I really, do not care, whatsoever about the existence of the Garrison. It is essentially Eternal Crusade's version of the VR Training area in Planetside 2. No actual combat goes on there. Nothing is gained, won or lost by being there. The only reason to go there is to test things in a safe environment. If they are planning an open area 10km by 10km, without instance borders to cross and such, for players to fight over, filled with the game's world, then my next question is one I will deliver with more emphasis than anything I have ever asked before on this forum. Why... the hell... are you not LEADING with that information when you talk about your plans regarding the game's status as an MMO? That is roughly the size of an entire continent in World of Warcraft. This plan is literally more important than any information about progression, items, or anything else you could possibly have talked about. And now my follow on statement is the following, which I have been saving up for years since I read the 120+ page locked thread where Nathan argued with people regarding Miguel's plans and the two ALMOST reached the point I'm about to make. There are quite clearly two very, very, VERY different definitions of an "open world" as it regards MMOs. One is used by developers. The other is used by players with no knowledge of game development. Developers do not actually consider WoW to be an "open world" MMO, because of the dungeon/raid/battleground instances and the separation between continents. Yet, if you tell an MMO fan, who has never developed a game in their life, that WoW is not actually a game with an actual open world, they will call you crazy and ask what the hell you're talking about. Because to an MMO fan, WoW absolutely is an open world game to a degree which is not questionable. The fact that there are instances and different continents which require loading screens does not, in a player's eyes, make WoW incapable of being an open-world game. Essentially, what I am saying here, very clearly, is that the developers' definition of an open world, is apparently much, much more restrictive than the one players use when talking about an open world MMO. To a player, instances, with loading screens, do not damage the concept when they're clearly needed for the game to work right. Players know that dungeons and raids need to be instanced to have tons of players running them simultaneously. So they call anything sealed off from the world by an instance portal like that "instanced." The world outside, where the major portion of the game is played, in WoW, is literally called by its players, "the open world". That is the literal name of every part of the game world you don't go into an instance for. The part where you coexist with all the fellow players on your server. If Eternal Crusade provides a 10km by 10km area without loading screens for players to spend the majority of time fighting over, I am completely, fully, absolutely confident that no player without a background in game development would be able to tell the difference between that, and an actual open world MMO shooter, just because you have to take a loading screen to get to the PvE content. Many of them will not even realize that that version of Eternal Crusade is NOT open world.
I gave it just as comparison reference, nothing more. Can't agree more on that. Sadly, the way I translate Nathan's interview it's a 1-3 years in the future.
Frankly, this kind of difference in what a word means to experts, and what is means to a layperson, is the reason why scientists are so bad at talking to the public. Because when a scientist talks, they are considering what they say with the benefit of their expertise in what those things mean. And thanks to the efforts of bad science fiction over the years, the public at large has a very, very different understanding of what things mean. Have you ever watched the actual interview regarding the Large Hadron Collider where we found out that it might create black holes, and the world spent the next year or two freaking the hell out over the thought that the Large Hadron Collider might literally destroy the entire planet at any moment? When you observe the scientist repling to that reporter that yes, the Large Hadron Collider might create black holes... did you notice that he did not seem concerned whatsoever about that possibility? There was no fear in his voice, no sense that the information he was imparting might cause a global panic for months? Frankly, that lack of concern was because what he is saying, and what everyone else is hearing, are two different things. Everyone else heard "black hole" and pictured the Earth being swallowed into nothingness. That scientist? He said "black hole" and pictured a singularity with the mass of two protons that would evaporate within nanoseconds of its creation and likely never drift close enough to another piece of matter to absorb a single thing before it winked out of existence faster than any human could have known it was there. To a scientist in a relevant field of physics, a black hole created by two colliding atoms is not a threat, in any way, shape, or form to Earth. And frankly, it is likely that such black holes have been being created every day for billions of years of Earth's history, because collisions more powerful than what the LHC can produce happen every. Damned. Day. In our own atmosphere. The reason he did not think to clarify, is because he did not consider that the assembled reporters and everyone watching home did not know the reality of black holes that small. He did not consider that people watching his statement would only know black holes from scientifically inaccurate movies that do not depict anything at all like what the reality was. He did not know that what he was thinking he was telling people, would not actually be what was heard.
Hmm I think community would also agree that 20 well done maps are better than 10 badly done ones, wouldn't they ? And no, they didn't do it this way because the 'community' told them so, they did it because that's all they could do. BHVR's interaction with community is piss poor.
Yea I don't recall having a say in the matter lol. I just recall being told that was their reasoning behind having so few maps and not doing an open world.
Still better than the company that licensed the IP used to make Eternal Crusade. I think that's as low as you can set the bar though. Any lower and I think the company would have to be physically assaulting their customers in their homes for lunch money, and I think the cops would shut that down quick.
Maybe not cops but definitely some consumer rights representative should look into BHVR's dealings, hope it will happen one day.
