What's the Deal with Disconnected Zones?

[Durff123]

So let us talk about Shadowlands map design. Can someone tell me what is so bad about the zones not being physically connected? No one I've read talk about it seems to provide a reason other than "It's different from what I'm used to and therefore bad." I genuinely do not see what the big deal is. I did not see a problem in Cata and I don't see one now for Shadowlands. In TBC, Cata, WoD, Legion, and BFA zones have been pretty much completely independent from one another in both design and story.

Since The Burning Crusade expansion Blizzard has created zones to have had such contained stories that do not spill over into other zones and such distinct designed from one another that they might as well be disconnected. WotLK and MoP did a pretty good job at spilling over into other zones with the story, and it was kind of cool, but even in those Blizzard has shown their best work at creating a zone-contained story with a few key characters moving on to the next zone with you. While those two expansions may have been Blizzard's most successful, I would not attribute it to this element, but rather the mechanics and gameplay design of the game in place at those times.

Since as long as I can recall in playing this game moving through the mountain/river border of two zones might as well have them be on separate continents. More often than not the designs and storylines of two adjacent zones look like they shouldn't be sitting anywhere near each other. With Shadowlands I think borrowing from Final Fantasy 14's idea of instancing each zone separately can improve on load times and allow Blizzard to go all out with their visual designs without having to worry about what you can see in the distance.

[Aucald]

There's nothing really bad about it, and that's not really a criticism I've heard a great deal of? Perhaps it reminds people of Cata a bit, an overall poorly reviewed expansion, with its various zones separated across Azeroth and accessible by portal and/or connecting scenario where you travel to each zone. Given the nature of where we're going to be it makes sense that each zone would kind of be its own realm, so to speak; disconnected instances unified by the hub-city of Oribos in all likelihood.

[RobertMugabe]

I also think that some people are just being reminded here of Cata, which is often seen as the worst or 2nd worst expansion ever.

But then again, I don't think that Cata sucked, because it had disconnected zones.

[Soon-TM]

It has a strong Cata vibe, that's why. But here, in the context of SL, it shouldn't be such a great offender - my concerns with SL have actually very little to do with disconnected zones.

[alturic]

I also think that some people are just being reminded here of Cata, which is often seen as the worst or 2nd worst expansion ever.

But then again, I don't think that Cata sucked, because it had disconnected zones.

Outside of the horrid DS patch, people look at Cata in a negative light?

[Mysterymask]

The disconnected zones actually make sense from a lore standpoint though

I mean this is the afterlife...hell isn't much of a hell if you can just walk into heaven

[schwarzkopf]

I can't see how the zones could be connected within the context of what they are.

[kranur]

Outside of the horrid DS patch, people look at Cata in a negative light?

Well, yes.

@OP I don't see anything wrong with disconnected zones and it even makes sense ... it's not a continent after all. Would be nice to have a slight bit of RP element to getting to the zones from the capital, like instead of a generic portal, an animation of some sort that has you traverse for a few seconds, like a mini FP.

[Wilian]

Outside of the horrid DS patch, people look at Cata in a negative light?

Uh yes. It was a thorougly bad expansion that suffered from content drought from day one.

[MrLachyG]

why is it such a big deal?

[JohnRoads]

I think it is the fact that they are different instances that is the main cause for concern. A large connected world is one of the great features of wow and one of the reasons of the it's success back in the day.

Imagine a world (of warcraft) where each zone was it's own instance. Yes the lag would be minimal and more players could play on the same realm, but you could only go from Everlyn Forrest to Westfall or Duskwood by going over the bridge with a loading screen. Same with going from Durotar to Barrens. No longer the option to fly from Winterspring in the north to Uldum in the south.

[Donald Hellscream]

why is it such a big deal?

It isn't really, within the context of the Shadowlands having different realms within it, there is no issue with the zones not being connected to one another.

The problem with Cataclysm in my opinion was that the zones were all over the place, you had Uldum and Mount Hyjal in Kalimdor, Twilight Highlands in Eastern Kingdoms, Vash'jir somewhere in the sea and Deepholme in.. Well Deepholme, It felt like the zones were very far flung from each other.

Now Blizzard have said that Shadowlands won't be like Legion and BFA where we choose where to go in what order ( atleast first time doing the story ) which means that how connected it feels, depends on how well they tell the story as we journey from one zone to the next.

[Soon-TM]

Outside of the horrid DS patch, people look at Cata in a negative light?

Um yes. It was a very ambicious project that unfortunately fell short on many aspects.

[Nnyco]

Its when you have no arguments so you make shit up.

[Razion]

A large, interconnected world is what World of Warcraft sold itself as on the original box art with pride as a game with less loading screens than its competitors. It was a mark of quality. And as consumers, when we start to expect that quality and then it slowly gets taken from us then it feels bad on its own. But more than that, loading screens waste player's time, break immersion, and most importantly aren't fun.

[Dracullus]

Outside of the horrid DS patch, people look at Cata in a negative light?

At this point most people forget why they even hated Cata in the first place.

[Soon-TM]

At this point most people forget why they even hated Cata in the first place.

I certainly don't, every time I'm levelling a low level toon I am reminded of how badly was the old world trashed. And that's only one of the things that went bad (imo) with Cata, but that has been discussed to hell and back, so I won't elaborate here.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

It was a big deal in Cataclysm because the new zones were located on continents that had 1,000,000 other zones surrounding them and flight paths were all over the place.


Oribos is located in the middle of the Shadowlands. All of the zones are are around it.


It's not going to be a big deal.

[babyback]

Since you can choose what zone you quest in it doesn’t really matter if they’re connected or not. You’ll have to take a quest to start the zone at some kind of major hub anyway.

In Cata you had to travel large distances to get to the next zone.

[Littleraven]

Personally I don't care much either way. Would I like them to be all connected? Sure. But I also in this context get why they arent. Each zone is pitched as a separate realm. Now if they keep doing this moving forward we can start to question it but this is literally only the second time they have done it. By and large we have kept to the one continent feel with BfA being a technical exception because there were 2 continents.