24 replies to this topic

[TheCracker]

Will the whole world be persistent and smooth, like WoW, LotRO, etc. or will there still be portals like in GW1, only that the areas are now persistent, like Grand Fantasia?

Meaning, can you run from Divinity's Reach directly to Ebonhawke without one single loading screen, or will you be interrupted by them just like in GW1?

[oggycheese]

I think they mentioned somewhere that there were loading screens (can anyone confirm this or find a source?). Which doesn't bother me at all. Just as long as they're not really long.

[KQ]

There will be loading screens.

On smaller distances when map travelling, there will not be loading screens, or they will last really short (a second or so).

On larger distances when map travelling, there will be loading screens (such as when travelling through asura gates, or a big map-travel), but they shouldn't bug you much. In GW1, if you had all the updates, the loading screens were pretty fast.

OnlineWelten said:

Are there any loading screens between the different areas? How long will it take to travel?

It really depends on how far you are going. For long distances, yes, there will be loading screens, for small distances – hopping back and forth- little to no loading screens at all.

http://gw2.onlinewel..._interview.html

You should be able to run throughout the world without loading screens (such as, if you don't want to pay for map-travelling [and the fee should be small, the money you lose should be easily obtained back] you can always walk there, heh), since it's all that persistent. Unless you run across an instanced area (city area, dungeon), ofc. If there will be instanced areas on certain locations which you must pass in order to go through for another area.

Edited by KQ, 17 August 2010 - 02:43 PM.

[Validus]

I believe the whole world will be persistent, with the exception of big cities such as Rata Sum and Divinity's reach. The reason i say that is because if you look on the trailers you see portals for those cities. When they showed Rata Sum in the first trailer there was a portal, and on the latest trailer when Mike O'Brien starts to talk they go to a scene in Divinity's Reach. If you look to the lower right corner you'll see the gate to the city and there is a light circle in the middle of the open gate, just like they have in gw1. Not to mention they said that all the main cities have have Asuran gates connecting them. So in my opinion there will be loading screens for big cities and of course dungeons and instances, but the rest should be smooth sailing.
But then again the demo comes out tomorrow so you should get a real answer rather than an opinion then. =D

[Rampage]

There will be loading screen and there will be zone.  But the zones are persistent, not instance like GW1.  I am not sure if there will be loading between zones

[KQ]

@ Validus:

There will be various instanced areas in the big cities.

First example is your house instance, which will take over 10% of the city.

In Divinity's Reach for example, there will be several instaced areas like the Queen's Palce or the headquarters of the Seraph.

ArenaNet Blog said:

Q: Cities seem to be big since you mention travelling inside cities. Are cities divided into multiple zones?

Ben: Yes. All of our cities are quite large and divided into different thematic areas, with some special places you can instance into. The actual Divinity’s Reach map has different sections that reflect the different social groups, sections devoted to the six human gods, a large carnival area, and several instanced areas like the Queen’s Palace or the headquarters of the Seraph that are their own smaller maps.

http://www.arena.net...tivities-travel

[Lorath]

Quote

Are there any loading screens between the different areas? How long will it take to travel?

It really depends on how far you are going. For long distances, yes, there will be loading screens, for small distances – hopping back and forth- little to no loading screens at all.

The quote might mean different things really depending on how you interpret it. It could mean that the world is seamless and while map travel requires loading screens, travelling on foot does not. Or it could mean that the world is zoned and while traveling beyond the zone youre now in requires a loading screen, hopping back and forth within its limits does not.

Persistent does not mean seamless.

Not that it really bothers me if the game is zoned. Think people put too much importance on that.

Edited by Lorath, 17 August 2010 - 03:05 PM.

[KQ]

^ The quote is in the context of instant map travelling. In an area, there might as well be 10 to 20 different waypoints you may travel to any time. Travelling to the waypoints outside that area might require a loading screen.

[Lorath]

King said:

^ The quote is in the context of instant map travelling.

Could be. But Im not sure. Whenever they get that question they seem to be avoiding a direct answer. Why not just say: the world isnt divided into zones with loading screens - its seamless, except instances for the personal story, dungeons and capitals.

[KQ]

Lorath said:

Why not just say: the world isnt divided into zones with loading screens - its seamless, except instances for the personal story, dungeons and capitals.

So that we can spend our time speculating on the forum, thinking about it and waiting for more juicy information about the specific topics.

Ain't ArenaNet's marketing campaign just brilliant? :p

Although, they do give us such straightforwards pieces of information as well. :)

[Lorath]

King said:

So that we can spend our time speculating on the forum, thinking about it and waiting for more juicy information about the specific topics.

