next »

[Nasorin]

Sure it would, but how much faster will it be in comparison to flying classes already?  And is there any way for it to be seamless zoning if you're on a flying mount, but regular zoning in every other instance?

[DragonSnail]

Without seamless zones, no freedom flying feeling, so no steerable mounts needed. That means, taxi-mounts or only "flight" spells.

[Nasorin]

Right... but could the taxi mount have a boolean property that engaged seamless zoning for that character while "riding" said mount?

[DragonSnail]

I don't know if it's possible, will have to ask Nauk about that. Though I rather fear the answer is negative - the loading process will still be the same when entering a new zone, I don't think it can be done any differently just because you zone at a different area or different altitude. I might be wrong, of course. 

[Nasorin]

I don't mean as a T/F for your location, but rather as a temporary character flag.  There can be a set number of mounts per city, so you never have to worry about overloading the server with too many people doing "seamless" zones at the same time.  You only have to worry about (using an example with three cities - A, B, and C) traffic going through the zones from City_A to City_B and from City_B to City_C that are temp-flagged for seamless zoning.  If each city only has five mounts going from each city to the next, City_A would have five mounts, City_B would have ten mounts (as it is in the middle of A and C), and City_C would have five mounts.  Characters can wait for the next available flying mount (which they have to pay for)... so you never have to worry about more than 20 people at a time, and you know for a fact when and where they will be zoning, because the speed of the mount is up to the system, the path of the mount is according to the system, and the zone lines are according to the system.  Seems easy enough to me... of course, I'm not the coder .

[Renswind]

just give me a broom and im happy 

[DragonSnail]

The problem here is not as much the stress on the server as the process of the coding. If we made seamless zoning possible for the flying mounts, well, then we already have it implemented and may as well use it for the rest of the people as well. It's all the work UP TO that point that is the major problem, and what will, if we go for it, delay the launch of the game with decades. Or so. 

[Nasorin]

The problem with mass seamless zoning is that only the top notch, state of the art computers will be able to handle it without lag.  And I think we can all agree lag ruins immersion.

[Jaezzy]

WoW already did this - it's not a big deal for the client to handle.  Then again, what WoW did was a big honking huge zone (e.g.: continent) with smaller sub'zones' that are seamless... or Super/sub zones, if you will.

So it CAN be done. It HAS been done already.  The problem is, as has already been stated, all of the development work - mostly the zone layout and artwork, that makes it such a pain.

[Blackbast]

Istaria made a seemless world that is able to be loaded by lower-end systems, and they have a flying playable race (dragon)...it might be something to look into for ideas. The dragons start out as hatchlings that can only jump, not fly (cutest little bunny hops!!), then you go through a right-of-passage to become an adult, and gain the ability to fly up to a preset height. Later you can do another right-of-passage to become an ancient and be able to fly even higher. Makes exploring loads of fun when you become an adult and can fly out to that island instead of taking the boat!

[DragonSnail]

Yep, I think we can all agree that it would be loads of fun to have seamless zones, everyone apart from the coder who would have to code it all. Vanguard tried to do the seamless zone thingie, and ye...gods... that was a horrible fiasco when they launched. I think they pretty much got it covered now, but they lost a LOT of players due to countless bugs (because the morons where pressed into launching too early). But yes, with enough time and coders we should be able to pull it off, but it will not be first priority. Not even second or third. 

[Nasorin]

I like the idea of a flight progression, Blackbast.