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Is the World as big as they make it out to be?
free2play
Member UncommonPosts: 2,043
in Guild Wars 2
I've been keeping an eye on this. I never played GW1 but they make it out to be so huge with ships and air ships and grand cities.
Is it really all that? Can we craft a full on sailing ship and then drop it in the water? Dock it up and spend a week getting to some far off city?
Comments
i dunno about gw1, but i think u are very misinformed?
as far as i know,u dont craft ship.. and sail it for a week...
but i do think the world is big, if u decide to run around by foot. and i agree, the cities are grand, best, sexiest i ever seen. rata sum is mind fking.
Sorry to break it to you, But 'zones' are divided by instance barriers much the way the secret world is. They are just more crafty about hiding it.
Therefore, The world is only as large as your current zone.
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TS you were describing archeage rather than GW2.
Hold on man, I also play The Secret World and enjoy it very much. Guild Wars 2 is indeed instanced in the same fashion as TSW. They both have finely crafted art and appeal between them and both give you a chance to walk around and take in all there is to see in one particular zone.
But they do bare some very distinct differences; for one the scale of The Secret World is not as large as that of Guild Wars 2. The cities are no where near as large and active. I could easily take New York City instance to point this fact out, but I'll do better and say London since that is the largest and most developed of the three (NYC, Seoul, London).
London does not compare in scale to that of Hoelbrak or Divintity Reach in comparison. No even close man and again I'd like to make it clear that I am a very big fan of the TSW. I see you like the game also, but don't make it seem like the work ArenaNet actually put into these instanced areas as something lackluster. They've done an impressive job with the whole instanced area thing.
One more comparision, the buildings and backdrops of many areas can actually be traveled to without any type of zoning while in GW2. TSW doesn't boast this large of scale, it's not a bad thing. TSW is very concentrated in it's atmosphere. It's just not as well done as Guild Wars in my opinion.
If I could combine the two I most definately would without hesitation. Give me the atmosphere and setting of TSW with the grand scale and "life" that GW2 has and that would be a real homerun in my most humble of opinions.
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
TY for the replies.
If I was to use a comparison, I'd go with LotRO. It is pretty big from end to end and Brie is spread out. I'm sure the Misty Mountains is an instance in and of its own but it's a seamless instance. When you enter certain buildings in Rivendell, sure you instance in but again, it feels seamless. That's more what I was aiming toward.
I saw boats in one of the trailers, as well as Airships. I was just wondering how extensive those play in to the game.
I actually prefer the smaller cities of TSW, the massive but empty and useless cities of GW2 and Everquest 2 are just so much empty content, a lot of polygons to hide that the few useful facilities are miles apart. And what is it with all the vendors selling slight variants of food? In TSW there is one food vendor and all the clothes are in one place and it doesn't take forever to get there.
I never liked meaningless big cities that are just big so they can check the "got big cities" checkbox on the box. The norn home city, it is just an endless slow walk between auction house and crafting stations that is just big and unrealistic for the sake of being big. I much prefer say the Lotro crafting house, everything in a small room. Feels more real and you don't have to spend 5 minutes walking just to get from place to place.
A big world is only a plus for a game that has real exploration, real exploration is finding stuff nobody else has found, not just going from POI to POI marked on your map.
He is actually describing Vanguard as well.
Focusing on the size of the world (despite OP seeming to be mixing up games) the world itself isn't really that large. Its a decent size, don't get me wrong, but its not really massive. It feels so large since you don't got mounts to get you around. The lack of speed boosts really makes the game world feel much better. If they added ground mounts people would feel the world is a bit small, add in flying mounts and its tiny.
Amazing how taking out one basic MMo aspect can make things seem so much larger huh?
The differance with LOTRO is that you can actually walk to every location without zoning,plus lotro has no underwater content.When you enter a building in lotro you are not entering an instance,you are zoning into that building unless you are in story mode.
You are getting confused with an instance and a zone.
GW2 is zoned and has the overflow which is a pain to be honest,lotro handles it way better but none are on the grand scale of Vanguard.
To call those tiny maps city is a joke really in TSW. All you got is a very small zone with nothing going on in it. Cities are so small that it gives you a feeling of being trapped in a shoe box.
Where as GW2 cities have puzzles, games and a lot of other hidden stuff in it. I have never seen such impressive cities before in any MMORPG. Other MMOS which made some effort to make cities an interesting social hub is Aion and Vanguard.
So you can keep your shoe box called cities in TSW, i am very happy with beautiful and grand cities of GW2.
The are no flying ships (yet). As far as size goes, the game world is indeed huge and more importantly, it's alive. Virtually every corner of the map has has something. And i love how they encourage you to explore through random events, skill points, vistas, etc.
This proably the first game where i was more interested in clearing a whole map even after I out leveled it. If you're the type that like exploring, you're gonna love this game.
Are you serious,EQ2 cities are full of content more so than TSW and GW2,they are breathing cities.
EQ2 Freeport http://eq2.zam.com/db/zone.html?eq2zone=76987f8307d88f88acc1dc8d9285d928
Qeynos http://eq2.zam.com/wiki/City_of_Qeynos_(EQ2_Quest_Series)
Qeynos real estate http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=columns.Detail&category_select_id=21&id=365
Freeport real estate http://eq2vault.ign.com/View.php?view=columns.Detail&category_select_id=21&id=359
Not TSW or GW2 can even come close to the amout of content happening in EQ2 main cities.
