Why 2.0 maps will be instantly opened now?

[dinnertime]

Pretty much some of the things I dislike about Heavensward is how the new zones are locked behind it, but I suppose it's something typical in MMO expansions.
I understand zones being locked at a specific time in the MSQ like Azys Lla but not really sure if making Dravanian Hinterlands locked behind the MSQ was necessary..?

[bass9020]

In the other games I've played, unlocking a zone simply requires running around and exploring. I think that's awesome as I personally enjoy checking out new places and map completion. What I dislike greatly is having just about every new zone locked behind multiple missions, dungeons and/or leveling. Let me explore at my own pace and find my own fun.

Oh totally agree. I mentioned Black Desert only because it requires you to explore, some areas just uncover by walking but others just require you to talk to people and gain knowledge which is essential to the game and then the area will uncover. It's nothing too crazy either.

[Atoli]

I'd REALLY love to hear an explanation for this from SE. In my experience (and pretty much all answers in this thread so far seem to be of the same opinion) players enjoy that last remain of actual exploration.
I loved doing it, and I know no one who was even remotely annoyed by it, everyone considered it a natural/fun part of being new to an area.

I know you want to make things easy for new players so they can catch up faster, but unhiding the maps instantly does not speed up their progress in any way, since important parts like aetherytes and dungeons and the like were visible before already anyway. All this is doing is destroying the experience for those who enjoyed wandering off into every nook and cranny to see everything and then be rewarded with a bit of exp and an achievement.
Please change it back. This was more than uncalled for.

[Ashkendor]

(and pretty much all answers in this thread so far seem to be of the same opinion)

You must be reading a different thread than I did because a few people disagreed. o.o

[Alistaire]

The only possible reason I can think for this is to nerf the xp you got? On an alt I kept 1 portion of each map undiscovered and went from about exactly halfway thru lv 48 to 50 just on mapping xp. But...that's not exactly a big deal, so idk.

[Vidrian]

I simply don't like it
I love exploring stuff like coerthas on a 31 lancer, using only sprint if needed (and when multiple Lvl 40 aggressive mobs aggro you, you're like no no no)
Also: why do people keep talking about 4.0 when 3.0 is less than a year old and we're only about to enter the 2nd patch...

[Ashkendor]

Also: why do people keep talking about 4.0 when 3.0 is less than a year old and we're only about to enter the 2nd patch...

Because 4.0 is likely to already be in the early stages of development, so SE is taking it into account already.

[Atoli]

You must be reading a different thread than I did because a few people disagreed. o.o

"pretty much" = most, not every single one.
There were about 2 people who actually disagreed, everyone else was either like "I love uncovering maps, exploration is great!" or said "I don't care since I have unlocked all ARR maps already anyway".

[Ultimatecalibur]

This is probably just the first of many steps. How much complaining did we see upon HW launch that people would have to go through the 2.0 content to get to the 3.0 content? Now imagine how 4.0 would be. I'm guessing huge chunks of the storyline are going to be boiled down to a TL;DR version.

2.X does have a lot of fetch quests and such that can easily pared down without lossing much story.

I suspect this change may be tied to a combination paring down of the 2.0 stuff for new players and a preparation for a possible expansion of the 2.0 maps to allow for flying. This will shrink new player data while giving older players what will likely be one last patch to fully map out the 2.X areas.

[SpiritMuse]

I really don't mind this change. I've always found it very annoying having to run around blindly trying to figure out how to get where I needed to go and constantly running into unexpected obstacles slowing me down.