Would you find Overland Questing More Enjoyable With a Single Massive Overland Zone?

ArchMikem

ESO as we know it consists of numerous downscaled instanced Zones replicating the Provinces of Tamriel, providing the player to visit numerous different locales spread across the continent of Tamriel and all it's peoples of the ten Races. But because of this each playable Zone has been scaled down from their real world measurements in order to save on performance, data size etc, making everything feel small, almost miniature. So lets try to reimagine the game. ESO's main premise is the Three Banner's War centered around Cyrodiil as well as it's fight against Molag Bal and the Planemeld which started in Cyrodiil with the SoulBurst above the White Gold Tower.

Let's say the Game Map was one massive recreation of Cyrodiil, including the outlying regions of all three Alliances such as Craglorn, Bangkorai, Colovia, Elsweyr, Black Marsh, Morrowind, and Skyrim, all having parts of their Provinces included along the edges of the game map serving as Home regions of the players depending on the Alliance chosen, and the majority of the Overland game took place within and around Cyrodiil and inner Tamriel, with some Quests journeying out to further locations as Instanced Zones, including DLC Questlines and Chapters like Vvardenfell.

This other approach would change the way the Game Map would be designed and feel. One large zone would be able to be built to full scale, complete with vast wilds, woodlands to get lost in, stretches of road that really felt like you traveled a good distance between Quest Hubs if you didn't use the Wayshrine network. The catch, of course, is the Overland map would be limited to Central Tamriel, and of course already, Cyrodiil is restricted to PvP, so that aspect of the game would had to have been worked completely differently.

Huyen

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Simple on two points:
1. Cadwells Silver and Gold will be a huge issue. Not to mention the added zones of CwC and Cold Harbour.
2. The engine isnt capable.

ArchMikem

Huyen wrote: »

Simple on two points:
1. Cadwells Silver and Gold will be a huge issue. Not to mention the added zones of CwC and Cold Harbour.
2. The engine isnt capable.

That wasn't really the point of the question though. Wasn't asking if you thought the game should be that way, or even could be. Simply players thoughts of the idea.

AuraNebula

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Honestly I like the way it is now. If you don't use wayshrines it's very easy to feel like you've travelled a long way. Especially on a mount with a slow speed. Imo the way you described it would make it seem smaller.

vpy

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

One large zone ,however interesting, will lead to boredom.
Also what if for some reason people don't like that zone.
Then they will leave.

ArcVelarian

Yes, a single, larger and more expansive Zone would be interesting.

Yes, it would be interesting but the technical hurdles associated with a giant mega-zone would take years to solve.

thedude33

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Why ?

idk

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Nothing gained from the idea.

Probably just add to lag since it is obvious different areas would still be on different servers.

VaranisArano

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Can you imagine the nightmare that would be zone chat?

ArchMikem

vpy wrote: »

One large zone ,however interesting, will lead to boredom.
Also what if for some reason people don't like that zone.
Then they will leave.

A map of that size would hold several different biomes and environments, from Cyrodiil in the center to the Mountains and Pines of South Skyrim, to the Giant Mushrooms of West Morrowind, Swamps of West Black Marsh, Grasslands of North Elsweyr and the Deserts of Hammerfell. Just because it'd be a single Zone doesn't mean it'd be the same exact thing everywhere.

menedhyn

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

Princessrhaenyra wrote: »

Honestly I like the way it is now. If you don't use wayshrines it's very easy to feel like you've travelled a long way. Especially on a mount with a slow speed. Imo the way you described it would make it seem smaller.

Same here. I very rarely use wayshrines (maybe only twice over the past year) and I pretty much walk everywhere. This has meant that the game feels vast to me, with travel between towns or cities resembling a proper journey. Clearly, not something to appeal to the majority, of course. I must be rather patient. Or stoic.

I do like the idea of modelling terrain and improving flora in such a way that you do feel like you're able to lose yourself in the landscape though.

Danikat

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

I'd much, much rather have many separate maps than 1 big one. What you're suggesting would make that one area bigger, but in the process we'd lose the whole rest of the game world, and it'd be much harder for them to add new areas in future. Overall we'd have less to do and I think even a smaller space to do it in.

