Why is the Solar separate instance from Waking Sands / Rising Stone?

[Tint]

Isn't the Solar just an instance within what's already an instance? I've never seen any other players in the area outside the Solar, so why make it separate?

I think it is still not a single player instance but instead all the other players are just invisible. If you enter in a party you will notice that the other party members are listed as if they were on the same map - just greyed out like they are out of range. Same happens in the inn rooms.

So splitting the zones was likely done to lessen server stress when a lot of people watch long cutscenes on patchdays there.

[Iscah]

Isn't the Solar just an instance within what's already an instance? I've never seen any other players in the area outside the Solar, so why make it separate?

The Solar isn't a separate instance to the main room in any case. If you let the camera go into idle mode, it can show NPCs in the other room.

[Sove92]

No it hasn't, it was freely able to be entered (although it did have a door you had to click on, it was not an instanced zone only you inhabited, it was a seperate section of the Waking Sands that all players could freely access together as the one area and would cluster around, I should know, I was in the Beta test from the beginning and early access of the game where it became very much a problem, so SE changed it very early on.

Also incidentally, they don't state every change or alteration they make in patch notes, some are just listed as a generic "Other changes and alterations were made" or something like that stated right at the end of the notes, as they simply do not have time or space to list every change they make to the game, it's simple pragmatism.

And, as proof the Solar was an 'open' zone multiple players could enter freely, here is a screenshot taken not long after launch (early September 2013) early in the main scenario questline in the Solar...

Notice all the players clustered around Minfilia's desk. That simply does not happen anymore.

If you were in the solar, players in the rest of HQ were not being rendered and vice-versa, because the door is blocking the camera. That was the point I was making. It's always been a single zone.