I really disliked a majority of the zones in SWTOR. They made me feel claustrophobic, and I’m not. It’s one of the many reasons I didn’t play the game long, but it really stands out.
Tatooine wasn’t bad, but the rest felt very closed in, and on rails.
Firiona Vie in Everquest before you reach level 40 or so. I got caught so many times by damned spiders when I was trying to run from the city gates to the Lake of Ill Omen zone.
Kithicor Forest at night, is a close second, as someone already mentioned.
Pretty much every zone in WoW: Shadowlands. Jfc I hate the zones so much, they're all so boring and leveling one character to level cap when the expansion came out felt like such a chore. And I'm a serious alt-aholic, normally I love questing and leveling characters up, in any mmorpg. I tried going through it again on one of my alts and I wanted to put a bullet in my head, so needless to say, I stopped playing WoW. I'll consider going back with the next expansion, although I've kind of had it with all the awful systems they keep wasting development time making that everyone ends up hating.
But it's funny you mentioned The Lone Lands in LotRO. I started playing that after I quit WoW(I don't care for FFXIV), and I literally just started Lone Lands last week. I'm pretty indifferent on the zone, I don't hate it, and I don't love it. I only just started it though, so I may end up going far in either direction.
I struggle to think of any zones I particularly disliked. However, I do remember a lot of people disliking Vash'jir from WoW Cataclysm back in the day. I think a lot of people really didn't like having to play underwater.
Evendim lotro worst zone ever two much dam swimming and then they had some bug for months that if you touched water and got into combat the game mobs would bug out.
DAOC, in particular Albion's Lyonesse is at the top, bleak wetland which required a stupidily long horse ride just to reach the outer edge, then a good run the rest of the way in.
Prior to Shrouded Isles launch the best place to level from 45 to 50 (which was a real slog back then) was at a single camp of trees which could effectively support two or maybe three groups of 8.
Relentlessly killing the same poorly animated trees was bad enough, especially if the group over pulled and started to wipe as you would pray a rezzer made it back to the zone wall, otherwise you could well lose the camp to another group.
Woe to those who forgot to re-bind their rez location to Cornwall, as they might have to do the long horse ride of shame back and usually lost their slot in the group.
Speaking of which, as this was the only great spot (outside of the gobbos which were a good camp for bomber groups) you could find yourself waiting for quite awhile to get in a group, especially if leveling up a stealther or other group unfriendly class.
Fortunately most groups reserved a "pity" spot for one or two such classes as they knew sooner or later it could soon be one of their alts in the same boat.
I'd sometimes solo for hours on my Infiltrator waiting and got stuck at level 48 when SI launched with most of the tree groups quickly disolving until players figured out where the best leveling was in the new zones.
I actually leveled a necromancer on a separate account who was super strong solo and could actually power level other characters so eventually it was how I got my Inf up to 50 sitting at the necro's feet in stealth mode.
I was never so glad to say goodbye to a zone and to this day it's hard for me to think of one I really enjoyed less.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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DAOC, in particular Albion's Lyonesse is at the top, bleak wetland which required a stupidily long horse ride just to reach the outer edge, then a good run the rest of the way in.
Prior to Shrouded Isles launch the best place to level from 45 to 50 (which was a real slog back then) was at a single camp of trees which could effectively support two or maybe three groups of 8.
Relentlessly killing the same poorly animated trees was bad enough, especially if the group over pulled and started to wipe as you would pray a rezzer made it back to the zone wall, otherwise you could well lose the camp to another group.
Lol I remember that. Lists were kept for spots in those tree grinding groups to replace individual members when they needed to leave. And then you stayed there for hours rinsing and repeating. I was a Theurgist so my main job was to keep the extra trees from bad pulls rooted until we were ready for them.
And kids complain about grind these days, sheesh!
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WHAT!! That is one of my all-time favorite zones in any MMO! The sounds and design were amazing (creepy but amazing) and the atmosphere was perfect.
I agree. I still have never had that feeling in any mmo as i did when I made the trip at level 12 from Freeport to Qeynos. Kithicor turned might haveway thru before I new about the wall running.
As a level designer and modder it's not so much one zone but the many horrible designs used in many games.
Invisible walls.
Unpassable terrain.
Poor layouts.
Horrible mob placement.
Under or over use of light and sounds.
Anything where the zone drastically affects performance.
Anything completely barren and flat.
Lazy design where it's just some hallways with a boss at the end.
Unusable doors.
Arbitrary auto kill zone lines. Like swimming too far out and you just die, or walk into a snowstorm and you just die.
Idiotic use of the Z axis.
Water is just straight up trash in a lot of games.
Copy paste that is obviously over prevalent.
That's just touching on basic level design. Not even going into itemization, monsters, npcs, scripts, crafting, harvesting, quests, lore, exploration, etc etc.
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Previously: Lower Guk - EverQuest
Kithicor Forest at night, is a close second, as someone already mentioned.
But it's funny you mentioned The Lone Lands in LotRO. I started playing that after I quit WoW(I don't care for FFXIV), and I literally just started Lone Lands last week. I'm pretty indifferent on the zone, I don't hate it, and I don't love it. I only just started it though, so I may end up going far in either direction.
Most annoying zone ever...
Prior to Shrouded Isles launch the best place to level from 45 to 50 (which was a real slog back then) was at a single camp of trees which could effectively support two or maybe three groups of 8.
Relentlessly killing the same poorly animated trees was bad enough, especially if the group over pulled and started to wipe as you would pray a rezzer made it back to the zone wall, otherwise you could well lose the camp to another group.
Woe to those who forgot to re-bind their rez location to Cornwall, as they might have to do the long horse ride of shame back and usually lost their slot in the group.
Speaking of which, as this was the only great spot (outside of the gobbos which were a good camp for bomber groups) you could find yourself waiting for quite awhile to get in a group, especially if leveling up a stealther or other group unfriendly class.
Fortunately most groups reserved a "pity" spot for one or two such classes as they knew sooner or later it could soon be one of their alts in the same boat.
I'd sometimes solo for hours on my Infiltrator waiting and got stuck at level 48 when SI launched with most of the tree groups quickly disolving until players figured out where the best leveling was in the new zones.
I actually leveled a necromancer on a separate account who was super strong solo and could actually power level other characters so eventually it was how I got my Inf up to 50 sitting at the necro's feet in stealth mode.
I was never so glad to say goodbye to a zone and to this day it's hard for me to think of one I really enjoyed less.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
And kids complain about grind these days, sheesh!
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
My vote goes to runnyeye also. Hate that zone
Invisible walls.
Unpassable terrain.
Poor layouts.
Horrible mob placement.
Under or over use of light and sounds.
Anything where the zone drastically affects performance.
Anything completely barren and flat.
Lazy design where it's just some hallways with a boss at the end.
Unusable doors.
Arbitrary auto kill zone lines. Like swimming too far out and you just die, or walk into a snowstorm and you just die.
Idiotic use of the Z axis.
Water is just straight up trash in a lot of games.
Copy paste that is obviously over prevalent.
That's just touching on basic level design. Not even going into itemization, monsters, npcs, scripts, crafting, harvesting, quests, lore, exploration, etc etc.
"classification of games into MMOs is not by rational reasoning" - nariusseldon
Love Minecraft. And check out my Youtube channel OhCanadaGamer
Try a MUD today at http://www.mudconnect.com/My title in LOTRO is... Easily Lost
I agree about Angmar... I actually loved Lone Lands.
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