway. Even in newer maps.

[Aphex]

You cant turn off seamless transitions. It is a fundamental change. It seems like opinions are pretty divided on this.

[jackass1203]

With the way how zones are set up to it's own thing I doubt they'd do this. Some zones already get congested and start lagging if they were to make it open world they'd have to pretty much redo the game which is something I don't see happening.

What I would like to be seen are the zones being expanded on. For example the areas between the zones (ie the zones between east shroud and south shroud http://i.imgur.com/jbn1iKQ.jpg the white zone). If they were to redo everything to be able to make it an open world then we'd probably lose out on an expansion.

[Galka_Rock]

The reason 1.0s maps were so copy pasted were because the world was seamless. It's just too much to load with the maps we have now, you'd still have a loading screen, it would just have to be implimented so it could be hidden as mentioned above.

That's not the reason, though. The reason it was so copy pasted was restricted development time and using a poor engine for what they needed.

[Galka_Rock]

You cant turn off seamless transitions. It is a fundamental change. It seems like opinions are pretty divided on this.

I'd think of it as one of those get to certain point in the map and then the game will ask you if you want to skip past. Like how aethernets work only automatic.

[Raynar]

For them to change work on the seamless world would take time and resources that barely have at this time. Yoshi and Dev team decided back when the development of this game they wouldn't do the seamless world for the sake of development and also bring this game to PS3 which was also limited and could barely handle the game. But with that System dead we still have the PS4 and PC. Also, Limitation of this current engine may not allow it. OP you make it seem like its easy to do this. But it isn't it requires time and money for a team of coders, Designer, QA Testers, and other people make sure that maps and areas function correctly SE Mangement isn't going focus money on that. I rather see more focus on new content and fixing the servers issues then reconnecting world.

[Daralii]

I'd think of it as one of those get to certain point in the map and then the game will ask you if you want to skip past. Like how aethernets work only automatic.

Imagining that made me think of Clippy.

[MattReaver]

Load screens are probably the one thing I like the least about the game. Probably why I never do POTD because you're queuing up for 15 load screens.