Rift is approx. the size of LOTRO at release, which was 80% of a single WoW continent.
Interesting. I agree with Rift not being large - it's smaller than 1 WoW continent in explorable area and size - but do you have a source or link to that LotrO statement? From what I've seen and measured so far, LotrO is quite larger than just 1 WoW continent (not as ridiculously large as in this comparison picture, but still large).
This is what I gathered in info so far (copied from the thread I did about it)
LotrO distances
To travel 10 coord. points either from N->S or E->W takes 5m15s
Celondim, the elven starter town in the west lies at (28.0S, 92.4W), near the stablemaster.
Bree west gate lies at (29.5S, 52.6W), Rivendell's west end near the stable master at (29.5S, 6.7W) and Elrond's house in Rivendell at (29.5S, 3.3W).
Which makes the distance
- between Celondim and Rivendell roughly 45 min
- and between Bree and Elrond's house at Rivendell around 26 min, or 6.3 miles as the crow flies.
- size: the current LotrO world map (where Rohan, Gondor etc is still missing) is 16 x 31 miles
NB: yes, I'm aware this is a bit offtopic regarding the OP topic, so PM works fine for me as well.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Personally, I only really get upset about the posts which I feel misrepresent the game.
I almost "missed out" on Rift because I was believing some of the negative posts. I've preordered Rift now and looking forward to at least a few months of good ol fashioned MMO fun.
I think the BEST thing you can do when a new game is coming out is act as a witness. That is, tell people the detail of what you experienced and how you felt. These two things you can post with absolute accuracy.
Generalising on either how the game plays, or how others will feel about the game... kind of stupid unless you are posting in a thread that is all about speculation and opinion.
Rift is approx. the size of LOTRO at release, which was 80% of a single WoW continent.
Interesting. I agree with Rift not being large - it's smaller than 1 WoW continent in explorable area and size - but do you have a source or link to that LotrO statement? From what I've seen and measured so far, LotrO is quite larger than just 1 WoW continent (not as ridcujously large as in this comparison picture, but still large).
This is what I gathered in info so far (copied from the thread I did about it)
LotrO distances
To travel 10 coord. points either from N->S or E->W takes 5m15s
Celondim, the elven starter town in the west lies at (28.0S, 92.4W), near the stablemaster.
Bree west gate lies at (29.5S, 52.6W), Rivendell's west end near the stable master at (29.5S, 6.7W) and Elrond's house in Rivendell at (29.5S, 3.3W).
Which makes the distance
- between Celondim and Rivendell roughly 45 min
- and between Bree and Elrond's house at Rivendell around 26 min, or 6.3 miles as the crow flies.
NB: yes, I'm aware this is a bit offtopic regarding the OP topic, so PM works fine for me as well.
As I said above in my edit, the size of LOTRO AT RELEASE (not now) was 80% of a single WoW continent. The source of this information is one of the developer letters we had during beta. Apply your distance calculations to WoW too and you'll see it's pretty accurate.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
As I said above in my edit, the size of LOTRO AT RELEASE (not now) was 80% of a single WoW continent. The source of this information is one of the developer letters we had during beta. Apply your distance calculations to WoW too and you'll see it's pretty accurate.
Hmm, I'd have to go back and see what regions were added later and which were there from start.
As for comparisons with WoW, it'd take about as long to travel from Michel Delving in the Shire to Rivendell as it takes to travel from Kalimdor's north coast to its south coast in a straight line, and about 1.5 times as long to travel from Bree to Rivendell as it takes to travel from Kalimdor's east coast to west coast.
If the 80 percent is the exact figure the LotrO devs used, then this should help track down the quote, I'll see what I can find. Thanks for the pointer.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Well, I think there's one think we both agree to so far
Neither Rift nor LOTRO (at release) are remotely as big as WoW (at release), and definitely not even very remotely close to be as big a Asheron's Call. That famous map posted above is just wrong.
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
I played swg, probably one of the biggest worlds in MMO's. I feel like rifts world is fairly big, but the difference in rift and swg... swg is so big and alot of it is empty generated terrrain that it makes venturing out kind of boring and pointless.
I like the idea of having a game where the world is filled with life and there is a reason to go out and explore.
Originally posted by Tamanous Obviously the OP is a new player to mmo's.
The last thing I would call Rift's world is huge.
Seems like they're talking more about what they're getting out of the world rather than the physical size of the world itself. Check this article on this site: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/16920 Which you've probably seen before.
Middle Earth is about 375 times larger than Azeroth. LoTRO does not have 375 times the content of WoW. I'm not entirely sure, but does LoTRO even has as much content as WoW?
The world's size isn't necessarily relevant to the enjoyment you can get out of it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Seems like they're talking more about what they're getting out of the world rather than the physical size of the world itself. Check this article on this site:
Middle Earth is about 375 times larger than Azeroth. LoTRO does not have 375 times the content of WoW. I'm not entirely sure, but does LoTRO even has as much content as WoW?
