Zones fitting with in a large box does not mean that the borders of the explorable area of each zone will be straight lines.
The zones and the world are huge. Reports from the press beta were that each zone seems to be about the size of The Barrens in Vanilla WoW and there are 25 PvE world zones, for launch, plus six massive cities, and a 4 zone World vs. World Region. Underwater areas for each zone are explorable and filled with content. There are also "mini-dungeons", caves, tunnels and other exporable areas beneath the surface. Based on what we know, the world looks to be as big, or bigger, than WoW was at launch, but with a lot more meaningful content per square mile than WoW offered.
From what we have seen, the terrain in GW2 is very detailed and the view distance is pretty incredible. If they had to break the world into a series of square regions in order to support this sort of environment, I'm fine with that. It won't feel like your playing inside a box when you are actually in game.
this! so glad someone can put my thoughts down a whole lot better than I can =D
and yes, i do see the quares but again ... If it's anything like GW1 ... it really isn't so bad as you think ^^ The zones i just 'squared' was amazingly well done in GW1 so don't worry too much ;p
Yes, that's the map I was talking about. If you look at earlier versions of the worldmap, they look different, but the latest one shows an indication of the zone borders and the squareness of a couple of zones. If you look at the map thread on the GW2Guru forums, those straight borders on the latest worldmap version are aligned with the zone borders of the detail zonemaps.
So, nobody knows for sure here if the zoneborders can be crossed everywhere at those lines or only at specific places? I checked some video footage, but couldn't determine it with the ones I saw.
This thread is hilarious, btw.
I've never seen a map where they used some straight/square lines to seperate areas/zones on it before....
PS: has anyone seen the latest pvp movies......imho they need to tone down the effects, when a fiew people get clashing into one another you screen goes blurry with effects......(see necro movies and mesmers in pvp)
Yeap.. the effects are completely over the top, especially with a lot of ppl(WvW), i really hope they will tone down them a lot.
PS: has anyone seen the latest pvp movies......imho they need to tone down the effects, when a fiew people get clashing into one another you screen goes blurry with effects......(see necro movies and mesmers in pvp)
Yeap.. the effects are completely over the top, especially with a lot of ppl(WvW), i really hope they will tone down them a lot.
I only knew it was heavily instanced, havent looked so much into the map business but yeah, looks like a box world. That's not too bad though, usually there's at least a dozen of things to complaint about a new mmorpg, with this box world stuff it adds +1 thing for me to whine about which ups the total to 2 things to whine about. Only 2! That's amazing, even if it rises to 3 before launch it's still... Wait, the instancing was number 2 so it's 3 now, well it's still 4 times less of things to whine about than on average
I wonder what GW2 HC-fans have to say about the boxed world, havent seen many threads about it. Was interesting to see that instancing was a huge problem to many of them in other games, when they were bashing the other games, but it's completely fine in GW2. I've yet to see a "it's in the lore" argument regarding the instancing though.
You and the guy before need to learn what an instance is.
An instanced world is like swtor that has multiple versions of the same planet making it hard for people to meet each other
GW2 DOES NOT have this. Zoning is NOT the same as instancing
The reason why they made the world zoned(to what extent we dont know, its anything from 26 big zones to 4 huge regiones)
is because of the DE system.
If the people at arenanet(creators of battlenet) that use the engine created by the person who was LEAD DESIGNER of WoW(that seamless world everyone loves) CANNOT create a seamless world with the DE system im pretty sure no one can(for now).
I don't know if other people noticed it or already commented on it, but I noticed on some videos that the zones that I saw seemed to have a squarish nature to them, of a kind that you'd usually see in zoning based MMO's (AoC, EQ etc), but not so much in seamless MMO's (WoW, LotrO, VG).
In fact, in the most recent world map you can even see that square nature of a number of zones, with terrain features reflecting the straight borders of the square zones. It was the latest worldmap that made me aware of this oddity.
Which led to other questions: does this mean that you can only travel from 1 zone to another via specific corridor or pathlike entrances? Or can you cross from one zone to the next across these straight borderlines and not only via a couple of exit/entrance points per zone border?
Your name is fitting as you are obviously biased against the game. How about you not even play and go troll elsewhere please!
What the fuck?! Don't be an ass, kid. I'm asking a normal question here, looks to me you're the one who's trollbaiting here. I give you this 1 reply to stop posting nonsense, if you don't like the topic, then just ignore the thread.
