It'll be nice if the game opens for everyone at lvl 10, but at lvl 20 i see it like AoC. It's like, i don't see anybody, maybe i confused and pressed Single Player in the main menu..... oh wait
This comes down to personal preference. Some people are ok with instanced zones, and some are not. I personally cannot tolerate it because it constantly rips me out of immersion in the game world. I hate talking about the mechanics of the game client while I am trying to escape into a virtual world. When I am having to ask my friends what "zone" and "channel" they are in, I have trouble staying engaged in the game world. It also takes away from the persistent world aspect of the game in my opinion, and it lowers your ability to meet people and have random adventures with strangers.
I understand this doesn't bother many people, but for those of us who long for game devs to get back on track developing large open persistent worlds again, this is a smack in the face. I was seriously considering trying this game out for lack of anything else to play right not, but this pretty much put an end to that idea.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
This comes down to personal preference. Some people are ok with instanced zones, and some are not. I personally cannot tolerate it because it constantly rips me out of immersion in the game world. I hate talking about the mechanics of the game client while I am trying to escape into a virtual world. When I am having to ask your friends what "zone" and "channel" they are in, I have trouble staying engaged in the game world. It also takes away from the persistent world aspect feel of the game in my opinion, and it lowers your ability to meet people and have random adventures with strangers. I understand this doesn't bother many people, but for those of us who long for game devs to get back on track developing large open persistent worlds again, this is a smack in the face. I was seriously considering trying this game out for lack of anything else to play right not, but this pretty much put an end to that idea.
It bothers me people have this issue because they will outlevel the area very fast. It's not so gamebreaking when everything this game is about happens post 20-25. 1-20 is to get everyone (especially new MMOers) accustomed to the game before they have to deal with a wide open game with less direction. Following me? If you were new to MMO's, wouldn't it be easier to start off on a linear progression? Wouldn't the most frustrating thing on launch would be standing in line to kill the mobs you want?
Seriously people will be thankful for this on launch and won't even realize it. Unless you are trying to group with a friend on another channel you won't even realize it. Even then, just right click their name, select to join their instance and BAM you are playing together.
Honestly guys, they do these things for a reason... would you rather have more people in an area that the server can handle, lagging you out, or possibly DC'ing you, or would you rather have "instances" which will have more than enough people to interact with?
I never experienced what you are describing in classic EQ1 10 years ago and those starter areas were packed.
The machine and connection I used were inferior back then and server technology has improved since then.
I guess NCsoft is incompetent when it comes to infrastructure and game design.
But to answer the question, if I had to choose between the two options you describe, I choose inconvenience over instancing.
How much time can you delay until you reach lvl 20 without dying and knowing how to play a MMORPG just by playing other titles as WoW, L2.....? Knowing the game mechanics more or less, you know....
wow - the QQ on the forums today are very tasty...
To address the OPs concern (Im sure its been said but Im too lazy on my lunch break to read through all the pages). Instanced zones like that (also the same ones they use in Guild wars) are only for the starter zones... from 1-19 I believe to be specific.
This is so it isn't over populated. Its IMPOSSIBLE to please you people. If there wasn't instanced zoned, we'd hear posts like "I can't do anything because the mob I try to kill is always tagged by another player" or "why is it so crowded everywhere I go - there's only 2 starter zones this game sucks". Seriously - these instanced parts are so minor - if it stops you from playing Aion - good riddance I say...
Just curious now. How many people does the Abyss hold now without crashing?
Aion.. Crash? Clarify please, because that question is assuming the abyss has crashed, and also assuming the Abyss is one zone.
Forgive my ignorance I haven't played yet so my question is probably out of context. What I am asking is, do you lag or hitch or slow down alot when in the abyss? How many people does it take to make my Framerate drop below something playable (20ish) ?
wow - the QQ on the forums today are very tasty...
To address the OPs concern (Im sure its been said but Im too lazy on my lunch break to read through all the pages). Instanced zones like that (also the same ones they use in Guild wars) are only for the starter zones... from 1-19 I believe to be specific.
This is so it isn't over populated. Its IMPOSSIBLE to please you people. If there wasn't instanced zoned, we'd hear posts like "I can't do anything because the mob I try to kill is always tagged by another player" or "why is it so crowded everywhere I go - there's only 2 starter zones this game sucks". Seriously - these instanced parts are so minor - if it stops you from playing Aion - good riddance I say...
Actually we did. In the first beta event people were screaming that more instances needed to open up because of all the "lag".
