In massively multiplayer online games, an instance is a special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy of the location for each group, or for certain number of players, that enters the area.[1] Instancing, the general term for the use of this technique,[1] addresses several problems encountered by players in the shared spaces of virtual worlds.
A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent.
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
If you want to look at it that way every single game ever made is instanced!
Well, every zone from the 25 ones is instanced. Is not like a continuous world. WoW is only instanced at continents part. But GW2 is instanced at zone level.
You keep trying to compare Continent and Zone......... Keep in mind that GW2 world is significantly larger than WoW's.
A continent in WoW has about 30ish instanced areas.........................
Now lets deal with something major you are making a mistake on.
Instanced - This is an area where you will load into your own copy of the area with your group. Only one group can be in an instance at a time.
Zone - In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
Don't worry, GW2 will have far less instancing than WoW. GW2 is significantly larger than WoW. And lastly and thankfully you will find better quality graphics and animations in GW2. Due to these factors GW2 does have the world broken up into Zones.
But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.
Don't say WoW, because the graphics aren't this good and we all know that game kind of explodes when you have more than 40 or so people onscreen fighting.
You have no idea what are you talking about. WoW Alterac Valley is a 40vs40 battleground and i have zero lag. If you have a uber crap computer you will have lag, but with your computer then you will not even be able to play single play GW2. WoW Wintergasp used to be a 200 or more open world battleground.
And to be clear for the last time: GW2 IS FULL INSTANCED LIKE GW1.
To be clearer, for the last time, you're a freakin' liar. The only instances are dungeons and personal story. The open world is the open world... you and everyone else are out there together. When you leave Divinity's Reach, you and everyone else that left are there together.
What exactly is your motive for lying so blatantly? Is there some other game you're afraid people won't play instead? Something wierd is going on here.
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
If you want to look at it that way every single game ever made is instanced!
Well, every zone from the 25 ones is instanced. Is not like a continuous world. WoW is only instanced at continents part. But GW2 is instanced at zone level.
No. Wrong. First, there are portals between regions, not zones. The regions are not instanced. When you go into a region, you're not in your own little world, you're there with everyone else that went in before you and everyone that comes in later.
Basically... you have no idea what you're talking about. That answers a lot.
I cannot believe some people are defending such poor design decisions
Show me a game with this level of graphics and open world content that is seemless?
Don't say Tera, because the nifty portal / warp effect IS the loading screen between zones.
Don't say EvE, because every system is it's own zone and you instant teleport between them (gates)
Don't say WoW, because the graphics aren't this good and we all know that game kind of explodes when you have more than 40 or so people onscreen fighting.
BTW it's not really a design decision as much as it is a technical limitation.
Think of it this way:
Graphics are X
Number of players in an area at once is Y
Geographical size Z
X+Y+Z = 100%
100% = acceptable frame rate per system requirements (and is also due to connection speed)
You can slide around what % go to X, Y, and Z, and of course some engines handle things better than others, but unless you've invented a new type of processing and/or network traffic handling...
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
If you want to look at it that way every single game ever made is instanced!
Well, every zone from the 25 ones is instanced. Is not like a continuous world. WoW is only instanced at continents part. But GW2 is instanced at zone level.
You keep trying to compare Continent and Zone......... Keep in mind that GW2 world is significantly larger than WoW's.
A continent in WoW has about 30ish instanced areas.........................
Now lets deal with something major you are making a mistake on.
Instanced - This is an area where you will load into your own copy of the area with your group. Only one group can be in an instance at a time.
Zone - In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
Don't worry, GW2 will have far less instancing than WoW. GW2 is significantly larger than WoW. And lastly and thankfully you will find better quality graphics and animations in GW2. Due to these factors GW2 does have the world broken up into Zones.
But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.
This makes no sense to me at all.
I'm no fan of WoW, but I'm pretty sure that you can travel from zone to zone in WoW without seeing things like 'you're now entering Barrens instance 4' and that you don't have any loading screens from walking from Tirisfal Glades across 8-10 zones to Elwynn Forest.