I don't know if other people noticed it or already commented on it, but I noticed on some videos that the zones that I saw seemed to have a squarish nature to them, of a kind that you'd usually see in zoning based MMO's (AoC, EQ etc), but not so much in seamless MMO's (WoW, LotrO, VG).
In fact, in the most recent world map you can even see that square nature of a number of zones, with terrain features reflecting the straight borders of the square zones. It was the latest worldmap that made me aware of this oddity.
Which led to other questions: does this mean that you can only travel from 1 zone to another via specific corridor or pathlike entrances? Or can you cross from one zone to the next across these straight borderlines and not only via a couple of exit/entrance points per zone border?
Your name is fitting as you are obviously biased against the game. How about you not even play and go troll elsewhere please!
What the fuck?! Don't be an ass, kid. I'm asking a normal question here, looks to me you're the one who's trollbaiting here. I give you this 1 reply to stop posting nonsense, if you don't like the topic, then just ignore the thread.
Don't let the hatred of the fanboys and hat0rs get to you mate.
For all it's worth i thought it was a valid question
Zones are connected via portals, like in Guild Wars 1. One does not simply walk into Mordor.. i mean, the next zone. You can obviously teleport to a waypoint next to where you want to go if you discovered one, instead of running from one portal to the next.
Is this true?
Originally posted by ariboersma
Originally posted by ComfyChair
Square with an open design is fine In the end, it's what's in them that count
I'd rather have a square room with tons of really awesome things in it, than a funky shaped room full of old socks.
heh true. One thing I was wondering.. I am having trouble figuring out the maps in the vids.. one of those I need to experience it things.. the actual places dont seem to be square.. am I seeing that right and the OP is talking about the colorations on the big map?
Yeah, the colorations indeed. If you compare the new worldmap with maps like here (http://gwmaps.co.cc/) or this one:
You'll see that the colorations that run in rough straight lines on the worldmap are the borderlines between one zone and the next.
What I wanted to know was if you can cross those borderlines that apparently also seem to be hard present in the new worldmap at any place, like you can between Elwynn Forest and Duskwood and Westfall or between the Shire and Breeland, or if there's only a few places that you can really travel between zones.
For example, if you look at the zones under the human capital, Queensdale, and the other ones, can you travel between those zones via the whole borderline between those zones, or only at a few places like where there's a path? I couldn't figure it out from the couple of videos I saw and I haven't played it myself, that's why the question.
Originally posted by Djildjamesh
Don't let the hatred of the fanboys and hat0rs get to you mate.
For all it's worth i thought it was a valid question
Zones are connected via portals, like in Guild Wars 1. One does not simply walk into Mordor.. i mean, the next zone. You can obviously teleport to a waypoint next to where you want to go if you discovered one, instead of running from one portal to the next.
Is this true?
[...]
Yes, that is true. You can only pass from one zone to the next at set-locations and by doing so, you will experience a short loading screen. There is no simply passing from one border to the next, like in LOTRO and there is no seamless world. The world is persistent but not seamless and it is a limitation of the game engine that is both present in the PvE and WvW gameworlds. At least it's not sharded like SW:TOR or TERA, with multiple channels of the same zone.
tl;dr: Cube shape is always present because its a game. The lines on themap is the fault of the map drawer.
Developers divide the designed map into cubes/boxes. Each of these boxes contain the surface map, color maps, lightning maps, route maps, sound maps, normal maps and all sorta other effect maps that are all linked to this particular map cube. Depending on server setup, usually one of these cubes is managed also by one server "node", but that is not always the case.
The game engine (most of them) in theory could create unlimited size of cubes, but this is not at all efficient way to do it. So its generally habbit to place them either just next to each other, or if the engine allows slightly overlapping (ground level maps f.ex. overlap)
When a player loads into the game, he loads the cube he is in. If his field of vision allows him to see to another cube, that cube is also loaded (or alternatively he always loads all say 4 he can exit to). When player leaves a cube, and sufficient amount of time has passed (or he can no longer exit to that cube), the previous cube is free'd from the memory. This allows you only to load parts of the world as client, not the whole of it. This loading of the next one also allows you to move seamlessly to the next one, as when you cross the cube's exit cordinate threshold, your toon is transfered for the next node.
