Size of Elona

[Ranger Nietzsche]

So heres the preliminary report on size of elona. Here are links (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=419127)

to the (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=418999)

other (http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=400768)

3 threads.

You know the drill so heres the numbers...I won't bother with the pics this time tho I can produce them if necessary. I was surprised by the results and redid them thoroughly. All trials were consistent with this information.

Time to Run the full zoomed out map
32.6 minutes East/West
25.7 minutes North/South

Ratio to other landmasses
1:1.05 to cantha
1:1.45 to tyria

Horizontal to Vert Ratio (to indicate consistency of method)
1.26:1 Elona
1.21:1 Battle Isles
1.18:1 Tyria
1.29:1 Cantha

Size of Elona in Tyrian Miles (using Scorpion wire to determine running speed of a character as 25 Tyrian Feet per Earth Second)
9.26 Tyrian Miles East/West
7.30 Tyrian Miles North/South


Summary: The zoomed out map size of Elona is rougly equivalent to that of cantha. This does not contradict any statements made by ANet claiming that Elona is larger as they are likely referring to playable area of Elona, which this information is irrelevant toward.

[Quintus Antonius]

Good work.

I have a question for you though. When you are measuring the distance, are you measuring playable area, or the entire map, playable or not?

[Ranger Nietzsche]

entire map


a playable area estimation is pending on if i can get the right software

thats why this information is most useful for making things like Avocs world map, so he can scale the different continental maps correctly.

in game playable area is something that I hopefully will be calculating if i can get some integration software using some moderate calculus for evaluating complex shapes. just a question of if i can find it or not

[BigMoue]

Read in PC Gamer that its gonna be 1/3 bigger then Cantha.

[mrmango]

I'm not being very professional or sciencetific, but it seems walking a distance in Elona showed less distance covered than that would in Tyria. Maybe I'm crazy. :)

[Ranger Nietzsche]

no, character speed was the same. still 25ft per second

[Palidore]

I suppose I cant post a link, but in the "other" forum, Gaile posted:

The map for Nightfall -- as in actual land mass -- is larger than Factions but not quite as large as Prophecies. There are more missions and quests in Nightfall when compared to Factions.

Hope that helps! :)

Also for the record, she said somewhere else that there are 20 (I believe) missions in Nightfall.

[Quintus Antonius]

no, character speed was the same. still 25ft per second

25ft/sec is insane. They run a mile in just over three minutes!

Not saying you are wrong, mind you, I'm just editorializing.

So, another way to measure the distance playable distance would be to run from one end to the other and time it.

[Harjubal od Uo]

What happens to the measurements if we make the assumption that the River Elon is intended to be roughly the same length as the Nile River, about 6700 kilometers? Taking that and the ratios of the continents to one another as metersticks, where does the size of the Tyrelonian megacontinent stand?

[Quintus Antonius]

Why would you make that assumption when there is no reason to and nothing supporting it?

[Harjubal od Uo]

There's no evidence that it should be considered supported lore in any way, but many other parallels between the Elon and the Nile are certainly there and it could give the community at least a musing reference for cartographic distances to work with.

[Sir Jack]

There's no evidence that it should be considered supported lore in any way, but many other parallels between the Elon and the Nile are certainly there and it could give the community at least a musing reference for cartographic distances to work with.

So you just assumed the Elon should be as long as the Nile river, then expect Lore to back that up out of nowhere?
No support = no lore.

For that matter, it's unknown where the Elon springs, and as such we don't know how long it is from behind the Mirror of Lyss (last known point point) to where it hits the sea (Gandara). I'd be like saying the Nile is 6700 kilometers and starting from Aswan to the sea to measure the size of Egypt...

[Harjubal od Uo]

You're right; I should have known better than to bring it up in this forum, forget I suggested anything.

