How big?

[hanstin]

so we have all seen the demo by now it looks awesome etc
but my question is how big will the world of kaos war be? will it be on 1 planet? will there be instances will it get expanded after release durnig patches?

[jiisu]

The game takes place on a planet much like earth, but very unlike earth... if that makes any sense. Through story elements it will be explained how this world has become the way it is and what has allowed the humans, deva, and algar to co-exist. It's a rather large world, with vast plains, massive mountain ranges, sprawling forests, and all sorts of bodies of water. There are points of interest around every corner. =D

[hanstin]

The game takes place on a planet much like earth, but very unlike earth... if that makes any sense. Through story elements it will be explained how this world has become the way it is and what has allowed the humans, deva, and algar to co-exist. It's a rather large world, with vast plains, massive mountain ranges, sprawling forests, and all sorts of bodies of water. There are points of interest around every corner. =D

kewl nice to know

[Vladimir]

but the real question is will be able to go almost anywhere we see?

[a chewy rock]

but the real question is will be able to go almost anywhere we see?


That really is the big question. If there is all this land and no way to walk on it, then why have all that land? The Elder Scrolls games let you go wherever you want to, and you could even levitate in Morrowind.

p.s. Morrowind would be like 10x better than Oblivion if they took the game and gave it Oblivion graphics and combat.

[hanstin]

if we can walk as far as the eye can see then it would be awesome

[Mister Matt]

whoa...then we could walk to the sun!

[hanstin]

whoa...then we could walk to the sun!

thats a bit to much eh?

[a chewy rock]

Ya, that's a little bit too much. Think logical. If there's a mountain on the horizon to the east and you feel like walking/running/flying(/driving some sort of vehicle, assuming there will be some faster way of transportation than running) over to it and climbing it, you should be able to. But I don't think you could go to the sun just because you can see it......

[Will]

I talked to a couple people about this thread today, and I just thought I'd give you my personal opinion on the subject. This doesn't mean the game will be going one way or the other, but I just thought it's an interesting discussion.

Personally, I don't care for artificial restrictions, but I tolerate them as long as they don't hurt the gameplay. I understand that it's important to make a cohesive world, and if every location is possible to run to, you end up with almost too much content to create. Us artists are people too, so you can't work us that hard, we need a certain set of restrictions and boundaries, so we aren't swamped with creating a world we don't have time to create.

That having been said, that doesn't mean you can throw mountains into every single corner in the game and surround the world with walls to hold people in. A little mountain here, a few cliffs there, and you can restrict the players a bit and cut off some areas, but without hurting the gameplay. Sometimes it might even add to the gameplay, by adding a broken down bridge, and throwing in a quest, or hinting to the fixing of the area, so atleast people will know some future content is under development.

Ask yourself next time you hit a zone wall in a game, would the additional territory add to the experience, or would it be mostly wasted space? Lifeless uninspired space is just as intolerable as a zonewall, to me. The last thing I want to do is wander about in the "plains" and find nothing at all of interest. I'd have rather the level designer had cut it off at some point, so I could continue exploring something more interesting.

Obviously this can have it's uses. A barren gigantic desert has it's own unique aspects, if you have played Dungeon Siege, you'll remember there's a town in the middle of a huge desert, with a dungeon nearby as well. That was cool, and I enjoyed wandering aimlessly trying to find it. I knew it was there, I just wasn't sure where. Just don't overuse the tactic (Why does this world have 18 barren deserts!?) and we'll take it for what it is. Remember that the most important part of level design is molding the gameworld into something entertaining. Just because you have the technology to build an earth scale world, doesn't mean you're necessarily best off doing so. Empty uninspired (and useless) terrain is of absolutely no value to a persistent world. Content is king, and that's just the way it is in this industry.

[a chewy rock]

Invisible boundaries are things I don't like. It's different if there's a huge mountain that would be virtually impossible to climb that acts as a boundary. Or a cliff as you suggested. It should be a realistic boundary that denies your access to a certain area and not some invisible wall that says, "You can't go past this line."

[Mister Matt]

water would do the trick as well

[hanstin]

water would do the trick as well

hello swiming

[Mister Matt]

WHOA, I JUST GOT A SWEET IDEA!!!! What if there were like three islands or something one holding the angels on left, one holding demons on right, and one holding humans in the middle. then you jump off the demon island you swim/fly for a while with some small islands on the way, you end up at the angel island
diagram

l l l-->
-->l l l

is that a cool idea?

[a chewy rock]

That wouldn't work beacause not everything would be able to swim/fly and then the islands would be limited as far as some of the creatures and things on it.

[Mister Matt]

why wouldnt humans/demons be able to swim or the angels be able to fly? And why would the creatures be limited on the islands?

[a chewy rock]

Don't look at only the Al'gar, Humans, and Deva. There will have to be other things and not all of them would have wings. And some would be too heavy to swim or whatever. And after playing The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, I think I've had enough islands.

[hanstin]

WHOA, I JUST GOT A SWEET IDEA!!!! What if there were like three islands or something one holding the angels on left, one holding demons on right, and one holding humans in the middle. then you jump off the demon island you swim/fly for a while with some small islands on the way, you end up at the angel island
diagram

l l l-->
-->l l l

is that a cool idea?

thats actualy one of the dumbest idea's ever tbh

[a chewy rock]

lol it could work but I don't think it would be as good as it being mostly land and some lakes or ponds or whatever. And maybe a big ocean boundary.