You may also see on the maps of GW2 and every other games, that the "mood" of the "zone" also changes when you cross over. This is obviously because the color maps and sound maps connected to that cube change. This allows reducing the amount of sounds or colors (basically all effects imaginable) preloaded when in particular zone, further increasing the performance of the client.
One of the most obvious examples of this in practice is Darkfall map:
You will never the rid of this ideology as long as we use vector / polygon based engines. They demand a cube shaped environment to function. It comes down to the designers to design the map so that client would not notice this, and/or the map maker to make sure its not apparent.
Or to the user to just realize its a damn game, and a straight line is not neccesarily the most important thing to complain about.
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then WoW - Online since launch - and now back again. EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on.. WHO - Online 08-10 LOTR-O - Online 06-08 Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
Eluwien, I get what you're saying and while what you say is true, it isn't what I was wondering about. If you look at worldmap and zones of other MMO's, then you don't see the obvious squarishness of zones as you see in the most recent worldmap of GW2, but what's more important is what those square borderlines on the worldmap indicate: namely if it's a hard zone based world or if it's a seamless world a la VG, WoW or LotrO where zones aren't really noticeably boxed in squares and where you can travel between zones all along zone borders.
But Master10K seems to answer that question:
Originally posted by Master10K
Originally posted by cutthecrap
Originally posted by Anireth
Zones are connected via portals, like in Guild Wars 1. One does not simply walk into Mordor.. i mean, the next zone. You can obviously teleport to a waypoint next to where you want to go if you discovered one, instead of running from one portal to the next.
Is this true?
[...]
Yes, that is true. You can only pass from one zone to the next at set-locations and by doing so, you will experience a short loading screen. There is no simply passing from one border to the next, like in LOTRO and there is no seamless world. The world is persistent but not seamless and it is a limitation of the game engine that is both present in the PvE and WvW gameworlds. At least it's not sharded like SW:TOR or TERA, with multiple channels of the same zone.
I find this kinda unexpected. Looking at earlier worldmaps, I had expected it to be more like LotrO or WoW in world design.
Also, I read several times people saying that portals are only between regions, not zones. How does it work when you're standing on a cliff at the border of 1 zone, looking down at the other zone. If you jump down into the other zone, there won't be a portal then.
Or when you're in ocean zones, there can't be any portals or hard borders when you swim from one ocean zone to the next ocean zone. I know you probably don't have answer for that, but if they really use a hard zone design a la EQ or AoC with portal connections between zones and hard physical borders between zones, then those are things I'm puzzled about.
Has anyone else noticed though that GW2 trolls are boring? I'm not sure what's up with that. Half of the time they're just pretending to be misinformed (and a bit of chipping away reveals that).
The only one really incredible troll I've seen here was that [string of expletives] who wouldn't stop spreading falsehoods about the game lore, in order to make certain races look bad, just so he could get a rise out of it.
Since that's been done though, any repeat performances of that would just be predictable.
Really? Just... very boring trolls.
Huh? I have read this twice now trying to figure out how it relates to the OP.
Eluwien, I get what you're saying and while what you say is true, it isn't what I was wondering about. If you look at worldmap and zones of other MMO's, then you don't see the obvious squarishness of zones as you see in the most recent worldmap of GW2, but what's more important is what those square borderlines on the worldmap indicate: namely if it's a hard zone based world or if it's a seamless world a la VG, WoW or LotrO where zones aren't really noticeably boxed in squares and where you can travel between zones all along zone borders.
But Master10K seems to answer that question:
Originally posted by Master10K
Originally posted by cutthecrap
words
words
words
I find this kinda unexpected. Looking at earlier worldmaps, I had expected it to be more like LotrO or WoW in world design.
Also, I read several times people saying that portals are only between regions, not zones. How does it work when you're standing on a cliff at the border of 1 zone, looking down at the other zone. If you jump down into the other zone, there won't be a portal then.
Or when you're in ocean zones, there can't be any portals or hard borders when you swim from one ocean zone to the next ocean zone. I know you probably don't have answer for that, but if they really use a hard zone design a la EQ or AoC with portal connections between zones and hard physical borders between zones, then those are things I'm puzzled about.
Just to clarify your perception of a zone, a cube/box, and a region.
In WoW and LOTRO going from Zone to Zone is "seamless", as in no loading screen. However they are still exactly like I explained the cubes. The person responsible of drawing the map though, has done way better job of making you miss it.
