ZOS makes out of bounds more interesting than the playable area

ArchMikem

I was going to be a good boy and post this in Community Creations, since it's just screenshots, but that Category is legitimately a dead zone. I made another thread in there almost two months ago, and it's still on the front page, 4th down from the top with zero replies...

But this is an example of what I've been wishing for years ZOS' level designers do with new Zones.





These are the far edge of the Haldain Lumber Camp Delve. The areas I'm looking at are out of bounds, but ALL I want to do, is go there. The Wilderness is jagged, the Forest is thick and dense. Every fiber of my being wanted to go get lost in that, because it looks REAL. A real, old growth untouched wilderness instead of the wide open spaces every Zone we ever get gives us. I just can't believe one of THE most interesting places in Gold Road that makes me want to explore, is just background scenery walled off to the player.

Seriously, just the idea of walking thru a thick overgrown Forest that seemingly has nothing but trees, brush, rocks, and fallen logs only to stumble upon an ancient shrine to Azurah hidden by Nature? That's just FASCINATING to me.

Djennku

That shrine is not out of bounds, and you access it by way of the main questline.

ArchMikem

Djennku wrote: »

That shrine is not out of bounds, and you access it by way of the main questline.

I'm talking about the direction my character is looking. The patch of woods to the right of the shrine.

Nathrai

The reasoning against this tends to be either strain on the system (client has to load in a heckload of items) or problems with the camera.

The first one I totally get, all hell would break loose if any (part of a) quest was locked behind a lag fest for lower end machines.

The second one less so. Give your players some credit, we're old enough to tilt the camera accordingly ... :P

Heren

Forests, 'realistic' ones at least, seem difficult to do in a video game like ESO; you usually end up with very big trees and lot of grass around, rather than a lot of normal trees, dead trees, bushes, brambles, dead leaves and a bit of green ( of course, it depend of the forest, the climate, etc ). And, in a way, for good reasons : that kind of surrounding would not be easy to navigate. A forest thick and dense would mean a lot of obstacles, fallen trees, trees themselves, bushes, and such; i walk a bit in forest that are not entirely attended, and when you go away from the path, well, it's not alway the proverbial walk in a park.

Sure, they could do something that would like thick, dense, almost impenetrable, and would stay navigable ( at least on feet, on a mount maybe not ), and I would certainly be more than happy to see that. The jungle in Galen was really nice, some areas in High Isle were promising ( like above Faun Thicket, but that area too is out of bounds ), and the West Weald look promising ( I have just begin the zone ). There is certainly potential, maybe even a certain will to go there, and I'm happy and thankful for that ( and hopping for more ! ).

On a side note ( unless it's forbidden to mention, hum, competition ), LOTRO made some forest areas that were quite interesting, and highlight some problems : for the old forest near the Shire, they did go with unpassable ranges of trees that created the feeling of a labyrinth, a really thik forest that you can't navigate easily, where you have to go around, to make détour to reach your destination. The immersion was really nice, but finding your way, going somewhere... not alway so. I also remember some part of southern Mirkwood, where they didn't go with the tree walls strategy, but with a lot of obstacles, and going there with a fast mount was a bit of nightmare, but then fast mount in LOTRO are alway a bit of a nightmare for navigation ! Anyway, it was really the kind of area where going slowly usually means not losing too much time, and it was a really beautiful area.

And, as clunky as LOTRO sometime ( a lot of time ? ) is, they tried things that I would really like to see tried in ESO.

Hasenpfote

ESO needs some fixed first with tiny rockets you get stuck in movement. Often your character get stuck and you dont know why because the object is completly hidden by the charactermodel. So you try dodgeroll because you thing you got rootet by an enemy, but nope, it was a tiny rock, that is smaller than anything else you have seen.