Average Critical Complaint

[Midgarsormr]

The areas sure are beautiful. Yeah... so vast... so wide... wait, where the hell am I going? Where am I? I was just... uh... hm...

NCsoft is definitely putting in the time to make the areas very interesting and appealing in different ways, and I understand that this is their MMO style, but why the hell are the areas so wide? It seems like they go on forever and forever. I've never played an MMO feeling the need to be so wide (never played L2). It seems like a distraction, not a help to the game.

We've all seen the Sanctum walkthrough videos:

YouTube - Aion - Sanctum Tour

That's just one example. There's a ton of pictures with characters in areas that seem to go on forever, but with an unnecessary reason. Sure it's pretty, but it's so unnecessarily huge. Couldn't their time be spent on making areas a bit smaller, while adding more instead? So that they look more appealing because things won't seem so stretched.

Maybe it's just my eyes, or the video's, or how every picture has the character as far away as possible. A different way I could explain this complaint is, can someone explain to me why NCsoft likes their areas to be insanely and unnecessarily huge, without being completely filled out? I'm sure it has something to do with giving enough room for various conflicts, like PvP'ing, room for flying, etc.

[Kattrina]

I certainly don't know if I'd call that a critical complaint. It is the way it is. I don't think at this stage I'd ask NCSoft to completely remodel Sanctum to make it smaller. Windurst in FFXI was huge, and my friend told me a story about how he spent his first 3 days lost in the maze like city.

Once people get used to it, I'm sure it'll become less of an issue. What I would like to see though is some kind of a movement buff or item people can get at a certain level. Traveling around, especially in a big city, might become tedious if forced to move about at walking speed all the time.

[lyankyj]

WWWHHHAATT?

I complain all the time because they are somewhat small and too linear (well, the latter one is buggin me more).

I just feel when watching any vid (except Sanctum and the desert, ofc) that theres not enough room for that many players...

Yeah, capitals are huge, but since there will be personal shops..

Anyway, theyve said they will rearrange some stores in Sanctum for easier access and fewer walks.


The Bigger, The Better

[The Dreamer]

I like it big.

[Cynthe]

It feels like an actual city, they couldn't have done it better imo.

[Aeshec]

I see your point Midgarsormr, but I have to say that I like it big. For some reason I love areas so big that you can get lost.

[Midgarsormr]

*Scratches head*... guess you could put it that way... check out the desert:

YouTube - Aion CBT2 News Desert Place

Wasteful size, don't you think?

[AznKenshin]

You may not be specifically refering to Sanctum, but keep in mind it is the capital city of Elysea. You're probably comparing this to the size of cities of previous MMOs.

At any rate, I have nothing against it -- only for it.

[Midgarsormr]

That may be true. Sanctum is x2 bigger than any other main city I've seen in a game. I find it so unnecessary because, well, why do you need that much room? There won't be enough stores to fill up all those areas. And if there are, they're just duplicates.

[lyankyj]

Originally Posted by Midgarsormr

That may be true. Sanctum is x2 bigger than any other main city I've seen in a game. I find it so unnecessary because, well, why do you need that much room? There won't be enough stores to fill up all those areas. And if there are, they're just duplicates.

personal shops, crafters, etcetc.

[Azhidaahaka]

The size is certainly fine with me I'd personally perfer not to go and visit a city and have it feel like I'm playing L2 again where there is around 200 or more personal shops filling the entire town and lagging you to hell as you try and move around to go talk to an NPC or something.

Only thing that might get annoying is how far apart the mobs seemed to be in that desert clip, it could get a tad annoying if you have to run for a minute from mob to mob.

[eVenom]

I don't really care all that much. Bigger is better than being too small. At least I think of it like that.

[Drache]

gettin lost in game is fine with me, the bigger the better. Not being forced to be in one area all the time is refreshing.

[Frein]

I don't really see the issue. Size only becomes problematic when you're constantly running between shops and banks and whatnot and it's taking you ages to get anything done because the distances are so great.

A wide open world is ideal for creating immersion as you aren't confined into a kind of "playing area" that is easily noticed by the player.

[Kaldur]

It may look big, but once the thousands, and thousands of players who are going to populate these places are in there, I bet you will be begging for more space to breathe in.