You can clearly see that these regions have different immersion and effects connected to them. You can only travel from one to another through the edges of another, usually atleast on ground through a pathway. If you'd look at this in the developers world editor, they would be simply boxes borderlining each others, and the edges of the groundlevel just makes the content look less of a box.
LOTRO as a straight pull from the maps (I'm assuming from the source). This clearly shows the effect. Lotro usess les pathways between zones when you are "on the fields", but they are obvious and visible ingame too.
--
Curren't knowledge of GW2 states that the "region" is seamless. In other words the "outdoors" or "fields" are seamlessly connected in the fashion of WoW and LOTRO. There are teleports for fast traveling between key locations (summoning stone style). Some sort of teleporting, or gateway with loading screen exists between cities and dungeons (Like Molten Core. Or how Teldrassil & Darnassus used to be in vanilla) . As it is in WoW, between region you will go through a loading screen (as in Azeroth -> Outlands) and there are supposedly 4 regions.
This is based on the knowledge I've gathered and can be utter bollox, lies and cheat by now.
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then WoW - Online since launch - and now back again. EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on.. WHO - Online 08-10 LOTR-O - Online 06-08 Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
Hmm, this is getting confusing, people's statements are starting to contradict eachother, they can't all be true.
Eluwien, I get what you're saying, already did the first time, but if you look at the zone design so far of the GW2 zones and of WoW/LotrO zones, you'll see that there's a difference, for example if you look at the Shire and GW2's Queensdale (zone south of the city) in outline, or how the Shire transitions into Breeland or how Breeland transitions into its neighbouring zones, compared to how Queensdale transitions into the zone south or east from it. Or compare the shape of WoW zones (like here) with the shape of GW2 zones seen so far.
Queensdale but also the other zones look more like boxed squares in comparison with hard, straight borderlines between them (physical borders ingame?), which is only more evident when you look at the most recent worldmap, but which is in reality about ingame zone design.
Now, some of you say that it's all seamless traveling between zones, no loading screens, with only a few portals between regions just as rare like you would have when you travel between Ered Luin and the Shire or between continents in WoW. Meaning also that you can travel borders between GW2 zones all across the zone borders as easily as from Breeland to the Shire or Lone Lands or between an Elwynn Forest, Westfall and Duskwood. That the zone border lines visible on the new worldmap mean nothing at all.
Others are saying that travel between zones in GW2 is more like AoC zones or EQ/EQ2 zones, only possible via the few connecting portal paths between zones, with loading screens. This would mean that those borderlines on the new GW2 worldmap are hard borders, that you can't cross them from one zone to the next unless there are portals, not without loading screens. It also means that GW2 zones appear to be more boxed in squares like than zones in some other MMO's like for example the Barrens or Darkshore.
Zones are connected via portals, like in Guild Wars 1. One does not simply walk into Mordor.. i mean, the next zone. You can obviously teleport to a waypoint next to where you want to go if you discovered one, instead of running from one portal to the next.
You mean regions, not zones. For example, there's a portal (seen in the Yogscast vids) between Norn and Charr lands, but no portals between individual zones within the Norn lands.
Hmm, this is getting confusing, people's statements are starting to contradict eachother, they can't all be true.
Eluwien, I get what you're saying, already did the first time, but if you look at the zone design so far of the GW2 zones and of WoW/LotrO zones, you'll see that there's a difference, for example if you look at the Shire and GW2's Queensdale (zone south of the city) in outline, or how the Shire transitions into Breeland or how Breeland transitions into its neighbouring zones, compared to how Queensdale transitions into the zone south or east from it. Or compare the shape of WoW zones (like here) with the shape of GW2 zones seen so far.
Queensdale but also the other zones look more like boxed squares in comparison with hard, straight borderlines between them (physical borders ingame?), which is only more evident when you look at the most recent worldmap, but which is in reality about ingame zone design.
Now, some of you say that it's all seamless traveling between zones, no loading screens, with only a few portals between regions just as rare like you would have when you travel between Ered Luin and the Shire or between continents in WoW. Meaning also that you can travel borders between GW2 zones all across the zone borders as easily as from Breeland to the Shire or Lone Lands or between an Elwynn Forest, Westfall and Duskwood. That the zone border lines visible on the new worldmap mean nothing at all.
