01-07-2004, 01:09 PM
Yeah, that's something I hope we'll see more of in WOW. SWG was a new level in bland landscape. Like a whole universe of nothing but South Karana.
I still have a soft spot for Innothule Swamp. I remember in EQ beta they had the fog turned up so much that you would lose sight of the guard's campfire after about 20 feet. Even though they lifted the fog for release, it was still a big and confusing swampy zone with shallow pools and such. And you can't NOT marvel at the design of UGuk/LGuk. The passages all twist and come together for such a complex level design that you just don't get in any other MMORPG.
As we've said before, the one big thing EQ did right was the level designs. Monsters and combat aside, the layout of some of these dungeons is just fantastic. And while I always thought EQ had dungeon pathing problems, it turns out that damn near every other game does it worse.
So back to WOW, I figure surely, in the name of all that is good and nice, surely Blizzard understands level design, gaming for fun action and pathing AI.
I may be able to put up with a number of crappy leveling schemes if they can at least give me a good and varied environment and some fun combat to do in it.
I still have a soft spot for Innothule Swamp. I remember in EQ beta they had the fog turned up so much that you would lose sight of the guard's campfire after about 20 feet. Even though they lifted the fog for release, it was still a big and confusing swampy zone with shallow pools and such. And you can't NOT marvel at the design of UGuk/LGuk. The passages all twist and come together for such a complex level design that you just don't get in any other MMORPG.
As we've said before, the one big thing EQ did right was the level designs. Monsters and combat aside, the layout of some of these dungeons is just fantastic. And while I always thought EQ had dungeon pathing problems, it turns out that damn near every other game does it worse.
So back to WOW, I figure surely, in the name of all that is good and nice, surely Blizzard understands level design, gaming for fun action and pathing AI.
I may be able to put up with a number of crappy leveling schemes if they can at least give me a good and varied environment and some fun combat to do in it.