There was a great deal of controversy over the decision to change from a continent to islands. I personally was on the side of the islands, but I do understand and share sentiments with those who disliked the change.
Here are some quotes from the TGR details replies:
The one thing that I thought most when playing AA was that I wished there were islands that wouldn’t take me 5 seconds to get from one side to the other. If there’s going to be huge islands than I think that the change is going to be awesome, but if it’s going to be like AA again then that’s a major turn off
I like most of these ideas though I think the game should have much, much larger islands than arcane adventures
An easy solution would be to make multiple large islands that have civilization in them as a hot-spot for people. Or the alternative, make the islands somewhat close and large.
If the map’s islands are to be as small as Arcane’s then it will simply degrade the quality of the game, no matter how good the variety is or how ornately decorated they are. It just would get rid of the feeling that the game is a big deal and would make the game bad overall.
My pet peeve of AA was that everything seemed so still and without life. Also I hope that the islands are big I didn’t like the small islands in AA I want big islands.
There’s a consistent theme. People want larger islands.
Now, to vetex’s credit:
That is what he said the biggest island would be about. It’s certainly large… but it doesn’t seem to fulfill what everyone wants.
I originally created this map before the TGR update was revealed. It was favorably received by the community. Instead of dozens of largish islands, we see 5-6 large landmasses, like mini-continents. You’ll also see that the islands have specific geographic details that flow throughout the entire map.
At best, the large island Vetex speaks of is the size of the island I put Westhall on.
And it’s not enough.
Why use large landmasses?
- It allows water transportation and all the benefits of islands, but also keeps the benefits of the continent
- It will satisfy both AA players who want to see islands and water return, as well as WoM players who enjoyed the continent
- It will promote realism, with multiple towns/cities/civilizations on single large landmasses, but also spread throughout the oceans.
That about sums up my hopes for the map. I hope that there will also be plenty of mountains, canyons, and other three-dimensional terrain. I hope that there will be geographic consistency, with mountain chains and mountains separating the ocean from dry areas like the desert.
For an open-world game like AO, the map is literally one of the most important things in the game. I sincerely hope that the map is not created around the storyline, but that the map should be the first priority, and the storyline and all else should be built around the map. Instead of starting on one side of the map and proceeding to the other, I hope that the storyline will take us all over the map, back-tracking and zigzagging. If done right, the map could really make the game amazing.
