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What kind of maps are missing in gw2 to you?


hugo.4705

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Let's say, you don't have 3 months, but 5 or 6 months with a team to make a map, what would you do? In term of theme if it is related to a specifix elder dragon, to a local villain just invented? What environnements you don't see a lot and would like to see more? A specific faction? I made that post, because recently I came across several regarding maps: Your favorite one, the one you hate the most...

Firstly about the environments:Personally I would like to see more underground map, or a fully underground one. I liked the dwarven ruins and puzzles of thunderhead peak or in bjora. But not overcrowded by foes like the maze nightmare with ton of tunnels that is tangled depths. (at least to me) so a structured clear to understand one. I enjoy wandering around in dredges excavations too. The ones in frostgorge are pretty impressive and amazing, the frozen dredges tunnels with the kodans capture points, the fact it is digging deeply in the ground until even reaching the water leaving and digging far under... wow. If I must cite another location with interesting caverns, would be mount maelstrom. The volcanic caverns with some asura navigationnal chart, staircase and light markers is nice, and the underground network it very straight forward and it is easy to navigate the volcano. Special mention for grottoes of draconic mons, the fluorescent blue vines, mosses, plants and water pools are perfect for stunning screenshot and make the place more fairy.About mechanics, there could be an event of maintaining the energy supply of the map by escorting troops carrying fresh batteries around to each generator. The meta could be times accordingly to time of th day: A time for filling generator, a time of destroyer attacks, a time for exploration of ruins all around the maps to discover relics. About ruins, don't get me wrong, not speaking essentially of dwarven ruins (which can be present, not an issue) but more about underground asuran ruins, in the style of rata pten or the ones found with the skritt cave in the north of mount maelstrom. Essentially pact camps and order ones but scraps camps, like the ones in dragon stand. So all races present. About factions, there could be dwarves, and assault of stone summit ones. Some skritts around.

About the factions now:There are really factions I really find underused in this game: Jotuns, Largos, Tengu, Dwarves and Grawls. Really. It is fairly easy to find in core maps, and even in living season ones, Kodans, Skritts, Hyleks, Centaurs, Dredges, Dragon minions, Pirates, Quaggans, Any evil organization....The woodland cascades area is completely unused after 8 years, and the place is perfectly located to place some tengu, jotun and grawls. Even centaur could afford a place here for a map. There is also a proximity with the sea and isle of janthir, so possible link with white mantle. About largos, you have ton of place near the unending ocean, cantha, scavenger causeway, furthour south-east of Orr... For dwarves no thinking, it is underground. There could be a story betwen Tengu being assaulted with grawls, and centaurs harassing the few seraphs around like a reference to core maps.

Finally the locations:Not a lot of spots aren't used: Either the north, within the maguma wastes, the delta or woodland cascades. All the east, anything at the right of those two very stressed mounatainous chains of the blood legion homelands/ascalon and POF maps. (that spot seems to have very intense relief and a kind of coast may be cool to explore) There is also that strange blue artifact drawn on the map that look a blue shrine or big crystal drop at extreme right on the same layer as thunderhead peak; very strange artifact because there are details made with the brush on it: Some curves and many square shapes. To end with the unending ocean, through I can get, It can be a kind of challenge to bet on a full underwater map. What about an underwater map that act like a surface map but with water bubbles and effects around you? So basically being underwater but playing like you are on land? Dunno maybe would feel off.

Those are just my ideas and two cents, but i like to project myself for post- end of dragon, in a case of a living season 6. I really hope that primordius and jormag don't get butchered and killed rapidly with non sense with chapter 4 of the icebrood saga. Would drive me crazy and suppress ton of cool possibilities of further developments and exploring the depths of Tyria. Happy that grothmar was here to give me a breath of fresh air. I'm very curious about what style of map players are waiting for? Batlegrounds? Peaceful outpost? Coast or beaches?

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I like your ideas of an underground map, I hope we get one before/if primordus dies.What I really want though is an Underwater map, I'm hopeful that EoD will bring one.Underwater is something that's under utilized in GW2, I understand why they haven't done much with it because most players aren't a fan of the underwater combat system but If they tweaked that then I'd love to see a full large map that's almost entirely underwater. There's just so much potential there that's waiting to be tapped into.

