Guild Wars 2

From https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/the-first-beta-weekend-event-begins-august-7/:

From there, they will land in Verdant Brink, the first map of the expansion, where about 25 percent of the total playable space of that first map will be available to play.

The news page said something like “multiple maps with three tiers” a long time ago.

There was always going to be more than one map. Did anyone not watch Colin’s address or read the Wiki? One region – three overlapping, vertical maps.

“New region with a high amount of verticality built into the maps
Multiple open world jungle maps [³] made up of three distinct “biomes”
The core, the floor of the jungle itself
The roots of the jungle, that run deep beneath the jungle
The canopy, way up above, where the Pact fleet is scattered across the top of the jungle"

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns

They talked about how each map would have its own theme and features back on April 3rd and that Verdent Brinks would be the first map when you enter the zone, which implies by itself that there is at minimum a second map.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/gameplay-features-making-the-most-of-maguuma/
Each map also has its own unique themes and map-wide meta-features that connect to the story and the characters in new and exciting ways. For example, in Verdant Brink— the first map players encounter once they enter the Heart of Thorns—

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

They said each map would have three regions, so there will likely be more than 3 maps

Palador.2170:

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

It’s interesting how many people wish to believe that there will only be one playable PvE map at release with other non playable maps such as a city or a guild hall. Is this a common thing with other games that they only have one map when an expansion comes out, so that this theory is justified? Is it likely they would charge up to $100 for the expansion, have only one map at release, and not have an explosion on the forum and the devs are not able to forsee a player reaction like that, with only one playable PvE map after a year of working on the expansion?

From the blog post

“For example, we’ll only ever be showing the first story chapter and parts of the first map of the expansion during beta weekends to ensure that an entire world of discovery and excitement awaits you on launch day when you venture deeper into the jungle. After all, Guild Wars 2 is the game where the journey is the goal!”

That hardly sounds like one playable PvE map at launch.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Palador.2170:

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

It’s interesting how many people wish to believe that there will only be one playable PvE map at release with other non playable maps such as a city or a guild hall. Is this a common thing with other games that they only have one map when an expansion comes out, so that this theory is justified? Is it likely they would charge up to $100 for the expansion, have only one map at release, and not have an explosion on the forum and the devs are not able to forsee a player reaction like that, with only one playable PvE map after a year of working on the expansion?

From the blog post

“For example, we’ll only ever be showing the first story chapter and parts of the first map of the expansion during beta weekends to ensure that an entire world of discovery and excitement awaits you on launch day when you venture deeper into the jungle. After all, Guild Wars 2 is the game where the journey is the goal!”

That hardly sounds like one playable PvE map at launch.

Plus, they’ve said multiple times that there will be multiple explorable PvE maps but people choose to ignore it because they all want an excuse to say HoT has little to no content, when that’s not true at all.

What I can see them doing is gating access to the maps through the mastery system. As a series of examples, maybe you’ll need gliding at a certain level to travel to another map. Maybe you’ll need the mushroom training to get to a portal. Maybe you’ll need certain combat skills to fight effectively and those are only through the Masteries. Maybe certain areas are poisonous and to travel through them requires you to eat the antidote first, and that needs a mastery line.

In other games, gating is through leveling. If you need to be level 100 to be in a map at the start of the expansion and you are level 90, then you got to reach that first. Since this game doesn’t have levels past 80 and they have already said they are going to use the Mastery System to progress your character, it’s quite possible for them to have all the maps at expansion release and keep people from racing through them on day one by gating through Mastery training

I think it’s pretty sad when players are excited that there will be ‘more than one map’ in any expansion. That said . . . woot. An unknown number, but greater than two.

Thrilling.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Palador.2170:

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

It’s interesting how many people wish to believe that there will only be one playable PvE map at release with other non playable maps such as a city or a guild hall. Is this a common thing with other games that they only have one map when an expansion comes out, so that this theory is justified? Is it likely they would charge up to $100 for the expansion, have only one map at release, and not have an explosion on the forum and the devs are not able to forsee a player reaction like that, with only one playable PvE map after a year of working on the expansion?

From the blog post

“For example, we’ll only ever be showing the first story chapter and parts of the first map of the expansion during beta weekends to ensure that an entire world of discovery and excitement awaits you on launch day when you venture deeper into the jungle. After all, Guild Wars 2 is the game where the journey is the goal!”

That hardly sounds like one playable PvE map at launch.

