Comments on: Airlocks

By: Touring Zangarmarsh | Kill Ten Rats

Touring Zangarmarsh | Kill Ten Rats — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:04:08 +0000

[...] the thorn-vine airlock on the edge of the Hellfire Peninsula, the transition is rather jarring. You move from a devastated [...]

By: webrunner

webrunner — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:01:59 +0000

Outland is/was one planet, it’s just been wracked by magical energy. The overall layout matches what was known of Outland before the portal storms, too.

On the main topic, one weird counterexample to the way that zones normally work is Borean Tundra, which is made up of several discontinuous subzones with (excepting Coldarra) no “gateways” between them. You just crest a hill then suddenly the grasslands give way to steam pools or muck-filled ravines. Even looking at the map gives the same patchwork impression as Wow does as a whole. In fact, it even softens the “hard edge” to Dragonblight by starting the snow much earlier: just after the Taunka Village, before Death’s Stand.

By: Ikew

Ikew — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:03:17 +0000

Outland is a special case, since it’s REALLY is a patchworld at the edges of reality. I dont think that the zones it’s made of are really adjacent in classic geographic terms – they are probably still located on their original planets and the “borders” between them are just miles wide (or, infinite) planes of loose portal magic – remnants of the world-tearing spells cast at the end of warcraft 2. How do you measure distance when portals exist anyway? The distance from Stormwind to Irongorge is exactly the distance to the closest friendly mage lvl 40+. Hell, Zangarmarsh and HP dont even have to be in the same galaxy to be neighbours in the Outland.

And that’s why outland rocks.

By: Syncaine

Syncaine — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:28:38 +0000

DarkFall, being huge and seamless, also uses the AC approach. You can see the transition of the areas, but it never gives off that ‘you are now entering a new zone’ feel. They also save the most extreme changes (snow, desert, badlands, jungle) for the four large islands in the corners, while the very center of the map is a very fitting black/dark area that gives off an ominous feel when you get near it.

By: Eckyman

Eckyman — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:43:28 +0000

The transition between Hellfire Peninsula and Zangarmarsh always used to bug me when I flew over it.

By: Pitrelli

Pitrelli — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:37:34 +0000

Hmm interesting post, I hadnt really thought about it or indeed noticed it before but you are right. As you state the best example of this is the use of tunnels outside dun morogh.