SWTOR, bigger in worldsize than WoW and LotrO

[Whiskra]

I don't really care which world is bigger than the other, what I do care about though is how the worlds feel.

I'm level 46 and so far, SWTOR has felt like a big loading screen fest. Of course, I didn't expect to be able to traverse an entire galaxy without any loading screens, and I didn't expect to be able to explore entire planets, but I still feel like BW could've crammed in less loading screens at some places than they did.

It also feels like all worlds are railroad. You have no reason at all to stray off the beaten path. If you feel like exploring, you're wasting your time doing so, because the entire planets look pretty much the same everywhere you go. The differences are pretty vague at best. You reach Dune Sea and suddenly there's elevation in the terrain. You reach northern Belsavis and you see snow instead of jungle (we already had that in WoW). You go from one place on Coruscant to another, the only difference is that at one place the sun is shining and at the other it doesn't.

WoW to me felt like a full, entire world, free for me to explore. No restraints (though of course they were there, but they were cleverly masked, more than can be said for the worlds in SWTOR) to where I could go, something was waiting beyond the horizon. SWTOR feels like they did Cataclysm formula with zones scattered all over the place, and could be traveled to through loading screens. Only difference is that the Cataclysm zones are still connected to the rest of the world.

[McFrotton]

I'm pretty sure planets like Tattooine, Balmora, and Hoth are almost if not as big as Kalimdor and the EK. But so far, I think the MMo with the largest world has got to be AC1. Someone on these boards posted a pic not too long ago comparing world sizes from all the MMo's and Single player rpgs on a scale and AC1 was way up there!

Wow its been a long time you havent been in kalimdor, clearly 4-5 zone but not the whole continent

---------- Post added 2012-01-02 at 10:55 AM ----------

TOR may be the biggest world to date, but so much of it is so very very empty, also. Or rather not empty, because there's always mobs everywhere, but just sort there to exist. While it adds a bit of realism to the game (surely not every point in the world is meaningful!) it also means that there's a lot of space that doesn't do much. Fortunately the taxi/fast travel/shuttle system is usable enough that you can skip over large tracts of land.

Empty almost every corner of every planet is used efficently (almost efficently) most of the time.

[Investigator]

Another fanboy thread?

Who has the biggest......

*Sighs*

Nope, this was a thread that was about objective data that could be measured and compared, namely worldsizes of the various MMO's. Some other people however felt inclined to gut reaction post, alas.

The comparative sizes however can be easily gleaned in various MMO's, usually by simple tests for the curious people (or by finding the results of people who did sortlike tests and investigations).

[McFrotton]

Atleast when I open the map in WoW - I can go to the point I want with most 1 load screen. Swtor just feels like a bunch of rooms, not open world. Also, in swtor you can't even explore the whole map - can't go to enemy planets, can't go to enemy zones in medium level planets. wtf

loading screen: planet-ship-planet-ship and thats it for the laoding screen when questing sometime the fleet.

[Investigator]

Not rly, think of SWTOR as Mass Effect 2. You land at a planet and there is a zone that you quest in for about 5 or 6 hourss and then leave for the next zone (on another planet).

Im not knocking SWTOR, im loving it so far, but Im not about to say its a BIGGER and more OPEN world than WoW, thats simply madness.

Why would it be madness? Do some simple checks and tests within the MMO's you want to compare things like worldsizes in, and it's easy enough to make rough estimations.

If you feel like exploring, you're wasting your time doing so, because the entire planets look pretty much the same everywhere you go.

SWTOR feels like they did Cataclysm formula with zones scattered all over the place, and could be traveled to through loading screens. Only difference is that the Cataclysm zones are still connected to the rest of the world.

Sorry, but I'm a different kind of explorer apparently than you are, because I've found reasons or my own incentives to explore in all kinds of MMO's I played, from EQ to GW to AoC to SWTOR as well as a WoW.

As for loading screens, in WoW you get loading screens when travelling between continents - and for some caves and dungeons you enter, in SWTOR you get loading screens when travelling between planets (or planets and space).

[Askyl]

SW:TOR is bigger then WoW. That's pretty much a fact. If you say otherwise, you haven't played SW:TOR. And yes, I played in vanilla when you couldn't fly around everywhere fast.

[Mifuyne]

All I came across is a few fields and mostly buildings.
Taxi's riding over vasts amount of unexplorable maps also.

SWToR may be bigger, but I prefered the open-space maps more in pretty much every other mmo.
swtor is fun, but the maps get dull, specially the "city" maps.

[melodramocracy]

I'm pretty sure planets like Tattooine, Balmora, and Hoth are almost if not as big as Kalimdor and the EK. But so far, I think the MMo with the largest world has got to be AC1. Someone on these boards posted a pic not too long ago comparing world sizes from all the MMo's and Single player rpgs on a scale and AC1 was way up there!