Actually, it seems like common sense to me that they won’t have all the maps open to start with.

Somewhere in there is Mordremoth. If players can get to him and fight him as quickly as they clear events and earn masteries, then we’ll see reports of his death within the week of the expansion going live.

If we can get to him but CAN’T fight him for some reason, people will rightly ask “why not?” At that point there would be no reason to not be able to take a shot at him.

Instead, I expect him to be one or two maps away from where we start. This will allow them some control over the story and the speed of exploration, much as they did with Dry Top, by giving us some barrier that we can’t quickly overcome to keep us from advancing to the next area.

Second, it will give them time to see how the new class, specializations, and masteries all interact in a live environment before we face the really big fights of the expansion. Locking out further maps will give them time to make adjustments to those final parts so that they work better. The first Elder Dragon fight was … lamentable. The second needs to be good, or a lot of people may decide that it’s not worth caring about the third one.

Finally, there’s the events in the zones. ANet can either make them hard, or easy. If they make them hard, then you’ll need either the advantages you can earn in HoT (mastery tracks) or lots of help to take them on. By releasing maps in stages, they can focus players more onto fewer events at a time when they’re new to them, and the crowd will die off as they gain the masteries they need about the time that they also look to move on to a new map.

I don’t see holding back the rest of the maps until later as 100% a bad thing. And I think there will be only one PvE map to start with because… well… that’s just easier. It’s the starting point. We need a place to start where we can earn our starting masteries and skills. It’s HoT’s Queensdale, basically. A place where the new people can survive until they’re ready to move on to harder things. And with all the new stuff we’re getting, it’s ANet’s starting zone for new balance as well.

Palador.2170:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Palador.2170:

Guild halls will be their own maps, so there’s two maps there.

That golden city may be its own map, we don’t know yet.

What we really don’t know is the number of “normal” maps where we’ll spend most of our time playing. It could still be only one map, and everything they’ve said would still be true.

Personally, I’m guessing only one map, with two more unlocking later as they let the story slowly progress.

It’s interesting how many people wish to believe that there will only be one playable PvE map at release with other non playable maps such as a city or a guild hall. Is this a common thing with other games that they only have one map when an expansion comes out, so that this theory is justified? Is it likely they would charge up to $100 for the expansion, have only one map at release, and not have an explosion on the forum and the devs are not able to forsee a player reaction like that, with only one playable PvE map after a year of working on the expansion?

From the blog post

“For example, we’ll only ever be showing the first story chapter and parts of the first map of the expansion during beta weekends to ensure that an entire world of discovery and excitement awaits you on launch day when you venture deeper into the jungle. After all, Guild Wars 2 is the game where the journey is the goal!”

That hardly sounds like one playable PvE map at launch.

Actually, it seems like common sense to me that they won’t have all the maps open to start with.

Somewhere in there is Mordremoth. If players can get to him and fight him as quickly as they clear events and earn masteries, then we’ll see reports of his death within the week of the expansion going live.

If we can get to him but CAN’T fight him for some reason, people will rightly ask “why not?” At that point there would be no reason to not be able to take a shot at him.

Instead, I expect him to be one or two maps away from where we start. This will allow them some control over the story and the speed of exploration, much as they did with Dry Top, by giving us some barrier that we can’t quickly overcome to keep us from advancing to the next area.

Second, it will give them time to see how the new class, specializations, and masteries all interact in a live environment before we face the really big fights of the expansion. Locking out further maps will give them time to make adjustments to those final parts so that they work better. The first Elder Dragon fight was … lamentable. The second needs to be good, or a lot of people may decide that it’s not worth caring about the third one.

Finally, there’s the events in the zones. ANet can either make them hard, or easy. If they make them hard, then you’ll need either the advantages you can earn in HoT (mastery tracks) or lots of help to take them on. By releasing maps in stages, they can focus players more onto fewer events at a time when they’re new to them, and the crowd will die off as they gain the masteries they need about the time that they also look to move on to a new map.

I don’t see holding back the rest of the maps until later as 100% a bad thing. And I think there will be only one PvE map to start with because… well… that’s just easier. It’s the starting point. We need a place to start where we can earn our starting masteries and skills. It’s HoT’s Queensdale, basically. A place where the new people can survive until they’re ready to move on to harder things. And with all the new stuff we’re getting, it’s ANet’s starting zone for new balance as well.

