[Oren]

I thought that a seamless world meant you can take a ship and sail from one continent to another. Currently you cannot do that (well I haven't tried with a ship but I did try swimming far enough to hit an invisible wall telling me that a chunk is down). That means that currently the only way to travel between continents is by using porters. Is this a temporary condition? Will I be able in the future to take a ship and to sail off map on my way from Thestra to Kojan etc.?

[vylo]

Not sure on that. They were going to make you sail across the whole ocean, but the problem was that the ocean was so large that most people would probably pass out before reaching the other shore.

[rabb1t]

Seamless means you can't see the "seams" between the zones. There have been other threads on this.

Seamless <> no zones

[Garjala]

Originally Posted by Oren

I thought that a seamless world meant you can take a ship and sail from one continent to another. Currently you cannot do that (well I haven't tried with a ship but I did try swimming far enough to hit an invisible wall telling me that a chunk is down). That means that currently the only way to travel between continents is by using porters. Is this a temporary condition? Will I be able in the future to take a ship and to sail off map on my way from Thestra to Kojan etc.?

It means that other part of map you were trying to go to had crashed. As far as I know you can swim from continent to continent if all chunks (map parts) are up and going.

[Vega]

Seamless is a very misleading term i think. I always took it to mean that there would literally be no 'seams' joingin chunks together at all, visible or not. With streamed content like what has been demonstrated in the Unreal 3 engine.

Unfortunately i think Sigil did'nt make the best choice of words in a lot of the pre-release blurb. I would almost go so far as to say that some of it was deceptive, but oh well. Game developers all do it.

[Geldoff]

Originally Posted by Oren

I thought that a seamless world meant you can take a ship and sail from one continent to another. Currently you cannot do that (well I haven't tried with a ship but I did try swimming far enough to hit an invisible wall telling me that a chunk is down). That means that currently the only way to travel between continents is by using porters. Is this a temporary condition? Will I be able in the future to take a ship and to sail off map on my way from Thestra to Kojan etc.?

seamless simply means they "Stream" the zones to you (in chunks LOL like WoW, SoR or GTASA does) in the background so that you are not forced to sit through "loading" screens when you go from one zone to another (like EQ2).

[Taly]

The boat situation isn't permanent.

On the other hand, I am still a bit disappointed that they couldn't make seamless zoning without load times when DAoC managed to do it (on a smaller scale of course) over half a decade ago. Hopefully that is something they keep improving because I really expected to barely notice the zone lines if I noticed them at all. But what we have now is just slightly faster zoning with no loading screen and no warning. Heck, they could at least put down an optional visible warning of a zone line if they can't get rid of the zone times.

[Geldoff]

Originally Posted by Oren

I thought that a seamless world meant you can take a ship and sail from one continent to another. Currently you cannot do that (well I haven't tried with a ship but I did try swimming far enough to hit an invisible wall telling me that a chunk is down). That means that currently the only way to travel between continents is by using porters. Is this a temporary condition? Will I be able in the future to take a ship and to sail off map on my way from Thestra to Kojan etc.?

Originally Posted by Taly

The boat situation isn't permanent.

On the other hand, I am still a bit disappointed that they couldn't make seamless zoning without load times when DAoC managed to do it (on a smaller scale of course) over half a decade ago. Hopefully that is something they keep improving because I really expected to barely notice the zone lines if I noticed them at all. But what we have now is just slightly faster zoning with no loading screen and no warning. Heck, they could at least put down an optional visible warning of a zone line if they can't get rid of the zone times.

yeah they are obviously still working on the chunk streaming. Its better then it was a month ago, but not nearly good enough. A seamless transition from one chunk to the other should certainly be the goal and I am sure it is.

While streaming chunks is certainly within the accepted definition of "Seamless World" (this is how everyone does it), when the streaming between chunks is as abrupt and jarring as it often can be in Vanguard, you have not fully achieved a seamless goal, regardless of the mechanics you are employing.

[Hrann]

Can mobs even run across chunk lines? It seems like they stopped people "running to zone" simply by putting no mobs near the zone line.

[Vorn]

Stating that this game is seamless is a lie, plain and simple. You can't take a "zoned" game and then just take away the loading screen and call it seamless. There are zones/chunks and there are definate seams where loading takes place. This can't be argued.

[Varel]

Actually, it is seamless.

If i run through Kojan from one chunk to another, and then back again, there is about a nanosecond bump when shifting zones. Taking 2 seconds to load is pretty seamless compared to:

<loading.......2%...............4%............>

There are many things in this game that piss me off royally, the "seamless"'ness of the world is not one.

[Geldoff]

Originally Posted by Vorn

Stating that this game is seamless is a lie, plain and simple. You can't take a "zoned" game and then just take away the loading screen and call it seamless. There are zones/chunks and there are definate seams where loading takes place. This can't be argued.

yes, that is actually excatly what seamless world means. they are all streaming the zones in chunks in the background, from WoW to Saints Row. When you see "Seamless" from now on, understand that doesn mean one big zone, it means many zones "seamlessly" connected together.

