"Planet" Tyria is very, very small. - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

AnAdventChild

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jun 2008

Long Beach, California

Crew to the Extreme [CREW]

A/E

30 Jun 2008 at 08:11 - 41

Quote:

Originally Posted by Operative 14

About six months ago, in a thread (sorry for it highlighting the word miles BTW, that was my search term) in Riverside, I estimated that the size of Elona was only about 5 miles, East to West, by 4 miles, North to South. That was all based on estimation, but still, it showed just how tiny the portion of Tyria we have access to is. I live in a city that is about 40 miles across (just measured it on Google earth

) So even if my measurements were off by a long shot, the portion of Tyria that we have access to is a tiny, tiny space in comparison to our world.

I think this shows that there is a lot of room for expansion in further GW chapters.

Exactly. I'm a writer, and I've recently gotten into writing about Guild Wars and it's lore. So far I've written 1 complete expansion about the origin of the Margonites. The game begins in that little green area between the Southern Shiverpeaks and the Crystal Desert. It's about their origin and how they were outcast and went in search of Ascension and failed, and how they Migrated south to Elona and how Abaddon then corrupted them and turned them into his demonic servants. This expansion I wrote includes 200 quests total, 50 of them primary, and 50 missions. It takes place all over the Crystal Desert, that little green area, the South Shiverpeaks, and all over the Elonian Mainland. You'd play as any profession, but in the body of a Margonite. I developed new weapons and armor as well. No skills, just an elite campaign. And definitely the longest and largest. If you noticed on Elona, on the Western coast, you can see like a volcano-ish island. The game ends there. I've found that 5% of Tyrian map filler would be filled, and half of the filler in Elona? Fresh towns and explorable areas. The campaign would introduce 4 big towns and 30 small ones. And a bunch of explorable areas with monsters native to that region, but I have created several new monsters for some Elonian areas and for that little green area. If released, I think that campaign would be a smash hit.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

30 Jun 2008 at 18:50 - 42

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnAdventChild

Exactly. I'm a writer, and I've recently gotten into writing about Guild Wars and it's lore. So far I've written 1 complete expansion about the origin of the Margonites. The game begins in that little green area between the Southern Shiverpeaks and the Crystal Desert. It's about their origin and how they were outcast and went in search of Ascension and failed, and how they Migrated south to Elona and how Abaddon then corrupted them and turned them into his demonic servants. This expansion I wrote includes 200 quests total, 50 of them primary, and 50 missions. It takes place all over the Crystal Desert, that little green area, the South Shiverpeaks, and all over the Elonian Mainland. You'd play as any profession, but in the body of a Margonite. I developed new weapons and armor as well. No skills, just an elite campaign. And definitely the longest and largest. If you noticed on Elona, on the Western coast, you can see like a volcano-ish island. The game ends there. I've found that 5% of Tyrian map filler would be filled, and half of the filler in Elona? Fresh towns and explorable areas. The campaign would introduce 4 big towns and 30 small ones. And a bunch of explorable areas with monsters native to that region, but I have created several new monsters for some Elonian areas and for that little green area. If released, I think that campaign would be a smash hit.

If you send that to ANet, they might reconsider not adding any expansions to GW1. Of course if that happens, it will be after GW2

. Although, I can tell you thats more of a fan-fiction then lore, as it seems your making things up, but those such things could turn out to be useful in expanding the lore. Again, if I was you, I'd send to ANet.

Bob Grunter

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2007

Pennsylvania

Order of Unity [LaZy]

W/

27 Jul 2008 at 23:21 - 43

cant wait to see more of tyria in guild wars 2

Murmel

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Mar 2008

Land of Confusion

[swea]

W/

27 Jul 2008 at 23:31 - 44

But damn A-Net if the remove Fast-Travel

If so they just lost a player.

But on-topic.

Yeah, the world seems really small when you tihnk about it.
But as others have mentioned, it's probably only a fraction of what is really there.

Sirius-NZ

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2007

Bellevue, WA (I know ... but I moved out of NZ)

Xen of Onslaught

D/

28 Jul 2008 at 12:23 - 45

Map travel is staying, I'm sure they confirmed that.

