Forum:Alpha and Beta Maps of RO/@comment-RuriRuriRuri-20150508094141

I could be misremembering, but I believe they were generally about half the size they are now in each dimension (that is, about 1/4th the size overall, so four alpha maps in a square would make one final map.) I do remember that when they switched from the alpha to the beta (which used the real 'final' maps), I was annoyed because it suddenly took so long to walk everywhere. eg. if you zoom in to that map of Morroc in the upper-left, you can see how it's about the size of one corner of the final Morroc (the palace below it was a separate map, which nobody spent any time in because it was completely empty and served no purpose). Alpha Morroc was cool, it was basically a few buildings around a tiny oasis, with an open area near the center where you'd find tons of players shouting at you trying to sell and trade stuff like a real-world marketplace... since all the high-level areas were directly adjacent to Morroc, everyone ended up gathering there.

Of course the alpha also had a much lower population, so it didn't need to be big. But yes, you could walk across maps in less than 30 seconds if you knew where you were going, and the entire walk from Morroc to Prontera and back (assuming you were high enough level to not have to worry about the monsters in the way) was just a few minutes at most... which was good because as I recall there were no forms of fast travel.