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Rectangular Zones

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  • halflife25halflife25 Member Posts: 737
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Seems pretty nitpicky to me.  This coming from someone who lives in a rectangular province, Saskatchewan. 

     Indeed, except your province is NOT surronded by UNCLIMABLE mountains that youcan only pass through as select points.

     

    Saskatchewan is so flat that it's the only place on the planet

    where you can moon yourself without using a mirror

     My point was that you can cross the boarder at any place you wish, made even easier since it is just flat. As I posted before to compare boarders on a map to the zones in GW2 is fail-tastic.

    What is strange is that all zones are joined together and yet if you want to go to next zone only way in is a portal. Weird!!!

  • BadaboomBadaboom Member UncommonPosts: 2,380
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Seems pretty nitpicky to me.  This coming from someone who lives in a rectangular province, Saskatchewan. 

     Indeed, except your province is NOT surronded by UNCLIMABLE mountains that youcan only pass through as select points.

     

    Saskatchewan is so flat that it's the only place on the planet

    where you can moon yourself without using a mirror

     My point was that you can cross the boarder at any place you wish, made even easier since it is just flat. As I posted before to compare boarders on a map to the zones in GW2 is fail-tastic.

    I understand your point.  Was just making a funny. 

  • Four0SixFour0Six Member UncommonPosts: 1,175
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Creslin321

    Oh also, to add to my previous complaint about spherical planets being lazy design, I just looked at this thing called a "map" of the US, and guess what BS I found there.  That's right, a LOT of these "state" things were freaking rectangles!  Rectangles!

    WTF!?!?!?!

     For sure there are rectangles. But I can park my car and choose not to go to the next rectangle via the freeway.

    You cannot compare borders on a map with the walls, mountains, that surrond the zones in GW2.

    This post started out as some crazy complaint about rectangular partitioning of zones being unrealistic, which is stupid for the reasons I've outline above.

    but now it has apparently morphed into yet another complaint that GW2 is not a seamless world.  We have gone over this time and time again on this forum.  I am sure that if making the world seamless was as easy as just deciding to do it, then GW2 would be seamless.

    But clearly, it is not, and ANet chose to make a seamed world in order to make the game they wanted to make possible.  Honestly, I don't think it's a big deal because you fast travel everywhere anyway.

     The asertion was made that the "Zones in GW2 are just like boarders.", or that is how I read the posts. I was counter asserting that a comparsion of such is silly.

  • bunnyhopperbunnyhopper Member CommonPosts: 2,751
    Originally posted by strangepower

     


    Originally posted by snapfusion

    Originally posted by strangepower

     

    It's called sarcasm. The point is it is a practical way to make maps, as it has been for hundreds of years.

    For someone to expect an video game to mimic the globe is setting themselves up for disappointment.

    You don't seem to have grasped the fact that the overall shape of the world map is not the issue, the issue is having such  artificial looking mountain ranges and terrain features within the map, used to close off zones.

     

    It doesn't matter if the over all map is square, round, triangular of a fking dodecahedron. The fact is when you look at that map, you see the terrain within said map, all perfectly parcelled off by "natural" features.

     

    Gridlines? Fine.

    Man made features? Fine.

    But loads and loads of rectangular mountain ranges? Really?

     

    "Come and have a look at what you could have won."

  • kaiser3282kaiser3282 Member UncommonPosts: 2,759
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Seems pretty nitpicky to me.  This coming from someone who lives in a rectangular province, Saskatchewan. 

     Indeed, except your province is NOT surronded by UNCLIMABLE mountains that youcan only pass through as select points.

     

    Saskatchewan is so flat that it's the only place on the planet

    where you can moon yourself without using a mirror

     My point was that you can cross the boarder at any place you wish, made even easier since it is just flat. As I posted before to compare boarders on a map to the zones in GW2 is fail-tastic.

    Id say its about as fail-tastic as nitpicking about the shapes of the zones when regardless of shape they would still be walled off zones with entry between zones at specific points. They could makeit irregular shapes, but it still wouldnt change the fact that it is walled off.