[Mister Matt]

well since the demons, angels, and humans are the only ones we can use, it doesnt matter about the other creatures except like fish and sea monsters and whatever else lives in the water. We dont need to have bears trying to migrate from the human island to the demon island.

[a chewy rock]

I just don't think it would work well.

[Sihhe]

Something based on that idea perhaps for a minimap might have merit... In addition to the three islands I would place a central island with rare resources or something highly valued in the game world. Perhaps something along the line of floating islands high above the earth itself... where each faction ports into their home city and then has to travel more slowly to the "resource island" itself to try and control it. Would be a faction based pvp theme with the rare resource as a driving motivation.

[a chewy rock]

Floating Islands...... Now that really would be awesome IMO. Good idea. It reminds of the thing (I forget what it's called) floating over the Temple Canton in Vivek in Morrowind.

[Cady]

I love the idea. But I hate a agreeing with a chewy rock.

[a chewy rock]

I guess you don't like me now and I don't know why.

[Cady]

I guess you don't like me now and I don't know why.

I dislike like you because I am "creepy and dangerous".

Though I was still angry when I posted that along with other things that Hanstin should have kept to himself.

[a chewy rock]

What makes you say that I'm a perverted prick of a rock? lol...

[Cady]

What makes you say that I'm a perverted prick of a rock? lol...

I was upset about being "creepy and dangerous" but that kind of piled onto a few other issues I'm dealing with and I took it out on you. I honestly don't feel that way, but Hanstin should have kept it to himself all the same. In a way he betrayed my trust.

[a chewy rock]

Lol, I find it funny that he posted that.

[Cady]

Lol, I find it funny that he posted that.

I obviously do not, but I'm no longer angry about it.

[a chewy rock]

I was never angry, but I didn't understand why you were... I guess I do now.

[Cady]

I was never angry, but I didn't understand why you were... I guess I do now.

Whatever. And I don't really not like you. Just for the record. I'm just a bit annoyed.

[a chewy rock]

Oh. This has nothing to do with the topic, and I don't even think the last few pages were either but.... Your posts has gone donw to 62.

[Cady]

Oh. This has nothing to do with the topic, and I don't even think the last few pages were either but.... Your posts has gone donw to 62.

That's because I made a new account. Because I couldn't make the other show Cady as my display name like before.

As for the topic, I hate restrictions in games unless they obviously make sense and since that has been discussed previously I see no reason for me to reiterate the same ideas.

[Darthorious]

Couple things good to remember too is

1. Watchout for never ending falls. In WoW I fell off a waterfall I was exploring and fell non-stop untill I called a GM to move me so I like restrictions that keep this from happening.

2. The worst thing I hate is when you get to the end of a map and it looks like the terain keeps going but you can't hence the invisible wall.

[Cady]

I definitely hate the second thing you mentioned. It's the WORST thing ever.

[Will]

I was so unbelievably sad when I was 30minutes or so into Oblivion and ran into an invisible wall. =(

[isobar]

Yes, I agree. Invisible walls suck. Atleast make a huge mountain or hill that I can't climb to that I know the terrain ends. Or even make a great wall of China... just do something instead of an invisible wall.

[Ziegler]

why is it that all MMO's are still in the year 1492? They call themselves worlds, yet they are all FLAT!!!....a world is round.....so...

If you take off to the west, and get to the western edge of the map, then you should appear on the eastern edge.

Replace west with north and east with south as well in the above sentence.

I know that developers dont like to do this because it sets in stone the size of the world. But with Kaos, it is possible that the world could change when the time comes for that expansion.

[Mister Matt]

why is it that all MMO's are still in the year 1492? They call themselves worlds, yet they are all FLAT!!!....a world is round.....so...

If you take off to the west, and get to the western edge of the map, then you should appear on the eastern edge.

Replace west with north and east with south as well in the above sentence.

I know that developers dont like to do this because it sets in stone the size of the world. But with Kaos, it is possible that the world could change when the time comes for that expansion.



Right on zeigler! thats what i said on the second page

[Ziegler]

Right on zeigler! thats what i said on the second page

Sorry, missed it in the drama on that page.

[Darthorious]

Kind of funny all the old 16 bit games were desighned with the wrap around and was quite nice because it mad it alot easier traveling from the eastern edge of the map to the western funny more games don't do that now days.

I can see where it might be a bit problematic with waypoints and traveling.

You are at the east side of the map and waypoint is to the west so it points to the west towards the waypoint because it doesn't realize the map "wraps around"

and the waypoint numbers would go from say point A is 1,1 and point b is 4500,4500 and if you walk across the edge at 1,1 it simply turns to 4500,4500 but at the same time you could easily base the whole grid on the land as if it was round simular to what a GPS system might do...

However if the highest WP number was the line down the center of the map and to the right was positive waypoint numbers and to the left were negative waypoint numbers and 0 represented the edge (side of the map that meets east to west) you could use a simple equation to alow the waypoint to point in the shortest possible direction of travel...

Um I better stop there I'm no programmer persay but do love a good math problem lol...

[a chewy rock]

I was so unbelievably sad when I was 30minutes or so into Oblivion and ran into an invisible wall. =(

That was sorta dissappointing too, but I think that when a big expansion comes out like Mournhold for Morrowind, it will be added to the world maybe instead of
how it was in Morrowind where you were teleported there. The Elder Scrolls series games all use the same world, so a new country-like place (Hammerfell or Elsweyr) could be made available for travel by just removing that wall and adding all the content for that place.