Would you buy a mapless expansion?

I'll be first to admit that I was among the people who clamored for more maps when Anet thought of it as a bad idea as it would wear the population thin. Both sides were sort of right.Having new maps is all well and good... In moderation. Anet went overboard with the idea. Now we have a lot of maps but not high enough population to support them all as I very often get asked to switch the map. Expansion 3 would bring new maps and new people, but in the long run it'll only exacerbate the problem (unless you're content with doing only one super efficient meta map). Maybe Anet should rethink way forward after Exp3 and start working on what game already has.

Since they would be free from constantly designing new maps and complex metas, all the fluff NPC dialogue, etc etc, we could have 2 elite specs per profession, maybe new weapon types, new smaller events and event chains sprinkled across neglected maps. You'd still have a main story, but it'd take place in already existing maps. I'd agree that exploration is fun, but there's also something to returning to familiar places.

Vote and if you agree write what would you like to see in that sort of package.

I wouldn't completely rule it out, I have bought DLC for other games which didn't include new maps. But since the story and the new maps to explore are the main things I'm interested in it would need to either be cheaper (due to having less content) or they'd have to make it clear there's a lot more story content than usual or a lot of interesting new events, collections etc. (Or a mix of both.)

I don't think leaving out new maps would enable them to add more elite specs, weapons etc. because those are designed by different people. It would mean giving some staff twice as much work to do while others have nothing to do.

Also I am hope it will be map-lees, no not have include any new map at allit include, as I believe:leg armoryjewel-crafting 5005-8 new dungionsnew resistance atribute system for that dungeons (hope it will be give some dominant bonus on wvw also!!)one or two, or three raid wingsand no any new map! Or only one, or reworked one, - Silverwaste, where no accessible without new attribute resistance systemAnd time to time it will be extent to another core Tyria map make it to hot for non EoD owners !! for example for DryTop ! it will be great!

@lare.5129 said:5-8 new dungionsone or two, or three raid wingsThats new maps.

@Zergs.9715 said:we could have 2 elite specs per professionit can be more clreary. pof and hot spec can be merged to core. Nerf it a little bit, o make great nerf !! Dragons east souls !! And Eod bring one. So each class have one merged core and new elite. We don't need zoo.

@Danikat.8537 said:I don't think leaving out new maps would enable them to add more elite specs, weapons etc. because those are designed by different people. It would mean giving some staff twice as much work to do while others have nothing to do.

Maybe you redirect some of those people to elite spec teams. The rest of map designers would focus on making events, strike missions, fractals, raids... With no new open world maps I bet those would come out much faster.

That would be a terrible expansion.

I mean Lotro has just tried something similar - disguising their bi-annual free 1 map + instances content drop and rebranding it as "an expansion" to charge £20-£100. It has not gone down well at all

An expansion should have maps. Although I've seen expansions barely add any new land mass before in mmos, in this day and age it would fail miserably. Adding events to neglected maps is not something worthy of holding up an expansion, esp if it's new content which confuses the timelines of those maps even further.

Expansion... well they expand the game. And that should always include the playable area

No, because I want Cantha..

Oh kitten no. I'm already shaking thinking there would be no map for that chapter 1 "truce"

I would buy any expansion. But I prefer and expect expansions to have a decent number of new areas to explore.

No, I wouldn't buy it.

I also don't agree with the idea that the maps are spreading the population too thin.

Each map instance probably only holds about 100 players and if you get asked to join another map then it stands to reason that there must be multiple instances of the map running at that time. The fact that you are asked to join another map just means that your current one is emptying for whatever reason (often after a meta ends). It doesn't mean the population is spread too thin. I see players on every map I play on.

It'd be very disappointing but considering the cost of the expansions, PoF without the maps is worth it just for the mounts alone In my opinion.That said, I think Maps are a core feature of expansions, I doubt many people would stick to the same Maps, Meta and Events for long. There's only so much you could do before people get bored of the same scenery.

@Dawdler.8521 said:Thats new maps.exactly ! what I say! great! so make some non instance content can be skipped.People who want see new Cantha will be welcome to Silverwastes!

Presuming that there was sufficient new content of some sort to reasonably call it an expansion I would buy it. I would still have been happy to buy PoF if it had had fewer and/or smaller maps as long as it had mounts and an engaging story. For me the important thing is to have new things to enjoyably spend time doing or new ways to enjoy old content. It's hard to imagine doing that with zero new maps, but if they can do it that's fine with me.

One thing it might be nice to see is new "opponents" (both creatures and player-like characters) with various higher degrees of difficulty but without essential/important things (e.g. masteries, hero points) gated behind them so that those who want a challenge can get it without the more casual players being stopped from moving forward. Such opponents don't absolutely need to be on new maps as long as they don't interfere with what's on the current maps. Maybe there are rival orders that are sending agents out to kill you while your order is trying to find and eliminate their agents, and encounters can occur anywhere. Perhaps you have masteries that prevent them from finding you or that advertise your location so that they find you more frequently, and masteries that help you find them. Maybe they have gatherings or a stronghold that you can find out about and go attack. Rather than looting your opponents, your order has something like a reward track that gives you rewards based on your attacks on your enemy order. If you don't want any of this, or you haven't reached the required level, you just don't join an order. Oh heck, call the orders guilds and call it guild wars... Oh, and one more thing, enemy agents don't attack you if you are in a zerg, or attack in larger numbers or higher levels, and maybe they run away if suddenly outnumbered or outclassed. Occasionally large groups from the enemy guild appear someplace and guild members get a call to come help.

