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Dear Funcom,
DarkPony
Member Posts: 5,566
Please don't instance* this game to bits like you did with AoC? Pretty please?
Rule one of mmorpg club is; "Immersion > Eyecandy"
Thanks!
edit: * For those who didn't play AoC or forgot all about it: 'instancing' as in; having multiple copies of the same public zones on the same server.
edit 2 for dummies and skimreaders: Translated to WoW this PARTICULAR kind of instancing would come down to you being in Stormwind 1, while the guy you want to trade with is in Stormwind 5, forcing you to run to an artificial pad to artificially change the artificial 'dimension' you want to play in.
update: (Thanks Nadia!)
Eurogamer 3 page interview with Ragnar Tonquist:
www.eurogamer.net/articles/the-secret-world-preview
"My preference is to have as much of it as open-world, shared spaces as possible. I don't like instances at all," says Tornquist, surprisingly perhaps for a craftsman of the adventure yarn. "So we're trying to avoid that. There will be some places which are reserved for you or a group of people, but for the most part we're going to make it seamless, open, a lot of people running around - and that does introduce a lot of challenges when it comes to the storytelling aspect. But we have ways of working around that."
This sounds very promising, indeed. Ragnar's personal opinion on the matter or a conscious design policy? I'd say at least their intent is not to make that same mistake twice which is a very good thing, imo.
Comments
it will be instanced.. you clearly wont have europe/africa/asia/america as non instanced locations.. since they said they will have xxx towns.. thats one thing that sounds bit lame
enter new york, pew pew some.. zone to london.. pew pew some.. etc
Yeah, I don't mean loading between zones. I can live with that. But AoC had multiple copies of public zones (even towns and cities) on every server. The consequences of that were: often having to travel to resurection pads to switch instance to be able to meet up with your friends. Or finding yourself in a different instance than the one in which you just got killed in an entertaining pvp skirmish. Or not being able to chase down the guy that just ganked you, since the coward fled to another instance. But apart from those artificial mechanics forced upon the players; it ruins the feeling of immersion in the game since it doesn't simulate a perpetual, living and breathing world.
p.s. Don't get me wrong; I am not a 'sandbox or nothing' troll; I even think WOW had a far more immersive world design than AOC
My brand new bloggity blog.
What would you like, real time travel when using the airports to go to different countries?
A mixture of open world and instance is just commmon sense, this isnt everquest 2, where shitty graphics allowed for one big open world..
Most people, especially the people who play mmos have crap computers, the endless loading of graphics would make it a heavy burden on most mid range to low end cpus.
Quotations Those Who make peaceful resolutions impossible, make violent resolutions inevitable. John F. Kennedy
Life... is the shit that happens while you wait for moments that never come - Lester Freeman
Lie to no one. If there 's somebody close to you, you'll ruin it with a lie. If they're a stranger, who the fuck are they you gotta lie to them? - Willy Nelson
Read my 2nd post, please.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Yes, we clearly all want to spend 2 hours in a virtual plane going from Paris to London. Or 10 hours in train watching all the generic nature all around.
REALITY CHECK
Yes, we clearly all want to spend 2 hours in a virtual plane going from Paris to London. Or 10 hours in train watching all the generic nature all around.
*sighs*
Read it again, Sam.
My brand new bloggity blog.
People should already know the terms.
Zoning: Separate areas through rifts
Instancing: Creating copies of a zone so 2 people might not see each other even being on the same spot.
Channeling: The same as instancing, but here you are able to choose which "channel" you want to be in.
AoC was zoned and channeled in the whole world.
Yes, we clearly all want to spend 2 hours in a virtual plane going from Paris to London. Or 10 hours in train watching all the generic nature all around.
*sighs*
Read it again, Sam.
If you didnt notice yet let me be the first one to inform you. Secret World is using the same engine as Age of Conan. Hope that explains your instance dilemma.
REALITY CHECK
Never heard the 'channeling' as a means to describe this world design aspect before, but I will keep it in mind. Should come in handy, judging the misunderstandings here
Thanks there, mate.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Hehe! I feel your frustration that the others haven't even bothered to read your post at all! However, I have and I still don't agree with your complaint.
I liked the instancing in AoC, it meant that I never had any lag issues at all. The only thing I didn't like, was that they made it really difficult to switch instances shortly after launch, so that it became difficult to meet with my friends and guild-mates.
It amazes me that we can send inanimate, self sufficient metal and plastic constructs to space and still can not read someone's post.