The world's size isn't necessarily relevant to the enjoyment you can get out of it.
That graphic is completely wrong about the size of Middle Earth in LotRO. Which then opens all the information there to question. I think it goes back to launch, when one article misquoted the size of Middle Earth, putting a square miles tag on what was really square meters.
LotRO's Middle Earth was less than half the size of WoW's Azeroth was when it launched.
peple need to think first when posting, yes how can someone compare to new game world for 6 years old game with 3 expansion is beyond my understanding.
Well, even if we compare Rift NOW with World of Warcraft 6 years ago at release, Rift's world is small and cramped compared to "vanilla" Wow. Freemarch is about the size of Wetlands in WoW. If you compare land mass sizes based on that, Rift at release will not even be the size of a single WoW continent. Rift is approx. the size of LOTRO at release, which was 80% of a single WoW continent.
PS: the evaluation of LOTRO's landmass size on that map picture posted above is known to be wrong. The guy evaluated it based on what size of "real" Middle Earth LOTRO is supposed to represent, and not the shrinked version really present in the game. The "80% of a WoW continent" evaluation comes from the LOTRO devs themself during beta. The error is blatantly obvious when you see that this picture pretends LOTRO is bigger than Asheron's Call. Anyone who has played both games can just laugh at this.
PS2: reminder before any fanatic calls me a hater: I bought the digital collector and will happily play this game at release and even before during the headstart. I'm just not a blind praiser and am aware of what the game really is.
I'm glad you chose Wetlnads for the comparison, because it makes the counterpoint very well. Even if Freemarch is the size of Wetlands, Rift makes much, much better use of the space than WoW does with Wetlands. I would think the amount of actual content is at least quadruple, with out the layout ever feeling artificially compressed.
So, why wouldn't Trion just have kept the same amount of content and just quadrupled the size of each zone, so they could brag about world size? Well, they chose to make the terrain much more detailed than in WoW. They make great use of terrain elevation, macro and micro. The world feels more organic and offers a much better approximation of real world terrain than what most MMOs offer.
I prefer the more detailed world design, even if they have to sacrifice a little as far as raw world size.
Originally posted by fiontar Originally posted by lizardbones
Originally posted by Tamanous Obviously the OP is a new player to mmo's.
The last thing I would call Rift's world is huge.
Seems like they're talking more about what they're getting out of the world rather than the physical size of the world itself. Check this article on this site: http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/16920 Which you've probably seen before.
Middle Earth is about 375 times larger than Azeroth. LoTRO does not have 375 times the content of WoW. I'm not entirely sure, but does LoTRO even has as much content as WoW?
The world's size isn't necessarily relevant to the enjoyment you can get out of it. That graphic is completely wrong about the size of Middle Earth in LotRO. Which then opens all the information there to question. I think it goes back to launch, when one article misquoted the size of Middle Earth, putting a square miles tag on what was really square meters. LotRO's Middle Earth was less than half the size of WoW's Azeroth was when it launched.
I've never played LoTRO, so I wouldn't have any real idea if the map was accurate or not. 30,000 mi2 seemed really big; I assumed it was mostly empty space. However, many games have maps larger than Azeroth, yet they have less content and less to do. The world size, as a feature by itself isn't really relevant to how much you enjoy the game. It's the world's size combined with all the other stuff in the game. Rift feels bigger than its physical size to a lot of people. In fact, the physical size is irrelevant since it's the amount of time you spend moving, not the amount of virtual space you've moved that matters.
Trion could just insert a bunch of extra land all over the map to increase the size of their world to be twice the size of Azeroth or even the size of Vanguard. It wouldn't make the game any better. They'd have to do something with all that extra land.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
Comments
Interesting. I agree with Rift not being large - it's smaller than 1 WoW continent in explorable area and size - but do you have a source or link to that LotrO statement? From what I've seen and measured so far, LotrO is quite larger than just 1 WoW continent (not as ridiculously large as in this comparison picture, but still large).
This is what I gathered in info so far (copied from the thread I did about it)
LotrO distances
To travel 10 coord. points either from N->S or E->W takes 5m15s
Celondim, the elven starter town in the west lies at (28.0S, 92.4W), near the stablemaster.
Bree west gate lies at (29.5S, 52.6W), Rivendell's west end near the stable master at (29.5S, 6.7W) and Elrond's house in Rivendell at (29.5S, 3.3W).
Which makes the distance
- between Celondim and Rivendell roughly 45 min
- and between Bree and Elrond's house at Rivendell around 26 min, or 6.3 miles as the crow flies.