Master Ketsu

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

middle of nowhere

Krazy Guild With Krazy People [KrZy]

R/

28 Jul 2008 at 20:15 - 46

The only way I can see a mmo using a full real world size would be using the torque engine or similar...which really isn't that great of a game engine :P

Woop Shotty

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2006

Ruthless Mafia [RM]

Mo/

29 Jul 2008 at 12:28 - 47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Master Ketsu

The only way I can see a mmo using a full real world size would be using the torque engine or similar...which really isn't that great of a game engine :P

The upside is to be able to play the port on the iPhone, even though it would last a few minutes before the battery was out.

Planet-yrium

Monkey Slayer

Academy Page

Join Date: Nov 2007

29 Jul 2008 at 18:38 - 48

Quote:

Originally Posted by NecroticChanter

On the other side of the world is Azeroth.

QFT.

OT: I honestly hope that they make Orr a large area full of NEW content, and not reskins of old content, like they did with EotN. *shame on you ArenaNet. Thought you were different from Blizzard*

Limu Tolkki

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Dec 2006

Hate The [Cape]

E/

30 Aug 2008 at 14:30 - 49

If its going to tyrian map in gw2 i hope anet is going to change the map scale so it actually would be larger than in gw1.

mazey vorstagg

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Aug 2006

Nodnol

Meeting of Lost Minds

E/Mo

30 Aug 2008 at 16:04 - 50

Well, GW2 will have a new engine, so they'll most likely remake all the models again. Therefore, they won't just have reskins of GW1 stuff. I suspect Orr will be pretty large and mostly an elite dungeon.

Apparently dragonoid corsairs and undead patrol the walls of a beautiful (if destroyed by the sea) city filled with twisting spires and domed roofs. Sounds new to me? Perhaps a little Vabbian in style...

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2005

[CRFH]

31 Aug 2008 at 15:29 - 51

Given that Orr was implied (through the voice and clothing of the Vizier) to have something of a Middle Eastern nature, that wouldn't surprise me at all...

Benderama

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jul 2008

UK

[Rage]

Rt/

07 Sep 2008 at 19:07 - 52

i know this is kinda off topic but- is tyria the biggest continent?
it seemed to me that it was when i had prophecies, but then in EN the width of the shiverpeaks seems to be half of what they are down south, or are there none of those pointless-whichever-way-you-look-at-it obstacles in EN?
if they re-addedd cantha or elona to GW2 it would be nice to see those tropical crescent shaped islands on the northern part of elona, and to see whataveres in the other half of kaineng city

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2005

[CRFH]

08 Sep 2008 at 03:56 - 53

Certainly, EOTN does seem to be less afraid to have wide open spaces than Prophecies...

Sasuke6060

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jul 2008

N/Rt

09 Sep 2008 at 10:47 - 54

i must say... i hope that TYRIA isnt that smal... mayb in GW 2 we get to see more (if not ALL) of tyria and get too explore it :P. Either way, with such a SMALL tyria, still hard for me to get grandmaster cartographer :P

Sirius-NZ

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Oct 2007

Bellevue, WA (I know ... but I moved out of NZ)

Xen of Onslaught

D/

13 Sep 2008 at 13:21 - 55

Prophecies tried to keep the draw distance down without resorting to obvious depth culling, from what I can tell. It's mainly a system requirements thing. By the time of EotN most people's computers had improved enough to handle it, hence the added detail and more open areas.

At least, that's my theory.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

13 Sep 2008 at 18:09 - 56

If you're right Sirius, which I hope you are, that means Tyria will be much bigger in GW2

Sir Franz

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Sep 2007

R/

17 Sep 2008 at 01:25 - 57

The Barradin Estates description in pre says the dukes farm's are 200 hectars or 2 square kilometers in size, so they probably scaled down the explorable areas for easy of game play.

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2005

[CRFH]

17 Sep 2008 at 01:43 - 58

That also sounds like a scale we might be able to apply to the rest of the map...

...shame the Estate isn't available in post, but we could possibly figure it out. That said, 200 hectares doesn't sound like all that much for a duke's estate...