They still have some work to do on thier streaming, but it is very fair to call this seamless, in design and in practice, as fair as any other title and I am sure they will continue to perfect it.

[SageGaspar]

Originally Posted by Varel

Actually, it is seamless.

If i run through Kojan from one chunk to another, and then back again, there is about a nanosecond bump when shifting zones. Taking 2 seconds to load is pretty seamless compared to:

<loading.......2%...............4%............>

That doesn't mean it's seamless, it means it kept the information in memory so that you could load it faster.

I do like this game, but saying it doesn't have zones is like saying that EQ1 doesn't have zones now that they let you block the loading screen, and my wait times in EQ1 are maybe five seconds at most. People are still sitting there loading for thirty seconds at the boundaries. Plus when it tries to load in something big like when I get to the outskirts of a city, there's still a ton of hitching that makes it obvious when it's set to stream in the town info.

They do load mobs across boundaries, but seeing as how you're so rarely fighting close to the boundaries it's more of a pain in the ass than anything else. If you're running away from a mob and you hit the boundary of a chunk you have to sit there with your finger on the forward key waiting for it to load.

I was also exploring the coast and I managed to catch myself in a near-infinite zoning loop, I'd zone into one area ten feet into the air above a rock face, which I'd hit and slide down into the previous zone, which launched me forward into the other zone, etc. If it was truly seamless I would just be able to pick a direction and swim away without getting my direction reversed and my position changed every half second.

[Gholam]

"Seamless world?"

No.

CHUNKS = ZONES = SEAMS

[Kates]

Originally Posted by Varel

Actually, it is seamless.

If i run through Kojan from one chunk to another, and then back again, there is about a nanosecond bump when shifting zones. Taking 2 seconds to load is pretty seamless compared to:

<loading.......2%...............4%............>

There are many things in this game that piss me off royally, the "seamless"'ness of the world is not one.

*CRY* I wish I had a "nanosecond bump" when shifting zones. When I hit a zone wall I lock up for a good 5 seconds, only to reappear in first person view with no torch. Thats on highest quality setting though. Maybe bard speed plays a fact into it?

[Vega]

Originally Posted by Kates

*CRY* I wish I had a "nanosecond bump" when shifting zones. When I hit a zone wall I lock up for a good 5 seconds, only to reappear in first person view with no torch. Thats on highest quality setting though. Maybe bard speed plays a fact into it?

Same happens for me, only in my case it is 10 seconds or maybe a little more. Strangely quality setting has absolutely no effect on this time either (for me anyhow).

[Teek]

Originally Posted by Kates

*CRY* I wish I had a "nanosecond bump" when shifting zones. When I hit a zone wall I lock up for a good 5 seconds, only to reappear in first person view with no torch. Thats on highest quality setting though. Maybe bard speed plays a fact into it?

This happens to everyone in our guild right now, and it's terrible. The ONLY benefit out of the the rediculously bad server lines is that MOBs that are chasing you stop when they slam into the line. I'm assuming the MOB's have CTD'ed. , as this has happen mutliple times to people in our guild.

Oh, and my computer is pretty high end and was built from the ground up about a month ago. My FPS hovers around 40-60 with all the graphics turned on and the sliders set to 75.

[Geldoff]

Originally Posted by SageGaspar

That doesn't mean it's seamless, it means it kept the information in memory so that you could load it faster.

I do like this game, but saying it doesn't have zones is like saying that EQ1 doesn't have zones now that they let you block the loading screen, .

no saying it doesnt have zones (or is seamless) is saying that it is streamed in chunks through background process, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER SIMILAR TITLE THAT MAKES THIS CLAIM DOES.

There wouldnt be much trick in making something appear seamless, that really had no seams now would there . . . LMAO?

[popsicledeath]

The funny thing is they keep billing the game as seamless, when in reality it's zoneless. There aren't zones, but there very definitely very severe seams dividing up the world.

Seamless... 3rd generation... I think they have a problem with living up to buzzwords and should stop creating them for themselves

[perfect]

Originally Posted by Taly

The boat situation isn't permanent.

On the other hand, I am still a bit disappointed that they couldn't make seamless zoning without load times when DAoC managed to do it (on a smaller scale of course) over half a decade ago. Hopefully that is something they keep improving because I really expected to barely notice the zone lines if I noticed them at all. But what we have now is just slightly faster zoning with no loading screen and no warning. Heck, they could at least put down an optional visible warning of a zone line if they can't get rid of the zone times.

Sorry, I have to say something here: DAoC was zoned. The over land areas were not, but the cities and dungeons and RvR areas were.

Please excuse the interruption.