I think it's just that some of the ressources allocated towards the open world were allocated towards the story. Not a coincidence the biggest and longest story magically coincides with the smallest and rarest map updates.
I hope it's not going to be too much of a trend, as much as i thought the Archon quests were good, because open world exploration is still supposed to be the core identity of the game.
Or in their idealogy but this might just be my speculation, they might release maps in order to somehow make sense from a story point.
Like, this map that we got in 6.3, the doctor laborator is there, and in the archon quest we go there. But to go to that point we had to basically wait, wich it meant 6.1 and 6.2 no maps.
But at same time we can say they couldve added something else.
I dont know whats their true approach behind this so this might be just bullshit that Im saying. Cause for those who follow leaks, there is no Dornman Port in next patch (wich is when varka releases) and its related to mondstat. So the reason is still unknown.
Your point still stands "open world exploration is still supposed to be the core identity of the game".
I think it's just that some of the ressources allocated towards the open world were allocated towards the story. Not a coincidence the biggest and longest story magically coincides with the smallest and rarest map updates.
It's not true, since amount of "story" (playtime) in main quest increased exactly as amount of playtime of characters story quests that were removed in NK.
I agree. The quality and the length of cutscenes have improved a lot in NK, even characters became more expressive. So I do hope they'd balance between these things and frequent new expansions
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u/Original-Shallot5842 Feb 01 '26
Good actual take.
And I agree with the maps. I like the maps in Nod Krai. But one thing I cant understand is why they changed the Release schedule.
Cause the numbers of maps or size is +- same, but when they drop them its completely changed.