Others are saying that travel between zones in GW2 is more like AoC zones or EQ/EQ2 zones, only possible via the few connecting portal paths between zones, with loading screens. This would mean that those borderlines on the new GW2 worldmap are hard borders, that you can't cross them from one zone to the next unless there are portals, not without loading screens. It also means that GW2 zones appear to be more boxed in squares like than zones in some other MMO's like for example the Barrens or Darkshore.
Both can't be true.
The problem is that none of us has played the game, so this question cant be answered right now. Other problem is that in videos we have seen portals BUT we havent actually seen much people in the middle of their adventures and passing through them.
Your best bet is to send an email to someone who was a member of the press beta and beg them for an answer. Because no one in this community can give you a definite one.
Fact of the matter is that the world of GW2 is not seamless. Rumor has it, a lot of portals between zones will vanish, because someone said there will be 4 regions and portals between them. However it's nowhere stated that all the other portals will disappear and it's nowhere seen (in videos or pics) that portals actually have disappeared. Those who claim that refer to videos where someone travels between areas of a zone, which results in a message saying something like "Entered Plains Yxz".
Also, fact of the matter is the world map of GW2 is designed for square-ish submaps, or zones, that may have 2 or more entrances to each other in order to make travelling between zones to not feel like driving on a highway and to scatter the population. Hence, you will NOT be able to travel from zone A to zone B however you want, but by choosing a route that goes along a beaten path. It is possible to have more than 1 entrance to a zone, because GW2's maps are designed to allow for multiple layers and to have a rich underwater world. While it may not be possible to use the shortest path from zone A to zone B on land, it is very possible to go there underground or underwater.
I haven't seen such a way of travelling between zones, but it is a possibility and my be added later if currently designed or wanted by the community.
I hope this clears some confusion for you and think about the pros and cons of such design. I understand your preference (completely seemless and open), though.
It's a preference, true. But I can live with an MMO being non-seamless and zoned in its world. I was just surprised, it was unexpected. I only became aware of it when I saw the most recent worldmap, then I started to dig deeper and question what I had just assumed before, namely that GW2's world was as seamless in its traveling between zones as LotrO was. Which if I understand it correctly apparently isn't the case.
I still wonder how those borders between zones work then: if it's hard physical borders like mountains or ravines that you can't cross with zones boxed in between those mountains and other physical borders. Or if there's invisible walls, or like EQ where you can travel from zone to zone like South and North Karana by passing a loading screen.
I thought maybe someone had seen an example of crossing of zone borders on videos that I maybe didn't see, or had played in one of the demo sessions or beta where they experienced walking from one zone to the next.
It's a preference, true. But I can live with an MMO being non-seamless and zoned in its world. I was just surprised, it was unexpected. I only became aware of it when I saw the most recent worldmap, then I started to dig deeper and question what I had just assumed before, namely that GW2's world was as seamless in its traveling between zones as LotrO was. Which if I understand it correctly apparently isn't the case.
I still wonder how those borders between zones work then: if it's hard physical borders like mountains or ravines that you can't cross with zones boxed in between those mountains and other physical borders. Or if there's invisible walls, or like EQ where you can travel from zone to zone like South and North Karana by passing a loading screen.
I thought maybe someone had seen an example of crossing of zone borders on videos that I maybe didn't see, or had played in one of the demo sessions or beta where they experienced walking from one zone to the next.
Anyway, thanks for the info.
From this moment in this video, it looks to be impassable mountains and such in between zones, with a road that sort of leads to the next zones (no noticeable invisible walls). Also people say that there are only portals inbetween 4 Regions but there is nothing that leads me to believe that. It looks like there are portals inbetween each zone. Can kind of see one in the background and passing through one of those means a loading screen.
This is something that the community needs to investigate in beta, because the spreading of all this misinformation isn't a good thing.
It's a preference, true. But I can live with an MMO being non-seamless and zoned in its world. I was just surprised, it was unexpected. I only became aware of it when I saw the most recent worldmap, then I started to dig deeper and question what I had just assumed before, namely that GW2's world was as seamless in its traveling between zones as LotrO was. Which if I understand it correctly apparently isn't the case.
I still wonder how those borders between zones work then: if it's hard physical borders like mountains or ravines that you can't cross with zones boxed in between those mountains and other physical borders. Or if there's invisible walls, or like EQ where you can travel from zone to zone like South and North Karana by passing a loading screen.