  • bunnyhopperbunnyhopper Member CommonPosts: 2,751
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Creslin321
     

     

    This post started out as some crazy complaint about rectangular partitioning of zones being unrealistic, which is stupid for the reasons I've outline above.

    but now it has apparently morphed into yet another complaint that GW2 is not a seamless world.  We have gone over this time and time again on this forum.  I am sure that if making the world seamless was as easy as just deciding to do it, then GW2 would be seamless.

    But clearly, it is not, and ANet chose to make a seamed world in order to make the game they wanted to make possible.  Honestly, I don't think it's a big deal because you fast travel everywhere anyway.

    So the fact that planets are naturally formed in a spherical shape means any complaints about perfectly rectangular mountain ranges all over the shop are "stupid"?

     

    Oh well, I guess given the planet forms a certain shape, we can have rivers that spell out "I PWNZOR" and if you look at it on the map, it would look completely natural.

    "Come and have a look at what you could have won."

  • xm522xm522 Member UncommonPosts: 117

    maybe this reply will explain the reason for square zones (rectangles may also be seen better after this)

    so to start we have two assume a few things.

    1 - the Total area of the world map is already pre-determined. we could say that they do not want to make a world that is out of proportion wth that of GW1 in order to avoid a discontinuity in the game's lore and immersion (for those who played the original title.

    2 - the Zone to World ratio is 1:1. therefore the zones are scaled to size and are not bigger or smaller than what they would be in a seamless world. this is in my opinion a clear choice in designing an MMO as it keeps reality in this unreal setting.

    3 - the area between zones are also scaled 1:1, so that mountain range or cliff that is dividing zones is no more bigger if you could walk on it that it would be on the map.

    so why a square? and not a circle? or a triangle or a blob?

    to do this we will assume that for each zone there is a max amount of perimeter available (which is probable related with pixelation and performance and such.

    we can say that the total permimeter is 1000 meters. using this 1000 meter perimeter we now have to find a shape that will result in the most amount of area.

    now you guys can google things like this youreselves, but a square will generate the most area per meter^2 out of all possible choices.

    the zone shape selection was a good technical decision


     

  • EternalSage2000EternalSage2000 Member UncommonPosts: 29

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

  • bunnyhopperbunnyhopper Member CommonPosts: 2,751
    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by bunnyhopper
    Originally posted by IPolygon
     

     

    The only time you notice the shape of the map is when you open the world map.  How can that not be an immersion breaker in any instance?  Being able to pan out and look at a map where you're shown as the blinking cursor so you can get your bearings better and see where you want to go, is by nature an immersion breaker.

    It is nitpicking in the purest form.

    "Hey guys you have a minimap so you can't complain about unatural looking terrain". Yeah, that's a pretty piss poor argument.

    "Come and have a look at what you could have won."

  • PhryPhry Member LegendaryPosts: 11,004
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

  • bunnyhopperbunnyhopper Member CommonPosts: 2,751
    Originally posted by Torvaldr
    Originally posted by bunnyhopper
    Originally posted by Creslin321
    Originally posted by Four0Six
    Originally posted by Creslin321
     

     

    Have you ever looked at the shape of the mountain ranges of western North America?  The Coastal Range, the Cascade, The Sierras, and the Rockies are all long, rectangular shaped chains.  There are these narrow passages through them, at points, that allow one to travel from one side to the other.  We call them "passes", but in Tyria they call them portals.

    Yes I have looked at maps before and from time to time you think "oh that looks like it could have been man made, uncanny!". But if you saw the GW2 map on a cartographers desk you would immediately flag is as a fake.

     

    I get it is not a major issue for many, I get it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of the game. But people are trying to "defend" the lay out with some ludicrous arguments here. It makes sense from a design perspective if an open world is not a major issue. It makes sense from a content lay out perspective. It makes sense given the audience the game is being aimed at.

     

    But it certainly doesn't look natural and some people do actually notice that.

