Well let me see if I can explain by way of describing what I've seen so far.
First you go to a tutorial zone which is a subset of Millennium City. It actually feels pretty epic, because the overall event is an Alien Invasion by the
insectoid Qularr. Huge mothership hovering a mile above the city, attack craft screaming between the buildings dropping troops off. During the tutorial
scenario, parts of the city zone that you are in are in rubble, and at least one building has fallen completely over on its side. The whole area is sealed off
inside an alien forcefield. That's the perimeter that defines the tutorial area.
When you complete the final scenario within the tutorial, you are given a short heroes welcome and then you board a helicopter to a new crisis. Either in the
Southwest Desert or in the Canadian wilderness. This is when you get your travel powers and get new attacks. At first I thought I could leave and visit
Millennium City or someplace else, but actually you can only choose to shuttle between the two Zones. Again, there's an in-gameworld story element that
limits the perimeter of these areas. (radioactive force field in the desert, supernatural storm in Canada) Think of this second set of scenarios as Tutorial
Part 2. Once you finish the final mission of one of these areas, THEN things finally open up for real.
This is when the world really starts to open up. So far I've discovered three zones. There's Millennium City proper. There's the Southwestern
Desert. And the Canadian Wilderness. But not the tutorial versions of the zones. The WHOLE thing. And these zones are ENORMOUS.
Give you some idea here. Stalnoy Volk has flight and it seems like he can fly at - oh about average speed for a City of Heroes character. If I were to compare,
I'd say he can fly about as fast as a level 35 character with at least one SO in flight speed. Going from one end of the Millennium City Zone to the other
takes about 10 minutes. The largest zones in CoH are about 2 in-game miles across. I think as a rough estimate the zones in CO are about 4-6 miles across.
Maybe more than that.
They do a pretty good job of making it look open, but it's really not. They don't have Warwalls. They just have invisible barriers you can't cross.
Interestingly, as you approach the absolute edge of a zone, all the color leeches out of the picture and leaves you looking at a black and white representation
of things. I guess they wanted a more subtle clue that "you can't go there" without there being an actual wall or some voice telling you to turn
back. Sort of make things so that you want to turn back on your own.
Each zone has several areas within it that have their own character. Call them "neighborhoods" if you will. Because in Millennium City proper,
that's what they are. Each is large enough to have it's own set of missions and goals.
So - let me sort of make another comparison/analogy here. The overall Millennium City zone is large enough to compare to a large chunk of Paragon City.
Let's take all the zones on the Yellow Tram line in Paragon, mash em all together and make them all one zone. That's Atlas, Galaxy, Kings Row, Steel
Canyon, and Skyway. That's about the size Millennium City "feels" like. Except it's much more diverse within that area in tone and
architecture and the level ranges are wider.
Kinda the same deal with the other two zones I've mentioned. Except that since they are mostly wilderness areas, the boundaries between
"neighborhoods" are a lot less defined.
The way you move between the three zones I've encountered so far is via a VTOL jet sitting on a landing pad located in a safe part of the zone near the
trainers and vendors. You move up to the jet and the game asks you which zone you want to go to. I assume that as other zones become unlocked, they would
simply add them to the choices the jet gives you. I've found no other way of leaving an overall zone.
So that's what I've seen so far. Clear enough?
First you go to a tutorial zone which is a subset of Millennium City. It actually feels pretty epic, because the overall event is an Alien Invasion by the
insectoid Qularr. Huge mothership hovering a mile above the city, attack craft screaming between the buildings dropping troops off. During the tutorial
scenario, parts of the city zone that you are in are in rubble, and at least one building has fallen completely over on its side. The whole area is sealed off
inside an alien forcefield. That's the perimeter that defines the tutorial area.
When you complete the final scenario within the tutorial, you are given a short heroes welcome and then you board a helicopter to a new crisis. Either in the
Southwest Desert or in the Canadian wilderness. This is when you get your travel powers and get new attacks. At first I thought I could leave and visit
Millennium City or someplace else, but actually you can only choose to shuttle between the two Zones. Again, there's an in-gameworld story element that
limits the perimeter of these areas. (radioactive force field in the desert, supernatural storm in Canada) Think of this second set of scenarios as Tutorial
Part 2. Once you finish the final mission of one of these areas, THEN things finally open up for real.
This is when the world really starts to open up. So far I've discovered three zones. There's Millennium City proper. There's the Southwestern
Desert. And the Canadian Wilderness. But not the tutorial versions of the zones. The WHOLE thing. And these zones are ENORMOUS.
Give you some idea here. Stalnoy Volk has flight and it seems like he can fly at - oh about average speed for a City of Heroes character. If I were to compare,
I'd say he can fly about as fast as a level 35 character with at least one SO in flight speed. Going from one end of the Millennium City Zone to the other
takes about 10 minutes. The largest zones in CoH are about 2 in-game miles across. I think as a rough estimate the zones in CO are about 4-6 miles across.
Maybe more than that.
They do a pretty good job of making it look open, but it's really not. They don't have Warwalls. They just have invisible barriers you can't cross.
Interestingly, as you approach the absolute edge of a zone, all the color leeches out of the picture and leaves you looking at a black and white representation
of things. I guess they wanted a more subtle clue that "you can't go there" without there being an actual wall or some voice telling you to turn
back. Sort of make things so that you want to turn back on your own.
Each zone has several areas within it that have their own character. Call them "neighborhoods" if you will. Because in Millennium City proper,
that's what they are. Each is large enough to have it's own set of missions and goals.
So - let me sort of make another comparison/analogy here. The overall Millennium City zone is large enough to compare to a large chunk of Paragon City.
Let's take all the zones on the Yellow Tram line in Paragon, mash em all together and make them all one zone. That's Atlas, Galaxy, Kings Row, Steel
Canyon, and Skyway. That's about the size Millennium City "feels" like. Except it's much more diverse within that area in tone and
architecture and the level ranges are wider.
Kinda the same deal with the other two zones I've mentioned. Except that since they are mostly wilderness areas, the boundaries between
"neighborhoods" are a lot less defined.
The way you move between the three zones I've encountered so far is via a VTOL jet sitting on a landing pad located in a safe part of the zone near the
trainers and vendors. You move up to the jet and the game asks you which zone you want to go to. I assume that as other zones become unlocked, they would
simply add them to the choices the jet gives you. I've found no other way of leaving an overall zone.
So that's what I've seen so far. Clear enough?