Demonstar

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Oct 2005

17 Sep 2008 at 02:18 - 59

lol the barridan estate wasn't really an estate. It was a building. With farm land.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

17 Sep 2008 at 03:06 - 60

This is good news. Time to take a pic of an explored Barridan Estate, then compare the length to post searing (do that by measuring a known spot that makes it to post, such as Ascalon City *or outside the city in post* or the gate distances *as the gates are in the same spot* seeing how Barridan's Estate is off the map in post).

I have yet another project to do... and this one I wouldn't mind someone else doing.

Gmr Leon

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

18 Sep 2008 at 00:43 - 61

Quote:

Originally Posted by Demonstar

lol the barridan estate wasn't really an estate. It was a building. With farm land.

And houses which are lived in by those he allows. That's generally what an estate of medieval dukes or lords was like back then. They had their main house, sometimes within it, and they oversaw the work of those they allowed to live on it and did this and that stuff that I'm not going to go into.

Operative 14

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Arizona, USA

[OOP] Order of the Phoenix I

18 Sep 2008 at 05:47 - 62

I wouldn't mind taking a whack at it, but where does the estate begin and end? If I remember correctly there is no boundary line we can look at to make a guess at where that 2 sq. kilometers begins and ends.

Time to hop back to Pre-searing and take a look.

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2005

[CRFH]

18 Sep 2008 at 06:35 - 63

Make an upper and lower guess. Then we can at least set bounds on the size of the Tyria map.

BrettM

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Aug 2008

Fuzzy Physics Institute

E/

18 Sep 2008 at 11:18 - 64

I would have assumed the whole of Green Hills County, as we knew it in Pre, constituted the estate. (Though, more strictly, "county" is the domain of a count or earl, not a duke.)

However, at the very least, the estate has to include all the land westward from the first farm to the western hills, and between the Wall and the portal to Wizard's Folly from north to south. All of that area contains permanent structures and much is under cultivation.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

18 Sep 2008 at 11:31 - 65

I'd say, to the east, it ends where the Earth Elementals stop spawning, at the farms.

For the west, I'm not sure, I'd have to take another look.

Skyy High

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: May 2006

R/

20 Sep 2008 at 19:03 - 66

Look at the map of Tyria that we have so far, on the first page of this thread. Notice how ridiculously narrow and tall it is. If the world is spherical, this implies that there is tons of space to the east and west left to fill in.

Joe Fierce

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Feb 2007

Disconnect the fascination

LF High End PvE Guild that's not filled with elitists.

R/

20 Sep 2008 at 20:44 - 67

Don't know if this has already been said but, here's my explanation to why tyria is so "small", it's figurativley small to us, but really the scaling isn't that far off, it's the pacing of the game, IT seems small because you can complete a campaign in a day and run a zone in like five minutes, but if you actually pay attention to the kindof speed set forth by the game, you'll realize it actually takes our character years in GW time to make it through a campaign. Say this isn't true? Well, I've got simple proof, it's as easy as looking at how much gwen has aged since you last saw her multiple campaigns ago before you meet her again in EOTN.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

20 Sep 2008 at 22:18 - 68

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyy High

Look at the map of Tyria that we have so far, on the first page of this thread. Notice how ridiculously narrow and tall it is. If the world is spherical, this implies that there is tons of space to the east and west left to fill in.

There would be a lot of space, about one or two continents in every direction. But of course, it might not be spherical

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe Fierce

Don't know if this has already been said but, here's my explanation to why tyria is so "small", it's figurativley small to us, but really the scaling isn't that far off, it's the pacing of the game, IT seems small because you can complete a campaign in a day and run a zone in like five minutes, but if you actually pay attention to the kindof speed set forth by the game, you'll realize it actually takes our character years in GW time to make it through a campaign. Say this isn't true? Well, I've got simple proof, it's as easy as looking at how much gwen has aged since you last saw her multiple campaigns ago before you meet her again in EOTN.

I don't think the campaigns take a year in full to complete. I'd say a few months, no more then half a year. As to your gwen comment, read the timeline. There is 3 years between the END of Factions/Prophecies (proph ends at the end of the season of the scion *fall basically* and factions seems to happen right after *that is, the mainland happens right after lich's death*). And then there is 1 year between the END of Nightfall and the beginning of Eye of the North.

