Map reveal for other characters

[tiewan.1086]

I have 2 characters. I reached level 80 with one of them first, got HoT and PoF, explored those a bit, I think I have about 35% of map opened.

When I started playing the new character, I surprisingly found that all maps are hidden again. It wasn't so much of a problem on low levels of the second character as I started in a different zone, but once I got into standard mid-areas it became nuisance - all waypoints are hidden, and I have to spend time just opening the map. It's boring and completely ruined the experience for me. I literally can't go back to playing thinking that I'd have to reveal those maps again - it took some time initially obviously.

Is it just me, is anyone else also finding that the same as bank accounts, mounts, the map should be per-account. As a player, I've learnt those maps - so why keep the hidden? I am running through them with the knowledge already, it's just the map screen is not matching the memory - weird feeling. I like exploring, and was hoping to explore other areas with the new character - not to spend time on the same boring zones.

Any suggestions on how to restore the interest? A vote perhaps for Arena to make a change? It can easily be an account's option I imagine.

Cheers,Denis

[Glider.5792]

It will stay character dependant, because fully finishing maps gives out rewards, and if you complete all of the core maps, you get 2 legendary gifts which you need if you want to make a legendary armor.

Like, i could possbily see an option for the map to be fully explored(opened) on all chars once you do it on one, but without any wps/poi/vistas etc unlocked. Most likely not though, 99.9% not.Alot of us like seeing the map fully unexplored, having to explore it again. It gives a sense of acomplishment.

[Handsel.2891]

There are gem store items that, when used, open up all the waypoints in different regions. That is as far as automatic map completion will hopefully go. As the previous post said, rewards are tied to exploring the zones, one of which is needed to craft legendary weapons. It leaves a bad taste if you suddenly don't have to work for that as hard as all the people did before you...

[Excursion.9752]

It seems brutal at first. But it actually helps you in the long run. Since you own PoF you will be able to explore faster than some of us vets used to. What I did with all of my characters was everyday choose an event to do it and then figure out some way to get to it. Eventually you will have a lot opened up and it wont feel like to much of a chore if you are not going for full map completion. However if you are going for full map completion then just focus on doing one map a day. When you start to do multiple maps at one time your face starts to melt off haha. All jokes aside you do actually start to feel pretty good about yourself once you know where your going without needed the map to be discovered at all. It almost become like your drive home. If that makes any since.

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

@"tiewan.1086" said:When I started playing the new character, I surprisingly found that all maps are hidden again. It wasn't so much of a problem on low levels of the second character as I started in a different zone, but once I got into standard mid-areas it became nuisance - all waypoints are hidden, and I have to spend time just opening the map. It's boring and completely ruined the experience for me. I literally can't go back to playing thinking that I'd have to reveal those maps again - it took some time initially obviously.

In my experience, all MMORPGs work like this. (Er, that is, all the MMORPGs I've played that have explorable maps(1) work like this.) A similar request pops up from time to time in the SWTOR forums, but at least there they don't have any concept of "get this valuable gift for exploring the world again" that we do here.

I'd also say in passing that I'm currently working on "map completion" (all hearts, waypoints, points of interest and vistas in all maps of the original game) on my fourth character, and I know that other players have done it on more than I have.

(1) Some don't have exploration-revealed maps, but the ones that I've played that do have such maps all did it per-character.

[Biff.5312]

I find it pretty tedious at this point, as I have dozens of toons. One thing to ease the pain, if you don't plan to buy WP unlocks, is to get your beetle mount and just race through every map, grabbing the odd WP as you go. You don't have to be thorough - just grab enough and open enough of the map space that you can always get into that region in at least roughly any area you want to reach in future. It doesn't take much time with a beetle - maybe a couple of minutes per map.

[Crunchbone.7341]

I am doing the whole story/map completion for the first time on my 6 year old character, lol. The only thing I would love is to have mounts for the next "explorers". I see so many folks exploring & doing hero points, vistas, etc, on their mounts & those mounts are so amazing & look like such fun. If the mounts are useable on all my (even low level) characters on the account once I get them on my first character, I think it will be great fun to go back & do it again with different professions :)

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

Actually having the full map 'revealed' for all your other toons would be really helpful. NOTE: REVEALED not COMPLETE. I have two accounts, was logged in to both of them hitting my home instance, and a guildie popped up with a question in guild chat about where to find something in Desert Highlands...and both of the toons I was on had nearly zero of DH opened up, so I couldn't even tell them the name of the way point they needed to go to. Having map completed on more than one character, I am still behind requiring map completion on a per character basis. But I've map completed every PvE map available on my berserker, it'd sure make my life easier to be able to see the whole thing on all my toons.