It was customary ot see posts like "4 (I think it was 4) instances are just not enough" and "I can't test this game because of all the lag, nice going NC"
etc.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
There are very few zones where there is no PvP allowed either via rifts or open PvP. These zones are instanced. The reason is largely because these are starter zones where players are introduced to the game and complete a large number of quests to get them up to speed with their class and make their first class choice when they ascend.
This is an absolutely miserable experience in MMORPG's at launch. It is a smart decision, but most would prefer for there to be numerous starting areas to spread out the population. You know what those games do though? They close the selection of starting areas if population gets high thus achieving the same effect, but even worse to some who can't play with their friends and freely switch instances. This is a pretty good system all things considered. It's like the first couple days in game, and you can switch all you want.
Also after launch, just like in AoC, there won't be so much flooding in these areas to cause there to be more than 1 instance anyway so if it is that big of a deal to you, and it gets your panties in a wad just wait until a couple months after release. You are probably the type that is over critical of things anyway and could use a couple months more polish.
I didn't play EQ, just WoW, GW, L2, CoH, AA, EVE...
It's about as instanced as if you were to make durotar sized zones in WoW; that is if you were to partition Kalimdor/East into several zones, then that would be similar to what Aion is now.
Aion also has "channels": That means that every zone has several instances of the same zone so that players never run out of mobs; you can change channels manually (up to 10 that I've seen).
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Nice posts RedwoodSap, but I think you are talking to a brick wall. None of these newer gamers have any idea what they are talking about. I personally raided in EQ with 60+ people on a regular basis. And everything was non-instanced! Was completely common for even 30-40 MORE people to show up doing other raids or wanting to leech faction off your raid. And the game didn't crash or lag. My computer would lag a bit, but not the game. I turned off all spell effects when I raided and it was quite smooth. But if they never played EQ, they would never know that. Anyone that has played EQ knows what the hell we are talking about. These guys think AION is some kind of revolutionary game. "AION gives you wings!" - yeah...so does Perfect World, but in Perfect World I can actually fly.
@Argos: thats not lag-jumping...that's bard haste...yeah...it's fast.
I didn't play EQ, just WoW, GW, L2, CoH, AA, EVE...
It's about as instanced as if you were to make durotar sized zones in WoW; that is if you were to partition Kalimdor/East into several zones, then that would be similar to what Aion is now.
Aion also has "channels": That means that every zone has several instances of the same zone so that players never run out of mobs; you can change channels manually (up to 10 that I've seen).
Stop spreading lies troll. Its only the first couple of zones up to lvl20 where there isn't any pvp.
Nice posts RedwoodSap, but I think you are talking to a brick wall. None of these newer gamers have any idea what they are talking about. I personally raided in EQ with 60+ people on a regular basis. And everything was non-instanced! Was completely common for even 30-40 MORE people to show up doing other raids or wanting to leech faction off your raid. And the game didn't crash or lag. My computer would lag a bit, but not the game. I turned off all spell effects when I raided and it was quite smooth. But if they never played EQ, they would never know that. Anyone that has played EQ knows what the hell we are talking about. These guys think AION is some kind of revolutionary game. "AION gives you wings!" - yeah...so does Perfect World, but in Perfect World I can actually fly. @Argos: thats not lag-jumping...that's bard haste...yeah...it's fast.
Nonsense, no one is saying that Aion is a revolutionary game.
As far as having large numbers of people, you can. But they have gone the way of instancing the starter areas. I've tried perfect world. even looked at it again last night and I still say it's junky in comparison.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Stop spreading lies troll. Its only the first couple of zones up to lvl20 where there isn't any pvp.
Well.. that sucks, unless the zones get much larger. I actually like channels and think it's a positive thing to have them (much like AoC did). Thanks for calling me a troll though. Gives me the handle of one more moronic asshole to add to my ignore list.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Nice posts RedwoodSap, but I think you are talking to a brick wall. None of these newer gamers have any idea what they are talking about. I personally raided in EQ with 60+ people on a regular basis. And everything was non-instanced! Was completely common for even 30-40 MORE people to show up doing other raids or wanting to leech faction off your raid. And the game didn't crash or lag. My computer would lag a bit, but not the game. I turned off all spell effects when I raided and it was quite smooth. But if they never played EQ, they would never know that. Anyone that has played EQ knows what the hell we are talking about. These guys think AION is some kind of revolutionary game. "AION gives you wings!" - yeah...so does Perfect World, but in Perfect World I can actually fly. @Argos: thats not lag-jumping...that's bard haste...yeah...it's fast.