I thought maybe someone had seen an example of crossing of zone borders on videos that I maybe didn't see, or had played in one of the demo sessions or beta where they experienced walking from one zone to the next.
Anyway, thanks for the info.
from what I have seen its mountains and natural looking borders.
you do know that swtor was only instanced the first few days to ease the strain on the servers so calling it a instanced game aint right just becouse they are capable of doing so
you do know that swtor was only instanced the first few days to ease the strain on the servers so calling it a instanced game aint right just becouse they are capable of doing so
Comments
this! so glad someone can put my thoughts down a whole lot better than I can =D
OP, first i didn't know what you ment really
But i took a look at it more closely and i THIIIIIIIINK you mean this (imcomming paint skillz !!!)
[IMG]http://i42.tinypic.com/o59ld4.jpg[/IMG] http://i42.tinypic.com/o59ld4.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/o59ld4.jpg
and yes, i do see the quares but again ... If it's anything like GW1 ... it really isn't so bad as you think ^^ The zones i just 'squared' was amazingly well done in GW1 so don't worry too much ;p
This thread is hilarious, btw.
I've never seen a map where they used some straight/square lines to seperate areas/zones on it before....
http://www.infoplease.com/states.html
Yeap.. the effects are completely over the top, especially with a lot of ppl(WvW), i really hope they will tone down them a lot.
Agreed.
You and the guy before need to learn what an instance is.
An instanced world is like swtor that has multiple versions of the same planet making it hard for people to meet each other
GW2 DOES NOT have this. Zoning is NOT the same as instancing
The reason why they made the world zoned(to what extent we dont know, its anything from 26 big zones to 4 huge regiones)
is because of the DE system.
If the people at arenanet(creators of battlenet) that use the engine created by the person who was LEAD DESIGNER of WoW(that seamless world everyone loves) CANNOT create a seamless world with the DE system im pretty sure no one can(for now).
What the fuck?! Don't be an ass, kid. I'm asking a normal question here, looks to me you're the one who's trollbaiting here. I give you this 1 reply to stop posting nonsense, if you don't like the topic, then just ignore the thread.
Don't let the hatred of the fanboys and hat0rs get to you mate.
For all it's worth i thought it was a valid question
Is this true?
Yeah, the colorations indeed. If you compare the new worldmap with maps like here (http://gwmaps.co.cc/) or this one:
You'll see that the colorations that run in rough straight lines on the worldmap are the borderlines between one zone and the next.
What I wanted to know was if you can cross those borderlines that apparently also seem to be hard present in the new worldmap at any place, like you can between Elwynn Forest and Duskwood and Westfall or between the Shire and Breeland, or if there's only a few places that you can really travel between zones.
For example, if you look at the zones under the human capital, Queensdale, and the other ones, can you travel between those zones via the whole borderline between those zones, or only at a few places like where there's a path? I couldn't figure it out from the couple of videos I saw and I haven't played it myself, that's why the question.
Thanks, man
I thought so too.
Yes, that is true. You can only pass from one zone to the next at set-locations and by doing so, you will experience a short loading screen. There is no simply passing from one border to the next, like in LOTRO and there is no seamless world. The world is persistent but not seamless and it is a limitation of the game engine that is both present in the PvE and WvW gameworlds. At least it's not sharded like SW:TOR or TERA, with multiple channels of the same zone.
Back to the ORIGINAL TOPIC.
tl;dr: Cube shape is always present because its a game. The lines on themap is the fault of the map drawer.
Developers divide the designed map into cubes/boxes. Each of these boxes contain the surface map, color maps, lightning maps, route maps, sound maps, normal maps and all sorta other effect maps that are all linked to this particular map cube. Depending on server setup, usually one of these cubes is managed also by one server "node", but that is not always the case.
The game engine (most of them) in theory could create unlimited size of cubes, but this is not at all efficient way to do it. So its generally habbit to place them either just next to each other, or if the engine allows slightly overlapping (ground level maps f.ex. overlap)
When a player loads into the game, he loads the cube he is in. If his field of vision allows him to see to another cube, that cube is also loaded (or alternatively he always loads all say 4 he can exit to). When player leaves a cube, and sufficient amount of time has passed (or he can no longer exit to that cube), the previous cube is free'd from the memory. This allows you only to load parts of the world as client, not the whole of it. This loading of the next one also allows you to move seamlessly to the next one, as when you cross the cube's exit cordinate threshold, your toon is transfered for the next node.
