NO.
That's right, you're NOT up to date on the story. I'd suggest go reading the issue update information on the main COH page, one by one, to find out why we still need the War Walls in-character.
We don't need a zoneless environment, it's way too bandwidth heavy already.
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Well, there was a little noise about bringing them down -
And shortly after that, we had the Invasion issue with the Rikti return, so I think it was more a PR stunt/some fun by the devs with those of us on the forums. 
That said, I don't see a zone merge of any sort happening. *shrug* Just me.
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So hows about removing the Force Walls and extending the zones out to 'Ring Roads' of highways which can act as the zone borders?
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Two problems with that:
One is the plotline. We need the War Walls now more than ever, because the Rikti have established a partial portal back to their homeworld and are doing occasional raids on the zones. The only way they can raid is if they take down the war walls, but we're safe when they're up.
The other is practical. Making a new zone is not trivial. What you're asking for is making the equivalent of several new zones - I'd say AT LEAST three or four, to fill in the area between the zones as they are, and for what? Zone-less terrain isn't all that great, anyway. Not to mention all the limitations on zone preloading and how that interacts with speed of travel and so on.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Not to mention all the limitations on zone preloading and how that interacts with speed of travel and so on.
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This. Other games can get away with non-instanced worlds because player characters in those games don't have Super Speed.
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Not to mention all the limitations on zone preloading and how that interacts with speed of travel and so on.
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This. Other games can get away with non-instanced worlds because player characters in those games don't have Super Speed.
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Plus, there's no flight.
Not to nit-pick, but ever really LOOK at WoW's graphics? They're shoddy at best. The surfaces are one-way, most of the stuff doesn't actually EXIST, but you just assume it's there because there's no way to actually SEE it.
In City of Heroes, that doesn't fly. You can go damn-near anywhere in the entire game. We dont' have the luxury of being able to cut down bandwith via shoddy modeling.
(actually all of our stuff is one-way too, if you've ever gotten behind the walls it's just got a much higher detail level.)
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
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(actually all of our stuff is one-way too, if you've ever gotten behind the walls it's just got a much higher detail level.)
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However, much of WoW is made up of a single sheet of height-mapped terrain, whereas our terrain... Doesn't really work like this. It's a lot easier to do this in a medieval setting, where you can have a wavy, grassy ground span in all directions and have trees hug its shape and shacks built into the slopes, with cities built on a flat plain with "building props." It's actually a lot like the old Earth 2150 Map Editor, if you've worked with it.
A contemporary city doesn't conform to terrain - terrain conforms to the city. A contemporary city also doesn't sport much in the way of open raw earth and what grassy parks do exist tend to be man-made (and so flat or stepped) anyway. You can't take a modern-day metropolis and "bend" it over a hill and a valley, as a city being built would have hidden any trace of the underlying terrain, anyway.
Most Fantasy MMOs are comprised of 95% "wilderness," 5% "locations." This allows them to be big, as wilderness can be relatively simple. City of heroes is 5% wilderness, 95% locations, meaning most of the game's land area is designed with intricate detail in it, not as just a flat plain with props on it. Even Croatoa doesn't really fit that description.
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Originally Posted by Arcanaville
Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.
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Ew, yeah you're right, I hadn't thought of that. Even our rocks and trees and lumpy bits are formed from multiple pieces of grid.
*yet another reason why I like our game more*...
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
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Something I'd love to see in a CoH 2 if such ever gets made (And I would definitely buy it if it did, just saying 
) but to change such a fundamental part of the game after five years would be a mistake in my opinion. There's just so much that'd have to be twisted around to work under the new system, that it'd be like making a new game. And if they're willing to go to that kind of effort, they might as well just start making CoH 2 instead and be done with it.
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Ah... didn't know about the aliens return! Only been back actively playing for 2 wks or so.
Good points about the mapping. WoW would look terrible if you could fly about the main world esp the Cities cos they are not build the same way CoH places are; anyone ever use the old WoW Map viewer will know what I mean.
Still it would be a grand day to see Paragon without the Walls. Guess I have some aliens to beat up first....
I think it might be fun to see a nice render of it, artistically, but for playing - when they first announced the "removal" thing, my heart went cold. ... Because at least one of my characters has a backstory that they fell - so this now was something that I'd be seeing first hand. So every time the force walls power down, I just get the chills.
If you have "hero" or "villain" side events announcements listed in your chat channel (change it so you do!) you will see a purple announcement about what zone a Rikti raid is happening in. Every time a Lady Grey Task Force is completed successfully a random zone gets invaded. Sometimes you're there already, but sometimes you have to actually head there.
But if you're there when the announcement is made... you HEAR it happening. And then the air raid sirens.
It's spooky as hell.
Please read my FEAR/Portal/HalfLife Fan Fiction!
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Not been back in the COH game long but I was suprised the Force Walls are still in place in some City zones. I would have thought the threat/need to have them was gone now - though I admit to not being totally up with the 'storyline'.
So hows about removing the Force Walls and extending the zones out to 'Ring Roads' of highways which can act as the zone borders?
Could this be a good way of 'reinventing' or even merging some close together zones?