sad, none of these games you guys listed is 'open' like elder scrolls. In elder scrolls you can walk to anywhere in the game there is not an uber Level 100 mob that prevents exploration
There really isnt anything out that can touch elder scrolls oblivion in this regard.
sad, none of these games you guys listed is 'open' like elder scrolls. In elder scrolls you can walk to anywhere in the game there is not an uber Level 100 mob that prevents exploration
There really isnt anything out that can touch elder scrolls oblivion in this regard.
Err ... how exactly would a MMO be THAT open in the first place ?!?!?
Morrowind, Oblivion etc level the mobs with the player.
Only way to do that in a MP game would be to remove levels completely, so everyone has the same level and there is no progress in character combat power at all.
[...] As far as i know, the only seamless MMORPG out there is perfect world. However i haven't played vanguard yet, but i suppose it's also zones. [...]
Lineage 2 and Vanguard are seamless.
Dunno your definition of "zones" though. Of course there are zones, but you just can silently cross the borders of them, and there is no visible border. Thats true for any game though, including the TES games and certainly also Perfect World.
They are small, everything is small, making it look big. Best way to figure this out, is by watching the game client. When i downloaded the trial, i only had to download 500 MB, being the best 'evidence' that the zones are small, but the props are small too. CCP have been quite smart doing it this way, the performance proves it .
I am completely at loss how you ended up thinking that one can conclude, from the size of the download, to the size of the world.
Have you never heard that 3D models, textures etc can be REUSED ? As many times as you want ?
With a single tree model you can make a forest ... granted, an extremely boring forest where every tree is exactly the same. But make it 7 different tree models and give it some variant parameters that can be filled at random, BANG, full forest which is already quite good looking. And you needed what ? Just 7 different trees for making it.
And then you come along, see "ah its just 7 trees", and conclude it cant be a forest ...
probally many others, but your limited to by how hard the mobs are as thats how MMOs are they cant scale the mobs to your lvl as there are many other people playing as well so that kind of system would never work..
Dunno your definition of "zones" though. Of course there are zones, but you just can silently cross the borders of them, and there is no visible border.
Essentially, the tech has reached the point where zone borders are effectively invisible in a lot of games.
The difference between "seamless" and "invisibly divided zones" is pretty much nil. Something to split hairs and argue about, I guess.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Except what the EVE fanboys forget to tell you is..... drum roll please.... you have to port between zones, making it not seamless.
Not to mention that each zone is a barren wasteland, with a few pirates, a few minerals, and a few stations.
Not just the EVE fanboys, also the WoW fanboys, one of the first posts... . GW2 will be seamless too ^^ Which will come out Q1 2009... still, seamless is seamless
BTW, EVE did a good job with their zones, making you move really slow, giving the impression of big zones, while they're actually... very small.
First of all, GW2 will not be seamless. The zones are big so you might not notice it a lot during play sessions but it is not seamless. Besides, there are also instances (dungeons, personal storyline, home instance). Further more, I hope by Q1 2009 you mean Q1 2012 and even that is speculation.
What is wrong with people? Listing WOW as an open seamless world?
What kind of a retard could possibly think that LoTR is an open seamless world?
Eve open world? WTF? each sector is an instance FFS.
Jesus what are people here smoking?
The only open world MMOs to speak of that contain absolutely no instances are Darkfall and Mortal Online. Both cite Oblivion as a major influencing factor as well. Also both could do with a bit of devloper love
Darkfall is the most accesable one and Mortal Online is the most indepth and graphically beautiful one.
Tank017, lol...wrong, Vanguard has loading/blocked zones just like all the rest.
ratclaws,lol...wrong,Vanguard has a big open world with minimal loading.
Well ... Vanguard doesnt have the optimal solution yet, that is true.
The optimal solution would be to silently preload the area you are in, as well as the data of the areas around you.
Vanguard however loads the zone the moment you cross the border, thus causing a short delay.
A more optimal approach would be to split Vanguard chunks into tiny pieces of 1/16 of the size (i.e. 1/4 in every direction), and keep loading the zone the player currently is located and the zones in direct conjunction to it, including some caching of previously needed zone.
Its exactly 1/16 the size (i.e. 1/4 the size in every direction), because if the player keeps crossing the zone borders of 4 zones, you would want to keep all zones in conjunction in memory, which would be exactly as much data as a Vanguard chunk has right now. Thus it would be guaranteed you dont need more memory as before and the hard disc could be left completely alone in this scenario.
