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How large in worldsize is FFXIV?
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
I know a number of you people are in the OB, did any of you do tests to measure how large the areas and the world overall is?
I have looked on this and some other sites, but couldn't find any quantifiable results of how large the world was.
In WoW, LotrO, GW and GW2 it was a relatively simple test to do: run at normal speed in a straight line for 20-30 seconds, look on the map the distance travelled, then extrapolate this figure using the larger maps and you'd know how large an area or continent measured in crossing time was.
For example, crossing WoW's Kalimdor from east-west is about 15 min, GW's Tyria continent from east to west end is 45 min in a straight line crossing time, and so on.
Anybody know any sources or figures for the FFXIV areas and world?
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."
Comments
That test doesn't work, since you have no idea if 1 m in each game is measured the same. However, there is a tedious method to find a common unit of measurement, but I can't find the thread that had the link in it.
That's not true: one can assume that the traveling speed won't differ that much from one game to another, but there are ways to verify the size, other people have managed to do it.
But for worldsize, a very good indication and comparison with other MMO worlds is traveling times and distances: with this it can be easily determined that a LotrO and EQ is larger than a WoW, and that Vanguard and FFXI are vastly larger than a LotrO.
After all, traveling times at normal speed provide a good measurement of how large a world feels when adventuring in it, and it's better than subjective guessing.
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."
Each region in XIV is roughly the size of 3-5 zones in that of FFXI. Plus there are quite a few dungeons with multiple floors that are as large as a single zone from XI too and there are still many areas blocked off from exploration in OB.
Sounds great, thanks for the info. I can't wait till the 22nd when I get to jump in and play the game... now I just have to decide what race to play :P
Wow, each region is roughly the size of 3-5 FFXI zones? I thought they were smaller.
Am I to understand that FFXIV is larger in worldsize than FFXI?
Because FFXI was large already
From what I gathered FFXI was easily as large as EQ and several times as large as WoW.
Thanks for the info, it's appreciated!
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."
Didn't look to big to me. The map looks big, but it's comprised of corridors...for lack of a better word. It's not like Vanguard or SWG or even EQ2. Maybe it gets different later on in the game?
The game is pretty massive. Walking from Gridania to LL (through the ferry of course) can take a good hour.
In an interview they said it is roughly the same size as FFXI was at its launch. But smaller now due to the years of expansions and updates.
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took me almost 2.
That's because you're smaller, ye have to walk twice as far!
"The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners." - Thomas B. Macaulay
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel J. Boorstin
The only region with a cooridor like nature is The Black Shroud outside Gridania. Even still its more like a giant maze with a lower and upper floor of the forest, and the longer cooridors between the East, West, South and North Forests are SE's way of loading without zoning, and thus far its been clean and showing no evidence that it is.
Thanalan outside Ul'dah and La Noscea outside Limsa Lominsa are huge, open regions of land and they too have some small cooridor like areas between the E,W,S,N parts for loading, but its minimal and there is no notice of it taking place. Even the other two regions Coerthas and Mor Dhona~{being much smaller, like a single zone and then some} are still rather huge regions and with no cooridors besides the loading between areas.
Now as far as worldsize in comparison to FFXI goes, based on what was available at launch:
There were three starting cities also ~ Windurst, Bastok and San d'Oria and each of them had their own regions compromised of 2-3 zones, several dungeons and a battle field, but all were seperated by a zone line you had to load through. Then there were the zones surrounding the Jeuno region which from experince is far larger than the areas around Ishgard currently. {which is assumed to be the Jeuno of FFXIV...}
In FFXIV the same applies above and each region is also in essence the size of 3-5 zones{although Thanalan and La Noscea are massive and feel as large as 5 or more}, and each region outside the 3 city-states has 2 dungeons that are open to test{as large as a single zone for just one floor}, plus I've found up to 3-4 additonal zones {in each of those regions} that are blocked off by NPCs currently.
So overall the actually overworld landmass when comparing FFXI to FFXIV from their launch sizes, I believe FFXI was quite a bit larger, however with all the dungeons and blocked off areas yet to be seen, FFXIV comes really close in overall size and areas to explore...
I found a pretty good site for FFXIV maps:
http://www.ffxivmaps.com/
Also, I read somewhere that a 'yalm', the measurement used in FFXIV, equals a yard. Is that true, anybody knows?
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."
FFXI originally launched with, I believe 13 or so zones... but they're smaller. By comparison, there are fewer in XIV for launch (from what we see so far), but they're freaking huge. So, somewhere in there it balances out.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
I have another question, if someone can say something about it.
So far from what I've seen the graphics in FFXIV are on par with AoC (which is no easy feat to accomplish). But AoC could only manage that by splitting the world up in separate areas that were instanced.
How is this done in FFXIV, is there a lot of zoning a la EQ and EQ2, are there instances as you see in some other MMO's like AoC, or is there also seamless transitioning between areas?
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."
The world so far appears to be seamless, i haven't run into any zone transitions so far. And no there aren't multiple instances of the same area, everyone is in the same area.
Not even between the cities and outdoor areas? Wow, that is impressive indeed.
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."
Not even in dungeon. You go down the dungeon and in you go, no loading. The only loading so far I found was the boat/ferry
Thats not perfectly true. There are SOME instances, these are the bazaar marketplaces, and there IS a zone wall to get into those.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
And I'm pretty sure player houses will be instanced.
As for the game feeling like it has corridors, that is really only in the forest outside of Gridania. The starting areas outside the other two cities are very open though there are terrain obstacles you may have to go around. The Black Shroud forest outside Gridania however doesnt feel so very restrictive to me. It strikes more like exploring a giant hedge maze. Sure there are only certain places you find forks but you are still free to explore all the paths. Setting up the forest this way does make some sense though. If this is a great, untouched living forest it should be somewhat restrictive and hard to negotiate. I think they do a very good job in this regard giving the forest a very different feel from the other regions.
All die, so die well.
There are hard zones between the big areas.
One is the boat between LL and Ul'Dah
One is between Ul'Dah and Gridania
One is between Ul'Dah and Mor Dahna
One is between Gridania and Coehrtas
One is between Coehrtas and Mor Dahna
These are however just fade to black zones, no real loading times. It feels mroe like a cinematic cut since you enter a completely different looking area.
I would have prefered they made a seamless transition but it does not bother me at all.
There are soft zones all over the place. You don't notice them, the only time you notice is when you run in a group and some members disapear in front of you (past the zone) and then fade back in once you crossed the zone line.
This is not a big deal as these zones are cleverly disguised in the landscape and at city gates etc.
As for the size of the game. An area is usually a collection of smaller zones. Ul'dah for example has Main, North, East, West and South zones (and also the Bluefog zone far north)
Every one of these small zones is about as big as 1-2 zones in FFXI. You can cross the main zone in Ul'dah south to north in about 10 minutes.
The graphics are actually better than AoC imo aside from the lack of a real lighting system, however there is a LOT less going on in the FF14 world than AoC.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkbeYN3MxF0
I made this video to give people a general idea of the size of FFXIV. Hope it helps.
IMO, its really big.
Thanks for the video, Melieza
So, would you say that it takes ca. 20 seconds to cross 1 square on the map? because if that square raster is used for all the maps, it can give a good measurement of how large in crossing time the several areas and worldmap is.
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."