Vista Zoning and Zoning 7

Ok, during GR beta we had some fun making cracks about Zoning 7 when Vista Zoning was having "problems".

I could actually see some great possibility for a "Zoning 7" however. Imagine taking all the zones in the game that you can get to via normal movement (run/fly/jump/teleport) and you take them all, sort them so they're adjacent without war walls (maybe with the ruins of some war walls that get destroyed during "The Coming Storm") and then you break down the entire area into hexagonal "blocks", each functioning as a mini-zone. When you're in such a Block, the game works on loading everything in the surrounding 6 Blocks in the background, with load priority shifting toward whichever blocks you're closest to. (With Hex-shaped Blocks, you get the block you're in plus the six surrounding you, hence "Zoning 7")

If this can be made to work correctly, then you end up using Vista zoning to go from hex to hex, but the hex you enter is already loaded in the computer memory, so you don't need a loading screen while it loads. Essentially you never have to deal with another loading screen again going from zone to zone, unless you do something like use Pocket D Transport or Mission Transporter, or use the train/ferry/Orouborous transport, giving you -for the most part- seamless transitions from one neighborhood to the next.

I know there's functional problems, for instance I'm sure Super Speeders would be able to run faster than the loading process currently, giving them even more loading screens (ugh), however I think it's a great concept to work towards, possibly for a couple years down the line.

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Dear NCsoft, if you go through with this shutdown you've guaranteed you'll not see another dime from me on any project you put out, ever.


http://xx-starhammer-xx.deviantart.com/

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=236701

*edit*
Link because everything I have to say on the subject is in there.

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