104% Scientific Accurate Research - 1.0 vs 2.0 Map Size

[DiaDeem]

I'll preface this by saying: This was just a little experiment I wanted to try out for fun. I don't actually have any actual measures, and the comparisons are wonky at best, but with how often we remember 1.0's maps as being "massive" I wondered to myself how many actual walking (not run or sprint) steps would take to get from one point in the map to another.

I always had the theory that 2.0's maps feel much smaller just because we can fly and our steps are longer. Flying and mounts are commodities we take for granted nowadays, but they definitely make the world feel smaller. The results were interesting I think. I tried to stick to the straightest routes possible, walking at normal speed in both games and just counting step by step. I may have gotten the number wrong but +/- 10 or so... yeah. Keep that in mind.

First Comparison: Coerthas Central Highlands
1.0 - Camp Dragonhead to Skyfire Locks: From the Aetheryte, I walked as furthest South as I could where the Observatorium would be in ARR. There's a tree back there.


860 Steps

2.0 - Camp Dragonhead to Skyfire Locks: Again from the Aetheryte, I walked as furthest South as I could behind the Observatorium. There's a rock back there now.


637 Steps

With these numbers, the difference in steps in ARR would be about 74% to 1.0 which is actually more than I thought it would be. Note that 1.0 also forced me to move a bit, where I could mostly follow a straight line in ARR and I'm not sure how many steps that may have added.

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First Comparison: Western Thanalan & Lakeland
1.0 - From The Silver Bazar to Northern Passage: This comparison is obviously not one to one, but I tried to find two maps that seemed comparable. From the entrance to The Silver Bazar, I walked all the way to a northern passage in the map.


1290 Steps

2.0 - From Amh Araeng to Il Mheg via Lakeland: I walked from the Amh Areng entrance to the loading border with Il Mheg.


1879 Steps

I really thought 1.0 was gonna be much bigger but In this case, the distance in Thanalan in steps was about 68% the distance in Lakeland, but you're stuck to running in one, where there's no reason to ever walk in Lakeland, unless you're bored and wanna try a wonky experiment.

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Conclusion: I think the size of maps in areas HW onwards has always been underestimated. The maps have way more landmarks and we're usually guided through them rather well with quests until we unlock Flying. Though the experiment was fun, there's probably a better way more accurate way to do it, but I was just curious to actually count steps in some of these areas. I like doing these weird things sometimes.

Thoughts?

[Stormpeaks]

Okay and ?

[DiaDeem]

Okay and ?

And it was fun.

[magtuired]

This is cool as hell. Thank you for sharing your findings

[VictorTheed]

This would be a good YouTube video, nice job.

I keep track of the enterings in and out of each zone, id like to think that if I had to I could start at limsa & end at Ultima Thule without teleports, but I never tested it.

[Azuri]

This would be a good YouTube video, nice job.

I keep track of the enterings in and out of each zone, id like to think that if I had to I could start at limsa & end at Ultima Thule without teleports, but I never tested it.

Limsa to Ultima Thule is just three hops. Limsa > Old Sharlyan > Labyrinthos > Ultima Thule.

[Raoabolic]

So it's gotten to the point players would rather have the copy-paste 1.0 areas over the hallways.

Play the music, Johnny~!

[Enkidoh]

One thing that makes me curious though, how were you able to do this experiment with 1.0 completely shutdown and inacessable for a decade now? (Unless you're using one of those naughty 1.0 server emulators that are barely more than 1.0 environmental viewers...).

[Canadane]

So it's gotten to the point players would rather have the copy-paste 1.0 areas over the hallways.

I do kinda miss some aspects of the 1.0 maps, yes.

[DiaDeem]

So it's gotten to the point players would rather have the copy-paste 1.0 areas over the hallways.

Play the music, Johnny~!

What hallways? And no, I don't prefer 1.0 maps xD