HoT jungle maps appreciation

[Fipmip.7219]

@Danikat.8537 said:

@"Fipmip.7219" said:cant wait for the next expansion where we get the PoF map appreciation thread

Probably not, because the PoF maps have never received the kind of hate the HoT maps did, so an appreciation topic would be redundant. There was a lot of talk about how PoF maps are so much better and Anet have "come to their senses" and done what "everyone" wanted when PoF launched, but there's no point in going on about how they've produced an expansion with very conventional maps.

Which is not to say they're not pretty, or even interesting. But they don't stand out in the same way HoT does, and therefore also don't polarise opinions as much.

So you're saying that the community needs to have a wrong, kneejerk reaction to new maps in order for there to be an appreciation thread?

[BlueJin.4127]

@Hesacon.8735 said:HoT maps are great when you have all your masteries. Before you acquire all the movement masteries they're pretty miserable.

With masteries: 10/10Without masteries: shoot me/10

What Hesa said, but with mounts in additiona to HoT masteries. With HoT masteries and mounts, HoT maps are the most amazing. And I don’t just mean in this game. I can’t recall maps this immersive in any other games I’ve ever played. If we ever get Cantha, I hope Echovald Forest is like HoT (and Jade Sea can be like PoF for players who want flatter maps).

[Skaan.1423]

@BlueJin.4127 said:

@"Hesacon.8735" said:HoT maps are great when you have all your masteries. Before you acquire all the movement masteries they're pretty miserable.

With masteries: 10/10Without masteries: shoot me/10

What Hesa said, but with mounts in additiona to HoT masteries. With HoT masteries and mounts, HoT maps are the most amazing. And I don’t just mean in this game. I can’t recall maps this immersive in any other games I’ve ever played. If we ever get Cantha, I hope Echovald Forest is like HoT (and Jade Sea can be like PoF for players who want flatter maps).

Cantha would be such a great continent for GW2's movement systems. Kaineng City and the Echovald Forest would be great places for verticality and for gliding/flying. Meanwhile, the Jade Sea could indeed be a great place for both open, wide terrains but also for some great underwater content (the Jade Sea did start to "melt" in some places afterall, if i remember right).

And then Shing Jea Island could just be a nice, relaxing, relatively peaceful zone similar to areas like Queensdale.

I so hope we will get a Cantha expansion sometime in the future. Is it still pretty much confirmed that it's not happening? I remember NCSoft being against it for some reason, but don't know if anything has changed since then.

[Anela.3867]

They are the most beautiful maps I have ever seen in any game.

[Tyncale.1629]

HoT maps certainly have grown on me too. At first they were daunting, especially since you had to unlock Gliding and mushroom skills. But now, with Mounts, they are simply the best. Mounts are such a great addition: I can not even imagine anymore that before PoF we were hoofing it all the time.

[Ardid.7203]

I've said many times, and I would say it again: HoT as a whole, and its maps specially, were revolutionary for all the MMORPG genre. Verdant Brink is the map I have enjoyed the most, in any game, ever.

[otto.5684]

Auric Basin is one of the best maps. I also love Verdant Brink. TD, I admire it, but my tolerance for it is extremely low. I like DS from a design stand point and theme. I do not want to play 1-1.5 hours meta though.

[Shikigami.4013]

I love the HoT maps and their verticality and complexity, although tangled depths went a tiny bit too far even for me :)If you ever break out of the map (by accident or by choice) in tangled depths and look at it from a high place or even scoot around where you can at waterlevel, it will totally blow your mind. This map is so insane, you cannot even begin to grasp it when most you have seen were narrow tunnels and rooms before. The amout of areas this map has is really quite overwhelming.

[Vayne.8563]

I've loved the HoT maps all along, VB and TD particularly. I've completed VB on 39 characters, that's how much I enjoy it. I've always felt HoT had a bum rap and it's good to see, after the fact, that so many people are still enjoying it.

[asterix.9614]

Idk I remember getting a headache trying to traverse the hot maps, could be just me and my prejudice against pve back then, on the other hand pof maps, was just wow!

[kharmin.7683]

@Fipmip.7219 said:

@Danikat.8537 said:

@Fipmip.7219 said:cant wait for the next expansion where we get the PoF map appreciation thread

Probably not, because the PoF maps have never received the kind of hate the HoT maps did, so an appreciation topic would be redundant. There was a lot of talk about how PoF maps are so much better and Anet have "come to their senses" and done what "everyone" wanted when PoF launched, but there's no point in going on about how they've produced an expansion with very conventional maps.

