True open world on the Horizon?

Bozrah · September 2016

With "One Tamriel" soon to hit live servers, what are the chances of seeing an adjustment to how zones connect to one another allowing for a more open environment?
Silly questions but thought id ask ...

Danikat · September 2016

It might be possible to allow us to travel between zones anywhere they already join up. Although I've heard people who make or mod other games say it would be a huge amount of work due to the programing used for zone transitions, and I have no idea how it's done here.

But a true open world would be a huge amount of work because they would have to create new maps for all the areas which don't currently have them. For example even if they removed the Slaughterfish and changed the zone boundaries you couldn't swim across from Glenumbra to Hammerfell, or Auidon to Greenshade. Or if you could you'd just skip from one side to the other, because the sea in between does not exist in the game. Same for the land areas which are outside of the map.

WhiteMage · September 2016

A seamless world would be amazing IMO. This type of thing is doable, LotRO for example has all of its regions connect with each other without a loading screen, the only exception being Moria. This would change a few things in ESO though. DLC areas that connect to the rest of the map would have to have some system that allowed you to enter them but have none of the content available to you without first purchasing the region. One of the things I loved and admired about LotRO was how it flowed. Terrain change was gradual between 2 very different regions unless some geographic barrier was responsible for a stark change between them, like a river or a mountain range.

It was such a beautiful world and I hope ESO can emulate it. One thing ESO did right where LotRO massed up is the inside of buildings. Buildings are entirely difference spaces, removed from the same "plane" and the insides could be much bigger or smaller than the building itself. In ESO, it's the same space. The inside is as big as the outside, and what's really cool is you could be separated by a door/wall/window but still hear someone playing music from the other side. That really wow-ed me when I first started this game.

Yes, even pvp try-hards can enjoy the world that they're in.

Danikat · September 2016

The problem isn't so much with the design of the world, it's how the computer is programmed to run it.

It's hard to explain, partially because I don't really know the right terminology and partially because I find it's a hard concept to get my head around, but you need to stop thinking of the game world as a physical place that uses the same laws as the real world and think of it as something programmed by a computer.

In some games maps that look to the player like they're right next to each other aren't actually laid out like that at all. The pattern on the skybox (the 3D space the map is built inside) is just designed to look like the next map along and zone transitions function essentially like teleporters. When you activate one by walking into it, it tells the game 'move this character from point 1 on map A to point 1 on map B', where point 1B is just inside map B and the skybox behind you looks just like map A.

In that case making it possible to travel between maps at any point along the border means programming additional points all along that border. And making it seamless means reducing the loading time so that a loading screen never comes up, which is usually done by loading only the few things immediately around you and adding others as you move around, something which doesn't really work in an MMO.

Obviously it can be done, but it's usually something that needs to be decided when the game is first being created, not something that can be changed later on. At least not without a huge amount of work to modify every map to work in a new way.

WhiteMage · September 2016

You're probably right that it's too late to implement, but I feel like a similar technology is used in Cyrodiil. It is such a massive map with no load screens* when not teleporting. I of course don't know how it would all work out or interact with the mega server system we have. None the less, I will dream...

*lag and gap closers excluded

Bozrah · September 2016

Thank you for the replies. I only bring this up because Zenimax seems to be going back and making some serious changes to the world. I thought, well if there doing 1 Tamriel and breaking down barriers, perhaps seemless zones (similar to WoW) might be considered.
Im quite ignorant on how this might be achieved, if its even possible so i have no problem admitting that.

ArchMikem · September 2016

WhiteMage wrote: »

You're probably right that it's too late to implement, but I feel like a similar technology is used in Cyrodiil. It is such a massive map with no load screens* when not teleporting. I of course don't know how it would all work out or interact with the mega server system we have. None the less, I will dream...

Probably cause Cyrodiil is very lightly detailed in comparison. Large swathes of it is just plain terrain with some 2D grass and a tree here and there.

tklawson · September 2016

Danikat wrote: »

It might be possible to allow us to travel between zones anywhere they already join up. Although I've heard people who make or mod other games say it would be a huge amount of work due to the programing used for zone transitions, and I have no idea how it's done here.

But a true open world would be a huge amount of work because they would have to create new maps for all the areas which don't currently have them. For example even if they removed the Slaughterfish and changed the zone boundaries you couldn't swim across from Glenumbra to Hammerfell, or Auidon to Greenshade. Or if you could you'd just skip from one side to the other, because the sea in between does not exist in the game. Same for the land areas which are outside of the map.

You can swim across from Bankorai to Stormhaven and vice versa.

idk · September 2016

@Bozrah

One Tanriel will essentially make most of the game an open world.

Obviously DLC zones are fenced off from players without access. That's about it.

Seamless zones are not a good idea for how ESO is deigned. WoW can possibly do it because such an old design is less load on servers. Heck, people can play WoW ok bricks of PCs.

UrQuan · September 2016

tklawson wrote: »

Danikat wrote: »

It might be possible to allow us to travel between zones anywhere they already join up. Although I've heard people who make or mod other games say it would be a huge amount of work due to the programing used for zone transitions, and I have no idea how it's done here.

But a true open world would be a huge amount of work because they would have to create new maps for all the areas which don't currently have them. For example even if they removed the Slaughterfish and changed the zone boundaries you couldn't swim across from Glenumbra to Hammerfell, or Auidon to Greenshade. Or if you could you'd just skip from one side to the other, because the sea in between does not exist in the game. Same for the land areas which are outside of the map.

You can swim across from Bankorai to Stormhaven and vice versa.

Hmm, has anyone tried swimming from Glenumbra to Stormhaven? I'm pretty sure you can't do it, but on the other hand I don't think I've ever tried...

For that matter, what about Greenshade to Malabal Tor? Are there any other zones you can swim between?