Age of Conan

Could someone tell me why games like AOC and EQ2 choose to use instanced zones, correct me if I am using the wrong terminology, where as WOW doesn't and has one big world or at least appears to. I had seem somewhere that it was because this is a much more complex world than WOW but I would still think you could have the world broken up and load slowly as the person moved without having zones and loading screens.

Thanks,

Keith

Funcom stated that the high quality of graphics has limitations, therefor zone loadings here and there is nescessary.

And I could understand that.

Graphic do not addict me more then 2 weeks. I prefer less graphic and the felling of one big world wihout loading And most important without multiple instance of the same place.

Its why i play WoW with  350-600 ms and playing AoC with 100-180ms with wonderful graphics. By the way, I see enough ppl around me. I never think ohh this map is really empty. My server is recommended server even it isn't full and you can see many ppl in every square.

Ain't it true that most MMORPG-Players spend most of their playtime in instances (Zones, Raid-Dungeons, Battlefields, Arenas etc.), now matter if they play WoW, LotRO, EQII, GW or AOC? 

Originally posted by Solamnus

Its why i play WoW with  350-600 ms and playing AoC with 100-180ms with wonderful graphics. By the way, I see enough ppl around me. I never think ohh this map is really empty. My server is recommended server even it isn't full and you can see many ppl in every square.

Graphics has what to do with MS?

Summary

With the current technology there is a limit to how much you can put in one area without causing lag.

In the end, the developers come up with the best compromise for a particular game.

I would not really use the term "instance" for  "permanent zones" that are duplicated because the "permanent zone" was overcrowded.

Background

Densely packed areas such as cities and some dungeons are usually put in a separate zones or you end up with massive lag while the data loads for local area.  This is why WoW has a separate zone for its capital cities.

WoW gives the impression of a seamless world without zone loading by having a sparsely populated world with lot of  empty open areas.  The empty opens spaces load quickly and the time it takes you to run through an empty area allows time for the data to seem to download seamlessy for the next area.  Flyff, for example,  has big islands that are separated by empty ocean areas.

In WoW, structures and trees are permanent.  The scenery can be stored or cached on you local drive because it does not change.

If you have played Sword of the New World you may have noticed lag in dungeons which are densely populated wtih monsters when you crossed an invisible zone line.  The lag is really annoying in combat, even fatal.  That pause when crossing an invisible zone line might be fine in an empty world like WoW, but it is not so good in areas that are densely populated by players, NPC's or mutable objects.  A mutable object includes things like player custom-built structures, buildings that can be damaged, gates that can be left open or closed, trees that can grow or be cut down or change its foliage due to season/disease/damage.

EQ2 servers have the ability to dynamically duplicate its "permanent zones" if the player population is overcrowding a zone.  Remember WoW and all the areas that are empty of players?  These empty areas are duplicated on every WoW server!  Having these empty areas duplicated on different servers is a waste of server capacity and prevents players from different servers meeting.  The EQ2 method or something similar has the potential to bring a lot  more players together.

Sword of the New World allows you to switch to a duplicate of your current zone by switching channels.  Unlike EQ2, each channel duplicated every zone, not just the overcrowded zones/areas.  However, even with 3 channels the overcrowded areas were still overcrowded, and the empty areas were even more empty.  The EQ2 method is superior in that it dynamically duplicated a zone only if it became overcrowded.

On a new server the newbie zones are overcrowded and the high level zones are empty.  On an old server, the newbie zones are empty and the end game zones busy or overcroweded.  How do you manage the server population so that players have a fun experience in each zone, particularly when this experience will change as the bulk of the player population moves to more difficult areas?

EQ2 also had the traditional instances that were created for  a limited time for a certain grouping of  people for a particular dungeon, encounter or mission.

For the purist who only wants permanent zones, this may not exist in any game.  Most "permanent zones" are reset during maintenance or server crashes, so they are not really permanent.   Many games also have set intervals for resetting a NPC if it is not interacting with a player. Istaria (aka Horizons) with its player custom-built structures is closer to being a "permanent" world than most games.

The NPC reset may not be needed where NPC's never move, but including a regular reset as standard may reduce the impact of unforeseen bugs.  In games like Everquest,  NPC's (including merchants and bankers) would chase you across the zone if they did not like you.    Players could kill the NPC or lead the NPC into areas not foreseen by the developers. The NPC reset at regular intervals was a good way of catching problems such as unforeseen bugs or player griefing/exploits.  Players are inventive, so the NPC reset is one tool for dealing with the unexpected.

Compromises

Each game has to make compromises due to current technology limitations. Different game worlds require different solutions to make the best possible gameplay. It's a matter of balancing:

• more detail and players/NPC's/Objects packed in an area and slower loading times
• less detail, sparsely populated areas to reduce lag and allow a "zoneless" world.
• big open empty areas with real travel times to give the illusion of seamless zoning as you move from one area to another
• separate zones to reduce lag and/or allow more to be packed in one area
• whether you duplicate "permanent zones" that are overcrowded
• whether you permanently segregate players by creating separate servers with only 1 "instance" of each permanent zone
• whether you limit player population on each server to reduce lag
• whether you limit the player population on each server to prevent overcrowded zones
• whether the newbie zones can handle large populations when the server is new
• whether the newbie zones are fun for low newbie populations when the server is older
• whether different areas or zones are suitable for both low and high player population as the bulk of the player population progresses through the content

It's definitely a matter of preference for different players if they want lower graphics and less loading, or high end graphics and detailed characters with more loading/zoning/instancing.

I think that with the Conan IP they had to go this route.  It is such a detailed and lushly written World that anything else would feel like a Bastardization of the IP.  For that reason this game is definitely not for everyone, but it is definitely a great fit for some.

Originally posted by jazz.be

Funcom stated that the high quality of graphics has limitations, therefor zone loadings here and there is nescessary.

...and it is a terrible, terrible idea to have instancing for world zones in an MMOG. it misses the whole point of being an MMO.

that and AoC was based heavily on the source code for Anarchy Online, which was instance-based.