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Rank these features in order of importance: Loading screens, big world, instances
Ihmotepp
Member Posts: 14,495
Can you rank these features in order of importance to you?
In other worlds, which one comes first in importance, from this list?
1. Loading screens
2. Instances
3. Large game world (not one "world" like Dantooine, but the entire game on release which includes all "worlds").
In other words, if you could get one, but not the other two which would it be?
For example, you can have a BIG WORLD (it's huge) but you will have instances and loading screens.
Or, you can have a game with almost no instances, but there are loading screens and the world is not very big.
Or, you can have No loading screens ever! but there are a lot of instances and the game world is small.
Comments
This thread makes me laugh. All of the things you listed are pretty important and I think all aspects share the same importance. For example I think the large game worlds would be awesome, but if they had too many loading screens it would be a total bummer for immersion. Now if these huge seamless worlds with hardly any transition were implemented that would be killer, but what are open, vast worlds without anything to fill them? Sure mobs can be cool and they can even put in rare drops on certain creature spawns on unexplored planets, but that can only work so many times. So we need more content in the form of unique instances to make the planet more relevant and not just a place where you have go to grind to get mats.
I know that's not the answer to your question, but I just feel there should be a balance between all of the aspects you listed and none should be favored above the other.
Anyway to answer your question I'd say large game worlds. Some of my most enjoyable times in MMOs were just exploring new areas and things that I've never seen before. So large worlds would definitely cater to my nature of exploring and discovering.
Man, why not do a poll? Use the poll function!
I would say that none of that really matters, as long as the gameplay is both fun and smooth.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
Well ya, man. But this is a MMO. The appeal is the very large. And besides we can already see from the combat demos that the game play is very smooth. In my opinion it looks super fun too.
Well look at the market leader WoW.
The game world is pretty open, only zoning when going from continent to continent or to dungeons, raids and battlegrounds. The latter are also instanced, the game world itself is not. Continents are also pretty large in WoW, but not overly so. They are handcrafted and not randomly generated terrain.
Yet. you end up spending most of your time in instanced content. And in WoW that can now also be true for levelling.
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
Sure. The problem is that WoW doesn't make it necessary to explore all the wonderful artwork. Make the open worlds relevant and take advantage of it to it's fullest so that every part can be explored with some sort of gain.
I actually think that's the biggest travesty of WoW and was very vocal about it.
I'm more interested in reading people's comments that explain what's important to them.
The discussion about "open" worlds is confusing, because people seem to mean a lot of different things when they talk about an "open" world.
So I'm asking what's really important to you in a way that we are all on the same page, and can understand what you are complaining about.
For some people I think it's just loading screens. They just don't want to spend time waiting for a screen to load.
For others, I think it's instances. They want to play the game in a world where everyone is not separated in their own little instance, but everyone can see each other in most of the world, most of the time.
And for some it's the size of the world. Some people just want a really, really big world to explore.
And people seem to mean one, two, or all three when they say they want an "open" game, so it's hard to tell what they mean when they say that.
Some people say they want an "open" world, and they don't care at all about loading screens. Other people say they want an "open" world, and all they really mean is they dont' like loading screens.
I want instances, lots of them. I never, ever want to have to compete in an MMO in any way, and that includes waiting my turn for a mob to spawn.
Big world? Sure, but only if there's a way to savagely reduce the travel time to get around once I've discovered it.
Loading screens? I cannot possibly care less about that than I do now. If I were to come up with one hundred things that were important to me in an MMO, loading screens would not make the list.
QFT right there. I could care less if the game has instances or not. All I know it is going to be a great game that II'll be able to play for many years.
I understand not wanting to wait for a mob to spawn, but I don't think instances are the only solution for that problem.
I'd like to see instances for Boss Mobs, like the end of a long quest chain, or rare encounters that drop a special item, things like that, so you don't have to wait your turn.
However, I'd rather not play constantly in instances, like in example City of Heroes.
It's really not necessary to instance every single encounter.
For me, the game is much less immersive, and much less fun, if everything is in an instance. It feels less alive, less like a world, and more like a lobby game such as Diablo, if everything is instanced.
City of Heroes often felt that way, because you were always cut off from the other players in an instance whenever you did a mission.
Dungeons, missions, whatever you want to call them, are so much more fun when they are not instanced, and you can see other players all around you coming and going, joining your group, etc., IMO.
I must be the only MMO player ever that doesn't throw a fit about loading screens. I played FFXI so I've experienced an MMO with loading screens and honestly, that never bothered me. The only thing that sucked about zoning was that you could die while zoning so if that part is taken out of the equation then I wouldn't have any problem whatsoever with loading screens.
Dont care about loading screens. Too many isntances will get us in the STO world.
As for this,
I want instances, lots of them. I never, ever want to have to compete in an MMO in any way, and that includes waiting my turn for a mob to spawn.
First of all I doubt our opinions here are going to sway the devs much so take it all with a grain of salt.
