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Zoning is nothing new, and will be around. I feel it's kind of unkind to try and ask game designers to load the entire game into a systems ram, fill the vid card with every possible shader, texture, map, and visual item in order to make sure no loading is done to slow down moving from one place to another.

I'm so used to zoning, I see no problem with it... unless it's every 10 feet, then I do. Give me big zones, maybe with minimal loading of stuff in the background... I can deal with that, I have a wide pipe to the Internet ;)
 
No Zones doesn't mean that all and every Asset of the World has to be loaded all the Time. Just like if you have Zones, you only need to load those Objects that are visible. Then you have to precache those Assets that could show up suddenly, like Spellgraphics, Creatures or Parts of the Land. ...I also believe that even in a zoned System you usually don't load the whole Zone at once.

A seamless World can't be that difficult - it's been done a lot after all, both in online (WoW, Vanguard, Horizons) and offline (Dungeon Siege, Gothic) Games.

the HeroEngine Website said:
Seamless World and Instances
Utilizing a room visualization system, an area can contain an unlimited number of rooms. Rooms can in turn be set to render or not render adjacent rooms, greatly saving on render times and costs.
Transitional pieces can then be utilized to allow large scale texture bank swaps as a player exits one area and enters another. This powerful and flexible system delivers stellar performance and the appearance of a seamless world.
 
I'm old school. Where I come from, games always had zoning. Even MUDs have them of sorts (granted, more rpish).

So what about zoning kills it for you? It's 10 seconds of looking at artwork, where I get to plan my next move, consider my choices. No more than a hiccup in roleplay or non-rp mechanics. Even WoW has it's zones. Daoc. Guild Wars. L2. EQ. AC. Lotr. SWG. PS. PBS. Really.... HJ will as well.

It's not the zoning that bothers me, it's the number of zones. EQ2 has too many zones. WoW had two before the expansion and now four (not counting instances). Qeynos alone has more than that.

What's funny is, I had no issue with numerous zones in CoH. I suppose fantasy games like WoW and EQ2 have a certain exploration appeal to it and too many zones just break it for me. Too many zones make the world feel smaller even though added up it'd be the same or larger than other MMOs. I want to add, that was also the reason I couldn't stand GW even though I thought it was a great game.

Like I said, had EQ2 reduced the number of zones, I would have played it long ago.
 
Wow and Vanguard both weren't truly seamless. They had their "chunks" that would give you a hiccup.

That's true. Course if you had an average computer, you wouldn't even notice the hiccup in WoW. Vanguard on the other hand...

I understand why EQ2 has more zones. There's more pixels and thusly it requires more processes and memory. But I have firmly decided to join the WoW camp in terms of art direction.

I'm not saying I prefer the cartoony style but Blizzard certainly did better with less. EQ2 has nice graphics but like most MMOs it falls somewhat short on art design. WoW is the pinnacle of art design so far in my opinion.

I think devs need to learn that the heaviest graphics don't necessarily translate to the most beautiful world. Vanguard is so graphics heavy and it was a dull generic fantasy world.
 
That's true. Course if you had an average computer, you wouldn't even notice the hiccup in WoW. Vanguard on the other hand...

I understand why EQ2 has more zones. There's more pixels and thusly it requires more processes and memory. But I have firmly decided to join the WoW camp in terms of art direction.

I'm not saying I prefer the cartoony style but Blizzard certainly did better with less. EQ2 has nice graphics but like most MMOs it falls somewhat short on art design. WoW is the pinnacle of art design so far in my opinion.

I think devs need to learn that the heaviest graphics don't necessarily translate to the most beautiful world. Vanguard is so graphics heavy and it was a dull generic fantasy world.
Agreed most deffinately! But I also think HJ has a great art style shown in the pictures. Not quite realistic, but looks like good graphics. WoW certainly knew how to get a lot with a little, though. The textures they used to do so are absolutely amazing..Take off the textures and the world looks horrible, but WoW was good at making a picture into apiece of art.

Vanguard had a style. It was called "brown".
 
I suggest everyone play FFXI online for a truly UNIQUE MMO. Honestly, I've gotten back into FFXI so much that I may not ever play HJ at this rate.

And for those of you who don't know, a new expansion was released recently. 2 new classes. Dancer and Scholar!!! :eek:

Dancer is so kickass too, I must say.
 
No offense but playing ever quest 2 makes me realize how lacking FFXI was to me at least. Not saying that it was a bad game as such but it really wasn't my type of game.
 
I actually had a really bad experience trying out EQ2 and the AB community, hehe. Both Tyrson and I were often ignored as new people on the server in Queynos(sp?). We saw roleplaying everywhere, and roleplayers all over, but we were largely ignored.
 
FFXI is an incredibly good looking game. Unfortunately, it's also a relative grind compared to other top MMOs and forces you to group. That's two strikes I can't ignore.
 
I'd be able to stand it if it were easier to find groups and the translator hadn't stunk so much. As was, it was hard to communicate with people because over half of them didn't speak english and not many translators are good with translating on the fly.
 
Not to mention, everyone ignored everyone they didn't know. Trying to find a PT was terrible...and time consuming. I doubt I'll ever return to FFXI.
 
Well, it seems there are no real MMOs out there that stand out and most of us, if not all are just playing what we've been playing since changing to another old game is time consuming and takes effort.

So, what about upcoming games other than HJ? It's almost the new year and there are at least two games that say they will launch in Q1 or Q2: Age of Conan and Warhammer Online.

Anyone considering these and does anyone know of other worthwhile fantasy MMOs launching soon?
 
Age of Conan looks very nice and Combat might be cool, but the Raceselection sucks, still i'll definitely give it a try.
Warhammer on the other Hand... well, Gameplay seems to have its Merits, but the Graphics are bad.
 
There was a time when I'd give my left leg, right um chest, and soul for Warhammer but well.... with the real Mythic gone I can't even give a finger. Maybe the middle one for EA.

Waiting for a game? Other than SmashBrothers Brawl, NOPE. Nothing sounds good.
 
Super Mario Galaxy is quite fun, I actually gave it an 8.0!:eek:. (btw I rate most games less than 7.5 and the highest ever was an 8.5) Mostly I'm only waiting for SSBB. That game looks so good, they better of had a very good reason for delaying it!X-(
 
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