[request] Merge old city state zones

[TwiibieTwuu]

Would it be possible to merge the old zones with eachother? So we don't have to go through loading screens when walking down the street? I can understand this being a little hard with ishgard but would be kinda simple with places like Limsa right?

I just really wanna jump down from the drowning wench's balcony (and hear the leg crunch) to save time. Also to remain in shout chat when going to buy mats.

[Enkidoh]

Not going to happen, it was a fundamental reason we got ARR in the first place - splitting those huge city zones that were laggy messes in 1.0 and were a big complaint by 1.0 players. Not to mention the way the zones are designed would require them to be completely recreated to reflect that.

[Daniolaut]

Would it be possible to merge the old zones with eachother?

I absolutely agree, this should be done, no reason it shouldnt be. Especially if they have the time to rehaul everything else in the game, especially when no one asks for said changes.

it was a fundamental reason we got ARR in the first place - splitting those huge city zones that were laggy messes in 1.0 and were a big complaint by 1.0 players.

Please do not try to comment on things you have no clue what you're talking about.

1.0 city states not being separated by zone lines was not the cause of the lag.....

The lag was due to such a high amount of polygon usage by literally everything.. "including flower pots"

Also..... 1.0 had nearly no zone lines in the open world the only time you ran across a zone line, was going into Mor Dhona or Coerthas.

You could literally go from Gridania, through all the Shroud, Thanalan, and into Ul'dah and never cross a zone line.

Merging those two extremely small maps would not cause anyone to lag, unless maybe they were on PS3, but PS3 has already been dropped, so there is literally no reason.

Again, do not comment on things you are not familiar with. Again, 1.0 had almost no zone lines in the open world minus entering Coerthas and Mor Dhona.

[Nedkel]

Sorry we cant, psJunk limitations.

[TheUltimate3]

They'd have to redo every city for that to work, which is work I'd doubt they'd waste on old cities.

[Daniolaut]

Sorry we cant, psJunk limitations.

Yes they can.

Proof?

Take a look at The Crystarium. Its the size, if not larger, than all existing 2.0 and 3.0 cities.

The Crystarium map grid is 7x11, thats The Cabinet of Curiosity to The Pendants, and Tesselation to The Dossal Gate



The largest of the split city maps, Ishgard is 10x5 The Pillars, thats The Vault to The Last Vigil, and The Jeweled Crozier, to Athenaeum Astrologicum.

"note:

Before someone tries to say "oh but the Pillars is only half of all of Ishgard"

Yes this is true, but The Crystarium is three levels tall, whereas 2.0 and 3.0 zones are only 1 level. Stairs to the Jeweled Crozier cannot count, and if they can, then The Crystarium is even more levels than just 3.

They'd have to redo every city for that to work, which is work I'd doubt they'd waste on old cities.

They are already redoing every quest for 2.0 quest lines, so why not do a full complete job, making the experience for existing players better too? Only new players can get things changed for them? This would benefit both new and existing players alike honestly.

[yukiiyuki]

Sorry, don't have funds for it, please buy more stuff in mog station and maybe they'll do something about it. Or money will go into another FF or mobile game.

[TheUltimate3]

Yes they can.
They are already redoing every quest for 2.0 quest lines, so why not do a full complete job, making the experience for existing players better too? Only new players can get things changed for them? This would benefit both new and existing players alike honestly.

Redoing quests is one thing; that's basically just trimming fat, maybe changing a bit of dialogue, and rewards.

Rebuilding 3 zones from scratch (because again, they can't just take two zones and slap them together. I mean you can but it wouldn't look or work right) would require a lot more work which can be better put to things that actually matter.

[Jin-]

Mean while most other games with more complex graphics and sandbox systems have zero loading screens

[Enkidoh]

Please do not try to comment on things you have no clue what you're talking about.

Uh, right, as a 1.0 player I do know what I am talking about, and remember only too well just how ridiculous those big city zones were in 1.0, with long corridors that you spent ages trooping down to get anywhere. 1.0 Gridania especially was annoying as all hell to navigate around, especially that stupid long ramp down to the 1.0 Carline Canopy that you had basically almost zone out of the city and backtrack just to enter the Adventurer's Guild - the fact they 'shaved' that off in ARR that speaks volumes as to just how poorly designed the 1.0 maps really were. If 1.0 zones were really so great, why did they then make them smaller? Why go to all that expense and effort to make the zones small if they were fine? Because they were not fine, they were awful. And players requested they be changed.

And no, not the tired old 'PS3 limitations' meme - 1.0 was designed for PS3, the PS3 client was ready to go, SE just never released it (1.0 was made on Crystal Tools, an engine designed for the PS3). ARR's design was guided by player requests and polls Yoshi conducted on this very forum. Smaller city zones (and also field zone maps as well) split into seperate sections was one of those. And they're not going to change them. That's just being realistic.

1.0 city states not being separated by zone lines was not the cause of the lag.....

The lag was due to such a high amount of polygon usage by literally everything.. "including flower pots"

That is true, but it was only made even worse by the size of the zones - this is why after the Quicksand in Ul'dah was permenantly broken due to players idliling there when the Inns were introduced in a patch, SE had to implement a workaround where you had to enter the Inn through a literal back door out in the Gold Court just to keep the servers from crashing, which remained in place to the end of 1.0 service (there was a npc there manning a small desk that you had to speak to to enter it).

Also..... 1.0 had nearly no zone lines in the open world the only time you ran across a zone line, was going into Mor Dhona or Coerthas.

You could literally go from Gridania, through all the Shroud, Thanalan, and into Ul'dah and never cross a zone line.

Wrong, they did have zone lines, they were just not visible on the map, in that they were actually disguised by long corridors/bridges you had to cross (you could tell when you were crossing the zone line when the game client noticibly paused for a second or two while it loaded the next map into memory. All ARR has done is taken off the blinders and given actual zone lines in the city to balance everything out. This is also why Ul'dah's main gate was not actually open in 1.0 - you instead had to backtrack around a sidestreet in order to enter the city simply to help reduce the loading stress on the game entering it (you can even see where that alley is in ARR by looking to the right inside the Gates of Nald and Thal; the alley is behind a closed doorway that is locked and inaccessable.

Merging those two extremely small maps would not cause anyone to lag, unless maybe they were on PS3, but PS3 has already been dropped, so there is literally no reason.

Again, do not comment on things you are not familiar with. Again, 1.0 had almost no zone lines in the open world minus entering Coerthas and Mor Dhona.

Again, wrong. Besides the 'hidden' zone lines between the cities and their surrounding zones, there were also actual physical zone lines between the Black Shroud and Coerthas/Mor Dhona and Thanalan, and Thanalan into Mor Dhona. It should go without saying the Vesper Bay-Limsa ferry was also it's own seperate zone and that had a zone line (loading animation of the ferry arriving/departing) too. Try again.