From what I understand so far, GW2 isn't instanced (no multiple instances of the same world zone on a server), but it is zone based a la EQ. At least, that's what it's starting to look like based on the most recent info and dev comments.
You have no idea what are you talking about. WoW Alterac Valley is a 40vs40 battleground and i have zero lag. If you have a uber crap computer you will have lag, but with your computer then you will not even be able to play single play GW2. WoW Wintergasp used to be a 200 or more open world battleground.
And to be clear for the last time: GW2 IS FULL INSTANCED LIKE GW1.
maybe he means the open world pvp battles at WoW release that used to explode the servers. People found that great fun, Blizzard less so.
err it's NOT full instanced like GW1. Seriously now....
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
If you want to look at it that way every single game ever made is instanced!
Well, every zone from the 25 ones is instanced. Is not like a continuous world. WoW is only instanced at continents part. But GW2 is instanced at zone level.
You keep trying to compare Continent and Zone......... Keep in mind that GW2 world is significantly larger than WoW's.
A continent in WoW has about 30ish instanced areas.........................
Now lets deal with something major you are making a mistake on.
Instanced - This is an area where you will load into your own copy of the area with your group. Only one group can be in an instance at a time.
Zone - In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
Don't worry, GW2 will have far less instancing than WoW. GW2 is significantly larger than WoW. And lastly and thankfully you will find better quality graphics and animations in GW2. Due to these factors GW2 does have the world broken up into Zones.
But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.
This makes no sense to me at all.
I'm no fan of WoW, but I'm pretty sure that you can travel from zone to zone in WoW without seeing things like 'you're now entering Barrens instance 4' and that you don't have any loading screens from walking from Tirisfal Glades across 8-10 zones to Elwynn Forest.
From what I understand so far, GW2 isn't instanced (no multiple instances of the same world zone on a server), but it is zone based a la EQ. At least, that's what it's starting to look like based on the most recent info and dev comments.
When he says that WoW is has a horrid instancing mechanic i think he means the way that you spend most of your time ingame in a instance(raids, 5 mans, etc) and not in the actual world.
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
If you want to look at it that way every single game ever made is instanced!
Well, every zone from the 25 ones is instanced. Is not like a continuous world. WoW is only instanced at continents part. But GW2 is instanced at zone level.
You keep trying to compare Continent and Zone......... Keep in mind that GW2 world is significantly larger than WoW's.
A continent in WoW has about 30ish instanced areas.........................
Now lets deal with something major you are making a mistake on.
Instanced - This is an area where you will load into your own copy of the area with your group. Only one group can be in an instance at a time.
Zone - In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
Don't worry, GW2 will have far less instancing than WoW. GW2 is significantly larger than WoW. And lastly and thankfully you will find better quality graphics and animations in GW2. Due to these factors GW2 does have the world broken up into Zones.
But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.
This makes no sense to me at all.
I'm no fan of WoW, but I'm pretty sure that you can travel from zone to zone in WoW without seeing things like 'you're now entering Barrens instance 4' and that you don't have any loading screens from walking from Tirisfal Glades across 8-10 zones to Elwynn Forest.
From what I understand so far, GW2 isn't instanced (no multiple instances of the same world zone on a server), but it is zone based a la EQ. At least, that's what it's starting to look like based on the most recent info and dev comments.
The fact that you can travel from Zone to Zone in WoW without seeing things like "you're now entering Barrens instance 4" is dwarfed by the fact that you end up spending the majority of your time stuck in one of the 150ish instances WoW has.
And yes, GW2 is broken up into zones but will not have multiple instances of each zone.
How far you can go without a loading screen means little when you end up spending most of your time in small instanced areas, this is why I said "But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.".
Every time in CBT I took a pegasus between zones it brought me into happy fun warp tunnel land, which is their loading screens.
It's a clever way to disguise the load, but it is there.
The pegusas takes you from the capital city or a zone and its optional. You can walk or ride your horse to and from Velika if you want. I was riding the Pegasus there once and really enjoyed the land outside of the capital city so when I got ready to leave I did not take the Pegasus, instead I ran outside the city and rode my horse back to Oblivion Woods.