Locations: There's just so much you could do here. You could have Largos' home city, Krait and Quaggan's original territory, you could even introduce new races like sirens and give them some islands of the coast of cantha. Or explore the locations of the Kraken and Leviathans.

Navigation: Since your essentially free flying trough the entire map I would suggest Introducing a new mount similar to griffon that could navigate faster in deep waters. You could give it the same dive/pull up mechanics to gain momentum so skimmer is more useful in shallow waters where you can't dive too far.

Metas: The Kraken could be fought on a fleet of ships or The Leviathans in the depths in the unending ocean.

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I like volcanic areas. Ember bay is a nice looking map even if a little under utilised. More beach/coastal areas would be welcomed to since Sandswept is one of my favourites in the game and Southson is one of the most unique. I was surprised Janthir wasn't brought into LS3 since it fitted and was even mentioned

The floating islands one above is interesting. I'm not sure it appeals to me, however Bloodstone Fen is another favourite of mine so perhaps there is scope.

What I want is to explore again. Outside of core and PoF, we've only really had Grothmar and perhaps Bjora as explorable, core style maps. Bjora was a bit wasteful and lacked organic geography, but the idea of telling lots of stories and having a vareity of different things going on is what I want. It's what has made Icebrood Saga so disappointing. We've had so much wasted potential for maps across the Shiverpeaks and Woodland Cascades that I fear the time has gone for those areas now.

Cantha has quite a range of biomes so here is hoping for nice, big gorgeous, varied, explorable maps again

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While an underground map might sound interesting in theory, i do remember how painful navigating through Tangled Depths was. If we couple it with the recent tendency to heavily underuse waypoints, it would almost certainly turn into a nightmare. So, probably not a good idea.Same with the Canthan "Kaineng City" style environment .

Basically, unless Anet starts utilizing waypoints as freely as in Core again, introducing anything that is not a relatively flat surface you can use mounts to swiftly traverse through would end up very painful.

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An underwater variant of a Tangled Depths like map full of caves etc that are air pockets where we can fight on land against some enemies and have story chapters there.

On the top of the water there are various floating platforms and a canopy style area like in Verdant Brink with a few small islands or giant tree's coming out of the water that can be climbed and explored too.

A gigantic new world boss that must be fought both underwater and on land via the use of floating platforms and siege located on nearby islands.

This kind of map concept has been something i've wanted in Gw2 since before Gw2 even had a living world :P

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I'd also like an underwater map, specifically one out in the open ocean which gets progressively more dangerous as you go down. On the surface there's a ship or flotilla which acts as a kind of floating 'city' - it's got a waypoint and basic services, and is most likely the place where you enter the map. If possible I'd like it to move around the map, but slowly (so a player swimming without speed boosts could catch up). Oh, maybe it could be a kodan fortress?

The surface would be relatively safe and calm, maybe there's some small islands dotted around and some friendly NPCs (I imagine several events would end with reaching the surface too) but not a lot to do, most of the action takes place under the water. As you go down it gets progressively darker and more dangerous, with increasingly strange creatures to encounter. Maybe there's a world boss or something right at the bottom, in an ocean trench or something like that.

If possible I'd also like to have a largos city in some kind of underwater dome, so you can stop swimming and walk around, but I don't know how that would work with the physics engine, I'm not sure we can have dry areas below places you can swim (just like we can't have water you can swim in above the map's water table, even if it's deep enough you just walk through it). If not it could be like the quaggan villages where you're swimming around instead of walking, but it would function as a small safe area in the most dangerous part of the map, but lacking most services because the lagos don't have any ties to the Black Lion Company, the bank system etc.

Somewhere in amongst all this there could be a mini dungeon (or a jumping puzzle if it is possible to have dry areas underwater), several short event chains showcasing the different creatures and dangers at the different levels and maybe longer event chains which cross all the levels and get progressively more difficult as you go.

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It would be interesting to have a zone that is in/on a giant monster/creation. A giant turtle might be a good example. Large and ancient and mildly aware that an ecology has developed on itself.

The other I think would be interesting would be an extended zepherite (sp?) zone where everything is on flying ships no actual land or water. Maybe some floating islands?