Running from the southern tip to northern, even if you had run talent jacked (god, I miss games that let you put points where you wanted, rather than just putting points in abilities for you), took a long... LONG time.

No mounts... better learn those portal routes. I miss that game terribly some days.

[Doriath]

Atleast when I open the map in WoW - I can go to the point I want with most 1 load screen. Swtor just feels like a bunch of rooms, not open world. Also, in swtor you can't even explore the whole map - can't go to enemy planets, can't go to enemy zones in medium level planets. wtf

In swtor...there is one load screen,the one that takes for you to get to the planet.And you can go to enemy territory all you want.Youll just get killed.

[chiddie]

People saying that you can't do so and so in SWTOR need to remember how primitive WoW was when it first came out, there were lots of things you couldn't do in WoW

That's true, but SEVEN years has passed since WoW came out. You cannot compare a theme park MMORPG that goes gold today to a MMORPG that went gold SEVEN years ago in order to justify TOR's issues. People compare TOR to WoW 4.0 or, at least to WoW 3.0. And TOR fails in this comparison, feature wise.

Some basic features (LFG, PvP brackets, smart auction house UI) HAVE to be present in a MMORPG today. Jesus, even basic f2p MMORPGS have more group and ui features than TOR.

[Deleted]

Hoth and tatooine was the biggest ones, but that was due to there was just empty spaces, The dune sea on tatooiine was empty, just like a dessert should be, and hoth was also empty in some case, just as a cold desert us suppose to be

[Thunderlight]

This is something that have been thinking about for a while. When comparing the size of worlds, you have to take in to account the speed at which you cross them. Atm in WoW, the speed of flying mounts is rediculous in comparison with the world, so the player feels that the world is small, when in fact, if you use the walking speed as reference, you will see that the world is actually very big.

[Ghul]

at a certain point size doesnt matter anymore, even worse the world starts to feel empty all of a sudden.

[Abrasion]

While the planets may be larger in total the invisible walls everywhere hold the MMO feel of the game back.

Not to mention the shitty draw distance. Plants literally grow around you, it looks like shit. Makes the game feel smaller than it is.

[Whiskra]

As for loading screens, in WoW you get loading screens when travelling between continents - and for some caves and dungeons you enter, in SWTOR you get loading screens when travelling between planets (or planets and space).

Don't try to convince yourself that WoW has as many loading screens as SWTOR has. SWTOR has more loading screens than WoW naturally because nothing is connected in that game. You can't go from questing to putting up stuff on the auction house in SWTOR without passing numerous loading screens. Where in SWTOR there's a loading screen for pretty much anything, WoW has close to nothing.

[Chingylol]

Don't try to convince yourself that WoW has as many loading screens as SWTOR has. SWTOR has more loading screens than WoW naturally because nothing is connected in that game. You can't go from questing to putting up stuff on the auction house in SWTOR without passing numerous loading screens. Where in SWTOR there's a loading screen for pretty much anything, WoW has close to nothing.

This statement really makes me think you've never even played SWTOR.

[Whiskra]

This statement really makes me think you've never even played SWTOR.

Yes, as I said before, I am level 46 right now. It's fine if I stay on a planet, but if I wan't to go anywhere else, I have to pass 3-4 loading screens before I reach my destination.

[Investigator]

Don't try to convince yourself that WoW has as many loading screens as SWTOR has. SWTOR has more loading screens than WoW naturally because nothing is connected in that game. You can't go from questing to putting up stuff on the auction house in SWTOR without passing numerous loading screens. Where in SWTOR there's a loading screen for pretty much anything, WoW has close to nothing.

I'm not convincing myself of anything, I'm just stating things how they are. Maybe you're just projecting your own feelings or perception?
Are there loading screens when you're on a planet in SWTOR? No.
Are there loading screens when you're on a continent in WoW? No, except for several dungeons/caves where you experience a loading screen when you enter or exit them.

The difference is that there's less continents in WoW than planets in SWTOR, which can affect that perception and personal preference.

[BeingRepressed]

TOR is gigantic, but when you actually look at the quest points and mob distribution, you quickly realize that they could have cut zone sizes in HALF and lost absolutely nothing. Zones are big simply so they can say that zones are big. What's more, the size means that there are some quests that just aren't worth doing unless you're a completionist because traveling there and back takes a ridiculous amount of time.

There really aren't many load screens in the game; you get a load screen for each planet and you get a load screen if you enter a dungeon/flashpoint. That's it. It feels like there are a lot because loading a planet often takes a fairly long time; if you have a low-mid range computer it can take 1-2 minutes to load a planet like Belsavis.

[Nask]

Are there loading screens when you're on a continent in WoW? No, except for several dungeons/caves where you experience a loading screen when you enter or exit them.

Only dungeons are instanced, I have yet to come across "caves" that are instanced.