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
WoW has instanced continents and instanced dungeons. Just saying
Don't forget most of Teldrassil including Darnassus. Entering a portal is an instance by your definition. You can't walk there another way no? All of the battlegrounds and phasing well that is just downright annoying if you needed help with something.
Not WoW bashing. I played it off and on from release. Good points, bad points. It wasn't my first game by a long shot, not my last either.
Kind of banging my head on my desk here because I am completely lost as to what the complaint is.
You don't actually need to use the teleporter to enter Darnassus, and when you do you don't get a loading screen, so no, it's not instanced but actually connected to the rest of Kalimdor.
The only instanced parts in WoW world are: Ghostlands, Naaru Isles, Tol Barad (not quite sure about this one, you might be able to fly there). Of course each continent besides that is instanced, though seamless in itself.
If GW2 has 4 regions + cities it will be technically more instanced than WoW (at launch, right now it's pretty much the same number), though I prefer magnificent instanced cities than tiny non-instanced ones (provived they're well architected).
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
WoW has instanced continents and instanced dungeons. Just saying
Don't forget most of Teldrassil including Darnassus. Entering a portal is an instance by your definition. You can't walk there another way no? All of the battlegrounds and phasing well that is just downright annoying if you needed help with something.
Not WoW bashing. I played it off and on from release. Good points, bad points. It wasn't my first game by a long shot, not my last either.
Kind of banging my head on my desk here because I am completely lost as to what the complaint is.
You don't actually need to use the teleporter to enter Darnassus, and when you do you don't get a loading screen, so no, it's not instanced but actually connected to the rest of Kalimdor.
The only instanced parts in WoW world are: Ghostlands, Naaru Isles, Tol Barad (not quite sure about this one, you might be able to fly there). Of course each continent besides that is instanced, though seamless in itself.
If GW2 has 4 regions + cities it will be technically more instanced than WoW (at launch, right now it's pretty much the same number), though I prefer magnificent instanced cities than tiny non-instanced ones (provived they're well architected).
I said by his/her as in catplays definition, not mine. I have no problems at all with the zoning in GW2. I'm just happy the story will continue in some way.
If GW2 has 4 regions + cities it will be technically more instanced than WoW (at launch, right now it's pretty much the same number), though I prefer magnificent instanced cities than tiny non-instanced ones (provived they're well architected).
These are not instances. An instance is basically a private area, like a raid in WoW. When your group goes in, you get your own private version of that raid. Other people won't enter the raid area and suddenly be fighting along side you. The regions are not instanced, even though there's a load screen between them.
People using the wrong definitions are the reason there's so much confusion.
In massively multiplayer online games, an instance is a special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy of the location for each group, or for certain number of players, that enters the area.[1] Instancing, the general term for the use of this technique,[1] addresses several problems encountered by players in the shared spaces of virtual worlds.
A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent.
IT IS full instanced, there are 25 zones, each zone is intance, 3 wvwvw instanced, and some dungeons instanced. I am clear now? The GW2 zones are instanced not like in WoW continuous world.
WoW has instanced continents and instanced dungeons. Just saying
Don't forget most of Teldrassil including Darnassus. Entering a portal is an instance by your definition. You can't walk there another way no? All of the battlegrounds and phasing well that is just downright annoying if you needed help with something.
Not WoW bashing. I played it off and on from release. Good points, bad points. It wasn't my first game by a long shot, not my last either.
Kind of banging my head on my desk here because I am completely lost as to what the complaint is.
You don't actually need to use the teleporter to enter Darnassus, and when you do you don't get a loading screen, so no, it's not instanced but actually connected to the rest of Kalimdor.
The only instanced parts in WoW world are: Ghostlands, Naaru Isles, Tol Barad (not quite sure about this one, you might be able to fly there). Of course each continent besides that is instanced, though seamless in itself.
If GW2 has 4 regions + cities it will be technically more instanced than WoW (at launch, right now it's pretty much the same number), though I prefer magnificent instanced cities than tiny non-instanced ones (provived they're well architected).
