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GW2 has very little "actual" graphical variety
CultOfXtc
Member Posts: 378
I was out leveling and generally messing about with my level 36 Necro and started to realise something was a miss in the landscapes and world I was exploring. To me if you take away the undoubtably fantasic looking set pieces (Black Citidal for example) then the normal world itself is very generic and plain. The same gradd hills and rocks are there over and over again.
After I relaised this it does take the shine off and I started to see it everywhere. Gratz to Anet for drawing and fooling the eye somewhat with their map skills creating the set pieces.
Great game though. 
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Comments
game looks great to me.
world's shouldn't drastically change after a fifteen minute jog anyway.
I'm sure you'll see more variety as the game ages and new assets are planted.
Be patient, young Jedi.
Best sceneries and overall graphics ive ever seen in an mmo.
Your arguement is invalid.
The Deep Web is sca-ry.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
That's a bit of a disapointing comment to be honest. My argument is not invalid, I assume you think GW2 is the second coming and will defend it regardless?
The graphical variety in GW2 is rather low in any area which isn't a city or set piece. I am not attacking your opinion on the game or you just stating that's the way I see it.
Honestly some people just can't take anything critical against a game they like.
/sadface
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).
go to a different area.
also, sure some parts are kinda boring but i mean what can you do, plain of grass is a plain of grass. for the most part tho, there is enough landmarks and change in overall landscape formation/foliage that makes it feel more like a living, breathing world.
Most memorable games: AoC(Tryanny PvP), RIFT, GW, GW2, Ragnarok Online, Aion, FFXI, FFXIV, Secret World, League of Legends (Silver II rank)
rarely post ever
compared to what?
... I see lots of variety. How odd.
I realize it's your opinion, but I find it hard to understand, haha. I love how even the farms look different from one another, they're arranged in various ways, it's not a lot of generic things plonked down that are cut and paste objects or terrain.
I do to some extent see what your saying. Alot of the zones I've been through generally felt similar graphically especially the human level ladder of Queensdale, Kessex, and Gandaren Fields. However, The world is gigantic and there are a lot of very distinct looking zones and even amongst the starter areas there are some just beautiful pieces of art. I think I overall disagree with the assertion that there isn't alot of varierty graphically in this game, in fact I feel like the one thing that this game has done better than just about any other game I have ever played is make me want to explore everywhere I go guild wars 2 has something else that is awe inspiring, gigantic, elegant, visceral, etc. There is just so much to see.
I see lots and lots and lots of variety. Also I've found the terrain and the world to feel pretty well done as far as realism. By that I just mean the layout, I could see going out on a hike and encountering much of the terrain in reality as it is there in the world, only hopefully I wouldn't have tons of local wildlife out to kill me, eh.
Really apart from LotRO and Fallen Earth, the terrain in this game for me is hard to compare to anything, it is amazing.
If several zones are not allowed to use hills and rocks, then you do know its hard to make more than one zone right?
When you travel to another city, isnt there also hill and rocks ?
This ^.
I can't say what experience the OP is specifically referring to, but I'm now sitting somewhere around 40% world map completion. I have yet to see 2 areas that look the same. They are all unique, hand crafted, but they are cohesive. This isn't the same as being copy & pasted, though. If you travel around you will see a natural flow of the land. More northern areas are more barren and colder. More central areas are more tropical and moist. There is a flow to the land.
If you want copy & pasted areas, go look at WoW, or even worse FFXIV. The difference should be pretty obvious.
If anything looks copy & pasted it would be the mobs in certain areas. For the most part this isn't an issue, but certain areas (like on the Tarnished Coast, there's a small dungeon of ghost pirates near where you fight the undead ship) have mobs that look like they are all the same 1/2 models.
- To complain about this game's environment design is a bit questionable. They may not have the best environments ever, but these are some of the best environments seen in an MMO. Honestly, out of the companies that tend to do the best environments, none of them are making MMOs.
Despite what people TRY and claim, it is quite plain and doesn't really have distinct variety. While it can be a negative, at the same time its that detail that makes stuff look more 'unrealistic' and can detract people as well. Areas tend to look very similiar to each other and you will find practically the same thing over again. I think its done more for a realistic feel to it though I'm not quite sure how well it pulls it off. Typically you see...
1.) Forest Area | 2.) Swamp Area | 3.) Snow Area | 4.) Water Area | 5.) Orr
Theres not much variation at all... but I can't really bash it either. Its one of those things that it depends on how they want the world to be. The Race cities are well detailed though which really makes it stick out how much the wilderness seems a bit... dry. What bothers me is WoW (sorry, best example I know) copy and pasted a lot of their caves and building structures, yet the zones felt so different even with layouts being very similiar for interiors. I think they just missed the mark a bit in really making places stick out from one another enough without making it look cheesy and to cartoony.
