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How Isolation in the Outer Rim Invoked Fond Memories of WoW


Impulsev

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"Corners," I mumbled to myself.. "too many f#@&! corners." I quickly glanced at the clock, the digital LED read only 12 am, but a lack of proper hydration and an aging post-college body left me delirious as I hit the recuperate button after polishing off yet another 3-mob group.

 

Maybe I would have been more motivated if I had listened to the beautifully voice-overed quest giver, but an intrinsically competitive drive to level told me that there was just no time to listen to the Twi'lek prattle on about the sand people.

 

Out of curiosity, I toggled to the world map for a quick gander. As I've come to expect, there I was, wedged in the top right corner, far and away from any sort of civilization, surrounded by the mindless instinctual NPCs that populated the claustrophobic corridors found in so many bases.

 

"F@#$&*! corners." I whispered, wiping the grease from my hotpocket on my once-clean wife beater. But I reached deep into the stamina well I had cultivated during my WoW years, and like a colonoscopy, trudged onwards into that dark lonely place. No matter what planet it was, the end result would always leave me stuck farthest away from the singular spaceport.

 

I knew it wasn't Bioware's fault. Intrinsically, the existence of multiple planets meant that a seamless world couldn't be created. And yet, I couldn't help but persistently feel that I was always on the outskirts of something bigger.

 

Wistfully, I daydreamed of Azeroth. Oh, how "centered" I always felt! North, South, East, West, I could hop on my mount, and almost guaranteed I could find myself in a new zone if I wanted to. Just having that optionality was strangely comforting. The contiguity of it was all so overwhelming! A tear came to my eye as I fondly recollected the first time I hopped off a zep to Booty Bay, with a group of random players, like starry-eyed refugees searching for a better future~

 

Now, before anyone tells me to go back to WoW, I'll readily admit that I'm still having a blast in this game, and that I cannot honestly play WoW anymore without feeling sick. Some things are best left as fond memories...

 

Flyboy Ham

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Hey bro

 

Before there were flying mounts

 

How many different ways were there to get into a zone?

 

The stream between goldshire and whatever its called (can't remember) doesn't count.

 

 

 

Want to know something cool about this game?

The devs still haven't adjusted the inclines on hills or the ledges one can jump to/from.

Which makes this game have far fewer "corners".

I've already found more than a few shortcuts, and although I'm not sure if they're supposed to be there or not, they're nice and I hope they keep them.

 

 

Oh and... SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT WOW ALREADY.

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Ya know it's weird... No MMO has ever made me want to play WoW more than SWTOR... Guess I'm not the only one

 

I was just thinking the same exact thing! While I probably won't ever go back to WoW, TOR does make me want to play it.

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Lol, I will admit that that is one area that Blizzard did extremely well on, that is, world design, and as you say it's beautifully crafted and seamless. It's definitely not impossible for Bioware to do something similar here on a planet by planet basis (much like the separate continents of WOW), but the time and money involved make it unlikely :(

 

Still, I long for the day that we have a true space MMO, allowing for full ship, bridge, planet, solar system, and galaxy "seamlessness" in epic real time :) Until then, i'll play SWTOR lol :D

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Ya know it's weird... No MMO has ever made me want to play WoW more than SWTOR... Guess I'm not the only one

 

Haha nothing like a melodramatic short-story to spice things up.. But I don't think I could get past the loading screen in wow anymore without feeling exhausted.

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Hey bro

 

 

How many different ways were there to get into a zone?

 

Oh and... SHUT THE **** UP ABOUT WOW ALREADY.

 

I feel ya bro. On a numerical level ToR and WoW are about equal.. but the actual way you experience it is quite different.

 

For instance if you were on Balmorra and you wanted to run a flashpoint on the Republic Fleet. You'd probably quick travel to base (or taxi if you're close), shuttle yourself to the spaceport, instance yourself into your hanger (which luckily has no loading time), instance into your space ship, point your ship to the republic fleet, hit another loading screen on the way out of your ship, and finally reach this disconnected/isolated space station until you can finally run into your flashpoint.

 

In WoW, even sans summoning stones, the journey would feel more... integrated and less jarring

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For instance if you were on Balmorra and you wanted to run a flashpoint on the Republic Fleet. You'd probably quick travel to base (or taxi if you're close), shuttle yourself to the spaceport, instance yourself into your hanger (which luckily has no loading time), instance into your space ship, point your ship to the republic fleet, hit another loading screen on the way out of your ship, and finally reach this disconnected/isolated space station until you can finally run into your flashpoint.

 

or you could use one of the many fleet transportation sites located on most planets to go straight there, or use the fleet warp skill everyone has from lvl 1.... or go to the security key store and purchase some fleet passes and go straight there...

Edited by Liquidacid
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or you could use one of the many fleet transportation sites located on most planets to go straight there, or use the fleet warp skill everyone has from lvl 1.... or go to the security key store and purchase some fleet passes and go straight there...

 

yeah that's a good point. At the end of the day, my main point is that the actual world of WoW has always felt seamless and linked in a very organic way, moreso than in ToR

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yeah that's a good point. At the end of the day, my main point is that the actual world of WoW has always felt seamless and linked in a very organic way, moreso than in ToR

 

making a more seamless world would be easy iF TOR took place all on one world... when you are on a planet it is very seamless it's only transit in between worlds that isn't... and that actually make sense because you're actually changing whole worlds not just going to the other side of a continent ... it also helps that I've never ever hit a loading screen other than when I'm changing whole planets instead of hitting ones that are invisible walls changing areas like some other games

 

if I could get one thing it would be them to finish and re-implement the beacons and warp to group leader they were playing with in beta for a while... just because it would be a little quicker to get groups together ... but then again as most planets don't overlap or share level ranges it's not like you're ever more than a quick taxi ride from everyone else the appropriated lvl for standard missions/heroics.. also a "warp to group leader" deal, while convenient, would actually make the world feel smaller and less seamless since instead of traveling over the planet you would just be warping everywhere.. IMO

Edited by Liquidacid
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