Instances were first proposed by Richard Garriott in the late 1990s as a way to solve a set of related problems which had become obvious in Ultima Online. The problem can be stated as follows: everyone wants to be "The Hero" and slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess" and obtain "The Magic Sword". When there are 2,000 and more players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. The problem of everyone wanting to kill the same monster and gain the best treasure became obvious in the game 'EverQuest', where several groups of players would compete and sometimes harass each other in the same dungeon, in order to get to the monsters dropping valuable items. The creation of instances largely solves this set of problems, leaving only travelling to and from the dungeon as a potential risk in player versus player environments.
This is why Aion and most MMORPG's have instances. FACT! So stop the bullshit saying that EverQuest did not have instances, ok maybe not at first but it was because of the popularity of EverQuest and the vast amount of people who started playing the game instances had to be devised!
Comments
It'll be nice if the game opens for everyone at lvl 10, but at lvl 20 i see it like AoC. It's like, i don't see anybody, maybe i confused and pressed Single Player in the main menu..... oh wait
For clarification. The starting areas WHERE YOU CAN NOT MEET THE ENEMY FACTION are instanced.
Every zone where PvP can happen in is non-instanced, why'd they do this? Fuck knows. But it doesn't really affect the core of the game.
WoW nerds beware, I come equipped with lazers and anti-QQ missiles. If you mess with me, I will $%£@ you.
Just curious now. How many people does the Abyss hold now without crashing?
This comes down to personal preference. Some people are ok with instanced zones, and some are not. I personally cannot tolerate it because it constantly rips me out of immersion in the game world. I hate talking about the mechanics of the game client while I am trying to escape into a virtual world. When I am having to ask my friends what "zone" and "channel" they are in, I have trouble staying engaged in the game world. It also takes away from the persistent world aspect of the game in my opinion, and it lowers your ability to meet people and have random adventures with strangers.
I understand this doesn't bother many people, but for those of us who long for game devs to get back on track developing large open persistent worlds again, this is a smack in the face. I was seriously considering trying this game out for lack of anything else to play right not, but this pretty much put an end to that idea.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Aion.. Crash? Clarify please, because that question is assuming the abyss has crashed, and also assuming the Abyss is one zone.
It bothers me people have this issue because they will outlevel the area very fast. It's not so gamebreaking when everything this game is about happens post 20-25. 1-20 is to get everyone (especially new MMOers) accustomed to the game before they have to deal with a wide open game with less direction. Following me? If you were new to MMO's, wouldn't it be easier to start off on a linear progression? Wouldn't the most frustrating thing on launch would be standing in line to kill the mobs you want?
Seriously people will be thankful for this on launch and won't even realize it. Unless you are trying to group with a friend on another channel you won't even realize it. Even then, just right click their name, select to join their instance and BAM you are playing together.
I never experienced what you are describing in classic EQ1 10 years ago and those starter areas were packed.
The machine and connection I used were inferior back then and server technology has improved since then.
I guess NCsoft is incompetent when it comes to infrastructure and game design.
But to answer the question, if I had to choose between the two options you describe, I choose inconvenience over instancing.
Show me an EQ video featuring this ammount of people without crashing.
www.youtube.com/watch added another www.youtube.com/watch , so many on you tube
Compilation in which several shots are full with people practically standing on top of each other.
Sorry we didn't have cutsy smile face icons to display like Aion. Not that we would have wanted them.
So... i watched your videos... and the first thing I noticed was that there were people lag-jumping all over the damn place.
The videos are from like 2001 a lot of people played on dial-up back then.
That video is hilarious but yet so true. I like part 1 better when you suck the soul out of the fish and apparently it winds up in your backpack.
How much time can you delay until you reach lvl 20 without dying and knowing how to play a MMORPG just by playing other titles as WoW, L2.....? Knowing the game mechanics more or less, you know....
Somewhere between AoC and EQ2 in terms of instancing.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
I didn't play EQ, just WoW, GW, L2, CoH, AA, EVE...
wow - the QQ on the forums today are very tasty...
To address the OPs concern (Im sure its been said but Im too lazy on my lunch break to read through all the pages). Instanced zones like that (also the same ones they use in Guild wars) are only for the starter zones... from 1-19 I believe to be specific.
This is so it isn't over populated. Its IMPOSSIBLE to please you people. If there wasn't instanced zoned, we'd hear posts like "I can't do anything because the mob I try to kill is always tagged by another player" or "why is it so crowded everywhere I go - there's only 2 starter zones this game sucks". Seriously - these instanced parts are so minor - if it stops you from playing Aion - good riddance I say...
Aion.. Crash? Clarify please, because that question is assuming the abyss has crashed, and also assuming the Abyss is one zone.
Forgive my ignorance I haven't played yet so my question is probably out of context. What I am asking is, do you lag or hitch or slow down alot when in the abyss? How many people does it take to make my Framerate drop below something playable (20ish) ?