    "Come and have a look at what you could have won."

  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713
    I honestly never thought about it... Seems like a silly point especially since I constantly confuse the lines on the world map and thing a way point is in my current zone when it's actually the next Zone over lol.

    image
  • AmjocoAmjoco Member UncommonPosts: 4,860
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Seems pretty nitpicky to me.  This coming from someone who lives in a rectangular province, Saskatchewan. 

    Agreed. The entire website now makes it's living off of daily ridiculous topics about GW2. 

    Honestly who cares if  maps are a rectangle, or Tera has better combat, or what doesn't make GW2 great.

    If as much thought was put into curing cancer as goes into picking apart GW2 we would live an extra 20 years.

    It's a $60 video game and it is just pure good entertainment for the price.

    Start making decent discussion topics for once!

    Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.

  • fat_taddlerfat_taddler Member Posts: 286
    Originally posted by Amjoco
    Originally posted by Badaboom
    Seems pretty nitpicky to me.  This coming from someone who lives in a rectangular province, Saskatchewan. 

    Agreed. The entire website now makes it's living off of daily ridiculous topics about GW2. 

    Honestly who cares if  maps are a rectangle, or Tera has better combat, or what doesn't make GW2 great.

    If as much thought was put into curing cancer as goes into picking apart GW2 we would live an extra 20 years.

    It's a $60 video game and it is just pure good entertainment for the price.

    Start making decent discussion topics for once!

    What's funny is that people complain about my OP being "nitpicky" or how ridiculous this topic is, yet Amjoco and Badaboom felt it necessary to contribute to this post multiple times each. 

    If you have such intellectually stimulating topics to discuss, why are you wasting your time posting in this thread?

  • halflife25halflife25 Member Posts: 737
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

  • AerowynAerowyn Member Posts: 7,928
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

    so what's Rifts, TSW , TERA, ect ect excuse? all have very confined zones as you would call them in GW2.. TSW even has same loading screen setup as GW2 yet is P2P... EQ/EQ2 had the loading between zones as well(unless the loading has changed but did back when I used to play)..

    I angered the clerk in a clothing shop today. She asked me what size I was and I said actual, because I am not to scale. I like vending machines 'cause snacks are better when they fall. If I buy a candy bar at a store, oftentimes, I will drop it... so that it achieves its maximum flavor potential. --Mitch Hedberg

  • halflife25halflife25 Member Posts: 737
    Originally posted by Aerowyn
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

    so what's Rifts, TSW , TERA, ect ect excuse? all have very confined zones as you would call them in GW2.. TSW even has same loading screen setup as GW2 yet is P2P... EQ/EQ2 had the loading between zones as well(unless the loading has changed but did back when I used to play)..

    I don't know what is their excuse. But for GW2 that is the most logical reason i can come up with.

  • The_KorriganThe_Korrigan Member RarePosts: 3,456
    Originally posted by AliceKaye

    Nope, not really. LotRO was very much unzoned, surprisingly. There were really only loading screens to go into buildings and such. Not a whole lot in the actual world.

    I take GW2's huge zones with the occasional zoning anytime over the maybe more "seamless" LOTRO world (even though you still have zones, you will have to zone 4 times if you run from east to west). Having to zone when you enter even the smallest building is way more annoying than to have to zone once every 10 or 15 levels. At least in GW2, when I enter a house, I don't have a several seconds long loading screen with a static picture.

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  • RizelStarRizelStar Member UncommonPosts: 2,773
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Aerowyn
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

    so what's Rifts, TSW , TERA, ect ect excuse? all have very confined zones as you would call them in GW2.. TSW even has same loading screen setup as GW2 yet is P2P... EQ/EQ2 had the loading between zones as well(unless the loading has changed but did back when I used to play)..

    I don't know what is their excuse. But for GW2 that is the most logical reason i can come up with.

    Wow really...doesn't even deserve a facepalm.

    I don't even, just...

    Enjoy yourlives fellas and peace lmao, I might actually stick around just  to see some of the posts here. This one is amusing.

