Hey All!
Ever since NGS's news releases etc. While I've been elated to say the least one so many aspects of it. Even the stating of the "Open-Field" environment. Which makes me cringe/worry a lil bit. Only in the sense of is this like a car maker saying "Racing Inspired" meaning its made to look/feel like it but it isn't. Or is Open-Field and Open World synonymous terms?
I would love to see if these can be more finely defined. In some cursory interwebbing I've found clear general gaming comunity consenus about "Open World" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_world.
Open-Field thus far I can really only find agricultural references. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-field_system Which might be an extrapolatable idea for what NGS will be doing. Where the lobby etc. would be like the said Manor or Village in that wiki article.
I also found not so copy/pasted verbiage article in my "Open-Field" searching that perhaps analogizes it best.
https://kotaku.com/phantasy-star-online-2-new-genesis-basically-sounds-li-1844493055
Which sounds to me more open broad than say Guild Wars style instancing. But not true Open World/Single Instanced like WoW or EVE Online respectively.
And I get that there are always technical, programmatic, and/or cost issues at play.
Any which way its sliced though. Assuming the aforementioned ideas are roughly approximate/accurate. The latter, assuming one is more than the other, would be perfect! All in all either is fine. Because its more open area variety than is to be had now. Which is still pretty good/ok. Though I'm starting to recognize same terrains but with lava, snow, or erf overlayed being the only difference!
Fwiw.
o/ =^.^=