Seamless ?

mxmissile

Has FC come out of the dark ages of MMORPGs and made this game seamless (AC1!!!, AC2, WoW) ?  Or are we going to have zones and loading screens for the general outside areas (EQ*, City Of *, AO)? 

 

 

 

CrossBre3d

Hopefully the world does have some kind of zones..To much lag if it doesnt..From what i heard, it will be like EQ style, zones but the zones will be really big..

Aelfinn

Dark Ages? Are you kidding me? Advanced graphics and animations are simply not feasible without a loading mechanism, ask any programmer who has done a lick of work in the gaming field. Attempting to get around such issues leaves you with piles of steaming crap like Vanguard, with its "seamless" world that is anything but.

As to the seamless games you mentioned, remember that every single one of them has extremely simplistic graphical design for this day and age.

Also, A.) a great deal of usefull tools for developers are simply not possible without seperate zones. B.) The world of Hyboria is absolutely massive, everything else aside, there is no choice but to either split up into seperate zones, or cram everyone into one area. Which, if they still have their focus on King Conan and thus his city, means a heck of a lot of relatively peaceful farmland to explore and almost nothing else.

mxmissile

Originally posted by Aelfinn
As to the seamless games you mentioned, remember that every single one of them has extremely simplistic graphical design for this day and age.

For this day and age, correct, those games I mentioned are simplistic.  Those games are how old? They came out when?  So, I dont agree with you.  The tech is here today, it has been available since those games came out "years" ago.  No excuse for zones in this "day and age".  Oh well... my question was answered, ty.

CrossBre3d

If AoC doesnt have zones, i would be dissapointed..It wont make or break the game for me but it will annoy me.My system isnt top of the line and i would prolly lag like hell if it was seamless..Zones like EQ i would like..just big zones..

mrw0lf

From what I understand the new gen mmo engines kind of make this subject a largely mute point. Large seemless worlds are acheivable due to the new way in which clusters are able to manage processinng power for specific areas and the way in which each character is tracked within it.

Previous engines required a specific amount of cycles given over to a specific zone dependant upon the amount of players within it, meaning that loading was necassary and to a certain degree lag to be expected if a certain area became very busy. This all happened while other servers were pretty much standing by doing nothing. This is no longer the case inteligent server analysis is able to put the cluster to work where its needed and loading is irrelavent.

Developers can still chose to build games this way but technologically there is no real reason other than finance.

Eichenkatze

I'd say WoW did seamless-ish zones without major lag.. but WoW didn't have intense graphics either.. it mainly focused on population handling than engine handling so thats not a very good comparison.



So the next best thing would be, SWG maybe?



Planets are seamless and you wouldn't have to load in while walking/driving accross a planet, and for a machine that was up to par with that time would run perfectly. However, take the shuttle to another city on that same planet and it would load, giving your PC a chance to clear the cache and start anew... sorta. While also going to different planets incited a load sequence as well.

esotericemu

Warcraft also crashed several times if you remember, especially before the battle grounds were put in. So, considering they want a constant battle ground, wouldn't you want that instanced? It would still crashed if the server is populated heavily; and I'm sure it will be. Age of Conan has some great devs and supposably, when you're in a zone it won't quite feel like it because it's so huge. Personally, I'm fine with that as long as the zones are huge and massive. If it means a city feels like a city and mountains feel like mountains, all the better.

Godliest

I've played CoV and got no problem at all with the loading screens when entering new areas. I personally think that some persons tends to make this seamless word thingy a bit to fuss. If the loading screens aren't to long and the areas are pretty big, there is no real problem to it. If the devs hide the loading screen by doing something, even better.

If making parting the world up in zones will keep the game pretty free of lag, then I hope they make zones.

Death1942

many of you argue that tech now days can handle the intense pressure of a seamless world...yes they can BUT not everyone has a top of the line machine.  also this is one of the first games to have Direct X 10  so not all the tech is working properly.  maybe in a few years time when dual cores and those insane graphics cards reduce in price THEN and only then will the majority of the games community be able to handle seamless worlds

Sickpup

DAoC is 5 years old and all you can tell when you cross a zone is a slight lag spike.of course thats the gamebryo engine .I have no clue how the dreamworld2 engine will work.Its gonna take alot  of hardware and top tier ip's to support battles over 200 players plus say 100 npcs in real time and keep pings under 100ms and frames near 30fps.seems alot to ask for for only $15 a month.If they pull it off heck ill pay 17.95 per month or something.

Lughsan

Originally posted by mxmissile

Originally posted by Aelfinn
As to the seamless games you mentioned, remember that every single one of them has extremely simplistic graphical design for this day and age.