I'd love to have the maps to scale - either realistic sizes or matching what we've seen in Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim (I'm not counting Arena or Daggerfall because Arena was just a few tiny bits of each province and Daggerfall went too far the other way). But ALL the maps, not just one of them.

I actually think the way to do that would be to split them up even more - because the problem is computers can only handle so much stuff loaded at once time. If the existing zones were split into two separate maps each one could be the same size as the ones we've got now and we'd have twice as much space.

Narvuntien

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

ES3 morrowind was capable of having you traverse into new Biomes as you crossed into different areas the same way you feel the differences in the holds of Skyrim.

In this game the one place you see multiple Biomes in the same zone is Craglorn. You have the dry desert south west, you have the i guess mediterrian climate biome in the east that is greener but still dry and you have "Reach", Cold and Wet North West.

I mean I hate the load screens but load screens appear all the time at awkward times in cryodil. I imagine a world where I jump into a mob and slam into load screen just like happens in cryodil and that would suck.

I'd wonder if people would like shorter but more frequent load screens, like loading into towns like you do in skyrim.

Rawkan

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

No, zones in this game are the perfect size imo.

makreth

Yes, a single, larger and more expansive Zone would be interesting.

It would be interesting. It would add to immersion and to the feeling other tes have such as skyrim.

Now as for the performance or the costs associated with a design system like that? That's another whole story of course.

Elsonso

I think that the OP is over complicated. I just wish that they had the ability to make seamless zone transitions so that it felt like one huge zone and we really didn't care at all whether it was one zone or many zones.

VaranisArano

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

lordrichter wrote: »

I think that the OP is over complicated. I just wish that they had the ability to make seamless zone transitions so that it felt like one huge zone and we really didn't care at all whether it was one zone or many zones.

You can use the boatswains or carts to travel to other provinces in a more realistic way as long as you don't mind having a loading screen.

Elsonso

VaranisArano wrote: »

lordrichter wrote: »

I think that the OP is over complicated. I just wish that they had the ability to make seamless zone transitions so that it felt like one huge zone and we really didn't care at all whether it was one zone or many zones.

You can use the boatswains or carts to travel to other provinces in a more realistic way as long as you don't mind having a loading screen.

I was talking about things like walking from Stonefalls to The Rift, or The Rift to Eastmarch. No doors, wide open terrain, but loading screen required.

Don't get me started on the whole Wayshrine transportation thing. I am happy that they have added some real transportation in the game and have not just said "everyone shall use Wayshrines". I like to use the "native" transport on Vvardenfell. I decided from the start that the island was a "no wayshrine travel zone". The closest I come to a wayshrine there is having to walk through one to get to the silt strider in Gnisis.

Cronopoly

No, smaller, but more numerous and varied Zones is interesting.

ArchMikem wrote: »

Snip

I've worked Enterprise level IT for 21+ years. What you propose is a bandwidth concern at multiple levels. Concurrent users simultaneous sessions for Network, CPU, Memory on one massive system would be daunting. Even if done on a massive Solaris system with LPARS (Logical Partitions) typically the cost is prohibitive for MMO's to justify.

Another is licencing, for typical enterprise Databases when using a massively scaled multi-CPU system, licensing costs can go through the roof.

I/O channels inside said system would have to be massive.
Fiber Optic to Storage Frames, (EMC etc) ...
Memory....One memory fault could kill the system for all users...
Redundancy...redundancy of a super system makes the cost of doing so prohibitive if 50% of the available systems will be sitting idle. Not to mention PTS would have to be massive as well.

We would always say in IT "project all costs by 3" (But that was for Disaster Recovery specifically, but in this case it fits as well)

Without knowing the bandwidth at multiple technical areas for the Zone servers, you really cannot pose this scenario without I.T. looking at you like you are crazy...

The SYSTEM RESOURCES are NOT UNLIMITED.

ADarklore

Yes, a single, larger and more expansive Zone would be interesting.

It would be fine to have one large zone that transitions without load screens! I mean, look at the map, all the areas are interconnected... imagine if each alliance map was ONE ZONE and you didn't have to deal with load screens anymore when moving between areas.