[tiewan.1086]

Thanks for all your comments, guys.

Personally, I don't care about map completion rewards, don't care about legendaries. So I'm happy to forfeit those and trade them for the time spent rewalking the same maps. I know for sure I will not be seeking those rewards on the previously opened maps, and I did not care much for them in the first instance anyway. As Kaltyn posted, I would not care for the same map to be completed (it feels odd completing the same map again) - happy to forfeit any map rewards on the subsequent characters. Would love to see this as an option - I understand other people care about those things, and I respect that, so would be good to have both as a choice.

Thanks @Excursion.9752 for advice though - I might do that map-a-day thing.

[phs.6089]

@tiewan.1086 said:Thanks for all your comments, guys.

Personally, I don't care about map completion rewards, don't care about legendaries. So I'm happy to forfeit those and trade them for the time spent rewalking the same maps. I know for sure I will not be seeking those rewards on the previously opened maps, and I did not care much for them in the first instance anyway. As Kaltyn posted, I would not care for the same map to be completed (it feels odd completing the same map again) - happy to forfeit any map rewards on the subsequent characters. Would love to see this as an option - I understand other people care about those things, and I respect that, so would be good to have both as a choice.

Thanks @Excursion.9752 for advice though - I might do that map-a-day thing.

I used to just go on a new toon and run trough map, unlock several wps, takes like 10-15 minuts per map, 2-3 maps per day and I'm done in a week or so.

[Khisanth.2948]

@Glider.5792 said:It will stay character dependant, because fully finishing maps gives out rewards, and if you complete all of the core maps, you get 2 legendary gifts which you need if you want to make a legendary armor.

Gift of Exploration is for weapon not armor.

The Gifts as a reason for not having this is interesting for PoF maps because you don't get the gift for completing a map and instead you just gain the ability to buy the equivalent.

[Irensaga.6935]

Keep in mind you don't really need to explore the entire map with every character.

I went for map completion with my main character. But the other six characters I've acquired, it's a lot more limited.

Usually with a new character, I'll do enough exploration to unlock waypoints in the major cities (not all of them - just one or two convenient ones), then I'll try to unlock a waypoint near each open world boss - like Tequatl and the Shatterer and so forth. I like to farm those sometimes or grab them for dailies, so I want a convenient waypoint or two near each of them. Then I'll unlock the waypoints for each dungeon entrance. I don't run dungeons much, but I want the waypoints anyway. Then I grab a few more waypoints in my preferred city where I park my characters for convenience. For me it's Divinity's Reach. I like how close the bank and the auction house are to each other - along with a really convenient vendor for salvage kits right next to the bank. Sometimes I'll go for map completion on Lion's Arch as well, since a lot happens there. Unlocking mounts in Path of Fire makes this process go a LOT faster. So you should probably make sure to unlock mounts with your main character before seriously map grinding any other characters.

Aside from that, you can make any further map exploration just a normal part of your leveling process. For instance, you roll a new character. Usually efficient leveling will have you doing map completion of the starting zone, just because it's really quick and efficient. Maybe map completion of the racial city as well. Then you run personal story and just travel to the waypoints and areas you need for that. Leave most of the map uncompleted except what you need for the personal story - then once you get to Orr, try to unlock all the waypoints on that (since traveling Orr is a pain without them). Upon hitting level 80, you'll also want to make sure to unlock the waypoints for Silverwastes and Dry Top - since those are both good maps for level 80 content before you unlock the expansion maps (and SW is a good farming spot no matter how much of the game you've unlocked).

But... that's only if you intend to do the personal story for all your characters. Strictly speaking, you don't have to do the personal story all the way if you don't want to. Usually, my characters hit level 80 well before the personal story is complete. And right now, I have so many scaps of experience and tomes of knowledge that I could instantly level a new character or two to 80 if I wanted to. For my new necromancer, I haven't even opened most of the Central Tryia map content. She's been messing around in Silverwastes and I used a level 80 booster on her. I plan to open the character panel and simply click "start" on the Heart of Thorns opening story and send her right there without even doing the level 10 personal story stuff (which I find boring by this point). I have a few max level characters like that. Only two of my character lineup have even killed Zhaitan.

Once characters are at max level and you've unlocked the main waypoints you want for convenience of city services, world boss farming, dungeon running, the Silverwastes, and whatever navigation you want to have in Orr, Heart of Thorns and Path of Fire, you're golden. You can really just leave it there and live the good life. No map completion needed.