You forgot:
Beach area
Desert area
War-torn forest area
Jungle
Countryside
I mean.. seriously? Look at the layout of the world. It makes sense geographically. If you put it side by side to a flattened map of our globe, you'll see a lot of similarities. The biggest difference is that Tyria is more compact than ours is, and we are also only seeing a small part of the world of Tyria atm. It's using the same geography from GW1 (w/ a few variations of course), but we're missing two huge continents (that we know of). You could cut out a section of our world from the eastcoast of america to the western part of europe, and say the exact same thing.
Just... no.
Areas are themed, for sure. But there's plenty of themes, plenty of areas, and a staggering amount of varied details (buildings, plantlife, layouts, rock formations, ambiane).
Eh don't see some of those areas you mention such as the war-torn or jungle but eh. Exactly, realistic. It makes things look like "oh thats plausible' more, but at the cost of being relatively less interesting. Its all about balancing realism to keep people into it without making them feel like its just the same old same old. To me it falls a bit short... and I think part of the problem is they make places like the Asura or the Charr city that looks so crazy and just varied that it ends up making it feel like something is missing elsewhere.
Hey, look a snow zone.
Oh, another snow zone.
This is also a snow zone.
And ....another snow zone.
Some details, set pieces and land marks change but there is only a handful templates they use.
Yeah, its more "realistic" but much less entertaining for a video game.
I will say that the variety of enemies is very nice(though some are repeated endlessly ie the horrible Dredge). Theres different graphics for different types of the same mob type. Like a normal version, snow version, jungle, undead, Destroyer, Branded and aquatic. Theres also undead versions of nearly everything. Even chickens. You ever run for life from a horde of zombie chickens? I have.
As stated, it adds a somewhat realistic touch to the world.
It COULD feel like moving in a realistisc world with monsters (lol).
No one puts a gun to your head if you decide to run the Norn zones from 1-20. You could go human, asura, or charr area.
Actually even the zones within the same area are very very different. Take Wayfarer, Snowdrift and Lornar. Sure, they're all "snow area" but look closer and you'll realize each of them have a distinct characteristic. Wayfarer is much more rolling and tamer, while Snowdrift really gives you that wilderness, the landscape more broken, untamed edge of civilization. While Lornar is very winding, truly a high mountain range.
The texture might be similar, but the way they're used is brilliant.
I don't see why people are getting so worked up about this.
OP clearly has no education in any sort of game design. Ignorance really is bliss.
What I think the OP means is that GW2 areas follow geographical patterns instead of the wide variety of WoW (Where you pass from the gloomy Countryside of Duskwood to the colorful Jungle of STV in the blink of an eye for example).
So the Ascalon areas all share the same basic characteristic of brownish grass, certain type of hills and stuff like that. The human lands are green, fertile and "tame", the Sylvari areas are a jungle and so on.
From that point of view, it is absolutely true.
BUT I feel that the areas are quite different in the details. In the Charr areas you go from smoke grilling next to the citadel, to the ruins of Ascalon on the other side. There is a marsh south of the ruins, there are lakes, hills and so on.
In Diessa plains, you get the mills, the cattlepult, ranches of cows and stuff like that. So there IS variety, it is just more subtle variety than in WoW. In both games I remember getting that sense of wonder of "what is over that hill?".
"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"
To the OP, I think you'll find that it's fairly difficult and time consuming to sit and make thousands of rocks and other small pieces that tend to get repeated in worlds. Arenanet has done a fairly good job of keeping a large variety of assets. I also think its a bit condescending to refer to things like The Black Citadel as set pieces. They're not some things just placed there to do nothing more than look pretty. They have a use and a purpose. In most cases they represent something very important(lore-wise) and are a symbol of something much bigger than the player and their size and magnitude are well deserved.
As the rest of the comment. Take away some of the arcitecture and "set pieces" and you still have an expertly crafted world. Its not just hills and valleys and a bit of water here and there. Go up on a large hill or on a mountain and look out onto the vista. It's quite breath taking. Most other MMO's that I've played (my opinion) don't come close to capturing a scene the way Arenanet has. Sure theyu have a few nice views, but Guild Wars 2 is wall to wall beauty. Even the areas that are dark/dreary and are meant to bring about some chaos have their own unique beauty.
So OP, I disagree. Technically GW2 is a bit underplayed in the pixels department. They could've gone with DirectX10 or 11 and more shaders could've been utilized, but the texture resolutions on terrain, characters, and objects do not disappoint. For a game that's squeezing the last bit of life out of DX9 it pushes alot of the right boundaries. Granted, it's no Age of Conan or Tera, but it most definitely has a beautiful collection of scenery.
Let's not discredit Arenanet for it's art direction and uniquely charactered environments.
We assume you think the opposite, and will do the opposite?
Stop arguing with assumptions already, everyone.Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.