This is what I originally expected the Alik'r Desert to look like in-game.

ArchMikem · June 2019

Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.

By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.

Waffennacht · June 2019

But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.

Plus people already hate long rides

Sylvermynx · June 2019

Hmm. But why did you think that? You must have had some background of deserts in the real world? Or perhaps not. Anyway even in the Empty Quarter it's more than just sand dunes, heat and wind.

phaneub17_ESO · June 2019

Its like driving through Kansas and all you see are fields of wheat or corn for miles, you go stir crazy when nothing changes for hours.

Wandering_Immigrant · June 2019

Ugh, there's a zone like that in FFXIV, so annoying when you're looking for a specific spot that isn't marked as there's no landmarks to go by.

Glurin · June 2019

Waffennacht wrote: »

But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.

Hey, atmosphere is really important. There's a whole lot of restaurants on the moon that went out of business because they had no atmosphere.

LeHarrt91 · June 2019

I feel that there are pockets of emptiness in Alik'r but i rather like the rocky cliffs and oases.

Sylvermynx · June 2019

Eh.... Kansas is an outlier. Really. There's nothing there but metroplexes, those fields.... and.... storms. Mega storms. Goddesses preserve me from the middle of the US (for various reasons: I don't DO severe weather; and my relatives all still live in that area - except for my sibs who for some unknown reason still think Vegas is a wonderful place to live.... *shakes head*) Really, the only thing I miss about Arkansas/Kansas/Missouri is fireflies. Thankfully I get those in game.

Weather - well, here, we have snow (LOTS of snow this last winter; probably 10+ feet over about 5 months); we have short hot summers; and we have to deal with wildfires.

You know what's better about wildfires than hurricanes and floods? Fire purifies. Floods infect. We might have lost this house two years back - but we were okay with that (as we and the dog and my computer were safe, having evacuated - because y'know, we're not stupid....) We are fully insured, and our agent was on my email instantly to reassure me that we were covered if the fire took out our property - and that would include replanting to replace the very ancient scrub oak.

Eh, yeah - you can't really replace 1k + year old scrub oak, but at least there would have been green instead of brown.

jainiadral · June 2019

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Fire purifies.

Tell that to my lungs or those two towns we lost in Norcal last November :'( I'm still having major respiratory issues from the last two years of the West Coast being on fire. Fire leaves nasty debris full of carcinogens everywhere the wind deposits the ash. What purifies? All the heroes who risk their lives every day to put out the blight

That screenshot reminds me a lot of the wastelands on the Socal/Nevada border before you start hitting the outlets outside Vegas. I spent a while in Arizona off-roading a few years back, and the deserts are full of life. Fields of Joshua trees, as you head south, lots of succulents, cacti. Sedona, with lots of cliffs of red stone. The Alik'r reminds me a little of a more ancient desert surrounding Phoenix.

Sylvermynx · June 2019

jainiadral wrote: »

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Fire purifies.

Tell that to my lungs or those two towns we lost in Norcal last November :'( I'm still having major respiratory issues from the last two years of the West Coast being on fire. Fire leaves nasty debris full of carcinogens everywhere the wind deposits the ash. What purifies? All the heroes who risk their lives every day to put out the blight

That screenshot reminds me a lot of the wastelands on the Socal/Nevada border before you start hitting the outlets outside Vegas. I spent a while in Arizona off-roading a few years back, and the deserts are full of life. Fields of Joshua trees, as you head south, lots of succulents, cacti. Sedona, with lots of cliffs of red stone. The Alik'r reminds me a little of a more ancient desert surrounding Phoenix.

[redacted - not germane to the thread]

Eh, regardless that I really detest deserts IRL, I truly LOVE the ESO ones. All of them.

Dr_Ganknstein · June 2019

That looks more like Mars with a blue sky. Anyway you can fix this by just moving slowly to each point of interest. This will make it feel like the zone is much larger.

emilyhyoyeon · June 2019

I feel like if the game were bigger, the zone would have more area like that

ArchMikem · June 2019

Waffennacht wrote: »

But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.

Plus people already hate long rides

Why would it be more work if there was less detail to render? I think you meant the Client instead of the Servers, since the game Servers primarily handle calculations and send data to the Client telling it what's supposed to be going on. As far as I know, a zone with a whole lot of nothing visually may very well be the one everyone has the least amount of lag in.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Hmm. But why did you think that? You must have had some background of deserts in the real world? Or perhaps not. Anyway even in the Empty Quarter it's more than just sand dunes, heat and wind.

I don't understand your meaning.

MattT1988 · June 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.

By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.

Sounds incredibly boring gameplay wise. Riding around with barely anything around for 10-15 minutes. Nah I’m kinda glad they didn’t go down that route.

Sylvermynx · June 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

Waffennacht wrote: »

But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.

Plus people already hate long rides

Why would it be more work if there was less detail to render? I think you meant the Client instead of the Servers, since the game Servers primarily handle calculations and send data to the Client telling it what's supposed to be going on. As far as I know, a zone with a whole lot of nothing visually may very well be the one everyone has the least amount of lag in.

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Hmm. But why did you think that? You must have had some background of deserts in the real world? Or perhaps not. Anyway even in the Empty Quarter it's more than just sand dunes, heat and wind.

I don't understand your meaning.

So.... I live in the US desert southwest. We don't have unlimited vistas of sand dunes. Deserts aren't all Ravel's Bolero, sand dunes, and camels... though I tend to gravitate toward just that.

Anyway.... have you never been to a desert in the real world? I don't know where you live, so that's a viable question. Deserts are - hardly devoid of life; they aren't generally just expanses of red dunes mile upon mile.