Which is not to say they're not pretty, or even interesting. But they don't stand out in the same way HoT does, and therefore also don't polarise opinions as much.

So you're saying that the community needs to have a wrong, kneejerk reaction to new maps in order for there to be an appreciation thread?

There's nothing preventing you from starting a PoF appreciation thread if you wanted. You don't even need to wait for the next expansion.

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

When I first bought the HoT expansion, I was unsure of how to start the story and get my glider. I wandered into Verdant Brink, blundered into a patch of pocket raptors, ran away and fell into a deep, deep hole and died. I also ended up dying many times just from running out of glider gas over a bottomless pit of writhing thorny tentacles. Doing Central Tyria gliderless left me with a terror of virtual heights which took a lot of glider and griffon hours to overcome, and VB was full of heights, and pretty intimidating. But there was nothing more amazing than getting way up into the sky, above the cloud layer, and landing on wrecked airships and tiny islands of canopy. It felt so isolated and dangerous and awesomely adventurous.

Then Auric Basin's beauty and culture blew me away, Tangled Depths baffled me with its maze-like pathways, and Dragon's Stand led me to face the biggest and baddest boss of all the game. The jungle was alive, and beautiful, and angry. And there were so many fun ways to get around, Nuhoch wallows, bouncy mushrooms, updrafts, etc. Once a character had the waypoints, and especially now with mounts, the maps became much more fun and entertaining.

Still a bit frustrating to map-complete on a new character, but that's not really a bad thing.

[Loki.4871]

PoF and HoT are two different design philosophies so I'm not sure saying one is 'better' is better or worse. HoT gives me the feeling I had from Cantha in GW1; less floor space but more dense, and while it was Suffering at first before the glider and whatnot was unlocked, it's certainly more bearable afterwards. It's also become far more tolerable with mounts and I wonder if HoT hadn't had the glider and so forth but mounts instead, it would be remembered more fondly.

I also appreciate it's a living (as far as a mmorpg) world can be; Stuff is happening with or without you, and even if you don't want to do X you can usually do Y instead of Z to help (such as roaming and killing rampaging mordrem or escorting soldiers at night in verdant brink, even if you don't want to try and hold territories). It can be frustrating when you try to do the meta and no-one is there, but I would rather take this style of design than a more theme-park style which the base game and PoF are both guilty of doing.

In hindsight I genuinely think they're the best maps in the game. I still won't forgive whoever thought the chakk were a good enemy though. :p

[Hithiquen.6203]

Completely agree, imo they're the best maps in any mmo ever.. it's hard to believe they were designed by a human; they're so complex it's like they must have come from a crazy genius

[AliamRationem.5172]

@Hithiquen.6203 said:Completely agree, imo they're the best maps in any mmo ever.. it's hard to believe they were designed by a human; they're so complex it's like they must have come from a crazy genius

Nice thread resurrection! And I definitely agree. HoT has the craziest open world maps of any MMO I've ever played and Tangled Depths is still my favorite MMO map of all time!

[otto.5684]

@Vayne.8563 said:I've loved the HoT maps all along, VB and TD particularly. I've completed VB on 39 characters, that's how much I enjoy it. I've always felt HoT had a bum rap and it's good to see, after the fact, that so many people are still enjoying it.

VB and AB are two of the best maps in the game. Is such a shame no map after HoT comes even close to the amount of stuff they offer.

[Vayne.8563]

@otto.5684 said:

@Vayne.8563 said:I've loved the HoT maps all along, VB and TD particularly. I've completed VB on 39 characters, that's how much I enjoy it. I've always felt HoT had a bum rap and it's good to see, after the fact, that so many people are still enjoying it.

VB and AB are two of the best maps in the game. Is such a shame no map after HoT comes even close to the amount of stuff they offer.

I will say I really do think Draconis Mons can be up there in that conversation.

[aspirine.6852]

The maps are great. They are very good looking, but they can be annoying to navigate too.Let's say I like them better after you get the skyscale, makes them a lot easier.Perhaps that last point is a reason to not let the normal mounts into the new expansion, I mean a flying mount makes content way easier :/