Integrate the Continents!

Is there any reason not to integrate Tyria, Cantha, and Elona all into one continent like they did with EotN in Tyria for those who bought GW:EN?

Something like this
Map
or this
Map
My personal favorite
Map

It would not only be more convenient for people like me who have all 4 games, which I suspect most other people do as well, but it would really drive home the point that this is all one connected world, not three separate ones.

i saw those maps too when i was doing cartography titles.

Its cool but not sure if its practical.

Whats impractical about it?

This gets a big /signed from me, using the boat and loading into spam city's is really starting to piss me off :O

/signed from me too, it would also solve where Cantha and battle islands are exactly located in relation to Tyria/Elona once and for all

/signed
hoped it would be like this from the scratch on -.-

I think that improved mapping systems like people have previously suggested would be better because they may require less work and be less cluttered.

/Sign on the idea

Though I can see why they wouldn't want to do it. From a lore standpoint it would lock them into defining the known world and the placement of the continents, and they probably want to leave that open for some speculation in case they need to add or adjust something down the road.

Certainly would be nice.

Even if they don't have all 4 games, just make one large map that everyone can see when they zoom out.

Maybe have a couple different levels of zooming:

Local
Continent
World

that way you aren't zooming out all the way all the time which some people might find annoying.

/signed,would be very nice.

I actually suggested this on a thread that wanted to remove the need of going to LA/Kaineng/Kamadan, the thread isn't that old.

Here it is:
http://guildwarsguru.com/forum/showt...php?t=10328494

My suggestion is 2nd post. And the thread is still on the first page.

I /sign for this idea, as I brought it up, and I /sign for a merge of the two threads.

Also, Kwith has a good idea for zooming, except for one thing. How do you tell what way to go, it's left click, left click currently for zooming in and out. So will it just circle through? Since right clicking allows you to drag the map.

You mean like this:
That sounds like a LOT more work then just taking the current maps, combining them out of GW, filling in the blanks, then replacing the 4 maps with the new big one. Because with that idea (the only real suggestion about map traveling cross-continent other then map combining) would be changing the coding to include every single outpost. A LOT more work.

I guess it will require a lot of coding to join the continents.
GW2 suggests that they will be availabe in a similar manner.

If anet can do it, I'll like to have something like the third map.
The change will improve a lot of things.

/signed

Of course, since the time that showing something that already exists is less work than making something new...
Oh, wait... that would be never.

Another thing to take into account is the memory required to have the whole map shown.
If it's split into pieces, it's less to show anytime you hit M.

Impractical as far as coding -> money, when GW2 is what Anet is focusing on.

Sure it would be easier for us, the player base, but it's probably setup just like the rest of the instanced areas in the GW world.

It's easy enough, I think:

Hit M, and it shows the zoom in of where you currently are and the commands are much like they are now, click to zoom in/out etc. Now add the boat as a static icon in the lower left. When clicked, you're presented with the World Map. This World Map shows the expanded view of all 4 continents and the battle isles. Click anywhere on a continent and it loads that map as if you were there and had just pressed M. Clicking the mouse zooms in and out as usual and you're free to move around that map and click on the outpost you want to travel to.

This way we only add two more clicks, one on the boat icon and one on the destination continent. Compare this with the painful tedious task that is the current system.

I am made of win.

I think the fear of computer's being unable to deal with this change are unfounded. The battle isles used to be integrated into map before anyway, EotN is already integrated, Elona is already depicted on the map for Tyria, all that would have to be added is Cantha.

This is just not a reason. Perhaps if we were asking for something huge, but we already have the maps for all the continents. No one's asking them to start from scratch, they have all the things they need already. Elona's location on the map has already been decided, all they really need to do is find a place for Cantha.

If you're that worried still about the cost, maybe they should just pull all the people associated with balancing and events for GW1 and put them on GW2. It's impractical to keep improving a dead game right? Equally bad logic.

You see, by helping the players by doing the small (yet good) things, such as the map change, and by doing the big (and good) things, such as the HoM/Title changes, ANet garners more support and like from the GW community.

And by doing such, they raise chances of people buying GW2, which in turn will raise their income.

ok this is not a bad idea, however i'd much rather see the time taken to fix factions and prophs weapons so they are all inscribable and what not like nf and eotns, however personally i wouldn't mind if all weapons went back to the way they are in proph, but then again none of this will happen, perhaps in gw2 the maps will all be on 1, who knows
/notsigned

um?? do you really think that by changing the map system in gw that it is going to make a difference at all in the amount of people that will buy gw2, maybe the few ocd people out there who can't stand it, but hey maybe there are people out there that would hate all the maps being put together and not buy gw2 because of it

Can you take me through the labyrinth that is your logic for /notsigning? You're saying there are other things to fix before this? This thread isn't about putting thing son a list of priorities, simply changes that would be good or not, in fact that is the point of this subforum. It is the argue the merits of certain ideas, not to dictate to Anet in which order the changes should occur. Your reasoning is fault.

And who would be angry that the maps are put together? Give me one reason.