Reading your post it's plain to see that you do not know the differance from an instanced to a zone.
I personally don't care one bit if GW2 was completely non-seamless.
To me, teleportation is amazing and I'm going to be using it all the time. You have to have a loading screen when you teleport because the game doesn't know where you're going to go until you do it and it can't keep the whole game in memory.
Any physical zone boundary could be seamless or not, it's not going to matter to me. I'm only going to use it once before teleporting directly to the new zone.
People complain that teleportation makes the world feel small but I don't think it has an effect. In GW1 and GW2, you're going to have to physically run to any waypoint first in order to unlock it. In GW1, if I fight my way across a zone and a half to do a quest, I'm definitely looking to unlock an outpost because I don't want to have to refight even one zone's worth of mobs if I don't have to. In GW1, teleporting from one end of the world to another makes me appreciate how big it is because I know it would take forever if I had to run it.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it."-Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
For me it's important to have a world like WoW did back in classic where it is all seamless apart from the instances. Yet all I'm seeing is how you'll be able teleport everywhere which instantly kills the world and ruins the whole point of an MMORPG for me. The news on mounts just means they don't expect you to travel very far and the game will be all instanced and zoned.
The whole point of an MMO for me is to have this world, otherwise it might as well be a standard multiplayer game that just has a graphical server browser. The problem with SWTOR is you pay a subscription so I cannot justify that when I can get the same map design for free in a multiplayer game. GW2 however doesn't charge a subscription so I don't have to make the same choice or complaint around subscribing.
However with this news it isn't going to be the next MMO I and many people have been waiting for on these forums. It just looks like it'll be like all the other modern MMOs that have largely gotten rid of their world for instances and fast travel.
:
Really? you should have read up on the game more before you posted this.... Your perception is off. I don't feel like explaining in a long post why though cause I would have to post links after links or whatever. Just do some more research this isn't a true perspective IMO.
Originally posted by cali59 I personally don't care one bit if GW2 was completely non-seamless.
I have no problem at all with instancing too. Actually i liked the GW1 system, especially that you could donwload a new zone if was not discovered early.
I personally don't care one bit if GW2 was completely non-seamless.
I have no problem at all with instancing too. Actually i liked the GW1 system, especially that you could donwload a new zone if was not discovered early.
Comments
In massively multiplayer online games, an instance is a special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy of the location for each group, or for certain number of players, that enters the area.[1] Instancing, the general term for the use of this technique,[1] addresses several problems encountered by players in the shared spaces of virtual worlds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instance_dungeon
A persistent world (PW) is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistent_world
You keep trying to compare Continent and Zone......... Keep in mind that GW2 world is significantly larger than WoW's.
A continent in WoW has about 30ish instanced areas.........................
Now lets deal with something major you are making a mistake on.
Instanced - This is an area where you will load into your own copy of the area with your group. Only one group can be in an instance at a time.
Zone - In games where different areas of the world are parceled out for loading reasons, different areas are referred to as zones.
Don't worry, GW2 will have far less instancing than WoW. GW2 is significantly larger than WoW. And lastly and thankfully you will find better quality graphics and animations in GW2. Due to these factors GW2 does have the world broken up into Zones.
But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.
To be clearer, for the last time, you're a freakin' liar. The only instances are dungeons and personal story. The open world is the open world... you and everyone else are out there together. When you leave Divinity's Reach, you and everyone else that left are there together.
What exactly is your motive for lying so blatantly? Is there some other game you're afraid people won't play instead? Something wierd is going on here.
Oderint, dum metuant.
No. Wrong. First, there are portals between regions, not zones. The regions are not instanced. When you go into a region, you're not in your own little world, you're there with everyone else that went in before you and everyone that comes in later.
Basically... you have no idea what you're talking about. That answers a lot.
Oderint, dum metuant.
TERA does not have loading screen between zones.
This makes no sense to me at all.
I'm no fan of WoW, but I'm pretty sure that you can travel from zone to zone in WoW without seeing things like 'you're now entering Barrens instance 4' and that you don't have any loading screens from walking from Tirisfal Glades across 8-10 zones to Elwynn Forest.