Well, i guess we’ll find out eventually. I can see why they might want to gate access to the maps. With all maps being level 80, some people are going to go through them fast unless slowed down. My above post suggested that they could release all the maps but gate access through the mastery system. For example, maybe a portal to the next map is closed until you can “speak” to the hylek that guard it and have them unlock a gate, which would require the mastery line of their language. There are a number of ways they could use the Mastery system to slow people down and still have all the maps out there upon release.

They would never charge 50 $ for only 5 maps…When you look at the map of Tyria(the world, not the continent) Maguuma is big. In fact, comparing current territories with Maguuma map, as there is no sea, it’s almost the same size as the current map.

Vix.6730:

There was always going to be more than one map. Did anyone not watch Colin’s address or read the Wiki? One region – three overlapping, vertical maps.

“New region with a high amount of verticality built into the maps
Multiple open world jungle maps [³] made up of three distinct “biomes”
The core, the floor of the jungle itself
The roots of the jungle, that run deep beneath the jungle
The canopy, way up above, where the Pact fleet is scattered across the top of the jungle"

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Guild_Wars_2:_Heart_of_Thorns

Was never confirmed to be only 3 maps, in actuality I’m expecting 5 or so. If you watch the chronomancer stream, when he is fighting the giant armadillo that shoots scales at you, he is WAY WAY in SW Magumma where Magus Falls is, but he is in the most SW point of Magus Falls you can be. Then there is no telling how far north they will go.

Even 5 maps would not be enough.

http://i.imgur.com/WZT4bZf.jpg?1

In red what we have now, in black what is still hidden at the middle of the map (Tengus), in green what corresponds to Maguuma as seen on the complete map of Tyria (the world).
It’s smaller, but there are far far less water areas such as lakes and no sea in the middle of it.

I expect therefore much more than 5 maps…

With one map anet would be the laughing stock of the gaming world. So no wonder it’s gonna be more. It’s going to be compared to all other expansions, guild wars or not, so they are pretty much going to need to impress.

Assuming current Dry Top is where GW Dry Top used to be, the Silverwastes was once Aurora Glade (SW looks nothing like it, maybe thus the “wastes” name). If they stick to the area on the current GW2 map that’s labelled “Maguma Wastes” (north by northwest from Silverwastes), the old GW has several zones. At a guess, since boundaries are unclear, these zones might include all or part of the Sage Lands, Majesty’s Rest, Mamnoon Lagoon, parts of Ettin’s Back, Silverwood, the Wilds and Bloodstone Fen. Reed Bog and the Falls look to be in the current area called Magus Falls and I would not consider it likely that HoT will go in that direction.

It’s important to note that there is no area in GW called Verdant Brink, so there may well be little connection to the old topography. However, the area in question was quite large in GW. There’s certainly room for a bunch of SW-sized maps or several larger maps.

For the price there charging,it better have a ton of maps and content.

I always found it absurd that anyone believed there would only be one map.

XxTAFxX.6741:

For the price there charging,it better have a ton of maps and content.

What are you guys expecting anyways? We’re getting an expansion only because we complained a lot. Anet started late and also don’t forget those are triple decker worth the equivalent of only 1.5 standard map. Check the first map and tell me it isn’t 1.5 map. Remember also the very secretive Collins avoiding the map quantity question, bailing out of it by claiming, yeah but, but, but thissa time wesa went for quality and replayable value instead of quantity a lot of you will come back here after 2 weeks whining how small it all is, and how you’ve been had. I know I’ll be in line to post and read your replies. Yeah I bought it too hoping I’m wrong. My first desapointment will be water. Also the only thing I’ll be exploring for next week-end, I don’t want to play I only want to explore and test. I don’t wanna spoil too much of it.

Even though this is still a new shiny, even the Skritts are gonna bail out of their caves and jump off the cliff claiming this is a tiny world and how they miss the vastness of their ancestors homeland Cantha.

Ardenwolfe.8590:

I think it’s pretty sad when players are excited that there will be ‘more than one map’ in any expansion. That said . . . woot. An unknown number, but greater than two.

Thrilling.

Not to mention, a good proportion of us don’t care about world PVE content anyway. I’m willing to bet a large % of WVWers would gladly trade away all the PVE zones in the game just for 3 individual borderlands maps and maybe a WVW/PVP dungeon in the spirit of DAOC’s Darkness Falls. World PVE zones have zero appeal for me.

As for the one map thing, what Anet say and what they do are often fairly different things (hello manifesto, hello only 9 new skills added to game in 3 years…), so it’s understandable that people are fairly sceptical.