The Empty Quarter (Rub' al Khali) is a well known area of the Arabian Peninsula. It's - eh, well, no reason for me to paraphrase after all...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub'_al_Khali

It's not sterile. It is dunes of course, but there are fauna and flora - so the dunes are not all there is!

I was introduced to the Rub' al Khali by one of the favorite books of my life - The Eight, by Katharine Neville.

deadsheepb14_ESO · June 2019

Behold my terrible photoshop skills.

https://imgur.com/a/awAjU6l

*I can't link images for some reason.

ArchMikem · June 2019

deadsheepb14_ESO wrote: »

Behold my terrible photoshop skills.

https://imgur.com/a/awAjU6l

*I can't link images for some reason.

Is that a freakin Graboid?

Tigerseye · June 2019

This is where flying in games comes in.

Then you can make big distances between things and have a real feeling of openness, freedom, space and grandeur, without driving people (who are actually trying to get somewhere) crazy.

While people are stuck on the ground and loading screens are a thing, you have to keep the distances less huge, sadly.

idk · June 2019

Waffennacht wrote: »

Plus people already hate long rides

Pretty much this. We would just use wayshrines to avoid it all so it would merely be wasted space.

Stx · June 2019

Every zone in eso is 'full'. It is disappointing I agree. But thats how most mmos are. Most players aren't looking for a expansive world to explore because that would be too boring.. I guess.

Tigerseye · June 2019

Stx wrote: »

Every zone in eso is 'full'. It is disappointing I agree. But thats how most mmos are. Most players aren't looking for a expansive world to explore because that would be too boring.. I guess.

I am, but only if I have a quicker way to travel than on foot, being blocked by things, constantly.

Most "casual" players seem to like flying, but they don't tend to post on forums, too much, so they either don't get given it, or they eventually have it taken away again, if they do.

Then, when they do have it taken away, they finally make the effort to complain vociferously, by which time it's deemed too late and the deed is done.

Then, if they keep on complaining, there might be a half-hearted compromise, whereby it is reintroduced, as long as you are prepared to give the devs your first born...

I don't know why anyone over the age of 20 tolerates this kind of trolling and manipulation, especially from the kind of people who try to do it (who most people wouldn't spit on, if they were on fire), but there you go.

Knootewoot · June 2019

I loved Tatooine in SWG. Miles of nothingness. When i got to Tatooine in SWTOR, there were broken sandcrawlers EVERYWHERE and settlements.

I also hoped for a large plain of nothingness in Alik'r desert. The game however is designed to have as less traveltime as possible. Fast travel is everywhere, and zones biomes are not that big either.

jainiadral · June 2019

deadsheepb14_ESO wrote: »

Behold my terrible photoshop skills.

https://imgur.com/a/awAjU6l

*I can't link images for some reason.

I must not fear... Fear is the mind-killer...

Have an awesome

The easiest way to link imgur stuff is to right click the actual picture, then paste the link in the comment area. After that, add the [ img ] and [ / img ] (without spaces) tags manually. The forum picture function's never worked for me.

ArchMikem wrote: »

deadsheepb14_ESO wrote: »

Behold my terrible photoshop skills.

https://imgur.com/a/awAjU6l

*I can't link images for some reason.

Is that a freakin Graboid?

You don't recognize Shai-hulud? That's a sandworm from Dune

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO · June 2019

Waffennacht wrote: »

But wouldn't that be a lot of work on the servers for no real reason other than atmosphere.

Plus people already hate long rides

that's the reason why we have 3958398539 wayshrines in every zone...what if we had only 1 and that be at the main town of the area and that's all? and I agree with the OP when I heard desert I was expecting something vast of nothing...and would it be a lot of work for the servers? who cares? since we PAY EVERY DAY for it? sure monthly sub but most ppl buy crown store stuff so yes...im disappointed in the overall size of the world...besides cyrodill...honestly the whole country should be the size of cyrodill or roughly the same size EACH...do we want atmosphere? idk...why do you play a game? I do it to enjoy it and feel good while in it..aka atmosphere...not to mention roleplaying.

AbysmalGhul · June 2019

That image reminds of the Beastie Boy song " Paul Revere"....dunno why

Seraphayel · June 2019

Alikr Desert is by far my favorite zone (Northern Elsweyr comes close) because of that. It’s just very well done. An empty desert would be quite... boring.

Inaya · June 2019

This is actually the first desert zone I've played in any game that I LIKE. I dreaded going there and when I finally did was pleasantly surprised!

Sansoul · June 2019

ArchMikem wrote: »

Just sheer nothing for miles. I had this grand vision of emptiness for the zone when I first heard of it before actually getting there. I had thought the zone would be this vast empty desert of rolling dunes with player hubs scattered around, and it would take you like 10 to 15 real minutes of riding to span the distance, with some quest content in between like a pillaged caravan or a sunken cavern. Instead the Alik'r is very rocky and full of ruins and towns and mines and just, really full.

By the way this screenshot was from when I got out of bounds in Anequina, hence why there's nothing there.

Being a desert has nothing to do with terrain. It's simply a matter of does this place average less than 10 inches of rainfall a year, if so, desert. It could be covered with rocks, or nothing but sand.

Katahdin · June 2019

I like the way they did Alik'r and the variety of the area. It makes it more interesting than just nothing for miles.

If you run SE of Sentinel toward Bergama, there is plenty of open sand dune area to run through.

AhPook_Is_Here · June 2019

Most of the zones are small so you can get around fast, they are built like the themed sub-zones at Disneyland, so they are very efficient in terms of travel time. Alik'r is about the same size as Tomorrowland, you have to soak up the atmosphere without moving around too much, find a nice vista and absorb.

Odovacar · June 2019

There are many areas in Alik'r that are quite barren. I love in southern Bangkorai the desert starts and leads into the Aliki'r desert. One of my favorite zones in game still.