Instancing Overhaul

[Red_Dragon]

Okay so hear me out.

Vetex needs to use instancing way more on the game, currently there’s a lot of severe lag and optimization issues runing rampant across servers for many people.

First off, what is instancing?
Lets take the example of Deepwoken:
Deepwoken uses instancing rather than having everything in one single experience / game location
Basically the depths, where you go after dying is a separate experience that you get moved to. This allows you to not have everything on one single map and this inherently allows for less lag
I’m not going to explain in details how those work because I’m not a roblox dev, i’d recommend looking at a tutorial online if you wanna learn more.

Why use instancing?
The game currently suffers from terrible optimization issues noticed by a major portion of the playerbase, instancing would allow us to split each sea into parts that would allow foor the sea to feel visibly larger.

Examples of lag
Underwater Volcanos

How would it apply to bosses?
Bosses should not share the same server as that of the regular ones, as it reduces the size of their arena & island for obvious reasons, this results in a less enjoyeable boss fight due to terrain destruction and a limited arena to move around freely. These boss fights should be instanced instead of being hosted within one singular server, this would include future bosses but also these current bosses:

• Argos & Fort Talos entirely
• Calvus
• Allanon
• Captain Maria
• Ceasar
• Ormulu
• Fenrir Raid (The boat specifically, would allow for a better sized fenrir.)
• Elius due to arguably having one of the worst fighting arenas.

Those bosses with instancing would have their own server and fighting arena

Okay, but what about the Dark Sea?

This has been said for a long time but the Dark Sea should be fully instanced too rather than being shared within a server. Yes its been said that the dark sea “apparently” does not cause lags.
What would instancing the Dark Sea allow?
It would allow to implement some regions system into it that would help fix floating points errors and (you don’t join a different instanced place every region it’d probably just teleport you backwards when you enter a new one) and also it’d allow for a more exploration oriented dark sea experience because i want exploration instead of just random spawns, add atlantean forts to dark sea and treasure charts.
Generally just allow a lot more content

So what about regular Sea’s/Regions?
This is my opinion regarding AO regions, the bronze sea should be split into region that are either instanced or spaced out as to allow for bigger islands to be modelled and therefore more exploration. I know this wouldn’t be easy but I just believe it would have been kind of better like this for the whole “adventure” aspect.

Okay, but what about Sky Islands like the Nimbus Wilds?

Sky Islands should have always been separated via instancing, so same answer there, sky islands should essentially be their own region.

What about charts?

1. You can make it so players keep charts even if they leave or reset, and then add a modifier to make them only useable in the region they were obtained
2. You can just leave them the same way so they dont cluster up.
3. Only apply the 1st solution to Mystical Charts, those aren’t common at all, if you let them cluster up at this point its your fault

Too much loading screens!

Can be solved by adding Transit Routes / Fast Travels, which allows you to get to the 3rd region without going through the 2nd, or arrive at a specific spot that you unlocked.
You wouldn’t have to specifically go into each sea just to do a small task, and not travel across the entirety of them to find one boss, you could use “fast travels” through strong currents routes of water leading to certain spots, similar to how in real life there are strong water currents at some place

Not all of this can be added! Its impossible!
I know, but this suggestion main goal is to show that the game should have been way more instanced from the beginning, but there’s still time to save it by instancing what we easily can.

[electricboi757]

I don’t think that the game should be fully instanced, it would really hurt the bronze sea with how often you travel between different regions. Only skyhall and the dark sea should be instanced.

[manakarnmatt]

*Keep in mind, I’m just sharing my personal opinion*

I think the example photo of the bronze sea in four sections is kinda rough.. like I understand where you are coming from, but four instances for just the bronze sea feels like a lot.. like maybe we split it into two parts

I also wanna keep the new player experience in mind, cus I feel like recent additions assume too much from the player. If I were a new player just getting to know the map and having to sail between islands for quest (and discovery), having to go thru many loading screens and not even knowing the map will be a negative experience.

[Red_Dragon]

I doubt it would if you properly implement it by making each region have enough of the content to not force a player to go to a specific region just because of one item, aside for obvious stuff like boss dops.
Im kind on confused on what you mean by “having to travel so much between regions”, with that instancing change you wouldn’t be forced to do so for everything

[Red_Dragon]

This would obviously come with tweaks to the storyline and some quests to solve that, they wont just be immediately pushed to go to the last region

[Red_Dragon]

Also I do agree it would be better if we only split it into 2 parts, you’re right on that part, I guess i went a bit too far

[Modehunter]

This is definitely needed to add better looking and larger islands, and to make the game run better overall.
Arcane Odyssey really hasn’t been able to capture the same feeling of wonder I felt when running around the map in World of Magic since most of the islands are rather small.
And although the small islets off the coast of Ravenna, Windrow, Whispering Caverns did help in bringing that feeling of exploration back, they did have a significant performance impact. My FPS can only reach 50 at most in Bronze Sea.