- size: the current LotrO world map (where Rohan, Gondor etc is still missing) is 16 x 31 miles
NB: yes, I'm aware this is a bit offtopic regarding the OP topic, so PM works fine for me as well.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Personally, I only really get upset about the posts which I feel misrepresent the game.
I almost "missed out" on Rift because I was believing some of the negative posts. I've preordered Rift now and looking forward to at least a few months of good ol fashioned MMO fun.
I think the BEST thing you can do when a new game is coming out is act as a witness. That is, tell people the detail of what you experienced and how you felt. These two things you can post with absolute accuracy.
Generalising on either how the game plays, or how others will feel about the game... kind of stupid unless you are posting in a thread that is all about speculation and opinion.
As I said above in my edit, the size of LOTRO AT RELEASE (not now) was 80% of a single WoW continent. The source of this information is one of the developer letters we had during beta. Apply your distance calculations to WoW too and you'll see it's pretty accurate.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Hmm, I'd have to go back and see what regions were added later and which were there from start.
As for comparisons with WoW, it'd take about as long to travel from Michel Delving in the Shire to Rivendell as it takes to travel from Kalimdor's north coast to its south coast in a straight line, and about 1.5 times as long to travel from Bree to Rivendell as it takes to travel from Kalimdor's east coast to west coast.
If the 80 percent is the exact figure the LotrO devs used, then this should help track down the quote, I'll see what I can find. Thanks for the pointer.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Well, I think there's one think we both agree to so far
Neither Rift nor LOTRO (at release) are remotely as big as WoW (at release), and definitely not even very remotely close to be as big a Asheron's Call. That famous map posted above is just wrong.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Obviously the OP is a new player to mmo's.
The last thing I would call Rift's world is huge.
You stay sassy!
I played swg, probably one of the biggest worlds in MMO's. I feel like rifts world is fairly big, but the difference in rift and swg... swg is so big and alot of it is empty generated terrrain that it makes venturing out kind of boring and pointless.
I like the idea of having a game where the world is filled with life and there is a reason to go out and explore.
"When it comes to GW2 any game is fair game"
Seems like they're talking more about what they're getting out of the world rather than the physical size of the world itself. Check this article on this site:
http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/16920
Which you've probably seen before.
Middle Earth is about 375 times larger than Azeroth. LoTRO does not have 375 times the content of WoW. I'm not entirely sure, but does LoTRO even has as much content as WoW?
The world's size isn't necessarily relevant to the enjoyment you can get out of it.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
That graphic is completely wrong about the size of Middle Earth in LotRO. Which then opens all the information there to question. I think it goes back to launch, when one article misquoted the size of Middle Earth, putting a square miles tag on what was really square meters.
LotRO's Middle Earth was less than half the size of WoW's Azeroth was when it launched.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I'm glad you chose Wetlnads for the comparison, because it makes the counterpoint very well. Even if Freemarch is the size of Wetlands, Rift makes much, much better use of the space than WoW does with Wetlands. I would think the amount of actual content is at least quadruple, with out the layout ever feeling artificially compressed.
So, why wouldn't Trion just have kept the same amount of content and just quadrupled the size of each zone, so they could brag about world size? Well, they chose to make the terrain much more detailed than in WoW. They make great use of terrain elevation, macro and micro. The world feels more organic and offers a much better approximation of real world terrain than what most MMOs offer.
I prefer the more detailed world design, even if they have to sacrifice a little as far as raw world size.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Seems like they're talking more about what they're getting out of the world rather than the physical size of the world itself. Check this article on this site:
http://www.mmorpg.com/newsroom.cfm/read/16920
Which you've probably seen before.
Middle Earth is about 375 times larger than Azeroth. LoTRO does not have 375 times the content of WoW. I'm not entirely sure, but does LoTRO even has as much content as WoW?
The world's size isn't necessarily relevant to the enjoyment you can get out of it.
That graphic is completely wrong about the size of Middle Earth in LotRO. Which then opens all the information there to question. I think it goes back to launch, when one article misquoted the size of Middle Earth, putting a square miles tag on what was really square meters.
LotRO's Middle Earth was less than half the size of WoW's Azeroth was when it launched.
I've never played LoTRO, so I wouldn't have any real idea if the map was accurate or not. 30,000 mi2 seemed really big; I assumed it was mostly empty space. However, many games have maps larger than Azeroth, yet they have less content and less to do. The world size, as a feature by itself isn't really relevant to how much you enjoy the game. It's the world's size combined with all the other stuff in the game. Rift feels bigger than its physical size to a lot of people. In fact, the physical size is irrelevant since it's the amount of time you spend moving, not the amount of virtual space you've moved that matters.
Trion could just insert a bunch of extra land all over the map to increase the size of their world to be twice the size of Azeroth or even the size of Vanguard. It wouldn't make the game any better. They'd have to do something with all that extra land.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.