This is the most critical thing I have to say about Valiance, and it's not my game, so there's that.

Skyline (at least the map I'm running around in) appears to be about six square miles of land (correct me if I am wrong), which makes it around the same size as Lower Manhattan.

That just feels way too big. It's unrealistic to expect that much virtual space will be filled with meaningful development simply because it's so huge. Running around in Skyline, it felt like Steel Canyon -- an enormous space dotted with large structures that were just sort of there.

I would be so happy if the space was like 1/4 the size it is and there was more character--areas with restaurants, shops, even if we can't go in. It feels painfully sterile right now so I'm hoping that changes over time. Big zones can make a game feel so empty, and as a player, I like seeing other players.

I would think after seeing this game from the beginning that the zone/map starter area in alpha will look nothing like the final game. This alpha from what I've seen and I could be wrong is to integrate game systems together for everything to mesh well. You could kind of think of this alpha as a dev playground. And something they will build out and what we see now in alpha and only alpha is this zone where they throw everything at it and the kitchen sink to test things out.

Not all alpha ingame assets in will make it into the main game either so we are seeing all the not so good stuff that might be cut later so count it as privileged to see all the devs work. I'm very sure the artists vision for this game will be very good once completed. In the alpha too is all kinds of different models of buildings and structures and some look pretty strange. I think most of the assets would be cut altogether or integrated into other places or zones in the main game.

It's room to grow. Better to have unused areas down the road that people sometimes visit, rather than having everyone packed in like sardines.

When designing the map we originally brought up many pro's and con's for different styles of maps.

What it came down to is when you look at the pro's vs the con's its quite obvious that the pro's of a large map far out weigh the pro's of a small map and in comparison the con's of a large map are not as impactful as the con's of a small map.

Many game features we are planning and already have the foundation for require a reasonable map and we have never been really interested in heavy instancing of the world(yes we will have some instanced locations but we are not planning to have multiple 'shards' of the main map(while we know this is something that is unavoidable that does not mean we cant try to mitigate how common it will be).

An example of a game feature that takes advantage of the current areas size is the ability for coalitions to purchase and rent out skyscrapers, these would not be instanced locations, meaning each building can only be owned by one coalition at a time per server(if your interested in more detail on this it was in one of our livestreams, if I remember ill find the exact one and post it here.


You touched on how you feel about the current map, please be aware and other post on this thread already pointed it out, this is the alpha version of this section of the city(That means it is roughly one step above prototype). Many more sweeps and updates are to come constantly improving the map. The style in witch we are producing the map means that before we move to the next phase of that map the surrounding areas need to be planned to at minimum the prototype level. AKA we are trying to produce a map that feels like a complete city so we have to make sure each 'zone' flows together.

Map Stats:

Current map is roughly 2 mile x 3 mile (@HappyRobot you were right)
Next map expansion phase is 1.5 mile x 2.5 mile
Total City as laid out is 11 miles x 12 miles

cyanpill wrote:
Exactly.

If you want to meet other players there will be hot spots like in every other mmo.

I cant wait to see where players pick for their social hot spots! We are going to have a few natural locations and planned club style locations. But I really think some player will be the one who runs the hot spot.

I have a friend that is so exited about running a club in VO, he has his character planned, the name of the club, the business model and he knows the hot spot will be where all the best doctors, bartenders, cooks, dancers and musicians are so he has been recruiting RPers that are interested in joining his company!

This stuff really excites and drives me.

Jaximus wrote:
I want to visit this club!