Yes, sounds like a good idea.

/signed.


EDIT: And respect to whomever made those maps. Damn.

many people have guilds. as such, meeting at a guild hall is fairly common, since it bypasses district confusion, lag from spammers, people in the way of merchants and chests etc. not being able to take more than 4 people to any NF mission is annoying. or 6 people to LA.

alternately, there should be a list of places to go from the guildhall. instead of a district list of most areas, the guildhall should have a dropdown of every area ever visited.

Only problem would be for people with a single campaign.

Say you only got Prophecies, pressing M would show a huge friggin' map....which you only can explore for a third. Bit of a let down.

Ah well, might encourage people to buy the Trilogy.

Signed for obvious conveniencessities.

I don't feel like reading, so I wont be surprised if someone mentioned this.
Do the whole three mapthing, but keep it split into continents, with arrows on the side too switch continents, so it's not to huge.
/signed anyway

If they didn't make the maps a whole from the start, it was a for a reason.

Unless that reason changes, it can't be done that way, as a single map.

/signed
Also note, you CAN walk to Elona via the Crystal Desert (The Arid Sea to Crystal Overlook) *The Crystal Desert consists of the whole Tyrian Crystal Desert plus, the Desolation, which explains why you find Elonian Chests in The Crystal Desert and Ancient Elonain Chests in the Desolation*, they are connected by land, the Far Shiverpeaks however are choked with mountains and the Asuran gate is the only way to get through them. I don't see why you coulden't have a path into the Far Shiverpeaks and I don't see any reason why the Maguuma Jungle/Kryta and The Tarnished Coast can't be connected either.

Ya know, before EN came out, after the map, I thought that they would change the Maguuma Stade and Iron Horse Mines so that we would walk to the Tarnished Coast/Far Shiverpeaks.

Off topic and is unrelated tbh. You just argued both for and against inscriptions. Both things (whichever side you want and the map) can be done for say the December monthly update.

To expand on what you said. Everything done with pull in more people, and will push other people away.

nvmu, you make little sense in your post, to be honest.

My response to you nvmu:

Everything done is a double-edged sword, however, I highly doubt that there are people who would be against a way to reduce the map clicking, and therefore loading (except for the spammers and bot users for the trade places).

In short, every little thing helps.

Err, it's pretty easy just to show Tyria for those without Factions, as it stands, how does it work for people without EotN? Does it still show the huge northern area? If not, that's exactly how it would work with a new map system.

Again, nearly all the mechanics and principles for instituting this system already exist.

I suppose this works too, but I'd rather have one big map. Maps are scalable you know, I mean, the map we have now is already huge, all you're REALLY doing is adding Cantha, Elona already appears on the Tyrian map. Zoom in Zoom out features make the map size a truly pointless area of concern.

...

This is the most terrible logic I've ever seen, and I'm in college surrounded by idiots 24/7. Do you mean to suggest that the Guild Wars crew had all 4 games totally planned out since the beginning? Doubtful. Or that they knew all the mechanics and how they would work perfectly? Again, simply not true from the empirical evidence. Additions they have made such as stacking dye (jesus, how was that not instantly added...) or storage space for crafting materials, or increased storage slots for additional campaigns, or introducing inscriptions.

All those things show that the GW team has seen that they lacked certain things and ADDED them. There doesn't have to be a reason that they did the map set up the way they did, it's 100% possible and most likely that they simply didn't think of this scenario, just as they didn't think of being able to stack items, or have separate storage for materials, or the idea of inscriptions.

Or my favorite example of lack of foresight. Balthazar faction and PvP unlocking, along with the PvP weapon/armor creation menu, and attribute refund points for PvP only characters, and only being able to create 2 weapon sets for PvP characters. It was so stupid, needing to reroll everytime you made a mistake on a weapon set, or needed to respec and didn't have the attribute refund points. People making PvE characters because they needed more than just 2 bows to be an effective ranger in PvP. Personally, I thought this should have all been part of the game STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOX. But obviously people at Anet missed it, in a game touted for its PvP, they missed huge elements of making PvP accessible.

So please, don't give me this crap, "they have their reasons."

At this point in gw it is not worth it, gw2 would be nice to start that way, but doing this little update will have virtually no effect on determining if people will or will not continue to buy products from arenanet/ncsoft

i'd /sign for gw2 and /not sign for gw but just for saying that i'll proboly get a flame reply


Are you a program and are aware of this? if so why don't you go volunteer your time and get that to work, and do you know the exact mechanics of the cart titles and know how it keeps track per campaign? I'm going to have to say no, i could be wrong, but i doubt it

This is the thing, we do not know what the code is, how many times these specific variables are referenced, because of the chance of bugs being created it needs to be thoroughly tested, it has to be coded specifically for pre or we could end up with the guildhall bug again, it could potentially be alot more work by far than everyone seems to think
i'm not a c++ expert, far from, however i do know how things that seem simple turn into multi page codes

And as for adding and fixing of things you are right stuff did change and was added when felt necessary(ie, storage, inscriptions, pvp, ect).