Actually we did. In the first beta event people were screaming that more instances needed to open up because of all the "lag".
It was customary ot see posts like "4 (I think it was 4) instances are just not enough" and "I can't test this game because of all the lag, nice going NC"
etc.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Starting areas are crucial for meeting people and forming friendships. It is a huge deal.
Ever try killing a named quest mob with 50 people waiting their turn trying to get it?
That would be what would happen without channeling in the first few zones.
Yeah I really want to camp a monster for a few hours for a single quest, I'm sure you do too..
/rolls eyes.
.
Playing Darkfall EU1 Server
Starting areas are crucial for meeting people and forming friendships. It is a huge deal.
wont see you in Aion then
Playing Darkfall EU1 Server
There are very few zones where there is no PvP allowed either via rifts or open PvP. These zones are instanced. The reason is largely because these are starter zones where players are introduced to the game and complete a large number of quests to get them up to speed with their class and make their first class choice when they ascend.
This is an absolutely miserable experience in MMORPG's at launch. It is a smart decision, but most would prefer for there to be numerous starting areas to spread out the population. You know what those games do though? They close the selection of starting areas if population gets high thus achieving the same effect, but even worse to some who can't play with their friends and freely switch instances. This is a pretty good system all things considered. It's like the first couple days in game, and you can switch all you want.
Also after launch, just like in AoC, there won't be so much flooding in these areas to cause there to be more than 1 instance anyway so if it is that big of a deal to you, and it gets your panties in a wad just wait until a couple months after release. You are probably the type that is over critical of things anyway and could use a couple months more polish.
It's about as instanced as if you were to make durotar sized zones in WoW; that is if you were to partition Kalimdor/East into several zones, then that would be similar to what Aion is now.
Aion also has "channels": That means that every zone has several instances of the same zone so that players never run out of mobs; you can change channels manually (up to 10 that I've seen).
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Nice posts RedwoodSap, but I think you are talking to a brick wall. None of these newer gamers have any idea what they are talking about. I personally raided in EQ with 60+ people on a regular basis. And everything was non-instanced! Was completely common for even 30-40 MORE people to show up doing other raids or wanting to leech faction off your raid. And the game didn't crash or lag. My computer would lag a bit, but not the game. I turned off all spell effects when I raided and it was quite smooth. But if they never played EQ, they would never know that. Anyone that has played EQ knows what the hell we are talking about. These guys think AION is some kind of revolutionary game. "AION gives you wings!" - yeah...so does Perfect World, but in Perfect World I can actually fly.
@Argos: thats not lag-jumping...that's bard haste...yeah...it's fast.
It's about as instanced as if you were to make durotar sized zones in WoW; that is if you were to partition Kalimdor/East into several zones, then that would be similar to what Aion is now.
Aion also has "channels": That means that every zone has several instances of the same zone so that players never run out of mobs; you can change channels manually (up to 10 that I've seen).
Stop spreading lies troll. Its only the first couple of zones up to lvl20 where there isn't any pvp.
Nonsense, no one is saying that Aion is a revolutionary game.
As far as having large numbers of people, you can. But they have gone the way of instancing the starter areas. I've tried perfect world. even looked at it again last night and I still say it's junky in comparison.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Stop spreading lies troll. Its only the first couple of zones up to lvl20 where there isn't any pvp.
Well.. that sucks, unless the zones get much larger. I actually like channels and think it's a positive thing to have them (much like AoC did). Thanks for calling me a troll though. Gives me the handle of one more moronic asshole to add to my ignore list.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Stop spreading lies troll. Its only the first couple of zones up to lvl20 where there isn't any pvp.
So you're saying every zone after that doesn't have channels?
Correct - only zones from levels 1 - 19
Instances were first proposed by Richard Garriott in the late 1990s as a way to solve a set of related problems which had become obvious in Ultima Online. The problem can be stated as follows: everyone wants to be "The Hero" and slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess" and obtain "The Magic Sword". When there are 2,000 and more players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. The problem of everyone wanting to kill the same monster and gain the best treasure became obvious in the game 'EverQuest', where several groups of players would compete and sometimes harass each other in the same dungeon, in order to get to the monsters dropping valuable items. The creation of instances largely solves this set of problems, leaving only travelling to and from the dungeon as a potential risk in player versus player environments.
This is why Aion and most MMORPG's have instances. FACT! So stop the bullshit saying that EverQuest did not have instances, ok maybe not at first but it was because of the popularity of EverQuest and the vast amount of people who started playing the game instances had to be devised!
Regards,