Right there is 4 years, then there is the two years from pre-searing to post-searing. That is 6 years. Gwen in EN seems to be 18 or so, so that means 12 or so in pre, which is logical.

Prophecies and Factions together probably equals a whole year. Nightfall (from where elonian characters start) seems to be about 4-5 months at most (I think the first three missions, preparations of the attack and before, took 1-2 month length). For Nightfall, the later into the game, the faster pace it seems to be (I know I would rush to get out of the Realm of Torment if I was in there).

Free Runner

Forge Runner

Join Date: Oct 2005

GW2G

Knights Of The Sacred Light [KSL]

21 Sep 2008 at 09:46 - 69

I would think that Nightfall only lasted a few months (possibly 4 or 5) with Prophecies lasting over half a year (and then Factions taking place in the remaining months). The reason for the short adventures is not the size of each continent being small though - Factions and Nightfall are races against time, with Prophecies having a slower pace (since the Antagonist is pretty much moving with you)

Prophecies and Factions certainly cant take a year each as the timeline shows they started and ended in the same year, and reading Cynns quote in Factions about "not seeing this much trouble since the fire island chain", it would seem Factions took place immediatly after the Lichs defeat in Prophecies.

On the matter of the world being very small, I believe that the whole game is scaled down to allow more detail to go into things. A bigger world would also mean they have to cramp more monsters into areas and possibly put strain on players with very old computers.

creelie

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2007

Alberta

Charter Vanguard [CV]

Mo/

24 Sep 2008 at 13:20 - 70

Tyria is normal-sized, but our characters run at the speed of Story.

Operative 14

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Arizona, USA

[OOP] Order of the Phoenix I

24 Sep 2008 at 19:05 - 71

Even then though, if you consider the characters movement speed, how long would it take to simply walk from one end of the map to the other (I.E. like from Serenity Temple to Bloodstone Fen or Quarrel Falls)? Less than a day I'd think, even if you did have to stop and attack monsters along the way. Now think of how far you could walk (or run) in a day, and it would be a rather small distance compared to the surface of an entire planet.

I wouldn't say Tyria is physically any larger than a good sized city on Earth, but the storyline and environments infers the area you have access to is much larger.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

02 Oct 2008 at 18:21 - 72

Here is something new to use to measure the distance of Tyria. A bit smaller measurement but also a bit more precise.

Scorpion Wire:
Shadow Step to target foe and cause knock-down the next time this foe is more than 100' away from you.

Wiki Notes:
"100 feet" is wand range or 1/3 radar range. (approximately 1.2 danger zone radius).

Although it won't be in metric so mostly only americans will know what distance that is, it can still be measured.

I'm very busy this weekend and still have projects to do afterwards so I cannot get to this right now, BUT, how to do this, imo, would be to measure one area in terms of radar distances, then divide by 3 to get how many parts of 100' there are, then compare that length in a fully explored map (like one from wiki).

As it seems to me, the best place to go to measure the distance would be somewhere in EN or NF (as those areas are much more open).

This would take more time then the Barriden Estate measurement, but it would be more precise, seeing how we don't know where the borders are.

Operative 14

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Arizona, USA

[OOP] Order of the Phoenix I

02 Oct 2008 at 20:48 - 73

A fellow already did that in the thread I linked to above, though I would be curious to see if you got similar or different results than him.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

02 Oct 2008 at 22:43 - 74

The only link I saw was to a thread you made which was measuring the distance of Elona via foot strides, which is an estimation in the size of foot strides and therefore very fallible to error. Not to mention the scaling is not to real-world standards.

I'm looking through that thread to find a post on using scorpion wire to measure.

But basically, radar=300 feet, according to the scorpion wire skill. So Let's see where that gets us, I'll try to go do a quick thing outside Ascalon city, measure 300 feet, then expand it on a Tyria map and whatnot....

I'll get back to this tomorrow or something. Maybe just later today, I got nothing to do now it seems so.

Edit: A Sample of the 300 feet comparison:

That line does not look like 300 feet in game play at all...

Another Edit:

Approx. width of explorable width of Crystal Desert=a little over 4800 feet.

This is going by a little faster then I thought. I might have the whole Tyrian width and length (including EN) within a couple hours.