Thus, from the perspective of the player, there would be no zones at all. Only a lot of unmotivated weird hard disc activity which can be quite loud, unless he has a SSD.
But thats all a lot of graphics trickery and, well, it wasnt done for Vanguard. Or any other MMO I know of.
Comments
Oblivion was not seemless, you had to zone into some cities and into the expansion area(forgot what its called).
ratclaws,lol...wrong,Vanguard has a big open world with minimal loading.
DarkFall
Ultima Online ...
"It would be awesome if you could duel your companion. Then you could solo pvp".--Thanes
Yeah, but I think Daggerfall was seamless (and like 25 times larger than Oblivion), but it was a long time ago so my memory could be wrong.
LOTRO has instances and WOW has instances.
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Jesus/Jesus.htm
Wrong..you can do the same in Vanguard.
http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Jesus/Jesus.htm
Err ... how exactly would a MMO be THAT open in the first place ?!?!?
Morrowind, Oblivion etc level the mobs with the player.
Only way to do that in a MP game would be to remove levels completely, so everyone has the same level and there is no progress in character combat power at all.
Lineage 2 and Vanguard are seamless.
Dunno your definition of "zones" though. Of course there are zones, but you just can silently cross the borders of them, and there is no visible border. Thats true for any game though, including the TES games and certainly also Perfect World.
I am completely at loss how you ended up thinking that one can conclude, from the size of the download, to the size of the world.
Have you never heard that 3D models, textures etc can be REUSED ? As many times as you want ?
With a single tree model you can make a forest ... granted, an extremely boring forest where every tree is exactly the same. But make it 7 different tree models and give it some variant parameters that can be filled at random, BANG, full forest which is already quite good looking. And you needed what ? Just 7 different trees for making it.
And then you come along, see "ah its just 7 trees", and conclude it cant be a forest ...
Darkfall
Mortal Online
Vanguard
Dawn Tide (still in beta)
probally many others, but your limited to by how hard the mobs are as thats how MMOs are they cant scale the mobs to your lvl as there are many other people playing as well so that kind of system would never work..
Essentially, the tech has reached the point where zone borders are effectively invisible in a lot of games.
The difference between "seamless" and "invisibly divided zones" is pretty much nil. Something to split hairs and argue about, I guess.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
First of all, GW2 will not be seamless. The zones are big so you might not notice it a lot during play sessions but it is not seamless. Besides, there are also instances (dungeons, personal storyline, home instance). Further more, I hope by Q1 2009 you mean Q1 2012 and even that is speculation.
What is wrong with people? Listing WOW as an open seamless world?
What kind of a retard could possibly think that LoTR is an open seamless world?
Eve open world? WTF? each sector is an instance FFS.
Jesus what are people here smoking?
The only open world MMOs to speak of that contain absolutely no instances are Darkfall and Mortal Online. Both cite Oblivion as a major influencing factor as well. Also both could do with a bit of devloper love
Darkfall is the most accesable one and Mortal Online is the most indepth and graphically beautiful one.
Take your pick.
Well ... Vanguard doesnt have the optimal solution yet, that is true.
The optimal solution would be to silently preload the area you are in, as well as the data of the areas around you.
Vanguard however loads the zone the moment you cross the border, thus causing a short delay.
A more optimal approach would be to split Vanguard chunks into tiny pieces of 1/16 of the size (i.e. 1/4 in every direction), and keep loading the zone the player currently is located and the zones in direct conjunction to it, including some caching of previously needed zone.
Its exactly 1/16 the size (i.e. 1/4 the size in every direction), because if the player keeps crossing the zone borders of 4 zones, you would want to keep all zones in conjunction in memory, which would be exactly as much data as a Vanguard chunk has right now. Thus it would be guaranteed you dont need more memory as before and the hard disc could be left completely alone in this scenario.
Thus, from the perspective of the player, there would be no zones at all. Only a lot of unmotivated weird hard disc activity which can be quite loud, unless he has a SSD.
But thats all a lot of graphics trickery and, well, it wasnt done for Vanguard. Or any other MMO I know of.
Also most forts/dungeons had load screens as well.
Edit: In Oblivion, that is.