Guild Wars 2

This was taken from a post of mine in another thread, and I thought I would start a new thread on this topic because I haven’t really seen one to date on it yet…

I spent about 5 mins when I was logged in the other day and zoomed out on the World Map and kinda glanced over it for a bit. 3 years later and almost half of the world map is still inaccessible. Was this by design? did they intend to create a game with an already thought out world, just didn’t bother putting the effort in to create the zones? I look at the 3 maps in HoT (the 4th doesn’t count, you can’t even get to DS without completing a meta event on a timer) and can’t help but think how they thought this would be enough to put their stamp of approval on for kitten retail price.

Does this mean we can look for another 2 year development cycle for just one of the areas to open up that have been on the map since GW2 launch like the Janthir, Scavenger Causeway, Crystal Desert, Woodland Cascades, Blood Legion Homelands and Far Shiverpeaks? If we will have to pay $50 per expansion for each of those small zones like we did for HoT I will not be returning to this game in the future.

More than half the map as what we’re seeing is but a small portion of the world. Easier to build a large map to give yourself enough space for future content.

it’s a good question. the map is huge and while i don’t think most of us thought it would be completely fleshed out…i do think there was an expectation that more than 1 jungle area would be added in the 3 years since launch.

i think the original design team was remarkably ambitious and actually did plan/concept work for some of these regions. but alas the talent left and we are left with the tighfisted ‘vision’ of an accountant (err..‘economist’).

it’s very clear that john smith took over and even though he keeps a low profile now-a necessary thing as his public postings caused widespread disgust amongst fans! you can still feel his hand with every system introduced.

what does this mean going forward? well largely it means we won’t see much of anything for the next 2 years and then perhaps an expansion…then gw3 (the engine is already showing signs of age). it isn’t realistic to expect this development team to produce content in any reasonable period of time.

I originally liked how most of it was inaccessible because it showed vast potential and the implications of, “You’ll do epic stuff here someday!” We imagine what kind of stuff we’d do there and what to face, like Woodland Cascades being overwhelmingly centaur territory where we’d need mounts to traverse or Far Shiverpeaks being so bleak and cold only Kodan could comfortably be there with lots of steep hills and overwhelming signs of Jormag’s corruption, Crystal Desert being similar to Atacama Desert but more colorful and lots of vicious creatures, etc.

The open areas of the map are for future content. I have no problem with leaving room to grow. Otherwise they’d have to grow the axis of the map every time an expansion came out and doing that would create more open areas for someone to point out. Maps need to have some kind of purpose before they are made. We can’t just have random maps leading all over the place with nothing but random pointless mobs. We’ll visit the desert when we need to confront the crystal dragon. We’ll visit the Far Shiverpeaks when we go after Jormag.

Wander.5780:

I look at the 3 maps in HoT (the 4th doesn’t count, you can’t even get to DS without completing a meta event on a timer)

The southwestern corner of the map has a portal to Dragon’s Stand open at all times. Going to DS has nothing to do with completing meta events.

Aren’t all of the WPs in DS locked at all times? every time I’ve logged in and tried to travel to one it bounces me to the nearest one available, which is in the northeastern corner of DS, where the story NPC is located. Unless it’s because I haven’t defeated Mordremoth yet, I’m not sure why I’m unable to run to any of them either.

The sad locked state of much of the Tyria map is one reason I started this thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/hot/Exploration-Maps/first#post5795113

There are many places that would be very, very nice to get to that aren’t reachable yet – even though most of the map designs existed already in GW1.

What’s even worse in my opinion is the fact that at this pace we will never have a full Elona or Cantha map. We might visit Elona and/or Cantha in future expansions as part of the story but we will definitely not get a full Cantha or Elona story and continent to explore.

Wander.5780:

Aren’t all of the WPs in DS locked at all times? every time I’ve logged in and tried to travel to one it bounces me to the nearest one available, which is in the northeastern corner of DS, where the story NPC is located. Unless it’s because I haven’t defeated Mordremoth yet, I’m not sure why I’m unable to run to any of them either.

DS is a pure event map. there are 3 zergs starting at the start of the event. when a zerg clears the event-mobs at a waypoint it becomes unlocked (for the event time). all 3 zergs have to reach the main boss area to start the end fight.
the map closes 15 mins after the end fight (or after 2 hours) resetting all waypoints to blocked status.
you cannot explore the map alone as there are a lot of areas gated behind the event phases. and you need to get into the map at the start of the event (try to get a taxi group in lfg-finder).
you need a some luck to get into a map with enough people and commanders to organize the event. and even more luck to stay on the map until the end without disconnects.

rojoka.5976:

Wander.5780:

Aren’t all of the WPs in DS locked at all times? every time I’ve logged in and tried to travel to one it bounces me to the nearest one available, which is in the northeastern corner of DS, where the story NPC is located. Unless it’s because I haven’t defeated Mordremoth yet, I’m not sure why I’m unable to run to any of them either.

DS is a pure event map. there are 3 zergs starting at the start of the event. when a zerg clears the event-mobs at a waypoint it becomes unlocked (for the event time). all 3 zergs have to reach the main boss area to start the end fight.
the map closes 15 mins after the end fight (or after 2 hours) resetting all waypoints to blocked status.
you cannot explore the map alone as there are a lot of areas gated behind the event phases. and you need to get into the map at the start of the event (try to get a taxi group in lfg-finder).
you need a some luck to get into a map with enough people and commanders to organize the event. and even more luck to stay on the map until the end without disconnects.

Yep, disconnects are an issue – you want to squad up as soon as you have settled into a decent instance.

It’s really annoying to get to the map vendor (only accessible at the end of the meta) and find out that you’re missing items, too… so make sure you research exactly what you need before going through the whole thing only to be given two inventories full of fine equipment and a vendor’s firm refusal to trade fine goods for the item you need.

I’d just like to say:

“…And it burns, burns, burns,
The ring of fire, the ring of fire.”

One day. Maybe one day…

Well since launch we’ve got 10 new zones if you count in the Guild Halls. That’s not too shabby, although we could of course use some more.

I would think LS season 3 and 4 will add 1-2 new zones and after that the next expansion another 4-6 again.

When I first played the game, I stared at the world map, so excited at how big it would be. I thought I could explore the entire world, even all the way to Blood Legion Homelands.

What caught my eye most were Crystal Desert and Woodland Cascades. I explored towards Fields of Ruins, until I got disappointed when I realized Crystal Desert was not in the game. Same for Woodland Cascades when I went to Harathi Hinterlands.

I wasn’t particularly interested in Magus Falls, even though the maps in there were quite interesting.

xiiliea.9356:

When I first played the game, I stared at the world map, so excited at how big it would be. I thought I could explore the entire world, even all the way to Blood Legion Homelands.

What caught my eye most were Crystal Desert and Woodland Cascades. I explored towards Fields of Ruins, until I got disappointed when I realized Crystal Desert was not in the game. Same for Woodland Cascades when I went to Harathi Hinterlands.

I wasn’t particularly interested in Magus Falls, even though the maps in there were quite interesting.

Why do you think I’m putting so much effort into my Exploration Maps thread, eh? Haha, yeah, I was running around in circles in Guild Wars 1 until GW2 released – and then promptly ran into every single edge of map conceivable. I was legitimately assuming that since I could reach Eye of the North (with my GW1 achievement portal stone), I would be able to go up to/past it via walking. Sadness ensued shortly thereafter. =(

Still a fun game, though, don’t get me wrong!

But does anyone else think that the Maguuma maps are a bit of a poor man’s jungle after the deep, dark Luxon/Kurzik forests in Factions?