Ain't ArenaNet's marketing campaign just brilliant? :p

Its brilliant if the game is zoned. Kinda crap if its seamless :P
Having a seamless world is something youd want to put on the list of features next to dynamic events, environmental weapons, voiced personal storyline. It would be another thing building the hype. Having a zoned world is something you would not necessarily want to brag about.

Edited by Lorath, 17 August 2010 - 04:06 PM.

[Juanele]

Lorath said:

. Having a zoned world is something you would not necessarily want to brag about.

Almost every game is zoned, even WoW is zoned. However, it is the transition to that zone that is different within each game.

[Lorath]

Juanele said:

Almost every game is zoned, even WoW is zoned. However, it is the transition to that zone that is different within each game.

Semantics really. Do you want to define a zoned game world as one that has many different areas each with its own character, scenery, level range, etc. or one that requires zoning (and thus loading screens) to move between such areas. Then we could go on talking about WoW continents being either zones or collections of zones - again semantics. And I dont think that was the point of this thread.

Edited by Lorath, 17 August 2010 - 04:25 PM.

[Fario]

Lorath said:

Semantics really. Do you want to define a zoned game world as one that has many different areas each with its own character, scenery, level range, etc. or one that requires zoning (and thus loading screens) to move between such areas. Then we could go on talking about WoW continents being either zones or collections of zones - again semantics. But I dont think that was the point of this thread.

Not really since every area has it's own specifc name, with the name coming up when you enter a new "zone" and often a new public chat area. They are essentially the same as zones in different games except you didn't experience a loading screen.

[Lorath]

Fario said:

Not really since every area has it's own specifc name, with the name coming up when you enter a new "zone" and often a new public chat area. They are essentially the same as zones in different games except you didn't experience a loading screen.

I dont really see what your point is.

[Eramon]

I REALLY wish people would do their basic research before posting obvious questions.

[Elk]

Quote

You should be able to run throughout the world without loading screens (such as, if you don't want to pay for map-travelling [and the fee should be small, the money you lose should be easily obtained back] you can always walk there, heh), since it's all that persistent. Unless you run across an instanced area (city area, dungeon), ofc. If there will be instanced areas on certain locations which you must pass in order to go through for another area.

many thanks ^^ had n't heard much about loading screens, glad we only have them for map travelling (so basically no loading screens for normal travel)



many thanks ^^ just wanted to know this, so basically there is no loading. unless you're map travelling.

[NeHoMaR]

In WoW there are real time loading, I mean the game is loading even without loading screen; But if you teleport to any place, even if is possible go by foot, you will see a loading screen. There are also loading screen when going from a continent to another, or island.

I think GW2 will have something similar, but maybe the cities will be closed with a loading portal, and so on. This is a good idea, because being all open will eat a lot of RAM (computer memory) and resources in general both your PC and game servers (this means ArenaNet could implement a server just for one big city, so that city doesn't lag the other places of the game; there are many ways to do this anyway)

[Lorath]

Eramon said:

I REALLY wish people would do their basic research before posting obvious questions.

Did you read the question or just the topic?

[Azera]

HUGE disappointment, I really hate instanced areas.. it should be fully persistent... oh well -.-

[Juanele]

Azera said:

HUGE disappointment, I really hate instanced areas.. it should be fully persistent... oh well -.-

It looked all persistent to me.

[Rampage]

Azera said:

HUGE disappointment, I really hate instanced areas.. it should be fully persistent... oh well -.-

?? what are you talking about? Instances a very very small portion of the game.  The VAST majority is persistent.

[Free Runner]

Azera said:

HUGE disappointment, I really hate instanced areas.. it should be fully persistent... oh well -.-

The world is fully persistant while dungeons and personal story locations (places like Logan Thackerays Office, your home district) are instanced. Its been common knowledge for three years that the world would be persistant with few instanced areas.

[the butcher]

No game is fully persistant...

[Effigy]

Loading screens and persistent worlds are different concepts. Persistent means the game world is constantly there and players all interact with the same world, as opposed to instances where a certain area of the world is created/destroy when you enter or leave that area. Loading screens are just a mechanism for transitioning into a new area that hasn't been loaded on your client yet.

Loading screens can be avoided to some extent by streaming content to the client as you approach it rather than loading it all once you get there; however this can be more performance intensive since the client needs to have more content loaded at any given time. A loading screen may also be needed if you're not able to load all the content before reaching the new area. In many games, this causes you to lag up when loading a new zone and/or seeing the environment appear piece by piece as it's loaded. Not necessarily preferable to the occasional loading screen.