I don't mind zoning when it makes sense, over distance (continents, seas) or really huge areas, as I'd rather have a compromise between great graphics/beautiful game, etc., and sluggish load times.
I hate is zoning like in EQ2 in the city, what a PiA!
I do like some instancing for dungeons vs waiting for half a dozen other people to finish killing x so I can.
AoC other than the start area zone changes, I felt handled it well as the game is awesomely beautiful and most of the zone changes are over vast areas.
WoW's completely open world is great but you do get the trade off of not as nice graphics, etc.
I suspect it iwll be very similar to AoC as they are using pretty much the same engine. There is a team based in Liverpool I think which specifically work on the engine so this means that both will received similar updates throughout their lifespan. There is an update to the engine incoming for AoC around August.
OP: There zones in the new xpac for AoC are very large but do take some time to load, further optimisations are nicoming though.
I am in the beta for TSW or will be so am very much looking forward to that!
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I want a seamless world like WoW where there's no loading screens between zones. Just wondering if it'll be a proper world or will I bump into loading screens every 30 seconds like Age of Conan, cause that ruins mmorpgs for me.
Did you upgrade your computer? And i mean upgrade like GTX480, core i7, an mot important - tons of ram.... Cuz if you want seamless world with graphics of AOC then you better go upgrade, not sure if it will help though. And if you want to have that horrible graphics of WOW then i just hope your wishes never come true.
The instancing and zoning are 90% result of processing power limits, not gameplay. Can't make world both - big and detailed at the same time...
People complained about instancing, but not zones - a good game without zoning is not possible, even with mediocre graphics - at very least it will require a lot of RAM. And it's the only possible solution gameplay wise - no way you can have 1 large zone with different terrain types without having to walk 100s miles and no way they make world this large - it would require lifetume to model.
Instancing is needed when your server become overpopulated - people who complain about instances in AOC have never probably been in Kheshata when there's 100s people bashing each other at the entrance in every of 5 instances
WW2 Online has a huge open world with no zones/instances and view ranges measured in kilometers.
However, this comes at a very high price because texture memory is limited (not everyone has as a pair of 2GB Video cards), so loading new textures causes "stuttering" in game, so they try to minimize that as much as possible, and the graphics quality suffers for it (less detail, less detail at ranges (LOD is compressed some), animations are more rudimentary, etc. Also, when an area starts hitting 100+ people in a smallish area, you can't see everyone because of graphics performance reasons, so the game starts to not display things (based on an algorithm, friend or foe, distance, threat, etc).
It does let you ambush a tank column at 2km from the flanks though, which is a heck of a lot of fun.
In 10 years or so, a real MMORPG (not a fighting game like WW2 Online) might be able to do it well, but until the "low end" machines are all beyond what the "top end machines" of today are, we'll be stuck with zones/instances.
Comments
I wish it was, I prefer zone based MMOs with instances for quests/adventures like DDO
I don't mind zoning when it makes sense, over distance (continents, seas) or really huge areas, as I'd rather have a compromise between great graphics/beautiful game, etc., and sluggish load times.
I hate is zoning like in EQ2 in the city, what a PiA!
I do like some instancing for dungeons vs waiting for half a dozen other people to finish killing x so I can.
AoC other than the start area zone changes, I felt handled it well as the game is awesomely beautiful and most of the zone changes are over vast areas.
WoW's completely open world is great but you do get the trade off of not as nice graphics, etc.
Proud member of Hammerfist Clan Gaming Community.
Currently playing: RIFT, EQ2, WoW, LoTRO
Retired: Warhammer, AoC, EQ
Waiting: SWToR & GW2
I suspect it iwll be very similar to AoC as they are using pretty much the same engine. There is a team based in Liverpool I think which specifically work on the engine so this means that both will received similar updates throughout their lifespan. There is an update to the engine incoming for AoC around August.
OP: There zones in the new xpac for AoC are very large but do take some time to load, further optimisations are nicoming though.
I am in the beta for TSW or will be so am very much looking forward to that!
THE SECRET WORLD - PAY ONCE PLAY FOREVER - Give it a go!
http://www.thesecretworld.com/buy/
OR PM ME FOR A BUDDY KEY (need your email address).
Did you upgrade your computer? And i mean upgrade like GTX480, core i7, an mot important - tons of ram.... Cuz if you want seamless world with graphics of AOC then you better go upgrade, not sure if it will help though. And if you want to have that horrible graphics of WOW then i just hope your wishes never come true.
The instancing and zoning are 90% result of processing power limits, not gameplay. Can't make world both - big and detailed at the same time...
WW2 Online has a huge open world with no zones/instances and view ranges measured in kilometers.
However, this comes at a very high price because texture memory is limited (not everyone has as a pair of 2GB Video cards), so loading new textures causes "stuttering" in game, so they try to minimize that as much as possible, and the graphics quality suffers for it (less detail, less detail at ranges (LOD is compressed some), animations are more rudimentary, etc. Also, when an area starts hitting 100+ people in a smallish area, you can't see everyone because of graphics performance reasons, so the game starts to not display things (based on an algorithm, friend or foe, distance, threat, etc).
It does let you ambush a tank column at 2km from the flanks though, which is a heck of a lot of fun.
In 10 years or so, a real MMORPG (not a fighting game like WW2 Online) might be able to do it well, but until the "low end" machines are all beyond what the "top end machines" of today are, we'll be stuck with zones/instances.