For this day and age, correct, those games I mentioned are simplistic.  Those games are how old? They came out when?  So, I dont agree with you.  The tech is here today, it has been available since those games came out "years" ago.  No excuse for zones in this "day and age".  Oh well... my question was answered, ty.

Vanguard was purportedly "seamless" it wasn't... and I hate to break it to you but none of those other games you mentioned is truly seamless either..

And if you look at MMORPG history all the games that have attempted seamless, Horizons, Vanguard, AC, AC2, all FAILED.

 

 

NasherUK

A lot of games now use server side zone lines for outdoor areas.  All the terrain is one mass on the client, but the world is cut up into cells on the server so you don't notice when you cross one.



No game yet is really seamless, even Oblivion has loading screens and that's single player.  You got one every time you entered a building or fast traveled, also when it changed from night to day when you slept.

Jupsto

" It is based on zones, but these zones can be quite big in size – often up to several kilometers in both length and width. We're using zones because we want to create such a detailed world that it would be technologically unfeasible to do it seamlessly. This, however, will in no way detract from the feeling of being in a massive, persistent game world. Age of Conan is, after all, an MMO. "

thats from 14.0 gameworld on the faq on the website. the faq actually aswers everthing, except whether we get player owned brothels.

Setokira

So wat is AoC like i looking for more active fourms and better games. I currently play Endless-Online. i ply for a few reasons.

 

1 its free

2 its anmie style grapihcs are pretty good not the best

3 the person who does theier graphics is a DARN good artist

4 its easy to learn

5 no click click click click based games play. like some games

6 its fun if u no where to go how to get there and if u have firends

7 player vrs player. Finally u can OWN the loser who just dissed ur socery armor and called u a woss becauses u r a mage

8 refer back to 1 to B7

Godliest

---

Originally posted by Setokira
So wat is AoC like i looking for more active fourms and better games. I currently play Endless-Online. i ply for a few reasons.

1 its free
2 its anmie style grapihcs are pretty good not the best
3 the person who does theier graphics is a DARN good artist
4 its easy to learn
5 no click click click click based games play. like some games
6 its fun if u no where to go how to get there and if u have firends
7 player vrs player. Finally u can OWN the loser who just dissed ur socery armor and called u a woss becauses u r a mage
8 refer back to 1 to B7

---

The reasons behind why you are playing Endless-Online is on these forums pretty unneeded to know. The poll itself is also pretty useless as it only contains 3 games, all of them crappy (not sure of Endless-Online, but the rest I know).

My question is what the meaning of the post is. If it's to ask what AoC is like, then I suggest you to start a new topic asking that, otherwise it's just random spam.

amous

Whats the big deal about a loading screen anyway (as long as it is quick) it gives ya a chance to rethink what you are doing and take a breath, for me it gives me a chance to throw in a pinch of chew before I move on.

Jupsto

moving between the several very large areas(i thinkt here's like 10) will envolve like a cut scene of you taking a boat, a wagon, camel ect. it'll all be sweet

mxmissile

Originally posted by Lughsan


And if you look at MMORPG history all the games that have attempted seamless, Horizons, Vanguard, AC, AC2, all FAILED.
 

Wrong on one point, AC is still very much alive and kicking today.  Not was it was 5-6 years ago, but it is very alive.  Oh and it is seamless.  I can run accross the entire main continent without zoning once.

 

 

vmoped

Originally posted by mxmissile


Has FC come out of the dark ages of MMORPGs and made this game seamless (AC1!!!, AC2, WoW) ?  Or are we going to have zones and loading screens for the general outside areas (EQ*, City Of *, AO)? 
 
 
 

14.3 Is the game world seamless or is it based on zones?

It is based on zones, but these zones can be quite big in size – often up to several kilometers in both length and width. We're using zones because we want to create such a detailed world that it would be technologically unfeasible to do it seamlessly. This, however, will in no way detract from the feeling of being in a massive, persistent game world. Age of Conan is, after all, an MMO.

Straight from the faq on AgeofConan.com

plateau01

I think people fail to understand that in order to portray remote areas of Hyboria, then there is no other way to do it than with Zones. I guess that some people aren't aware of the fact that AoC is based on a license, and that license comes with a world that's already defined:



hyboria.xoth.net/maps/hyboria.gif



Funcom want to portray some key locations in Cimmeria, Stygia and Aquilonia, eventually I'm sure, filling out the key locations elsewhere. You do realise that there is a huge distance between these places? In fact Hyboria is meant to be out world some 12000 years ago, and before the great Ice Age. As you might notice, Hyboria bears a resemblence to the Eurasian an African continents. So in terms of scale, the distance between Cimmeria and Stygia is the distance between Sweden and Algeria. A f#@king long way.