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Very interesting ideas, floating islands and underwater maps. Using Zephyrites and their flying ships seems cool too, they aren't used a lot apart in labyrinthine cliffs and dry top. I enjoy volcanic environments a lot and yes, ember bay has a certain charm. I kinda regret that sandswept northern border stop before the volcano, could have been interesting. I am kinda hypnotized by the fire and ash falls in fireheart rise.

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On one hand I miss simple maps from early game, which were amazing without mounts and gliding. Then there are HOT maps who I hated a bit on release because they were hard to navigate, but in the end provided the best possible exploration for single player and multiplayer alike. POF maps were amazing initially with all the sand, desert and pyramids, but then it all got progressively bland and uninterresting, so I would be fine with having a lot less POF style maps and a lot more HOT style maps. Everybody like to explore jungle :)Also the new Icebrood saga maps are the worst, kinda like WvW maps but with no pvp and toooo efing much stuff to do. Its insanely packed with stuff to do that it makes it unfun and cluttered. I can see how this was a test and I would advise to stay the hell away from it. I mean even logically looking at it, every new style of map I get less and less fps. From 60 FPS in vanilla maps, to 30+ FPS in HOT and POF, to now 15+ in that new WvW style map. I prefer simplicity with enough good content, not fkton of content so that it overwhelms everyone who first steps in it and it isnt even visually that appealing.

Just my opinion tho. Wish game got better multi core support so fps wouldnt be that much of an issue.

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A big swamp. We have little swamps here and there, like the one where Shadow Behemoth spawns, but we don't have a big zone-wide one like we have for other biomes. Add in some blighttown looking structures (or Cantha slums) and I'm happy.

A dark forest map, similiar to the small forest in Bitterfrost Frontier, just bigger. Also mix in some of the aesthetic we've seen from the boneskinner forest in Bjora Marches.

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@"Astralporing.1957" said:While an underground map might sound interesting in theory, i do remember how painful navigating through Tangled Depths was. If we couple it with the recent tendency to heavily underuse waypoints, it would almost certainly turn into a nightmare. So, probably not a good idea.Same with the Canthan "Kaineng City" style environment .

Basically, unless Anet starts utilizing waypoints as freely as in Core again, introducing anything that is not a relatively flat surface you can use mounts to swiftly traverse through would end up very painful.

Since launch waypoints are, for me, are one of the biggest problems of this game. It just break the feeling of an open world and are not immersive at all. I'm really happy there are less and less of them. They find other ways to TP players aoround map that are way better imo. And what thrill me is actually getting lost and learning to find my way trought to finnaly guide others when they struggle. Kaineng would be a perfect place for that !

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Also, just to address one of my pet peeves, I'd really like to see new zones that physically bridge the gap between the core game world and the more geographically isolated zones that have been added to the game. Basically, I want it to ultimately be possible to actually walk to every zone in the game, rather than needing to use waypoints to get to a bunch of them.

(While we're at it, can we also put in some zone lines between places like Verdant Brink and Bloodstone Fen, Straits of Devastation and Siren's Landing, and Grothmar Valley and Bjora Marches?)

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@kharmin.7683 said:

@"Lavith.8930" said:Since launch waypoints are, for me, are one of the biggest problems of this game. It just break the feeling of an open world and are not immersive at all.Nothing is preventing you from not using them if they break immersion for you. I don't see how this could be one of the biggest problems of the game.

This is the same debate as "dont use mounts, dont use glider etc " just the fact it's implemented in the game is enough. Restraining yourself to use a part of the game shouldnt be a thing.

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@Lavith.8930 said:

@Lavith.8930 said:Since launch waypoints are, for me, are one of the biggest problems of this game. It just break the feeling of an open world and are not immersive at all.Nothing is preventing you from not using them if they break immersion for you. I don't see how this could be one of the biggest problems of the game.

This is the same debate as "dont use mounts, dont use glider etc " just the fact it's implemented in the game is enough. Restraining yourself to use a part of the game shouldnt be a thing.

I respectfully disagree. Waypoints are not needed to complete content. There is no need to use them, especially with the inclusion of mounts which are completely optional for core content.

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