Operative 14

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2006

Arizona, USA

[OOP] Order of the Phoenix I

03 Oct 2008 at 02:29 - 75

Look on the second page, Max Gladius was the one that did it based on Scorpion Wire and associated relationships to other map markers.

It looks as though you're coming up with a similar measurement and scale to what he had. Which is understandable, but interesting also.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

03 Oct 2008 at 03:50 - 76

A while ago I got Tyria's Width and Length done. Didn't feel like posting it yet, but I might as well.

Image is big and speaks for itself.

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/j...nceofTyria.jpg

Errr... the image is big pre-uploading it... now it is unreadable >.<

For those who cannot read:
Each spot of yellow text, with two exceptions (lowest on verticle and farthest to the right on horizontal) say Approx. 7500 Feet.

Lowest on Verticle says Approx 6600 Feet.

Farthest to the right on Horizontal says Approx 2400 Feet.

The white text says:
Total Width of Tyrian Map:
Approx 32700 Feet (Probably a little less) (6.19338 Miles) (9.96696 Kilometers)

Total Legnth of Tyrian Map:
Approx 26900 Feet (Probably a little less) (6.98886 Miles) (11.24712 Kilometers)

For some reason, that all just doesn't seem right. Probably because of how close the numbers are for width and length compared to how they look... ehhhh

A11Eur0

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

W/

03 Oct 2008 at 06:43 - 77

It's a game.

Now that THAT is out of the way:

Imagine that every dimension you can measure in the game is multiplied by a constant. All the game is doing is attenuating the time it takes to cover certain things. You run from one town to another...perhaps this journey would take weeks in a real world...but for brevity's sake it scales it down to something someone can actually enjoy while playing...dare I say it...A GAME.

I don't want to play a game where it takes weeks of actual gameplay to get from one objective to another. Sorry...if you want to do that...turn off the computer and actually live life.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

03 Oct 2008 at 07:18 - 78

Quote:

Originally Posted by A11Eur0

It's a game.

Now that THAT is out of the way:

Imagine that every dimension you can measure in the game is multiplied by a constant. All the game is doing is attenuating the time it takes to cover certain things. You run from one town to another...perhaps this journey would take weeks in a real world...but for brevity's sake it scales it down to something someone can actually enjoy while playing...dare I say it...A GAME.

I don't want to play a game where it takes weeks of actual gameplay to get from one objective to another. Sorry...if you want to do that...turn off the computer and actually live life.

While it is no mystery that it is scaled down, the point was to see where it was scaled down too. about 6 miles by 7 miles is not big for a continent obviously, I'd say it's about 10-100 fold the size of what it actually is. We don't say we want to take weeks to do something, we're just figuring out how big the world is, with it's current scaling.

Anyways, please don't post any "it's just a game" posts in the lore forum. The purpose of this is to look into it as more then a game. That way (if the ANet staff ever reads this stuff), the storyline and lore can be improved from ideas and theories posted here. That is, like I said, if ANet staff ever reads the lore forums.

Saying "it's just a game" in a lore forum is basically saying "it's just pixels" to those who stare at the naked characters in pre. Pointless to state and Obvious.

draxynnic

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Nov 2005

[CRFH]

07 Oct 2008 at 02:59 - 79

Although we at least like to think we have a bit more class than the pixel-starers...

Also, as a comment: Most people in countries that have converted to metric still have at least a rough concept of the Imperial system. A foot is approximately thirty centimetres. A mile is approximately 1.6 kilometres. There are approximately 2.2 pounds to the kilogram.

This is doubly so for people who are interested in fantasy RPGs or fantasy in general, which tend to use imperial measurements.

In short, it's a bit patronising to say that only Americans are likely to understand measurements in feet - I'd imagine that there are very few if any people reading this forum who can't visualise a distance in feet, whether directly or by mentally converting it to metric.

Konig Des Todes

Ooo, pretty flower

Join Date: Jan 2008

Citadel of the Decayed

The Archivists' Sanctum [Lore]

N/

07 Oct 2008 at 04:25 - 80

Err, who is this directed to? Because I for one never said anything about non-americans not knowing about the imperial system, or how to convert. And although I recall someone else saying such, I cannot find where.

And pixel-starers? Ya lost me...