Guild Wars 2

[It’s worth pointing out upfront I’m not a programmer, and have little xp with it. More on the side of webdesign then C++. My thoughts are brainstorming ideas for guild hall capacity, to try and think inside the box,, so to speak.]

Think of a cube: height, width, depth. Now think of five cubes stacked on each other. Take those five cubes and place them inside another big cube. That big cube is the guild hall. Those five cubes are the 5 different levels(height). Each level could have its own zone(width&depth)any size, which allows for X amount of objects placed in it.

If zone A on level 1 were below Zone A on level 2, objects placed in either zones would not interfere with each other in regards to “too many objects close together”. Different levels would have their own max amount of objects(pretend 1000 per level).

Guild halls are so big it’s odd they were designed/programmed the way they are.

If you can’t even see the third level from the entrance waypoint in gilded hollow why can’t the max # of objects be increased or even doubled again? The argument for peoples computers- what they can handle when close to other objects, doesn’t hold water when those objects are far away and on different levels.

It seems very much more a problem of not coding/programming for zones and levels like this and instead of 5 cubes inside on big cube(like it could be designed) it’s just one big cube.

*I’m pretty sure there are more then 5 levels currently in guild halls. Even though World maps suggests there are only 3 or 4

**zones and levels would not have invisble walls, or be defined by unpassable walls. You could move around freely through the area if the art allowed you to.

I found this on reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/11mz4k/i_am_a_programmer_for_guild_wars_2_amaa/?st=ix51691y&sh=3b8e7847
I wonder if there is any such discussion or explanation in regards to how maps or guild halls are programmed? So I could understand better the reasons for the limitations.

This thread for gw2.com forums talks more about how game maps are square but not about how they are programmed or zoned for objects.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Why-Guild-Wars-2-is-the-most-Square-world/page/3

I agree that the overall structure limit in GHs is ridiculously tiny for how massive those halls are (GH is easily the largest map in the game due in no small part to its absolutely ridiculous verticality).

But back to your idea, I imagine that there engine is just not capable of separating the maps like you suggest. Furthermore, those local limits of too many objects in one area are in place to help people on lower end computers still be able to render the GH in a timely manner I believe. I can see these zones as either turning into something where they are too close together, and would allow for overwhelming some computers with too many objects to render in the same area, or being so far apart so as to not matter.

There would still be limits on the max number of objects placed in a zone/room, but i’m talking more about rooms next to each other. I can see how “zones” wouldn’t work if you had to render everything on the map. But what if you didn’t have to?
You already can adjust the LOD (the distance at which rendered objects transition through varying levels of detail.) under options on your game, so there is already a defined max distance. Objects beyond a certain threshold from your character should not be rendered.
Zones/rooms might be more effective for building like structures that have walls/ceilings/floors. You then wouldn’t have to render objects in the room next door, above or below if they aren’t visible from the room you’re in. ( but yeah the engine might work differently then that.)

As for levels, there are already 6 levels from the sea floor to the [Arena Tower Waypoint](more levels might be below the water but serves no purpose really as you can’t place objects underwater), based on the art ingame(even though anet broke it into just 3. And there are still more levels beyond that up to the roof!
Even those 3 levels should be capable of their own max limit, since viewable distance has a defined limit. Plus if roof objects aren’t visible from the [Central Hollow Waypoint]/entrance waypoint, then the max object limit should be much higher as objects at a certain distance would not need to be rendered.