This all seems so strange to me. I’ve played MMOs, and their like, as far as I can remember. And never, in all that time, was there a discussion about the number of maps or a lack thereof. You just don’t see it.

But in Guild Wars 2?

It’s a huge topic of contention. And if that doesn’t tell you something, nothing will. On that note, WoW is about to announce another expansion next week.

I don’t think the number of maps will be in question with that one either. Though, granted, I won’t be playing it.

Hybarf Tics.2048:

XxTAFxX.6741:

For the price there charging,it better have a ton of maps and content.

What are you guys expecting anyways?

Well tbh when they announced an expansion,i was expecting one like we got with gw.
Two classes and a whole new continent(massive map) and new story also unlockable skills and capture elite skills.

This seems not the case with gw 2 so they better have a load of map areas and content for the price we paid then.
(of course things like capping skills cannot be added like in gw)

XxTAFxX.6741:

Hybarf Tics.2048:

XxTAFxX.6741:

For the price there charging,it better have a ton of maps and content.

What are you guys expecting anyways?

Well tbh when they announced an expansion,i was expecting one like we got with gw.
Two classes and a whole new continent(massive map) and new story also unlockable skills and capture elite skills.

This seems not the case with gw 2 so they better have a load of map areas and content for the price we paid then.
(of course things like capping skills cannot be added like in gw)

You can’t compare the two games. GW2 requires much more development time than GW1 due to it being an actual MMO, instead of an instanced party game. They have to implement maps that can house lots of players, and enough events to keep everyone entertained, rather than a party of 8.

I feel like everybody is forgetting that there are 3 biomes to each map. The roots, the underground, and the canopy. So verdant brink is 3 maps in 1. If they give us 5 maps, that is technically 15 layers of maps.

If you look on the map, the Grove is the smallest capital city, but there are 4 layers to the map, so what it lacks in horizontal land, it makes up for in verticality.

Verdant brink is already a decent sized map, and we’ve seen roughly 25% of the canopy layer ONLY.

Yunielesca.2850:

No.

Verticality and three biomes doesn’t mean that all the maps will be like this:

---

---

---

Ok, the forum doesn’t show it as I want. I’ll make draws xD

I hope so, cuz if the maps are 3 flat lines, I want my money back. ^^

What I meant is that you don’t have the three biomes superposed on every map. More over, the canopy can’t be as dense as the ground.

The golden city we see in the trailer for example, there is verticality, but there is no canopy and maybe no underground on this map.

It wouldn’t work in the desertic areas of Maguuma either. So you can’t just say that 1 map HOT=3 maps of GW2.

the golden city is likely a capital city in the jungle, i doubt there is any mobs there to fight

the magumma wastes can have an underground, but I don’t even think we’re going to the wastes, the place where mordremoth lies was in a very thick jungle area from the cutscene, and all the ads say “venture to the heart of the magumma jungle”

but most of the actual jungle has tree above it, so i’m sure most, if not all maps will have a canopy layer, and no theres not going to be as much ground to cover in the canopy layer because you have to give the sense of being up high by letting people see below so there will be holes all over the place

Ardenwolfe.8590:

This all seems so strange to me. I’ve played MMOs, and their like, as far as I can remember. And never, in all that time, was there a discussion about the number of maps or a lack thereof. You just don’t see it.

But in Guild Wars 2?

It’s a huge topic of contention. And if that doesn’t tell you something, nothing will. On that note, WoW is about to announce another expansion next week.

I don’t think the number of maps will be in question with that one either. Though, granted, I won’t be playing it.

Nailed it!

Btw guys, don’t hype yourselves up…

Hybarf Tics.2048:

XxTAFxX.6741:

For the price there charging,it better have a ton of maps and content.

What are you guys expecting anyways?

An amount of content that justifies the hefty price tag, for one.

The whole reason people wanted an expansion in the first place was because they thought it would give us a massive chunk of new content (which is traditionally what expansions are for), instead of the tiny scraps of content the living story was providing.

CrimsonDX.4821:

I always found it absurd that anyone believed there would only be one map.

I think it was more the “give us all your money now and hope for the best based on these promises but no actual content shown sales pitch” that was the issue.

Considering what they are charging, of course you would expect more than one map.

And they still haven’t revealed what we are getting! No info – no money (from me anyway).

For the asking price it has to be large and take at least a good amount of hours to complete.