Zones (Instances)....My thoughts

[Mantis]

In an ideal world, and most likely the furture, there would be NO INSTANCES. This has been done already (WWII Online) and I am sure will be done again.

The only reasons (IMHO) to have instances are to reduce lag, and to seperate players.

So, some day lag will not be an issue. Then it will be a choice - do you want a persistant world or do you want "instances." I think the most intense gameplay will come from playing persistant worlds.

This being said, it is obvious that Huxley will have instances. They have said this at E3 and even before.

The instances could be good or bad depending on how they are handled. To see an example of how instances are handled in an excellent way, look no further than Planetside. If you play planetside and you don't think you're playing a game with instances - think again. Each continent (planet now) is an instance. One thing thats cool about these instances, is that they are BIG. Each planetside instance can hold 400 players. For those of you who havent experienced this type of massive FPS action, it is AMAZING. Having tanks, aircraft, infantry pounding it out in 133 vs 133 vs 133 battles is CRAZY. Good times. Anyway another cool thing about these instances is that they are PERMANENT. They are not generated when youget there and do not disappear when you leave. There are ALWAYS combatants there.

Lets look at City Of heroes to see a BAD example of an isntance. City of Heroes has Large ZONES that are like planetside's planets. They are permanent and unchanging. There are always people there and anyone can come and go. This is a good thing. What was bad were the mission instances. Only you and your squad could be in the mission, taking you effective OUT OF THE GAME and putting you into a mini game by yourselves.

This seperation is exactly why instances are bad. We do not pay 15$ a month to play a massively multiplayer game only to be seperated.

I truly hope that instances are minimized. Make them BIG. Make them PERSISTENT. We want this game to be MASSIVE and feel massive. Seperating everyone out and having little 16-16 battles would be lame. What would be the point even of claiming to be MMOFPS when most of the battles are so small.

There should be some key benefits to holding permanent territory. People should WANT to fight the massive PVP battles instead of hiding in their little 3 man team vs. bots just to PVE.

The whole point of a MMOFPS is to fight humans. If we wanted to fight bots theres a crapload of single player games and we could save the mothly fee, too. If we wanted small battles we could play any of the gazillions of FPS games and play some 16-16 or 32-32 and also save the monthly fee.

No, we want MASSIVE firefights against smart human oppononets who CARE that they just got PWNT.

The solution is failry simple: make the Zones HUGE, make them contain something worth fighting for, make them permanent, and let us in to do battle.

[PlasmaBurns]

here here, couldnt have said it better myself.

Persistent = sweet, Instanced = not all that sweet, although its fine for mmorpg's, i dont like instancing on mmofps's, unless ofcourse its like u said.

[Ao1xSniperkev]

i agree with everything you said... exept i think that mixing pve with pvp is a great idea. If you look at one of the trailers where they are fighting the hybrids. That isnt a small battle. there were tons of hybrids and tons of alternatives. So, i think it would be fun. But everything else is well put.

[Felix12g]

Here's something you need to remember. Huxley will have no load times. They've stated in a few different spots that the tranistions will be done by streaming instead of load times. So as you're riding the tram from town to the battlegrounds you don't notice that you're swapping servers, it's seamless.

Now, instances on the other hand are very useful in planetside. One thing that would totally ruin the gameplay of Huxley would be this scenario:

1.) Get a mission from an NPC
2.) Round up people and hire NPC mercs for fodder.
3.) Arrange transport to the mission area.
4.) Arrive at area to find 10 other squads sitting there trying to accomplish said mission.
5.) Wait for a half hour to assasinate a single npc.
6.) Return to NPC, rinse and repeat.

With instances:

1.) Get a mission from an NPC
2.) Round up people and hire NPC mercs for fodder.
3.) Arrange transport to the mission area.
4.) Zone in, complete mission.
5.) Return, rinse and repeat.

Differences? In a persistant world MMO without instances like FFIX, WoW and others you fight over objectives with other players. Instances are a good way to complete missions for PvE without having to fight over them with other players.

