Forum post of the day: Flying mounts in the old world

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-22-2008 @ 9:16PM

Rommon said...

People tend to think that bliz simply needs to patch up a few graphic bugs and fill in a blank or two and Azeroth is ready for flight. But from what I've heard (or read) the way that zones load in Azeroth is different from outlands. In Azeroth the zone that is adjacent to you only pre-loads when you near the 'choke point' (the place blizzard intends for you to cross). Outlands of course doesn't work that way- its designed like one massive zone (from the developers standpoint). So the tech that lets you roam outlands from area to area with no loading screens is totally different from the tech that Azeroth uses- the design of Azeroth isn't ready for you to just jump over that mountain range and be in the next zone. You would hit something of a loading screen, or game pause or hesitation. Or in its current state, perhaps not load at all. The entire way that Azeroth is coded would have to be changed. I'd rather see that development effort put into new content.

And also lets not forget about blizzards freedom to design outdoor instance areas. Notice how there are no outdoor instances in outlands? I like the feel of ZG, ZF, and ZA. But blizzard didn't do that in outlands because they don't want you to hit 'invisible walls' while you are on your flying mount. So they stuck every instanced area in a cave. Personally I think it sucks.

I also don't have the feeling of exploration in outlands the way that I do (or did) in azeroth. Think of all the cool little easteregg places around azeroth that take tricky walclimbing to get to. Wtih outlands everything is so exposed that it kills that type of exploration.

Flying mounts are purely asthetic. If anything they hinder more parts of the game experience than enhance them.

3-22-2008 @ 10:16PM

George said...

Right, because you can't fly around Ramparts. O_o

3-22-2008 @ 11:38PM

Simon said...

Crap, don't tell your "crazy ideas" like you know it for fact. You can jump from Winterspring to Azshara without a loading screen. And there are lots of other examples that prove you wrong. There is no "loading at choke points" because it wouldn't make a difference if you load a whole zone there or anywhere else, you would always notice if it was loading a whole zone at once. Just like when you port somewhere. It's constantly loading small cells of the world while you go. Couldn't do it any other way.

And there are "glass walls" in the Outlands. Just try to fly over the Black Temple. Or between Shadowmoon Valley and Hellfire Pen. at the eastern end. There are few, but they are there.

They could easily hide them by putting up a realy strong air defense around them. Like the ones at the bombing runs at Orgrila, just way more futile. That way no one would get close enough to actually "feel" them, unless you were cheating anyway.

Making Azeroth ready for free flying would be a major piece of redesign and fixing flaws, but I for one would love them to do it. Even if it means a few months more till the next expansion hits.

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