22nd July 2005, 4:53 PM
GR, I did in fact state from the start that it was infeasible.
Warping is fine but the idea is you have to at least traverse that large expansion once before you can use the warp. That's where the age old concept of "you can teleport to any place you've already been to" comes in, and generally it doesn't hurt immersion.
Now that said, the area has to at least be fun for that first trip through, no matter how large it may be. I recall the eternally hated Quest 64, wherein there was a tunnel that led straight from an early town across the world to the next town. The tunnel was long, massively long, long enough to resemble an ACTUAL tunnel. It took days to traverse the length of it and get to the otehr side. It didn't help that it was filled with random battles.
Now, a tunnel system of that scale isn't really a bad thing off the bat, but this was a straight shot, no real side paths, nothing hidden at all, and the only thing you had to do with your time was worry about the next battle killing you outright. Suffice it to say, it was boring and is one of the more memorable experiences that led me to conclude that Quest 64 was poorly designed.
Warping is fine but the idea is you have to at least traverse that large expansion once before you can use the warp. That's where the age old concept of "you can teleport to any place you've already been to" comes in, and generally it doesn't hurt immersion.
Now that said, the area has to at least be fun for that first trip through, no matter how large it may be. I recall the eternally hated Quest 64, wherein there was a tunnel that led straight from an early town across the world to the next town. The tunnel was long, massively long, long enough to resemble an ACTUAL tunnel. It took days to traverse the length of it and get to the otehr side. It didn't help that it was filled with random battles.
Now, a tunnel system of that scale isn't really a bad thing off the bat, but this was a straight shot, no real side paths, nothing hidden at all, and the only thing you had to do with your time was worry about the next battle killing you outright. Suffice it to say, it was boring and is one of the more memorable experiences that led me to conclude that Quest 64 was poorly designed.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)