    I might get banned for this. - Rizel Star.

    I'm not afraid to tell trolls what they [need] to hear, even if that means for me to have an forced absence afterwards.

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    Common Sense Logic = P2P logic is no better than F2P Logic.

  • ZigZagsZigZags Member UncommonPosts: 381
    Originally posted by fat_taddler

    I was looking at my map and noticed that many of the zones in GW2 are simply boxed-in rectangles.   This seems kinda lame for a AAA MMO in 2012.   More like something I would expect from an old NES game.

     

    Who said this was a AAA MMO?

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  • halflife25halflife25 Member Posts: 737
    Originally posted by RizelStar
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Aerowyn
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

    so what's Rifts, TSW , TERA, ect ect excuse? all have very confined zones as you would call them in GW2.. TSW even has same loading screen setup as GW2 yet is P2P... EQ/EQ2 had the loading between zones as well(unless the loading has changed but did back when I used to play)..

    I don't know what is their excuse. But for GW2 that is the most logical reason i can come up with.

    Wow really...doesn't even deserve a facepalm.

    I don't even, just...

    Enjoy yourlives fellas and peace lmao, I might actually stick around just  to see some of the posts here. This one is amusing.

    Remember we are just speculating here. If you can come up with something more logical please feel free to contribute. Always up for discussion. As of now you contributed nothing to the discussion.

  • ClawzonClawzon Member UncommonPosts: 188

    Squared zones.... image

    Really breaks immersion! But okej, it's a buy to play game afterall...

     

     

     

     

    :)

  • DaggerjaydoDaggerjaydo Member UncommonPosts: 121

    GW2's zones from a lore perspective were mapped by cartographers from Tyria. People who make maps, and decide where one area begins and ends, tend to do so in a rectangular fashion, unless something like a body of water or a mountain cuts through somewhere near a boundary. This is what GW2 does, because it's what humans do.

    It's a lot easier to measure the square mileage of a territory when it's a square.

     

    If you scroll out while in the map, you can see the natural landscape and it looks as a part of the continent of Tyria... Zoom in and you get more of a man-made version of the map.

     

    Tyria isn't as fantastical of a world as some of the other worlds in RPGs we're use to. It's not full of radically differing landscapes, all juxtaposed like in WoW... It's more like a regular planet that happens to have magic.

  • BossalinieBossalinie Member UncommonPosts: 724
    Originally posted by RizelStar
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Aerowyn
    Originally posted by halflife25
    Originally posted by Phry
    Originally posted by EternalSage2000

    One of these comments said that if you wanted a seemless open world, you'd need a hell of a computer.

    This is quite the opposite of the truth.  If you want a seemless and open world, without rectangular or hexagonal borders, go outside. :) 

    there have been several games with open world/seamless environments, one of the earlier ones that springs to mind, is SWG, each planet was unzoned, at least until khashyyk the wookie homeworld, which was a bit of a lame addon to the game. and its not about having an 'uber computer' or DAoC would have had similar issues.. even WoW one of the least demanding games out there in MMO terms, has a relatively seamless environment, only continents themselves are 'zoned' the reasons for this is more to do with server side resources than client side ones, you get what you pay for image

    Yep gotto cut corners some where. It is a B2P model ater all.

    so what's Rifts, TSW , TERA, ect ect excuse? all have very confined zones as you would call them in GW2.. TSW even has same loading screen setup as GW2 yet is P2P... EQ/EQ2 had the loading between zones as well(unless the loading has changed but did back when I used to play)..

    I don't know what is their excuse. But for GW2 that is the most logical reason i can come up with.

    Wow really...doesn't even deserve a facepalm.

    I don't even, just...

    Enjoy yourlives fellas and peace lmao, I might actually stick around just  to see some of the posts here. This one is amusing.

    I find the contribution irony of this post quite palpable...

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    who would have know, when I saw this thread this morning that it would be reaching 8 pages. brb reading up ;)
    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
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