You may also see on the maps of GW2 and every other games, that the "mood" of the "zone" also changes when you cross over. This is obviously because the color maps and sound maps connected to that cube change. This allows reducing the amount of sounds or colors (basically all effects imaginable) preloaded when in particular zone, further increasing the performance of the client.
One of the most obvious examples of this in practice is Darkfall map:
http://raov.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/dfmap.jpg (look at the original large version)
You will never the rid of this ideology as long as we use vector / polygon based engines. They demand a cube shaped environment to function. It comes down to the designers to design the map so that client would not notice this, and/or the map maker to make sure its not apparent.
Or to the user to just realize its a damn game, and a straight line is not neccesarily the most important thing to complain about.
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then
WoW - Online since launch - and now back again.
EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on..
WHO - Online 08-10
LOTR-O - Online 06-08
Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
It will be a happy place.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
Eluwien, I get what you're saying and while what you say is true, it isn't what I was wondering about. If you look at worldmap and zones of other MMO's, then you don't see the obvious squarishness of zones as you see in the most recent worldmap of GW2, but what's more important is what those square borderlines on the worldmap indicate: namely if it's a hard zone based world or if it's a seamless world a la VG, WoW or LotrO where zones aren't really noticeably boxed in squares and where you can travel between zones all along zone borders.
But Master10K seems to answer that question:
I find this kinda unexpected. Looking at earlier worldmaps, I had expected it to be more like LotrO or WoW in world design.
Also, I read several times people saying that portals are only between regions, not zones. How does it work when you're standing on a cliff at the border of 1 zone, looking down at the other zone. If you jump down into the other zone, there won't be a portal then.
Or when you're in ocean zones, there can't be any portals or hard borders when you swim from one ocean zone to the next ocean zone. I know you probably don't have answer for that, but if they really use a hard zone design a la EQ or AoC with portal connections between zones and hard physical borders between zones, then those are things I'm puzzled about.
Huh? I have read this twice now trying to figure out how it relates to the OP.
Just to clarify your perception of a zone, a cube/box, and a region.
In WoW and LOTRO going from Zone to Zone is "seamless", as in no loading screen. However they are still exactly like I explained the cubes. The person responsible of drawing the map though, has done way better job of making you miss it.
http://0.tqn.com/d/internetgames/1/0/F/T/outland.jpg (big version)
You can clearly see that these regions have different immersion and effects connected to them. You can only travel from one to another through the edges of another, usually atleast on ground through a pathway. If you'd look at this in the developers world editor, they would be simply boxes borderlining each others, and the edges of the groundlevel just makes the content look less of a box.
http://www.visionsofthering.com/images/lorebook_map3.jpg
LOTRO as a straight pull from the maps (I'm assuming from the source). This clearly shows the effect. Lotro usess les pathways between zones when you are "on the fields", but they are obvious and visible ingame too.
--
Curren't knowledge of GW2 states that the "region" is seamless. In other words the "outdoors" or "fields" are seamlessly connected in the fashion of WoW and LOTRO. There are teleports for fast traveling between key locations (summoning stone style). Some sort of teleporting, or gateway with loading screen exists between cities and dungeons (Like Molten Core. Or how Teldrassil & Darnassus used to be in vanilla) . As it is in WoW, between region you will go through a loading screen (as in Azeroth -> Outlands) and there are supposedly 4 regions.
This is based on the knowledge I've gathered and can be utter bollox, lies and cheat by now.
DAoC - 00-06 - And every now and then
WoW - Online since launch - and now back again.
EVE - Online since 07 - and still on, and on, and on..
WHO - Online 08-10
LOTR-O - Online 06-08
Also played : Asherons Call, EverQuest, EQ2, Dungeons & Dragons, Cabal, Dark & Light, GW, GW2, LA2, Ryzom, Shaiya, SWG, Allods, Forsaken World, ArcheAge, Secret World, Darkfall, Rift, ESO, Tera.
Hmm, this is getting confusing, people's statements are starting to contradict eachother, they can't all be true.
