How hard would extra maps be?

#1 - June 9, 2014, 3:49 p.m.
Blizzard Post

A while ago now, a ANet representative interrupted a GvG and told them incorrectly that they were violating the game mode.
As an apology, the ANet team was able to open up a full-sized GvG arena as an add-on to the Obsidian Sanctum.

Given the relatively short time that content needed, along with the rapid pace of new maps and massive map changes shown in the LS1 for PvE; how hard would new maps be?

Obviously the playtesting for massive glitches would take a while, but they still haven’t cleared the original 4; so I don’t think that would be too massive of an effort.

I think the conceptual art and planning would be the most intensive in terms of labor and time.

Anyone with expertise or insight into the process care to weigh in?

#15 - June 12, 2014, 12:36 p.m.
Blizzard Post

I’ll make a couple of points here to hopefully clarify this issue.

1) It takes a very large amount of time and effort to make a new map. It’s definitely more than a 6 month process from start to finish. Especially if we are talking about building a new borderlands taking all the thing we’ve learned since the game came out into account. With that in mind it’s a big task. It took us a little under a year to get EotM built and shipped from conception to release. So that is a more reasonable timeline for a new map.

2) The area we added to Obsidian Sanctum was in progress prior to the incident mentioned above and, while it didn’t take a particularly large amount of time, was still a process of over a month. We don’t release map changes without thorough testing. Keep in mind that was just a small change to an existing map, not a completely new map.

3) We currently, unfortunately, don’t have the ability to rotate maps in and out of the game in the manner discussed above. We have talked about this concept many times and it is something we’d like to be able to do long term, but it is not a small task given the technical structure of our game.

All of those things being true, we absolutely want to make new maps for WvW and when we have them ready to talk about and show off, believe me we will. It’s very important to us that when we do release a new WvW map it is a clear example of what we think the ideal WvW map would be. That means we will test the heck out of it and do everything we can to make sure it is even more awesome than the current maps. I realize this isn’t a timeline or an answer to where are more maps, but it’s as much as we can give you right now and it hopefully gives some insight to the size of the task. As I said, as soon as we have more to talk about or show, you will hear it.

#19 - June 12, 2014, 12:58 p.m.
Blizzard Post

Devon Carter…. Devon Carver… man, that’s not confusing or anything. /sarcasm

Only confusing if you thought my name was ever Devon Carter.

#33 - June 12, 2014, 5:08 p.m.
Blizzard Post

It has come to the point that as WvW has not received real updates since launch that we ourselves would not mind doing the testing.

I can appreciate that many people don’t like EotM, but don’t conflate a lack of updates that you personally like with a lack of updates. WvW has added a great deal of content and rewards over just the last calendar year.

Hopefully you will find more you like in future updates and we’ll continue to add to the game.

#69 - June 13, 2014, 5:05 p.m.
Blizzard Post

The area we added to Obsidian Sanctum was in progress prior to the incident mentioned above

lol, I’m not buying that.

Much like science, you don’t have to believe it for it to be true.