Now.......Are you serious? "I never want to compete in an MMO".... I dont want to go tell you what to do what your gaming life. But if you hate the interaction with other people MMOs are not for you. If there is no competition out there its just a dress up show.
Then again I think you may just be joking?
- ya I'm here
If I had to watch a loading screen every two minutes I played the game, obviously that would be annoying.
But otherwise, I dont' care about loading screens. Doesn't bother me a bit, doesn't break my immerssion, doesn't make for less fun playing the game just because there's a loading screen.
The poster of this thread asked that people list the items by importance, and state why. I was not trying to sway and devs.
I said I never want to COMPETE in an MMO.
That means:
- I never want to pvp, ever.
- I never want to have to try to out-react or out-manoever another player to be the first to tag a mob needed for a quest.
- I really, really don't care how my gear stacks up against other players. I've no interest in showing off my uber-loot. As long as my character continues to steadily get better and better stuff, I'm happy.
Interaction? Sure; occasionally grouping, chatting, crafting, buying/selling on the AH, etc. All those are forms of interaction.
They all rank very low on importance to me. I have played all mmo's to date and they all have a variety of these features and none of them ruined it for me. I play the game that is developed and presented before me.
Personally, City of Heroes is my favorite MMO. Not particularly for their method of instancing, but rather for their freedom in allowing many playstyles a road to success.
However, you make a valid point about instances I will address this way: if someone could guarantee me that no asshat would ever once interfere in any way with a mission I or my team was trying to accomplish, I'd be happy with doing away with 95% of instances. Sadly, there is a group of people who wear such hats and enjoy ruining others' fun.
It's not just the boss mobs that have to be accounted for. It's also the interactive environments that are going to be in this game. Just think if you're a jedi of sith and you want to use your force powers to throw an object at a mob but there isn't anything to throw because there are 20 other jedi/sith in the area that already used up all the objects in the area. I like instanced quests because if done right, they allow for a much greater experience than quests done in common areas. I think the problem in a lot of other games is that instanced quests don't feel any different than non instanced quests and that's what's turned people off to instances. With the interactive environments and I believe, although I could be wrong, various ways to complete certain quests, instanced quests in TOR should provide a different experiece than instanced quests in other games. But that said, it's my understanding that there will be plenty of non instanced common areas.
Your question, and if I've to make a decision tere leads to a game I wouldn't play.
The games I'm interested in have no instances, no loading screens and a rather huge seemless world.
Anything else is sub-standard imho.
In order of importance...
Big World
Instances
Loading Screens
But its kind of a silly question. I want a large game world, but it better be accessible and varied. I want instances but mostly for where it matters. An instance of a bar... not cool. An instance of a zone or dungeon giddy up. And load screens, well I prefer one to a blank screen and they're a great place to throw up your concept art.
I'm with my no compete brother. PvP bad in the open, sharing spawns bad, gear gating to the point that the gate becomes the goal bad.
I'm the same as you Ihmotepp, if I understand the ranking correctly. Basically, I hate loading screens. A few here and there are tolerable, as long as they don't take forever. They shouldn't be so numerous that it breaks immersion into a million bite-sized pieces, then eats those pieces, craps them out, and throws them in a fire. Whooosh.
Instances I'm okay with, again, if they're not overdone. Instanced zones, like AoC or Champions? No. I mean instances like instanced dungeons or PvP battles. Many instanced dungeons are well done and there's no one there to steal your kills (I'm not hardcore enough to wait 12 hours for a boss to spawn, then compete with other guilds to kill it. Sorry. I'm a noob).
Big world? The bigger the better, as long as it's filled. I'd rather have a smaller, more detailed world than a big empty one.
Also, I felt like I had to rank instances and loading screens the same because most, if not all, instances require a loading screen. Just wanted to point that out, may be confusing to others.
All loading screens, however, do not drop you into an instance, so there is a huge difference.
Imagine these squares are zones. Any player can walk into any zone, and whenever you hit a line, there is a brief loading screen. You will see all players that walk into the zone, and they will see you:
Now imagine these are instances. Whenever you go into one, I can't see you until you come out, and you can't see me. Whether there is a loading screen or not, while you are in the instance we cannot interact until you come out of the instance:
I do understand this preference, but I'm just the opposite. Once you remove all possibility of other players having any influence on your game play, and it's just you and your party in your own little instance, the game gets a lot more boring for me.
Okay, that's what I thought you were getting at. Just wanted to be sure, though. In that case, I'll take interaction with other players as a priority, which means as few instances as possible (and those that are there better be awesome).
All three options are part of the same feature to an extent. In realit MMORPG so lets have the Massive as a matter of course, and Instance can be one or many, happy for it to be one but with some non shared challenges every now and again.
Loading could be annoying but if the gameplay is good don't really care my preference is horizon based loading so that content is loaded around you AC1 is a good example of this method. One overworld land mass and then dungeons as zone of of this (but only one of each) so no shared common instances.
OP try a post that compares feature not variations on one feature.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
QFT this is so right.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel