Technical question about Zones

Gidorick

I have seen posts from time to time complain about the zone segregation of ESO. While this did irk me at first I actually don't mind It at all now. I thought this was one of those things that people would accept, yet we still see threads with people commenting on how they dislike the Zones.

I'm wondering if there is anything that can be done about this?

Certain comments like... "the nights are too" short or "We want underwater content" are about features that can be added to ESO. Would there be any way that ZOS could "open" the zones of ESO so there aren't Zones and Tamriel is an open world without loading screens? As far as I understand it, this would require an entirely new engine.

What's more, we would still have the zone-walkways through the mountains. Even if there were no loading screens we would still have the 'zones' separated geographically... unless they did a MAJOR overhaul of the borders to remove the mountains and allow us to cross at any point along the border.

So, to make Tamriel a zone-less open world, it would require a change of game engine AND redesign of the "border" areas of each zone map. wouldn't it?

If that is the case... it seems like a LOT for us to ask for when the zone system they have works perfectly well and a zone-less world wouldn't actually ADD anything to the overall game or experience.

Thoughts?

Samadhi

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

Gidorick

Samadhi wrote: »

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

So you're saying it's not the physical separation of the zones that is the issue but the way the zones are separated by level?

How would you reconcile the fact that you have different level players running about? If a level 10 character is running around and a Vet 5 level character is in the same area, how would the game level the mobs?

dharbert

Samadhi wrote: »

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

Not possible. The entire zone would have to be instanced only to you. And it doesn't just "feel" like the zones are linear in progression, the zones "are" linear in progression. That's the way this game was made. Main Storyline -> Cadwell's Silver -> Cadwell's Gold.

Samadhi

Gidorick wrote: »

Samadhi wrote: »

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

So you're saying it's not the physical separation of the zones that is the issue but the way the zones are separated by level?

How would you reconcile the fact that you have different level players running about? If a level 10 character is running around and a Vet 5 level character is in the same area, how would the game level the mobs?

Do not think it would actually be possible to scale them, but do feel that to be the problem.
The progression from zone to zone itself is not that problematic to me, walking across a bridge or through a gate and getting a loading screen for a new zone does not do much to inhibit my gameplay or immersion. The only part of it that causes issue to me is that the level discrepancies.

This is actually one of the aspects of the Champion system that does interest me though; there has been some suggestion that when it is fully implemented 50+ players will basically have all content open rather than dealing with the whole Cadwell's Gold and Silver thing.
How far this change goes will be interesting to see.

ers101284b14_ESO

Other ES games had zones too. The difference is that in Single player ES games they could load and unload them as need be to make it an open world. In an MMO you can't quite do that as the amount of data between your computer and their server would be too great now multiply that by how many people are on and your just asking to break the server.

Gidorick

Are there ANY MMOs out there with a truly open world that would be the size of an open Tamriel?

dharbert

Gidorick wrote: »

Are there ANY MMOs out there with a truly open world that would be the size of an open Tamriel?

No. Every MMO has "zones". Even the biggest one ever, EVE Online, has literally hundreds of zones.

Rosveen

I do not mind borders. I accept them as a necessary evil, like closed cities in Oblivion and Skyrim (if ESO was a single player game, zone loading screens would have already been modded out ).

Samadhi wrote: »

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

It won't work in non-instanced areas. You want to scale the player, not the content - like in Cyrodiil. If I'm not mistaken, GW2 did something like this, but I'm not sure how it worked exactly because I never played this game. I don't think it has upscaling, however.

It is not easy to make the whole world available to you from the get-go without losing meaningful character progression; the feeling that you're growing more powerful, but also that there are still daunting challenges ahead. What would work, perhaps, is if we had zones within zones, more random and not strictly linear as it is now. The most difficult parts of Auridon being harder than the easy parts of Greenshade or Malabal Tor, for example. So you could move to another zone without fear of being underleveled, and also have something to come back to. I suppose downscaling serves the same purpose: to keep lower level content relevant.

But more than anything, I'd love to see multiple zones at the same level so alts can experience different content instead of following the same leveling path. We can already do this by skipping quests, mixing it up with PvP etc., but ultimately the PvE side is the same. In Skyrim I could go entire games without setting foot in half the holds. I miss it. I hope the Champion system will bring something similar to endgame, removing Silver and Gold barriers and making everything level 50 across the board.

Dekkameron

Samadhi wrote: »

Not personally bothered by the zones themselves, but it is unfortunate that zones do not scale to player level making zones feel wholly linear in progression.

That might make grouping together somewhat problematic

Mandragora

I dont mind the borders - the zones themself seems to me small - the quests are just behind a corner or over a road. Maybe ppl wouldnt see this as a problem if they wouldnt have the feel that it is small.

And other MMO deals with linear problem that they have 2 zones on the same lvl but with different content - so you can choose where to go. Not possible in ESO because of the 3 factions I guess

someuser

Zones don't bother me at all.

Not everyone has computers capable of loading into memory and handling all the resource requirements that having a game the size of ESO be truly an open world without boarders.... I mean, I do but many people don't

To me the biggest issue (as a 4 day pre-release player from April) with PvE is the "lack of choice". As dharbert said above, its pretty much main storyline-->Cadwell's silver-->Cadwell's gold.

Personally, that isn't completely horrible as that is a LOT of solo PvE content (which I love) but it makes the replay value significantly lower.

Honestly, I have zero motivation to play any other alliance other than the EP. I'm going to end up doing all the zones anyhow so why, from an efficiency standpoint, would I want to try the others? Also, my alts can seems like a HUGE grind at times as I don't feel like I have a lot of viable alternatives.

Now some have said the Champion system is going to help address this (as will the justice system to a degree).