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Zone diversity
Lord.Bachus
Member RarePosts: 9,686
I really love the zone and story diversity
When i arived on Nexus, i got in a snowy zone, where the emphasis was to survive and reach the (civilised) part of the Nexus....
Next zone was build around a midwest settlers theme with bandits but no indians..
Then i found our cappitol... some kind of ancient ruin
And now, i am in the middle of a war... Fighting them bloody chua ...
I think its very well done... all zone slook differently so far and have a different theme, makes you wonder where they got that idea from?
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
Pretty much every MMO since EQ?
Or is this another atempt at humor, im not sure any more.
He's right though.. there is a large zone diversity in Wildstar. They actually feel like separate biomes.
It hasn't been like this in every MMO since EQ at all.
..Cake..
Did i say *every*. No.
It mostly makes me wonder why this successful formula isn't applied on most MMO's.
The diversity in zone themes is/was one of the best features in WoW
Spot on comment. I was sick of ESO in days because every zone looked the same. You wouldn't remember anything about where you were.
Wildstar is simply Wild!
It is done in most mmos just not as dramatically zone to zone.
A lot of games have multiple zone regions that look different but have similar characteristics. Like GW2 where they have all the snowy areas, grassy areas, etc.
Wow will have zones right next to each other be completely different which is made stranger by having a whole persistent continent. Good example is Outland. Fiery wasteland, then swamp, then forest, then barren canyons, etc.
I guess some games want to make it more of a world and others want to be more like levels in an old Nintendo game.
WoW went even further, they added subzones within the zones with an appropriate reasoning. Oases in the Barrens to name one. Or other modified places due to something happening in that place. And from my short experience in Wildstar it looks like they do the same. Wildwood Grove in Deradune for example. Also in Deradune that place between Witchwake Ridge and Endless Vigil.
It can still be a world that makes sense if there is a reasoning behind it.
Actually you did say every, you used that exact word in fact. You just qualified it with "Pretty much".
WoW went even further, they added subzones within the zones with an appropriate reasoning. Oases in the Barrens to name one. Or other modified places due to something happening in that place. And from my short experience in Wildstar it looks like they do the same. Wildwood Grove in Deradune for example. Also in Deradune that place between Witchwake Ridge and Endless Vigil.
It can still be a world that makes sense if there is a reasoning behind it.
I think that makes a big impact in world design: adding "exceptions to the rule" so to speak when making themed zones. FFXIV is very pretty and has amazing vistas, but make no mistake, when you're in the forest, its 100% forest, same with the snowy areas, and deserts, etc. Lots of mmos do this and they miss the opportunity to make an oasis in the desert, or an npc camp that actually changes the landscape more than just a few tents and some static mobs.
I do like that about Wildstar a lot. The zones are varied within their own themes and mobs have "lived in" camps, with their own structures that you can enter, even little tents with a sleeping mob inside. And its nice to see lots of patrolling mobs that make sense, types of mobs within a group that behave in different ways. I think that is missing a lot from mmos too (ffxiv included). It makes the combat more interesting when there are interesting things to smash, not just the abilities themselves.
And yet, once everyone reaches max level... all of the zones and story diversity become moot... you're all standing in the same place from then on out.
Apparently diversity is something that is meant to be passed through not stayed within.
Not really all that much different than in real life... most people never venture farther than 100 miles from their home. The whole world exists, but they live in a lobby.
Not really....
its not only the environment in this game, but also the story and the lore that totally changes with each zone... Much more then in most other MMo´s
But then thats just my opinion, maybe i am very much influenced by the games that i played most over the last 2 years GW2 and LOTRO... and lastly ESO, because they where far from being this diverse... Which doesn´t necessarly make them worse games, but its just somehting i noticed about Wildstar and which i find extremely well done...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Or is this another atempt at humor, im not sure any more.
Is this some lame attempt at humor? Using tired cliche statements that have no bearing if you were actually educated on the subject?
Sometimes it's better to just be quiet.
ESO already had a huge lore behind it, you can't make a huge volcano on the sumerset isles and you can't turn skyrim into a tropical forest.
Yah, OP should really take your advice.
That should be a given for a sci-fi game tbh. You've got to give the impression of exotic worlds if nothing else. Generic fantasy landscapes wouldn't cut it, that was one big problem with TOR zone design IMO.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Hmm That's odd there are all kinds of terrain and flora in ESO, I'm not sure what you mean.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
Don't bother, they're still in the honeymoon stage where this ONE game is the best thing ever created, its done everything perfect and everyone else got it all horribly wrong before. Trying to convince them anything different is an impossible task.
And yes, ESO had some pretty crazy diversity... though I suspect most of the people with the hate on hard on probably never got past the tutorial levels.
Well you pretty much hit it on the nose and why it looks awful.
If you look overhead their maps look like Modules.Yes of course they are all modules but they are not suppose to look like Starcraft or LOL modules,they are suppose to look somewhat like a realistic game world.Yes i know graphics has been over said on this game but they are the culprit that adds to that ugly module look.
Even the housing looks awful,they look like metal biospheres but more so again like modules instead of something that might look like a house.Almost nothing i have seen looks like it belongs there,which is why i use the term modules and you call it Biomes,it just looks like a real cheaply made terrain map with those modules placed into it.
If there are some nice maps in this game i have not seen them,every area i have seen looks like the same Starcraft or Command n Conquer i guess is another type game to compare the look.
The reason is imo simple,former Blizzard staff knows what they can get away with,since Blizzard has been getting away with low end tech in all of it's games.Greed causes this,you had a giant like Vivendi who wants a large profit from Blizzard's efforts and now you have an upstart developer who needed to show instant returns to it's investors,so a low budget design was their only choice.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Not in a honeymoon phase here. I just like making kids cry in pvp. fun combat, diversity in classes, quality of life features, whats not to like.
Also all the maps on eso looked the same. Pretty game but the scenery was much of the same thing
Lol you are a laugh a moment, fanyboys like you are fickle. Wasn't to long ago you were saying the opposite, ESO not all you over hyped it to be?
Journey mmo players who overhype and then move on are a scourge.
So, the deserts look like swamps that look like forests that look like snowcaped mountains that look like demonic realms is what your saying.... with a straight face even?
Thats pretty ridiculous. So either you have pretty terrible eyesight or the only way you can tell environments apart is if they're coloured different shades of the rainbow. I'm sorry bud, but ESO was never gonna look like an acid trip, if thats what you went looking for when you bought the game... then sure, everything was bound to look the same.
I guess.
Kids like that kind of stuff.
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