[Quintus Antonius]

Well, the Elon also doesn't flow "backwards" like the Nile, so at least in that regard, it isn't that similar. I think Elonian culture is definitely based off Nile cultures (North and mid-Africa), and examining these cultures can most certainly help us to have a better appreciation of some of the intracacies of Guild Wars, but this doesn't translate into a 1:1 comparison on which you can base something as exact as distance.

For instance, Kourna has some very heavy Roman undertones, Kournan's even drop tower shields and gladii. Yet, a measurement of the distance from Rome to the Sahara Desert wouldn't give us an accurate measurement of the distance from Gandara to the Crystal Desert.

[Harjubal od Uo]

For anyone who may have been more curious than others about the potential spatial relationship between the Elon and the Nile, when I measured it out, the results would have made the east-west dimensions of the Elona map about 5500 miles across. For comparison, that's more than twice the distance between Washington, DC and San Francisco, or, more fittingly, between Cairo and Casablanca.

Needless to say, that seems pretty unreasonable, so the whole thing was a bad idea and there's probably not intended to be anything more than passing geographical similarities between the Nile and the Elon.

[Miss Velvetine]

I was wondering if the lake in the very north-west corner of the Tyrian continent could in fact be THE JADE SEA ? are they about the same size according to your measures ?

[Quintus Antonius]

No, that isn't even a possibility. The landscapes don't even match.

[Laibeus Lord]

Anyone created a new GW1 world map based on the latest measurements?

[Ranger Nietzsche]

I'm pretty sure one of the maps in the GW world map thread is very close to the correct scaling.

[Art Yi Mor]

Miscellaneous

To more clearly distinguish items that are outside of combat range, the names of characters and items more than 1,000 feet away now appear in a dimmer color.


How does this help with measurements in Tyria?

At work, so can't dedicate any real time to it but reckon it's relevant.

-Art

[rex silverbane]

what we have to bear in mind is that scorpian wire isnt always accurate. once it triggered at over 3 times the radar range, once it triggered after half the agro range

[Troal]

How does this help with measurements in Tyria?

At work, so can't dedicate any real time to it but reckon it's relevant.

-Art

Was it meant at all to help with distance measurements? I got the distinct impression the update you mentioned was added as nothing more than a tool to avoid over-aggroing mobs.

[ANewMachine]

what we have to bear in mind is that scorpian wire isnt always accurate. once it triggered at over 3 times the radar range, once it triggered after half the agro range

Perhaps we could use wards? I seem to recall early forms of them stating something about 39-foot diameters. Maybe I'm wrong, as I believe the skill descriptions haven't read that way since early Prophecies, or even late beta. It'd be more consistent, though.

[Ranger Nietzsche]

wells used to read 40 foot. and wards have a similar range.

[Skyy High]

Was it meant at all to help with distance measurements? I got the distinct impression the update you mentioned was added as nothing more than a tool to avoid over-aggroing mobs.
Doesn't mean we couldn't use it as such a tool. Worth trying out at least, before they change it.

[Zaxares]

What about using the new fade out mechanism? I remember reading somewhere that the names fade out completely at 1000 feet. You could use this in conjunction with a Hero (flagged in one spot) to accurate measure distances.

[rex silverbane]

What about using the new fade out mechanism? I remember reading somewhere that the names fade out completely at 1000 feet. You could use this in conjunction with a Hero (flagged in one spot) to accurate measure distances.

thats already been said but its a good idea. the trouble is theres space between the portals between area's and in most places you cant run in a straight line from one portal to another. although you could just measure 1000 foot then measure it with a ruler on the main map and calculate it from that.

[Zaxares]

although you could just measure 1000 foot then measure it with a ruler on the main map and calculate it from that.

Exactly. Use the fade out feature plus the red 'travel dots' on the map to measure the distance on a map for 1000 feet, then use it as a scale to accurately measure distances on the main world map.

You'd need to repeat this for Cantha and Elona too, though, since we can't be certain that all three world maps use the same scale.