Guild Wars 2

Like many, I appreciate the addition of Dry Top and especially Silverwastes. SW is a warzone, and it works. But I would like to appeal to the devs to consider adding another type of zone: unexplored wilderness.

See, an empty map (not many events, low player cap) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Remember those “empty” zones in GW1, like Dry Top, The Falls and Mamnoon Lagoon? Those zones had almost no quests or activities in them, but their emptiness achieved the intended result: to convey a sense of unexplored wilderness. I very fondly remember venturing from Ventari’s Refuge, through the Reed Bog, into the far northwestern reaches of The Falls. There was little point, gameplay wise, but it was SO much fun. I felt like a true explorer. The hidden temples, the beautiful waterfall… So cool.

No matter how hard I try, no zone in GW2 gives me the feeling I’m far from civilization, as there are players/events/waypoints everywhere. I wish there were some larger, secluded zones at the far borders of the map, beautifully designed for those players who have the patience to seek out such places. Oh, and not too many waypoints in those maps please. Only one, at the zone entrance.

This.

GW2 maps feel small because there’re too many things in them. Orr feels most epic because of some empty territories and gigantic architecture, but that’s it. I’ve also thought about it recently and would like to see large maps which feel, well, large: a forest as large as a map, a city as large as a map…

Remember when they added a map with rather little things to do on it?

Mental Paradox.3845:

Like many, I appreciate the addition of Dry Top and especially Silverwastes. SW is a warzone, and it works. But I would like to appeal to the devs to consider adding another type of zone: unexplored wilderness.

See, an empty map (not many events, low player cap) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Remember those “empty” zones in GW1, like Dry Top, The Falls and Mamnoon Lagoon? Those zones had almost no quests or activities in them, but their emptiness achieved the intended result: to convey a sense of unexplored wilderness. I very fondly remember venturing from Ventari’s Refuge, through the Reed Bog, into the far northwestern reaches of The Falls. There was little point, gameplay wise, but it was SO much fun. I felt like a true explorer. The hidden temples, the beautiful waterfall… So cool.

No matter how hard I try, no zone in GW2 gives me the feeling I’m far from civilization, as there are players/events/waypoints everywhere. I wish there were some larger, secluded zones at the far borders of the map, beautifully designed for those players who have the patience to seek out such places. Oh, and not too many waypoints in those maps please. Only one, at the zone entrance.

It’s because no matter where you go, somebody was there ahead of you and installed at least one waypoint.

Tachenon.5270:

Mental Paradox.3845:

Like many, I appreciate the addition of Dry Top and especially Silverwastes. SW is a warzone, and it works. But I would like to appeal to the devs to consider adding another type of zone: unexplored wilderness.

See, an empty map (not many events, low player cap) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Remember those “empty” zones in GW1, like Dry Top, The Falls and Mamnoon Lagoon? Those zones had almost no quests or activities in them, but their emptiness achieved the intended result: to convey a sense of unexplored wilderness. I very fondly remember venturing from Ventari’s Refuge, through the Reed Bog, into the far northwestern reaches of The Falls. There was little point, gameplay wise, but it was SO much fun. I felt like a true explorer. The hidden temples, the beautiful waterfall… So cool.

No matter how hard I try, no zone in GW2 gives me the feeling I’m far from civilization, as there are players/events/waypoints everywhere. I wish there were some larger, secluded zones at the far borders of the map, beautifully designed for those players who have the patience to seek out such places. Oh, and not too many waypoints in those maps please. Only one, at the zone entrance.

It’s because no matter where you go, somebody was there ahead of you and installed at least one waypoint.

Yes, that’s my point. Even the supposedly “abandoned for centuries” Dry Top feels pretty busy.

I would really appreciate some beautifully crafted map (maybe with an artificially low player cap), with none or only one waypoint, full of little gems and secrets for people to discover. Lore-hounds love that stuff.

Amen, OP, Amen.

I thought having nothing to do on the map was one of the big complaints about Southsun.

Making a map where people explore once then never go there again doesn’t sound like a win.

Some parts of the shiverpeaks seem remote. I do remember the depths of Maguuma in GW1 as being some of the farthest away you can get from any form of civilization. It would be cool if they open up a few spots like that. Like what’s south of Ebon Hawke?

Problem with Southsun was, that it was introduced by a big event over several stages and people expected the zone to be where the endgame will move on from Orr.

It was all like, “The Karkas attack us, time to kick them in the back of their shells on their own playfield”. People expected it to be like “Starship Troopers”. Then they got a peaceful island with some Karkas minding their own business. And a whole lot of nothing. No endgame, hardly anything to do but a one-time event as buggy as hell, which if you missed it, you missed it forever. That was just bad.

What people here are asking for, is zones, that are meant to be sort of empty, for people who like to explore. Killing everything everywhere can get old fast.

Funny enough, the empty zones in GW1 and the least eventful zones in GW2 are the ones my little sister and I enjoy exploring the most together for fun.

Are the zones popular? Not as much as other zones. Are they just filler zones? Yeah.

Filler content is important to make the main content more enjoyable!

+1 for more filler zones, as not everything needs to be relevant to Living World. This is my opinion anyway.

It will all be solved when they add level 100 zones. Level cap for players doesn’t mean level cap for mobs which was and important influence for gameplay for gw1 and how they probably balanced the builds something to op lets ad harder content

I know one zone with few events and even fewer waypoints. It certainly feels empty most of the time. Also, it has higher difficulty mobs than the rest of the game, which adds to the emptiness. It’s called Southsun Cove, OP you can try going there… I wouldn’t say it’s a very successful zone though

Fafnir.5124:

It will all be solved when they add level 100 zones. Level cap for players doesn’t mean level cap for mobs which was and important influence for gameplay for gw1 and how they probably balanced the builds something to op lets ad harder content

Wow yes! I have a feeling it’ll be a while before we see level 100 enemies as level 84s are pretty challenging for most players already IMO, but level 100 zones sound super exciting!

I remember many years ago, when I used to play WoW. The maps there were huge. You would spend a good 20minutes, maybe even more, just to get to your destination. This is partly because of no WPs but more importantly they just had bigger zones. GW2 maps feel quite condensed and whilst some areas of Tyria may consist of 3 or 4 zones, they still feel small. I would love for there to be a map with just one WP near the start and you have to go and explore it, with there being a focus on amazing landscapes, maybe some JPs and a boss here and there.