The answer is Tyria.

Well, in my opinion, the Northern area of EotN needs only showing when you linked EotN to your account. It doesn't though, a Prophecies only account shows the entire Northern map.

But only showing those continents on the map you've added to the account isn't working either. For what if you have Prophecies and Factions, but not Nightfall? Tyria would show up, Cantha would show up, but Elona would need to be between those two.

I hope you have neeeeever wanted a change to the game. Because I know sure as shit you have never volunteered to code anything for Anet.

And what kind of effect would this have on cartography titles? Absolutely none. They would work exactly the same... You'd have to be a fool to think otherwise. I'm not asking for you to be able to move through zones from Elona to Tyria, you would still have to map out into an outpost, and clearly, Cantha being a separate island makes it impossible to reach by land.

Also, what the hell does coding have to do with mechanics and principles? Clearly, if you had any reading comprehension skills at all, the context of what I said would make my meaning perfectly clear. The way to implement the new mapping system in a practical way already exists. The zooming feature to show the whole map and then zoom in on a small portion already exists, why could that not be expanded to an entire world map to solve the problem of "scale"? Elona already exists on the map, it would require no real changes to the way the map is changed. We have already SEEN Anet knows how to add things to an existing world map with GW:EN.

Obviously they have experience doing this, have done it before with splendid results, and should have few logistical problems adding already existing plans for the continent of Cantha and the Elonian peninsula to the map.

I'm really quite sick of hearing about the "coding". Honestly. That is what Anet is there for, to solve problems, to improve the game. That is what we BOUGHT THEIR GAME FOR. Every. single. issue. in the game requires coding to fix. Why waste their time? Why don't they all just go to Guild Wars 2? Why did they bother adding inscriptions or a massive update for which they had no precedent in the PvP creation menus? That probably took a hell of a lot more new coding than anything I have proposed.

You objections have no logical foundations.

None of those things were necessary, they were simply for convenience. Anet also has a track record of adding things for Lore purposes(Bonus mission pack anyone?), which would also be true of integrating the maps.

Elona already shows up on a map of Prophecies only accounts. It's that little peninsula next to the Crystal desert. It was one of those areas that people were asking "What the hell is over there" about when Prophecies first came out. So I guess I don't see the objection your hypothetical situation raises.

And what exactly is the problem of showing the areas you can't access? The original prophecies map had tons of areas on the map you couldn't access. Elona being one of them.

Actually it would be Tyria + C.

Well for one coding has everything to do with mechanics in a game

We have no clue how long it did take to do that either, who knows how long it would take for this to get done and implemented,
here is an example for you, adding tormented weapons to the HoM, which you could already do for destroyer weapons, took 3 months to get implemented, and that was a "SMALL" update

Yes they do, you don't, so stop acting like you know that this will be a breeze to add it, which in reality no one but anet knows if it would be or not

Then please go unplug your computer and game console because they all require coding, after all this game comes down to a bunch of 0's and 1's

You are right, however i never said they where i said they added those things when they felt it was necessary to do so

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE flame less and use your brain that is why you have it

NVMU your a troll... please respond to this from Floski:

what was your response?

more of the same... complain about flames all you like... but this is about what should or should not happen --- not about programing or the developers

and yes they are still updating the game... who would have thought they would speed up/fix the Abandon's bonus girl?

btw yes i support a one map system...

A one map system would be awesome and I would welcome it. However the overheads in terms of art & code would likely be far far greater than the benefit of doing it.

You'd get much better bang for buck fixing/tweaking/adding elsewhere in the game.

/Signed

as a good idea, however I think we're more likely to see McCain win tomorrow than get this ...

Those maps are fantastic. Props to whoever made them.

ok well if you really want it... yes prioritizing does deal with determining if it should or should not be done, that is basic logic, would you rather have them change some stupid thing like making the maps all one or adding content, by reasoning like that, if you can comprehend, does in fact give reason to why or why not something should be done, perhaps if they had nothing better to do than change the map system that has been around for 3+ years then i would be for it, but they have better things to do than waste time making stupid fixes to things that are not broken, therefore by that non faulty logic i am against changing it in gw, however as i earlier stated i'm for them changing it to a one map system in gw2, now please read and make sure you can fully comprehend what i have said before you make any flame posts based on this post

Another idea came to me...the way Elona and Tyria are connected...why don't you just have NPCs or objects like the Forgotten one who teleports people in the Crystal Desert?
Make the map bigger...which is not hard, they did it with EoTN.

Show me where it took 3 months of coding, and not 3 months of Anet getting off their ass to implement.
I never said it would be a breeze, I said it was possible, and we know it's possible and we know exactly how they could do it because they've done it before.
I was talking about all the idiots who say "IT TAKES LONG TO CODE LOLOL I TOOK 1 CLASS OF C++ IN HIGH SCHOOL SO I KNOW LOLOLOL" to say every idea is not worth implementing.

Your argument has no relevance here as others have already noted, in fact it's barely an argument. YOU don't know how long it takes to code it either, you just assume it would take a long time.