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Do you think they'll use Phasing for Instancing?
Varny
Member Posts: 765
When you go through one of them doors with the force field looking things it was phased so when you spoke with the NPC you wouldn't have people running around or dancing in the background... which personally I would prefer cause that would be funny. However one thing I love about the system is that it feels totally seamless and the worst thing would be clicking on a door and hitting a loading screen, breaking the world feeling and immersion. Seeing how the rest of the world looks quite seamless where you're running in and out of dungeons or into towns and theres no loading, I have a hopeful feeling they care about having that world feeling. Being Bioware and the history of their games with tons of loading screens, I've been quite worried.
However what I'm wondering is if this Phasing technology has the ability to throw you into an instance with your group seamlessly. Kinda like in WoW where you run into the portal but instead of hitting a loading screen, you would just run through to the other side and be in your instance. Obviously you may have stutter for a few seconds as it loads, but this would be so much better than hitting a loading screen.
You notice it is very much like SWG where you transition between a building and the open world, suddenly the lighting changes and theres this mini second stutter as you transition. So I just hope they've gotten everything seamless, this would be a major factor in me staying. Also makes me wonder if we'll be able to fly from a Starport into space seamlessly as well, that would be amazing but I doubt it will happen.
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the only none instances are the social hubs where you get the adventures and form groups etc. for this particular type of gameplay its probably the best option, just wondering if the pvp side of things will be like wow's new grouping system, where you join a queue and wait for the party to form and then are teleported to the instance its in. i think the degree of seamless'ness will be dependent on how many people your grouped with, soloing your probably not going to see much, as its going to be almost entirely run from your own machine, when your in a group i dont know who will be hosting, probably the one with the lowest latency or something, have to wait and see tbh..
All MMOs are instanced, the question is if it will have a loading screen or load in the instances in the background like Wow, making the world seems seamless even if it is not.
GW2 is supposed to use a different technology, possibly by loading in stuff that is close to you all the time (Strain wrote about it in a forum but that was years ago and it could have changed now).
But loading screen all the time sucks. It is ok between planets, that makes sense since you actually travels for days or even weeks then. The video I saw didn't have a loading screen when he entered the blue room to talk with a certain npc but it was from a demo so it is kinda hard to be sure right now unless you ask in the official forum and gets a reply from a dev or alpha tester.
Firstly, not all MMO's are instanced, and the context you are using for World of Warcraft is incorrect, while there are instances in WoW, their mostly relegated to dungeons etc, there are zones though, each continent is a seperate zone, an instance, in the context of MMO's is where groups, enter a dungeon together, but are seperate from other groups who are also in the same 'dungeon' . Guildwars i think created the social hub concept - i may be wrong but as far as i know thats the first time i encountered this particular form of instancing, where groups were formed, or solo adventures acquired, to venture out into the 'instanced' wilds, the same kind of instancing used in DDO too as far as i know, and also to be used in Tor, its not suitable for all types of games, but for storyline types i guess its ideal, as each bit is instanced so interference from storylines that had different chosen options etc, doesnt occur, as it also uses far less server resources, running almost entirely on the client side of the game, it probably makes it cheaper to run too
My guess is phasing for general areas where other players are in with you and Instancing for party quests/missions.
(AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH teaches Yoda the art of river dancing)
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From what I have read phasing is used in a few locations, nothing big to kill world immersion though. The one phased area talked about was a building (like the one in the BH demo) being phased. Inside you can see those that have completed quests up to your point and outside you can see everybody. Meaning I finish this one quest, enter the building and the NPC has moved inside the building, it's phased for me and those up to that point.
Instancing obviously is being used for flashpoints which in my opinion is great as I would rather do the quests like the kill/save the captain with a group or by myself without interruption. As far as not hitting load screens when entering instances, who knows. I'm sure load screens can be expected for certain things. As somebody said traveling.
This is wrong.
Instancing portals were only seen directly outside conversation rooms, meaning the rest of the area's are likely open ended.
In the recent video "Designing the Dark Side", a little bit of open world PvP was also seen (3 alpha testers going at it).
Podcasts from DarthHater described the world as 'open'.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
This is wrong.
Instancing portals were only seen directly outside conversation rooms, meaning the rest of the area's are likely open ended.
In the recent video "Designing the Dark Side", a little bit of open world PvP was also seen (3 alpha testers going at it).
Podcasts from DarthHater described the world as 'open'.
That is how I take it as well. The conversation areas for your personal story arc will be instanced. Everything else will be open in the area with the usual solo/group dungeon instance areas mixed in. The worlds look big enough to have lots of open area along with the story and group instances. You will see other players running around in an open world most of the time. You will be instanced during your story arc quests.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
I think some of us are confused about Phasing as WOW currently employs it. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a form of instancing.
In instancing you run a totally seperate copy of a zone, whereas Phasing just flags some of the stuff that's on a map as invisible you - so it's not unlike the spirit (death) effect. Technically, the previous stuff is still there, you just don't see it, and other players who are on the same stage of phasing as you do not, either.
I gather it's useful when you don't have too many stages of a map so that what most of the players see would be the same thing. If we call a map's set of NPCs, effects and visible players before a major event a "phase" of it, you usually have two phases for a map, or two stages. So a large part of the players see a map as it was before the event, while a large part of the players see it as it is after the event.
Now, as for an instance... Being a seperate copy of a map, it can just be a way of population-management on a cowded map (as Aion uses it and Age of Conan uses it)... But it can also be much more private and reflect just you and your group's experience. Let's take a dungeon instance in WOW: Its variables can be determined just by your special set of circumstances and progress. It can be tailored to just you. This sort of private instancing is also really useful for storytelling purposes. LOTRO uses it quite efficiently and immersively in this regard. I fully expect SWTOR to do it as well.
So I guess it would make much more sense to use instancing for most of the stuff that's small and personal and save phasing for major event changes that affect a large part of the gameworld.