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Best Game world/map in an mmo
Tindale111
Member UncommonPosts: 276
I am enjoying FF online but I find the mapping and the small zones annoying .The best game world for me is EQ2 with its large zones and the diversity ,several others of note Wow ,Aoc and Vanguard tho Vanguard could seem a bit daunting sometimes ,interested to see what others think .
Comments
Vanguard is the only game I can think of that is close to what I appreciate.
MMORPGs are usually far too confining for my tastes.
Dark and Light had one huge world without any loading zones, to bad it flopped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwY4UgujZ2k
Seconded.
People mentioning UO forget how small the world actuall was. VERY small.
My top votes go to AC1, Vanguard, WoW and GW2.
My computer is better than yours.
If we are talking about stability (not getting stuck, glitching out of map etc.), or expansiveness (how far you can reasonably wander , sheer size, content per square meter etc.) Then Runescape for me.
Graphically though... I goto give it to Secondlife. While few things on second life approach true MMORPG scale. They do have plenty of MORPG built on the platform. And, given that most of it's user base. There are probably more MORPG secondlife sims, then there are games on this sites list.
But, what makes it good graphically. Is that any one user there who is a world builder seems to have a skill set that could have them easily doing the jobs of 5-7 people that are working as developers for an MMORPG. And, I bet they can do it faster and better. Singular visionaries with the skills and talent to do it all them selves and given very few real limitations with no real time scale...that produces environments in second life that no MMORPG can come close to matching.
If you want to see what I am talking about go make an account (free) and search up places like Kingdom of Sand (KoS). Cerridwen's Cauldron, The Gor Hub, And City of Lost Angels (CoLA).
LOTRO
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
Dark and Light had an enormous game world (15,000 sq. miles). Probably too big. It was ridiculous. But in a good way, imo. It dwarfed any virtual world in an MMO currently out.
My votes go to ArcheAge and Vanguard of the games I've played that are live.
HomePage/Gaming Blog - http://dalewj.com . MMORPGer - Current game: http://AfterWorld.ru .
Author of Diaries of Afterworld- http://www.jconsult.com/afterworld and the Outside Sci-Fi series- http://www.jconsult.com/outside
A map's size doesn't dictate quality; while UO's map was small, it was never boring. The map had sensible boundaries and layout, and it transitioned from one region to another quite gracefully. Let's not forget that there weren't any lengthy loading screens either. Also, even though the map was small, getting from one side to the other could take quite a while, and getting lost wasn't entirely out of the question either. Locations, terrain, and building placement made sense. Oh, and let's not forget that the entire world map was freely traversable, if you had the means. The best part? Danger was ever-present beyond the borders of town, and wasn't dictated by a number; what looked dangerous likely was, and meeting strangers on the road could just as easily be a curse as a blessing. Lastly--and this is more related to game design itself--you weren't being ushered from one end of it to the next by fetch and ferry quests, so you could actually spend your entire time playing in a single region.
Hands down age of wushu. Check out some of the virtual tours. The scale is huge and the detail is like wtf? To top it of the entire world is playable, from the mountain tops to the bottom of the rivers and lakes
Virtual tours here
I loved the world in Aion, and also liked GW2. World of Warcraft has vast and varied zones. LotRo was very nice. I still think I liked Aion best out of all of them.
I had not though about it in terms of just biggest maps ever. I assume we are counting social mmo's. Biggest map I ever seen in an MMO (including all types). Active Worlds. 100's of different worlds...But their large public building one, the main world (Alpha World) has in square meters roughly the area of California. It's the largest and the oldest one in active worlds (est. 1995).
And, by another way of looking at it I would have to say Active worlds is the most interesting. Especially alpha world, since people have been building pretty much what ever they can think of every day for 18 years. I remember coming across a singular skyscraper once with a crazy floor all around it. I ran up it's couple hundred flights of stairs to the roof. And, there was a big flame and massive gear looking thing -features I couldn't even see from the ground - so I decided to fly up and get a better look at the whole... the whole building was a giant BiC Lighter - Lit. And from this skyward perspective I could see that the floor, that was insane to look at from the floor and seemed random, was an object mosiac of john denver.
If that were not enough. Not far from there (a few minutes fly time). Again in the middle of no where with just that building in sight on the horizon. I found a paint brush back on the ground. An avatar size one that was clickable...I clicked it and was teleported to vincent van gough's "Arles". As in the town he painted many pictures of from different perspective, brought to life in 3d, as he would have seen it. I even got to wear a van gough avatar as I walked through it.
