Remember when Blizzard used to create huge, flat zones?

[donjn]

I don't know about you guys but I miss those days. This is not just a Blizzard thing too, it seems lots of MMOs suffer from this. Smaller areas with more, compacted content. However, I think this takes away from the "world" feel. Think about the Barrens, think about how wide open that area is, and you won't bump into a mob every 10 feet..



Mulgore, although not the best example, has huge, rolling plains:



Tanaris, massive desert.



Westfall, open plains



And now, we have this:

Cramped zones with rocks and mountains placed perfectly to force you to go around them:



Sharp rocks and mountains, with little or no view



And now in Argus, more of the same:



Does anyone else crave lush, flat fields with a massive view distance like I do? Because I dont know about you but the landscape design in Legion drove me nuts. Some mountains felt like puzzles..

[Zandalarian Paladin]

They did that with Uldum. And the whole of MoP, mostly. Nagrand from WoD too.

[Selastan]

I have noticed this. I think its part of Blizzard's new philosophy of more active direction. Limiting movement means you pass through where they want you when they want you to. Its not very subtle and I don't like it...

[Doctor Funkenstein]

I like a healthy mix of both.

That said, Secret World does an amazing job with their zones. While they're technically tiny by most MMO standards, they feel about ten times larger than they actually are due to the strategic way quests are placed. Running one direction feels completely different than running the other direction, especially with numerous turns, curves, and obfuscated terrain due to buildings, hills, and natural obstacles. They really did an amazing job with that from a technical point of view. My mind would probably melt if they did so with zones the size of what WoW and a few others work with, all of which usually feel significantly smaller than they are.

[Nnyco]

probably because flat zones are blant and boring is why they dont do em that often anymore

[donjn]

probably because flat zones are blant and boring is why they dont do em that often anymore

I disagree. I like it when it feels like an actual world. You know, wilderness? Far away from anyone or anything?

[Zatachi]

This is exactly that what some people say is the success of Breath of the Wild, the vast open world you actually have to explore.

I miss this also and it would negate the whole flying debacle too.

Give us some WORLD not just a few places.


Make Warcraft GREAT (as in big ;P ) again!

[Queen of Hamsters]

I do.

I also remember a lot of wasted space. I also remember flat zones being made perfectly as recently as MoP, where several zones had areas that weren't too rocky but still there wasn't a lot of dead space.

There's literally nothing to suggest that they won't create "flat" zones, in BETTER ways, in the future if the theme fits.

And massive cackle at people having troubles navigating zones even beyond going through them many times. Regardless of how cliffy a zone is, you'd be bound to learn routes through simply looking around.

[zox2]

I like both kinds of zones myself, so I'd like to see a new open one certainly. I think verticality can add much to a level too, but it's a balancing act between that and allowing free movement and clear paths where necessary.

[threads]

it's also quest structure. zones are now more like trails then areas.

[Deleted]

yea, current zone design is flat out garbage but of course some people still like it
what can you do, grab them by the throat and choke them until they see reason?
nah, we're stuck with this sort of zone design for the forseeable future, unless they go back to vast zones to exploit a new gimmick which will ultimately still be against the player's best interests

how I wish we could get more like hellfire peninsula
it truly felt vast and coherent but each and every location was so memorable and every time I quest there I have a blast

can't say the same for places like val'sharah and stormheim
only reason I remember anything about them is because of how repetetive open world content became with wq's
and the worst of all is azsuna which could have been such a beautiful zone if they it didn't suffer from claustrophic syndrome like the rest

[Mojo03]

They changed their philosophy of making a world to making a theme park.

[FreshKamel]

Love that you mentioned this, because I've been thinking a lot about it lately.

I know most people would consider smaller, more detailed zones better, which is fair - absolutely!

But I have no problem with large, emptier zones. I'd rather the world feel huge and kiiinda empty than tiny, but with details.
You notice most of the details pretty fast anyway. The Broken Isles look amazing, but feel too tiny.

[cqwrteur]

Vanilla areas were the greatest areas. Sadly, they have all been removed and we could only see these nostalgic areas on private servers.

[FreshKamel]

Splitting the Barrens in half was one of the changes I disliked the most in Cataclysm.
I liked it storywise and both zones are cool, but I really loved having this whole big, BARREN area.
You need these kinda areas as well. Plus it makes the transition from one zone to another feel more "realistic".

[Feroxxy]

Blizzard has been pushing WoW zone creation more in the "compact and full" direction lately. It's so fake - a world is supposed to have travel distance between villages, open areas and farmlands; not this "heres a town heres a village heres a ruin heres a temple" design they've got going atm.

I'm really hoping they're gonna take a page out of Zelda's Breath of the Wild world design.

[FelPlague]

Blizzard has been pushing WoW zone creation more in the "compact and full" direction lately. It's so fake - a world is supposed to have travel distance between villages, open areas and farmlands; not this "heres a town heres a village heres a ruin heres a temple" design they've got going atm.

I'm really hoping they're gonna take a page out of Zelda's Breath of the Wild world design.

the issue when you make wide open areas of bullshit, it makes the travel times much longer, and boring... i remember spending hours just running around barrens bored getting from spot A to spot B

[cqwrteur]

This thread is exactly why blizzard has to add flying in the current expansion.

- - - Updated - - -

the issue when you make wide open areas of bullshit, it makes the travel times much longer, and boring... i remember spending hours just running around barrens bored getting from spot A to spot B

Just longer but bearable.

[Noomz]

Because the gigantic open zones are boring as hell, containing little to no features and no terrain to speak of.
So basically you want something that's less everything, you want it to regress and be more bland and boring. YOu have a very strange taste.

[Netherspark]

My favorite part of zones like Tanaris and the Barrens is that you could look around yourself and see nothing in every direction.

Nowadays, even large zones feel small, due to everything being squashed together. I don't think there's a single point in any modern warcraft zone where you can't see either a town, or a quest POI, or a road.

You can't make a world feel like a world without proper wilderness. I want to be able to get lost again...