Is Pandaria actually bigger now?

[Chickat]

So they announced that they added 2 more zones to Pandaria since Blizzcon. They claim that they added new terrain too, but it looks identical to me. Do you think it is actually bigger then it would have been, or are they trying to build hype by splitting up large zones into multiple zones, and leaving them the same size? I don't care either way, but it would be amazing if the continent is actually bigger.


New pandaria



Old Pandaria from Blizzcon




Crap I forgot to add a poll=/

[Albert the fish]

looks bigger to me. a fair bit bigger.

[Deleted]

I think it's the same size, just instead of bigger zones they are split up. So you don't have to do the same zones every time you level. Also, we won't get flying until 90, so these zones will feel HUGE.

[Deleted]

they just split them. I'm wondering if it's Zandalari Isle that has been moved to the west now...

[Byniri]

They added 2 zones.


It looks slightly bigger. Townlong Steppes was split into 2

[Sinndra]

bigger in terms of square acreage? maybe not.. bigger in the sense that some zones were split.. then had more questing content added? i believe so.

[Khaza-R]

Townlong Steppes and the the Dread Wastes actually look bigger when you take the islands into account. Kun Lai Summit looks a little larger in the NW too.

But its all rather hard to tell from the concept map how big the zones originally were.

[Albert the fish]

im using the jade forest as my marker for the most part. assuming it stays the same size, it appears that the rest of pandaria has grown in proportion.

[Sinndra]

Townlong Steppes and the the Dread Wastes actually look bigger when you take the islands into account. Kun Lai Summit looks a little larger in the NW too.

But its all rather hard to tell from the concept map how big the zones originally were.

exactly.. i would need to see a better version of somebody's concept map.. to tell just how big they made this new version. i can roughly draw out a crude looking version of europe on a napkin.. but im sure a detailed cartographer version of that map would be bigger.

[Travio]

With the Valley of the Four Winds/Kasarang Wilds, I'm not sure there's been any real changes except making the Wilds its own zones - they were talking at BlizzCon about having two different quest paths through the Valley, one in the northern half and one in the south. It looks like they've just taken that to the extreme and actually split the zone.

As for Townlong Steppes and the Dread Wastes, the understanding here is that the original planned content for the Steppes grew to such a large amount that it didn't make sense to jam it all into one zone with one theme and instead split the place into two and fleshed both sections out far more than they would have with a single zone (this part might also apply to why they decided to splits the Valley and the Wilds).

As for actual amount of size? Pandaria appears to have grown slightly - I'd say about 10% in total.

[Samin]

exactly.. i would need to see a better version of somebody's concept map.. to tell just how big they made this new version. i can roughly draw out a crude looking version of europe on a napkin.. but im sure a detailed cartographer version of that map would be bigger.

Blizzard claims they added actual land and not just split it up (if you read the actual FAQ/Interviews and not just the summaries). So why not simply go with the official explaination, it's not as if we could ever proof it as we don't know how the actual world looked before.

[MoanaLisa]

I can give you a map of Lichtenstein that makes it look as large as China. Without some sort of scale you don't know anything. Comparing the Blizzcon map to the more official map assumes they were built on the same scale. They may have been but it's possible that they weren't either. Anyway, in game terms, size means something more than acreage; it's also game content, however you define that.

[vindicatorx]

can't really tell looks like the same size land mass just broken up more

[ComputerNerd]

More content yes, but whether it is physically bigger only blizzard could answer.

[Téuntjûh]

I can give you a map of Lichtenstein that makes it look as large as China. Without some sort of scale you don't know anything.

Hehe, nice fact.
If you look @ the whole world on google maps, check the difference in side between Greenland and saudi arabia.
While on a real map both countries almost have the same surface.
Never trust maps.

ps. Yes I know this is because of the coordinate system used

[Chickat]

So how many quests did Cataclysm have at launch in the 5 zones? Id guess that there will be between 500-800 quests on Pandaria. The fact that its all clumped together though will make it feel bigger then cata even if it isn't.

[zyx]

Comparison:


So no. They didn't "add" any zones. Only split up existing zones. But I'm good with that anyway.

[Eorayn]

A little. Yes.

[pFreak]

They just splitted it, so leveling is more diversified, because you can visit other scenarios.
I think you cant suggest if its bigger or smaller, cause its just a map. ^^

[Chickat]

Either way, more quests are more quests.