It wasn't linear!
Every area had something for everyone!
There should be a notable mention for Agon as well. Darkfall 1's original map was big and again it did not follow the level pathing you find in just about every other gaming world. It was built with features dispersed throughout the world. You could see a monolith in the distance and as you got closer the area would take on its persona and the mobs would all work up a chain or hierarchy.
Thats not to mention the player made citys. Yes... they were not designed by players but they definitely added a lot of character to the game world. A world where even every stone and branch could be the difference between life and death and with full loot active that made players know the terrain intimately.
I would also say Vanguard "had" a very nice world. By had I mean before SOE got a hold of it and re-textured everything to fit their pathetic servers they placed the game on. When it 1st came out the game world was breathtakingly beautiful! The trees the sky the land all so well done it laged my then nearly up to date system. Later I reinstalled it and was shocked to learn of the remade game engine and graphic platform. That was my 1st taste of SOE's compete ineptitude!
Wushu's world is tiny, compared to games like AC1, WoW or hell, even GW2.
My computer is better than yours.
Best in what way? could be any of:
1. Size
2. Lore/immersion
3. Performance
4. Art
5. Changeable
6. Dangerous
etc
http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014633/Classic-Game-Postmortem
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.
Edgar Allan Poe
Are you talking about historically or currently?
It started out bad for EQ2, with the fan-made EQMaps becoming the standard, but they turned it around and the current map system is probably the second best in the genre, losing out only to WoW.
The current appearance and functionality of EQ2 maps is fantastic.
I liked EQ1's continental layout. LOTS of areas to explore, lots of areas to level up in at almost every level, lots of variety between the zones, too with lots of variety of monsters in most zones.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
Can't really say which I thought was best but here are my thoughts overall.
EQ1's maps were emmersive, likewise Vanguards maps. Cities felt like cities, roads felt like roads, and forests felt like forests. Travel powers killed this in both games of course, but when the only method of travel was foot or horse, those two games, and even WoW seemed great.
Champions Online Maps are cool just for the amount of content they pack into a single area. You can be in one place on one of those maps, and move just a little ways down the road and feel like you are in an entirely different place. Kudos also to the reuse that they get out of them as well as you will find yourself coming back to similar places over and over again only to find that there was something there that you did not see the first time. The visuals of Champions maps also are superior to most as you can see things in the distance to a degree that travel actually feels more realistic. They get my vote for most improved because of my next entry.
City of Heroes gets my vote for worst maps of all time (even though I loved that game) as a single dps player could easily dominate every mob in an entire zone. Later they came out with a map that would later be the precursor for the Champions map, but those early ones were rough! To say the least.
For all out and out beauty though, Everquest II gets my vote. Turned up on the highest setting you can get, that game is a freaking masterpiece of artwork. Stained Glass windows reflect on the floor and across your face, light comes through windows in rays, grass and tree's sway in the wind, it really is sick. Not to mention that EQII maps are a living world. There is life in the sky, under the water, in the mountains, everywhere! I once spent the majority of my life as a defiler under water in that game, and it allowed me to not only get that done but provided me with quests to do it as well.
Finally add to this that EQ maps allowed you to add your own music soundtrack to them so whenever I left Freeport and went across the commonlands Hawaii Five 0 would start to play, and whenever I entered Lavastorm Ice-Cube and Korn's F-Dying would start to play.
Pretty cool stuff.
For functionality though I found EQII maps restrictive compared to its predecessors and progeny. Too many invisible or visible barriers in the beginning in order to make the world seem bigger, and too little space after they opened it up with the jumpers and flyers to really make those beasts worthwhile.
And just because it has been mentioned. Wushu maps are just like EQ1, Vanguard, and WoW maps. That's why its a good game. And they are like works of art as well, but not nearly as functional or as big in my opinion. While harvesting you might make several trips around the borders of a Wushu map, something you would never do in an EQ1 or Vanguard map as the landscaping alone would probably not allow it. Still good stuff though.
SWG pre player city shuttle port and bike patch (patch6) LOK, (bloodfin)
why>? only two PC shuttle ports in the northern area. but player cities were in the far south as were best resources, you had to hoof it 45 to 50 minutes thru hard ass all red mobs, with chance of getting triple black bar'ed and never reaching your destination, but it was also great art style too a lava planet great mob skins.
every time i walked to VICE city was an adventure and loved even more hunting other players trying to take the trek south.