I would just say take a look for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbgDkLjUSNk
Just keep in mind that this is a video from the betas and the guy didn't walked through the whole city because it would take more than 10 minutes to walk through one of them alone, while the video itself is only a little over 10 minutes.
The world in guild wars 2 seems really large so far, but what i found amazing is the attention to detail, its not just big for the sake of it, while i wasn't amazed by the norn city, the humans one blowed my mind and i was amazed at the architecture, detail, and the feeling of life. Sure some place are closed or empty atm but there is room for improvement or for various event later on and that i find is great.
Traveling is instant so again the game deliver real exploration no wait time flying around staring bored at a screen, and there is alway more to find than what you see on screen, hidden dwarf cities, hidden event and place, to me if gw2 gave something it's the feeling of exploration, and i haven't had the urge to explore like that since Ultima online.
On the loading time topic, it doesn't bother me, since its really fast and if it can improve the game performance i don't mind it at all, the loading time is short enough to not feel disconnected from the world
True. The zones are a lot larger than in the other modern MMOs I played but they are still zones. Generally I would say a GW2 zone is something like 6 times that once of AoCs, maybe even 8 and also have a lot more in it but they are still just zones.
And so far are player made ships out, they might be added later but you sure wont be able to spend a week sailing to another city, you couldnt even do that in EQ or UO back in the days, they werent that large either.
I did run from Divinitys reach to Lions arch a few days ago, took me 2 hours but then I stopped and did a few DEs on the way and had no idea where I was going.
The game is huge compared to any vanilla game I seen the last 10 years but you wont spend 10 hours running from one city to another like Everquest, and there are asura gates between them + the ability to teleport for a silver or so.
I have not been in Freep or Q since the revamp but before is it just not true. And the constant zooning in them made them a real pain. Personally I refered Neriak in EQ2, especially since they fixed the code so you wouldnt lagg so much in it.
But Divinitys reach is far more detailed than any town in EQ2 was prior to me quitting at least (which was when Sonys server got hacked).
Honestly, the city that has me super impressed is Ebonhawke, at least from screenshots and stories I've heard.
I'm really curious about it. It's a massive human city, but with FIGHTING in it. WHOO!
Actually I'd call the game instanced along zoned because you get tossed into the overflow servers all the time which are different instances of the same zone, very much like TOR if there's enough people, in fact, the system is exactly the same as in TOR just presented in a more acceptable way for players. I didnt have much problem with it in TOR since I honestly understand the reasoning behind it (as long as it works correctly).
About the cities, the best cities in any mmorpg I've played period. Each one is very different from eachothers and very detailed, immersive and plain awesome. Even better thing is that the world is filled with smaller towns that actually feel real, instead those "two tents and a flag" style outpost every mmorpg is plagued with just to have quest hubs.
About the world size, I think it's decent, it's propably enough for initial release. It's smaller than what the game makes you think with on-foot only + waypoint travel. On foot even smaller distances feel longer and also I see people traveling a lot even short distances via waypoints because there's no fast travel options, covering the travel via waypoint makes the distance feel a lot longer than it actually is.
It's propably better to have as detailed world as GW2 has rather than a huge open space filled with nothing. Good example is the first Norn area after tutorial before you move to the snowy plains. It's not that big in size, but there's so much going on and so much detail that it feels big. If you explore every cave and underwater passage you find surprises and it takes a while. So, good job Anet.
Beejesus, the misinformation here goes over my threat limit.
First of all, GW2 cities are huge AND full of waypoints, so if you are running around aimlessy it is just because you are too lazy to open the map and click a button... oh wait! WHY are you running around instead of teleporting again if it bothers you???
Secondly, calling GW2 cities "empty" and TSW city full is.... I do not even know where to start, let's just say I played both games and got the completely opposite impression. I went around the TSW cities to get the exploration points done and that's it. In GW2 cities you get all sort of stuff that either do not have a POI or do stuff anyway, Keg Brawl anyone? The Giant music machine in Divinity's Reach? the incredibly beautiful nature goddess statue and park, again in Divnity? The Arena in Black citadel?
Sorry, no. GW2 cities feels a lot more real than TSW's.
Finally... if you would have gone EXPLORING in GW2 you would have realized that not ALL is pointed out for you. POI and vistas are just markers to get you started but the world is full of other stuff not marked anywhere. Underwater caves, ruins, optional bosses.... the world is full of those.
AS for size of the game,
GW2 has 25 well sized areas. For comparison, TSW has 8.. or was it 7?. WoW at launch had 37 I think, but some of those were faction specific, still even removing those, it was more than GW2 had... but I have the impression GW2 areas are bigger.
Just an impression though. Fact is they are choked full of stuff to do, so no complain there.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
I spread my Brie on toast. Mmmm.
Just kidding!
If you had the usual +80 to +150% speed mounts, you could circle the entire gameplay area within 20-30 minutes. The zones are fairly small and instanced and each zone is pretty much surrounded by impassable terrain.
Cities are not that large, buildings are set pieces - just a scenery, you can't enter 95% of them. Cities are just a big stage for vendors and trainers.
In its size, the world is maybe one tenth of Vanguard world, one third of EQ2, one half of WoW world or Lotro, slightly larger than Rift, WAR world, probably as big as AoC (similar amount of zones, arguably of the same size).
REALITY CHECK
So how many zones are there in DR,i mean sewers and ajacent zones that have they're own mobs and quest lines,sorry but DR is a great looking cities but it has no where near the content that Freeport or Qeynos has.
Even before the revamp of freeport it had more content and Qeynos hasn't even been revamped yet.