After that you can slowly open map completion on your alt characters if you like. Here's how I do it. One thing I do these days when I log in, is check today's daily quest in the upper right corner. Let's say it wants you to collect lumber in the Shiverpeaks and do events in Gendarran Fields and two other options. I'll log into a character who I know hasn't completed Gendarran Fields and has some exploration to do in the Shiverpeaks. Then I'll use that character to go hunt for lumber on a Shiverpeaks map they haven't explored. I'll unlock waypoints, points of interest, or any viewpoints IF THEY ARE CONVENIENT while I'm chopping wood. Same goes for heart quests in the area. If it's convenient, I'll grab them while I get my daily quota. Once I've got the wood, I'm out of there. Then I'll do the same thing in Gendarran Fields. Just travel about unlocking stuff while grabbing events for daily completion. Once the daily is completed, I quit the map.

I don't always do this though. Sometimes I just want the daily fast - in which case, I'll log my main who has all the maps complete and can teleport anywhere quickly. It's completely on an "if I feel like it" basis.

[kilim.5093]

@"Crunchbone.7341" said:I am doing the whole story/map completion for the first time on my 6 year old character, lol. The only thing I would love is to have mounts for the next "explorers". I see so many folks exploring & doing hero points, vistas, etc, on their mounts & those mounts are so amazing & look like such fun. If the mounts are useable on all my (even low level) characters on the account once I get them on my first character, I think it will be great fun to go back & do it again with different professions :)

All mounts and outfits are account wide unlocks. You can make new character and use on lvl 1 toon your rolling beetle if you want... :D :D

[crepuscular.9047]

I think what OP is asking for is to remove the 'fog of war', which is a different thing from map completion; I'm fine either way.

but map completion, need to keep it as is, no change what so ever

a single full core map completion gives you 2x Gift of Exploration per toon for crafting Gen1 legendary weapons; to collect all, you need 20 in total, that means 10 toonsand a full HoT map completion gives you 1x Gift of Magumma (combine gifts from each zone in the mystic toilet), which is needed for Gen2 legendary weapons; of 4 of them you must use Gift of Magumma

every single time when you complete a zone, there is a chance for Black Lion Key for zone completion rewardlast time I did a full core map completion, I got 14 Black Lion Keys; took me around 4 days with mounts

for living world 3 and onwards, it's a quick way to map currenciesi.e. Lump of Mistonium, you need 375 to unlock a full set of Requiem armor skin, you get at minium per toon per Jahai Bluffs map completion (hearts=15, map complete=25)

[DeanBB.4268]

So you're saying do the map once and it is done for all characters? Or something else? You do know a very important piece of a Legendary is tied to world mapping, right?

[DeanBB.4268]

From that point of view, the whole game is a BS time sink. You play an MMO, do everything once, and uninstall?

[Vendetta.5026]

17 minutes ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

From that point of view, the whole game is a BS time sink. You play an MMO, do everything once, and uninstall?

You play an mmo, enjoy the experience, do everything once and then something called "replayability" and "end-content" comes into play. Maybe you've heard of it. Doing the same quest 10 times, or re-exploring the whole map 5 times is called no-replayability or poor-replayability. 
You seem to have trouble grasping very simple concepts, so im afraid im wasting my time saying this anyway. No offence. 

Edited February 4, 2022 by Vendetta.5026

[costepj.5120]

Map completion is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game for me. I'm doing it on my 15th character currently. But ofc my opinion is irrelevant as I'm as naive, immature 57 yr old child.

[DeanBB.4268]

Perhaps your "end-content" is fractals or raids or PvP (not sure, just throwing that out). Perhaps my "end-content" is playing through maps, doing the story, killing/getting killed in WvW, among other things. Which is the "right" way to play GW2? Who gets to decide?

[Vendetta.5026]

20 minutes ago, costepj.5120 said:

Map completion is one of the most enjoyable parts of the game for me. I'm doing it on my 15th character currently. But ofc my opinion is irrelevant as I'm as naive, immature 57 yr old child.

What can i say, im sorry for you.

[Vendetta.5026]

4 minutes ago, DeanBB.4268 said:

Perhaps your "end-content" is fractals or raids or PvP (not sure, just throwing that out). Perhaps my "end-content" is playing through maps, doing the story, killing/getting killed in WvW, among other things. Which is the "right" way to play GW2? Who gets to decide?

Perhaps white is black and black is white. Maybe water is dry. Who gets to decide? doing the same exact thing 100 times is SO FUN. I changed my mind. you're right 

[DeanBB.4268]

So enlighten us on what you do that is different every time you do it in GW2. Otherwise, this is just more of a "he likes baseball she likes football" kind of thing, where everyone is right and nobody is right. /shrug