I don’t think anybody would mind extra loading screens if the regions were a lot larger and had bigger islands.
You also have to remember that most RPG games with very large maps already do this. (With the exception of Pilgrammed but that game doesn’t have the same level of detail as AO, and they’re likely implementing something like that for their next update)

Also instanced Dark Sea would allow for rejoining incase you disconnect or have to leave and would also mitigate the cases where your ship gets obliterated by a giant kraken that spawned right infront of you.

[Red_Dragon]

Here’s 2 better representations of how the Bronze Sea could be split

by konniv

[Trapstar]

I like the idea of less lag but prior to full release i never had so much as a frame drop, id rather they just optimize the updates content and whatnot then split the game up into loading screen purgatory

[fluffyniko]

This is how it should be done

[Mithridatise]

It’s almost as if a game that fails to be an MMORPG needs MMORPG mechanics in order to succeed at being one, what a surprise.
Of course, this would only be a first step to becoming an MMORPG as it would still lack the part where the multitude of players plays a role.

I get that many people will be against this, but at the very least it would be great for the likes of closed areas (e.g. caves, structures, dungeons, etc.) as it would allow them to be expanded upon and of higher quality.
Also, making charts permanent with the proposed changes would be amazing as stated as you wouldn’t feel ‘forced’ to complete them and the world’s scale and quality being increased would reinforce the feeling of exploration.

Overall, this is an Easy Ban/40

[wardcord1]

Personally, my PC does pretty well with lag, I just adjust the settings to fit it. I don’t love the idea of splitting the Bronze and Nimbus Sea into different servers, for multiple reasons:

1: Crossplay would be an absolute pain, especially if it was with someone you didn’t have friended.

2: I think it would impact the enjoyability of the game overall. For some people, the loading in is what causes lag, and then after that they’re alright, so this would murder them. Additionally, I think it could be difficult for newer players to get the hand of.

And in response to you saying, “This would obviously come with tweaks to the storyline” I’m sorry to break it to you, but Vetex is the master of lore and will not change the storyline for anything lol.

(Btw, I don’t mean for this response to be mean or anything, I’m just speaking my mind.)

[Based_Trixie]

I have zero knowledge of any of this stuff but I’ll just rate this 5 stars anyway

The other solution is to make AO smaller and less ambitious for a platform that isn’t fit for big and ambitious games

[redcteron]

The whole idea is great - I’d love to have more instanced servers so I dont get my pc to freeze/lag when I join either seas, however, splitting the bronze sea is abit overboard, isnt it

Sky islands? okay, yeah
Dark sea? absolutely
Bosses? also absolutely, would allow for bigger arenas.

For the bronze/nimbus sea itself, I say only load said regions if someones in them, otherwise theyre unloaded.

idk about perm charts but would be nice because some deaths are bs (drowning in the ocean because the ocean floor didnt restore energy…)

[cloudcrosser]

While I disagree with instancing the a main sea itself into halves (it would feel ass, which would add with the sky islands)

I agree with the bosses and other parts of the game being instanced. Dark sea especially can be fully instanced as it has no valid reason to be joined directly.

[Amuka]

@redcteron

some deaths are bs

was on the FINAL PART of a lost chart, a pirate grabbed me and shoved me underneath the invulnerable sand of limestone which was just deep enough to make me start drowing

[BlueFighter15]

Krill fishue should’ve parried and held vetex hostage until he fixed it, deserved death

[Scandin]

As far as I am aware, the game doesn’t use LoDs for the islands themselves, only minimally with the trees on said islands.
Showcase of Silverhold & Munera Garden fully rendered, taken from the Sky Apples trees.

This is really depressing to look at, as when you add more islands in proximity, it builds up cost quickly.
Therefore, I recommend that they use Roblox’s built-in LoD system, either the current one that has more noticeable jaggedness at distances, or the newer (but work in progress):

[Client Beta] Introducing Scalable Lightweight Interactive Models (SLIM)

Be aware, if a game is badly made when finding instances (objects) in the world, then SLIM will not function, as it dynamically unloads objects completely based on distance.

[hanmbi]

@Red_Dragon

you guys get fps above the single digits?!

[JustAVoidOrb]

Using them would just block off players with potato devices like me from playing. AO is just too big of a game for it to NOT lag everytime I am trying to join, and I am not going to play a casino everytime while trying to join a certain server through 3 instances for no reason and then still being forced to join other instances to JUST GO ON ANOTHER ISLAND.
No.