Goblin Squad Member
|
First, a warning. I am an MMO gamer first, and a Pathfinder gamer next. I'm still exploring the Pathfinder lore and mechanics, so it is not my goal nor my background to think from that viewpoint.
While we're still in the development stages, I'd like to put this out there to get an idea of what people like, what they expect in PFO, and ultimately what they want. A couple threads from the past touched on this from a search, but nothing recent, so please forgive me if I missed this topic somewhere else with different keyboards.
==================================
Since PFO is going to be a sandbox MMO, I'd expect the land scale to be much larger and less contained than a theme park MMO. For example: rivers are actual rivers or near the scale of actual rivers instead of little creeks in modular, theme-park worlds. Land would take a while to traverse even if not to the scale of life scale.
What I'd like is to have a vast world that is not concentrated in mob density, resource nodes, etc. I'd only like to see that within dungeons. So the actual land should be less "dense".
What I want is a world that's large and immerse. In short, I'd like to explore this world of PFO rather than grind through it.
What does Goblinworks plan on doing for world size in PFO? And for the community here, what are your thoughts on it? Thanks! :-)
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
Designing Thornkeep links to a map of the Echo Wood.
That map gives a pretty good idea, I think of the scale you're talking about. As you can see, the River actually fills many hexes.
I too hope that the overland areas aren't completely filled with static mob spawn points.
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
One of the early blogs Link
describes the start of the game, at the point when they have 4500 players, having a world size of about 133 square miles. (IE roughly the size of Philadelphia PA. If I recall in calculations of vanilla WoW, the world size there was under 90 square miles by comparison.
In addition Goblinworks intends to expand the size of the world, as the player-base grows, not necessarily at the exact ratio, but still continual and to ensure there is plenty of world to explore, places for new settlements to be born etc...
|
Goblin Squad Member
|
I agree, a MAJOR geographical feature such as a river should have a significant influence on movement around it - hence ideally imo, it should be suitably wide, as said not the habitual creek in themepark mmorpgs.
Also The mountains if they have significant elevation in the z-plane would be another great feature: Possibly with snow blocking things up in Winter? And forests being very dense, is riding through them perhaps not possible unless along a small path at walking pace? Interacting with traversing/prospecting ideally imo, should be an experience itself. Perhaps using canoes along smaller tributaries? And so on.
It's worth mentioning one of the attractions of mmorpg virtual worlds is the sort of virtual tourist experience of a land full of wonder and awe. I think scale has a big effect on that immersion and possibly functionality of (distances, passable/impassable/type of terrain).
I think player perspective and the scale of objects play an equal role in the "size" of the world.
For this example, I would compare FFXI to WoW. In FFXI, your camera was very low to the ground and followed a few feet behind your character. You spent much of your time looking up at the world around you. Buildings were large structures. Geography of the land shaped what was within your field of view. Zones felt big because of this. Running around Ronfaure was impressive. Trees were massive, and the skyline obscured by their canopy.
WoW's world would almost be as impressive IF players elected to bring their camera down tight to their character, or even bring it in to 1st person view. The majority wouldn't though as that isn't as advantageous as having a far drawn back angle which allows you to see in all directions. It also gives WoW a very diorama feel. The camera placed high to look down on a world, makes all the objects in that world look small. Add flightpaths and flying mounts to that, and it multiplies the effect.
So while I would say that both those games were similar in physical size, one definitely felt like a bigger world. You could also add to that contrast; FFXI was also a much more dangerous world. There's something to be said for having to scout through an environment with the preservation of your own life as the top priority and where the loss of that life a very real possibility. Where as in WoW you kind of sprint around like Kratos from God of War because it is virtually impossible to die.