From what I understand so far, GW2 isn't instanced (no multiple instances of the same world zone on a server), but it is zone based a la EQ. At least, that's what it's starting to look like based on the most recent info and dev comments.
Yeah... MwynForever is right.
Every time in CBT I took a pegasus between zones it brought me into happy fun warp tunnel land, which is their loading screens.
It's a clever way to disguise the load, but it is there.
This, as I understand it, is correct.
When he says that WoW is has a horrid instancing mechanic i think he means the way that you spend most of your time ingame in a instance(raids, 5 mans, etc) and not in the actual world.
The fact that you can travel from Zone to Zone in WoW without seeing things like "you're now entering Barrens instance 4" is dwarfed by the fact that you end up spending the majority of your time stuck in one of the 150ish instances WoW has.
And yes, GW2 is broken up into zones but will not have multiple instances of each zone.
How far you can go without a loading screen means little when you end up spending most of your time in small instanced areas, this is why I said "But thank the gaming gods that it will not have much of the horrid instancing mechanic that has made WoW infamous.".
The pegusas takes you from the capital city or a zone and its optional. You can walk or ride your horse to and from Velika if you want. I was riding the Pegasus there once and really enjoyed the land outside of the capital city so when I got ready to leave I did not take the Pegasus, instead I ran outside the city and rode my horse back to Oblivion Woods.
If you pan your camera around you can see the world beneath zipping by. It's not loading anything. You're zipping past it.
You don't actually need to use the teleporter to enter Darnassus, and when you do you don't get a loading screen, so no, it's not instanced but actually connected to the rest of Kalimdor.
The only instanced parts in WoW world are: Ghostlands, Naaru Isles, Tol Barad (not quite sure about this one, you might be able to fly there). Of course each continent besides that is instanced, though seamless in itself.
If GW2 has 4 regions + cities it will be technically more instanced than WoW (at launch, right now it's pretty much the same number), though I prefer magnificent instanced cities than tiny non-instanced ones (provived they're well architected).
I said by his/her as in catplays definition, not mine. I have no problems at all with the zoning in GW2. I'm just happy the story will continue in some way.
One of life's lil hand grenades
These are not instances. An instance is basically a private area, like a raid in WoW. When your group goes in, you get your own private version of that raid. Other people won't enter the raid area and suddenly be fighting along side you. The regions are not instanced, even though there's a load screen between them.
People using the wrong definitions are the reason there's so much confusion.
Oderint, dum metuant.
No it is not a seemless worl, GW1 was not and this will not be one either, very much like Age of Conan or SWTOR type zoning.
confusing loading screen with instancing maybe? Not you! I mean what the confusion is about. I really have no idea anymore!
One of life's lil hand grenades
That's what it seems, yeah.
Oderint, dum metuant.
+1
Reading your post it's plain to see that you do not know the differance from an instanced to a zone.
I personally don't care one bit if GW2 was completely non-seamless.
To me, teleportation is amazing and I'm going to be using it all the time. You have to have a loading screen when you teleport because the game doesn't know where you're going to go until you do it and it can't keep the whole game in memory.
Any physical zone boundary could be seamless or not, it's not going to matter to me. I'm only going to use it once before teleporting directly to the new zone.
People complain that teleportation makes the world feel small but I don't think it has an effect. In GW1 and GW2, you're going to have to physically run to any waypoint first in order to unlock it. In GW1, if I fight my way across a zone and a half to do a quest, I'm definitely looking to unlock an outpost because I don't want to have to refight even one zone's worth of mobs if I don't have to. In GW1, teleporting from one end of the world to another makes me appreciate how big it is because I know it would take forever if I had to run it.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." -Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
Really? you should have read up on the game more before you posted this.... Your perception is off. I don't feel like explaining in a long post why though cause I would have to post links after links or whatever. Just do some more research this isn't a true perspective IMO.
I have no problem at all with instancing too. Actually i liked the GW1 system, especially that you could donwload a new zone if was not discovered early.
Non-seamless != instanced.
Zoned != instanced.
Non-seamless == zoned.