[PlasmaBurns]

Originally Posted by Felix12g

Differences? In a persistant world MMO without instances like FFIX, WoW and others you fight over objectives with other players. Instances are a good way to complete missions for PvE without having to fight over them with other players.

actually the way u point it out makes my mouth water. going to a mission spot, seeing someone already there, (JUMP EM) wipe em out, hurry up with mission b4 someone does the same to you..NICE. lol. Its an mmofpg, figthing over things would seem to be fun imo. but thats just me, i like to gank ppl

[Mantis]

Felix, man....

Think about what you said. I love the idea of having to battle other squads to get to the NPC. That was the point of me making this thread. If I wanted to fight NPC's with no interaction from other humans, I would play WoW, another RPG, or a single player FPS.

This is a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game. Lets make it interesting.

How much more rewarding would it be if you actually had to battle other squads to get to that NPC? Would it be harder? YES. Would it be funner? HELL YES.

If you and your squad cant do it, group up with even more into a platoon!

Plasma is exactly right on this one.

I hope webzen gets it right, too.

[PhoenixDog]

Your fighting the enemy, why fight over your own faction for a stupid NPC?

[Mantis]

You squad up with your own faction. Already in a squad? Form a platoon.

You fight the other factions.

You'll probably get "grief locked" or something if you fight your own team.

[Lexion]

God, this argument again, things are moving slow around here.

You do your PvE and your clan on clan in instances but the main battle zone over lunarites will be a "persistant instance", always looking the same with a seemless transition from the outside.

[Felix12g]

Originally Posted by PhoenixDog

Your fighting the enemy, why fight over your own faction for a stupid NPC?

Exactly. Most people aren't assholes to wipe out their own faction to complete a mission they get small reward for.

[Mantis]

Lexion -

Can you please post a link to the source for that info?

Thanks!

[Lexion]

Look through the E3 2005 demos and some of the old Ogaming interviews and all that, I have it compiled at our forums, cant remember it all.

[Mantis]

I dont need it all, just one official link to the source of what youre saying. No offense or anything intended, I just want to see a company official saying it rather than some guy on a forum.

[Lexion]

Some guy on a forum eh? Ive read every single article out there so why should I make things up? Heres some of the old crap for ya.



*edit* I had it all pasted in this post but it got 40k chars too long. Heres some of the links. Read all the previews and interviews on all sites.


http://www.ogaming.com/data/3625~huxley.php

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/hu...ml?sid=6147499

Watch the E3 2005 demo as well on GameSpot

http://pc.ign.com/articles/704/704745p1.html

http://360.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=7421

[Naughty]

Well said Mantis well said. If you show up at a mission, your alternative, and there are other alternatives there you should get the mission once it is completed even if you showed up ten seconds before it was over. If you show up and there are Sapiens there.... It puts a feeling of wanting to be the first one to get it done before someone else arrives. It puts you into a rush and gets your adrenaline pumping. If you get the mission jacked from you, to bad, turn around and do it again or hell do what happened to you to someone else, haven't any of you played D2? I would not want to play this game to be seperated from the entire community to do PvE. Why don't I just play campaign, gain unlocks and levels, then those transfer over to and identical character I have online?

[Felix12g]

Because when 300 zerglings rush you you still need a squad full of people online if you hope to survive?

[Naughty]

A. Your not getting the point
B. They're not zerglings
C. 300? Why would I need a squad for that? One man army right here.

[Mantis]

Lexion - Okay you posted about 5 links, I read through them but I see no reference to this:

Originally Posted by Lexion

.....
....the main battle zone over lunarites will be a "persistant instance", always looking the same with a seemless transition from the outside.

I probably just missed it, so can you please tell me which link it is in, and which paragraph.

Thanks

[Felix12g]

I'm guessing he's paraphrasing about the battleground islands that are instanced but the transition from the tram ride is seamless so you don't realise it. I'm not sure those zones are battling over the mines and power nodes/bases however.