Eluwien, I get what you're saying, already did the first time, but if you look at the zone design so far of the GW2 zones and of WoW/LotrO zones, you'll see that there's a difference, for example if you look at the Shire and GW2's Queensdale (zone south of the city) in outline, or how the Shire transitions into Breeland or how Breeland transitions into its neighbouring zones, compared to how Queensdale transitions into the zone south or east from it. Or compare the shape of WoW zones (like here) with the shape of GW2 zones seen so far.
Queensdale but also the other zones look more like boxed squares in comparison with hard, straight borderlines between them (physical borders ingame?), which is only more evident when you look at the most recent worldmap, but which is in reality about ingame zone design.
Now, some of you say that it's all seamless traveling between zones, no loading screens, with only a few portals between regions just as rare like you would have when you travel between Ered Luin and the Shire or between continents in WoW. Meaning also that you can travel borders between GW2 zones all across the zone borders as easily as from Breeland to the Shire or Lone Lands or between an Elwynn Forest, Westfall and Duskwood. That the zone border lines visible on the new worldmap mean nothing at all.
Others are saying that travel between zones in GW2 is more like AoC zones or EQ/EQ2 zones, only possible via the few connecting portal paths between zones, with loading screens. This would mean that those borderlines on the new GW2 worldmap are hard borders, that you can't cross them from one zone to the next unless there are portals, not without loading screens. It also means that GW2 zones appear to be more boxed in squares like than zones in some other MMO's like for example the Barrens or Darkshore.
Both can't be true.
You mean regions, not zones. For example, there's a portal (seen in the Yogscast vids) between Norn and Charr lands, but no portals between individual zones within the Norn lands.
Oderint, dum metuant.
The problem is that none of us has played the game, so this question cant be answered right now. Other problem is that in videos we have seen portals BUT we havent actually seen much people in the middle of their adventures and passing through them.
Your best bet is to send an email to someone who was a member of the press beta and beg them for an answer. Because no one in this community can give you a definite one.
Fact of the matter is that the world of GW2 is not seamless. Rumor has it, a lot of portals between zones will vanish, because someone said there will be 4 regions and portals between them. However it's nowhere stated that all the other portals will disappear and it's nowhere seen (in videos or pics) that portals actually have disappeared. Those who claim that refer to videos where someone travels between areas of a zone, which results in a message saying something like "Entered Plains Yxz".
Also, fact of the matter is the world map of GW2 is designed for square-ish submaps, or zones, that may have 2 or more entrances to each other in order to make travelling between zones to not feel like driving on a highway and to scatter the population. Hence, you will NOT be able to travel from zone A to zone B however you want, but by choosing a route that goes along a beaten path. It is possible to have more than 1 entrance to a zone, because GW2's maps are designed to allow for multiple layers and to have a rich underwater world. While it may not be possible to use the shortest path from zone A to zone B on land, it is very possible to go there underground or underwater.
I haven't seen such a way of travelling between zones, but it is a possibility and my be added later if currently designed or wanted by the community.
I hope this clears some confusion for you and think about the pros and cons of such design. I understand your preference (completely seemless and open), though.
It's a preference, true. But I can live with an MMO being non-seamless and zoned in its world. I was just surprised, it was unexpected. I only became aware of it when I saw the most recent worldmap, then I started to dig deeper and question what I had just assumed before, namely that GW2's world was as seamless in its traveling between zones as LotrO was. Which if I understand it correctly apparently isn't the case.
I still wonder how those borders between zones work then: if it's hard physical borders like mountains or ravines that you can't cross with zones boxed in between those mountains and other physical borders. Or if there's invisible walls, or like EQ where you can travel from zone to zone like South and North Karana by passing a loading screen.
I thought maybe someone had seen an example of crossing of zone borders on videos that I maybe didn't see, or had played in one of the demo sessions or beta where they experienced walking from one zone to the next.
Anyway, thanks for the info.
/5char
From this moment in this video, it looks to be impassable mountains and such in between zones, with a road that sort of leads to the next zones (no noticeable invisible walls). Also people say that there are only portals inbetween 4 Regions but there is nothing that leads me to believe that. It looks like there are portals inbetween each zone. Can kind of see one in the background and passing through one of those means a loading screen.
This is something that the community needs to investigate in beta, because the spreading of all this misinformation isn't a good thing.
from what I have seen its mountains and natural looking borders.
you do know that swtor was only instanced the first few days to ease the strain on the servers so calling it a instanced game aint right just becouse they are capable of doing so
lmao, it's still instanced.