I agree with OP. Stop instancing public zones. WoW, WAR, LOTRO have it right. Dungeons and special encounters only.
Just because it's the same engine as AoC doesn't mean they can't alter it to eliminate instancing.
Yes, we clearly all want to spend 2 hours in a virtual plane going from Paris to London. Or 10 hours in train watching all the generic nature all around.
*sighs*
Read it again, Sam.
If you didnt notice yet let me be the first one to inform you. Secret World is using the same engine as Age of Conan. Hope that explains your instance dilemma.
Which doesn't have to mean they have to copy the same mechanic. A lot comes down to how heavy the average player load in a zone is which can be influenced hugely by certain design decisions. A small example: maybe not having the option to sculpt your earlobes to perfection.
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I so agree
My brand new bloggity blog.
<sarcasm>
Are you nuts! Earlobes > Immersion....pfft!
</sarcasm>
<sarcasm>
Are you nuts! Earlobes > Immersion....pfft!
</sarcasm>
Haha, That is a nasty fettish you caught there, Seryth!
My brand new bloggity blog.
Think I saw it in an intervju. There will be instansing; but they try to make it better than it was in AoC. He hopes to make it a seamless as possible(hey wehre is the fun in swimming from london to new york.....)
Yeah, there should be fast travel, and noone will object to minor loading screens here and there, you pretty much GOT to have seperate zones if you plan a gameworld of such a size. Just like it is ok to have instanced dungeons, tailored to specific group sizes. But having multiple copies of the same public areas shatters my immersion as much as it shatters the gameworld
My brand new bloggity blog.
Dear Funcom,
-study over what you did right in tortage and work around that.
-like the OP said, no instancing.
-don't spend too much time tweaking the graphics to where you've hardly spent any time making the actual game.
-game mechanics game mechanics game mechanics, I can't stress that enough.
-no 80 levels, it took WoW 5years to get to that point, don't you do it.(just learned no levels..good)
-stats are your friend, focus making them work while balancing around classes.
-what you did with crafting in AoC, do the complete opposite and it should work...lol
-don't add a ridiculous amount of classes in game if you don't know what to do with them all.(no classes good)
-no ddr style combats, nice try in trying to be innovative but...you know...=/
-don't pull a WAR and make the skill cap (the learning curve of a game, difficulty level in mastering it, doesn't mean game can't be easy to learn though, but hard to master) so low even 12year old casual players are facepalming to how brainless it is...lol
either than that, I'm good.....=D
Skill cap is the difficulty level in mastering a game...like the skill cap in learing how to play chest is way higher than playing tic tac toe...lol
Nice to see no level or classes in game though.
Maybe Funcom has learned something from AoC.
Anyways I'm not trying to flame the company like some would do, I'm sure if Funcom would learn a lot from the mistakes they've made in AoC or other games, they can make a fairly successful MMO....AoC might have been a flop, but the game did show promise.
I second that. Though I hope they won't blame their lack of success with AOC on the unpolished state of the game at launch only. Personally I didn't mind to ride out those initial bugs and the unstable client at launch (though at times they were very frustrating), To me it was that instanced world design and most of the things on the list you posted which drove me away.
My brand new bloggity blog.
Yes, we clearly all want to spend 2 hours in a virtual plane going from Paris to London. Or 10 hours in train watching all the generic nature all around.
*sighs*
Read it again, Sam.
If you didnt notice yet let me be the first one to inform you. Secret World is using the same engine as Age of Conan. Hope that explains your instance dilemma.
It uses the upgraded 2.0 version of the engine. If they are just doing cities, I wonder if the engine can do the whole city with out any channeling or zoning. Then you can zone to the other cities, have a cut scene or what-not for the airplane ride. It would be sweet if it were done that way.
I agree. also some of the AoC zones where VERY small. having to zone into pubs etc. is just stupid and lame, thats where alot of the imersion is killed. can still be zoned and feel like a world just has to be large zones with doors you actually open, and like OP said no copies of instances!
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I'll add to that - no zoning. The instancing referenced in the OP is for multiple copies of the same zone, so that it's kind of random which one you get. That worked well in Guild Wars because it was entirely one server, but literally anywhere else, it should not be used. But in addition to that, don't zone at all, either (with the possible exception of tiny areas like houses to prevent access or change characters within). Zoning between instances ruins immersion because we can't see how the areas line up. In AoC, it caused additional problems due to losers in groups camping the exits so that you couldn't even play the game.
Don't do it for me, do it for those people who will actually play this. If my two months in AoC taught me anything, it's "don't play Funcom games."