One of the potentialities that doesn't seem to have been exploited in the game so far is speed. In martial arts speed is a dominant factor. A simple way to adjust difficulty is to just adjust speed. If a player has permanent quickness it makes a given piece of content easier, if the content got quickness it would become more difficult. And of course there's slowness, ala chilled, as well. Playing while slowed would demand greater precision, playing while quickened requires the player to be, well, faster. One could play with higher speeds reducing damage/effects of skills, you can't do as much damage per hit if you are hitting faster. Perhaps there are masteries related to speed. I think this would add a whole new dimension to at least the non-pvp part of the game. Being able to replay the game with "permanent quickness" would be a whole new experience. I remember playing in the Silverwastes with a character that had frequent bouts of swiftness/quickness/superspeed (I don't remember which) and it was the most exhilarating play ever. There was a squad during Halloween that I assume one or more characters were sharing out a lot of swiftness and quickness and it was way more fun than playing with any other squad. The mastery in wvw where your mount lets nearby players move at mount speed is really fun the first few times it happens. Even after you are used to it it is more fun running around at superspeed than clomping along on your mount. Unfortunately being mounted has other advantages so I don't do it that often. I bet they could come up with a really fun new elite spec that was all based around speed.

...It's true that we have too many empty maps and metas that can't get completed.

I think we do need Cantha (which is new maps). But what about using the skyscale (and other mounts) and essentially creating an upper level to old maps? Whether this is floating castles in the sky, or a series of airships, or Asura spacetech...

• could be stationary or moving locations
• series of floating steps that a springer could reach
• far apart, tiered locations you use a griffon to fly to
• jackel portals used to reach locations
• more chances to use gliders, add ley-lines, bouncing mushrooms, etc

You'd get new places to explore, new spots to put NPCs, but you'd still be in the old map, where people could see map chat, see metas happening. You could still tie in stuff needing to be done on the ground. They could also fix those old invisible walls that no longer make sense. And who's to say that there wasn't always stuff up in the sky, but that no one could reach (until now)?

(...or conversely, underground levels, I suppose?)

ABSOLUTELY NOT!no matter how many other cool things we get. no new maps= no money from me for an expac.

I would buy an expansion without new elite specs or skills.I would buy an expansion without new skins.I would buy an expansion without new mechanics or masteries.

I would NOT buy an expansion without new maps.

Expansions should come with new maps. Though story steps don't always need a new one.

Don't need new maps to have new content in an expansion. That being said ... something SIGNIFICANT would have to happen in old maps for this to be acceptable to me, for example, another LA destruction event ... except more extensive.

@Sigmoid.7082 said:Expansions should come with new maps. Though story steps don't always need a new one.

Aye!

New maps + new Elite specs are the things i want most from the expansion.The feature that would replace maps would need to be as good as or surpass new maps.

I would. This would imply that they were working on things behind the scenes. Making maps does not qualify an expansion being an expansion it is just a part of it. If that was the case then all these living story updates are expansions. If more maps were not included they would be doing heavy work on other things and that could be good but there is the other side of that coin to and it could be awful.

I would love to be able to pay them for work on the games engine and optimization of what we currently have. I'm so tired of the lag and the games utilization of the cpu.
But that would not make inspire people to purchase it. New elite specs or building on what we already have like utilization of all weapons for each class would be welcomed. I would like to see them make a multitude of trait lines so that build diversity could actually be a thing. This is what is important to me.

Maps we already have to many in my opinion. Also for some odd reason here and there they think adding map specific masteries is a good thing. They are pointless its like fluff content. Having more maps would more than likely inspire more of the same. Mastery is something that should be used every place in the game that's why you need to "Master" it.

Only if it 100% reworked core Tyria.

Exploration is a big part of expansions. Each to their own, but living story does not provide that feel of wanderlust that an expansion does because when you are feed just one map at time you explore and then are done. Personally that's why I liked HoT, you couldn't do that and that lead to higher levels of wanderlust as there was more to discover. So yes new maps are needed, but am not opposed to tie backs to older maps as well to create more connections to that which we have. A different twist on it would also be to expand areas on old maps as well. Portions we can't get to unless we have this tie to the new expansion.

It's not so much that I specifically desire maps, but I would need an equivalent amount of story content along with it. As others have already stated, ANet would need to enact very, very significant changes or events in core maps to achieve this, and I have serious doubts that it would work out well. The problem is not necessarily with ANet, but with those sorts of attempts in general. If we're going to avoid an awkward replay of LWS1, I think we'd have to end up with new instances within the old maps, and I'm not a fan of the latter. I'm with @Randulf.7614 on this one, adding more stuff to core maps just further confuses the timelines on those maps. As if every map being bordered by ridiculous rectangular mountains wasn't enough, having more things that just make the maps feel that much more artificial would be a big turn off for me.