It would be great if there was no map in the final at all.

I don't know about no map at all, but I like the current hand-drawn vagueries of the current map. Though with all the achievement hunters and such out there, it wouldn't be long to see a full and detailed fan map/guide.

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I shared Kanbo's concern about the Tower at first, too, but I have a feeling that I'm going to know the Tower like the back of my hand in pretty short order.

The easiest way to stop exploration, is to look at a map and see it all filled in. You've gone everywhere.

Not for people like me.

A) My sense of direction is shit. So is my memory when it comes to huge game worlds. I needed a map just to remember where certain shops were located in the Imperial City in Oblivion, and I'd visited most of them more times than I care to remember.

B) Just Cause 2. Had a map. Did not hamper exploration. I can't count the number of times I'd drop a waypoint on the map in the middle of nowhere, fly out there, and just spend time dicking around in the rain forest. In fact, that was how I found the Hot Air Balloon.

C) Just because the map fills in areas in broad strokes does not mean you've gone everywhere and seen everything. Those who want to explore, will explore.

Maps are good. Maps are nice. Personally I'd want a little minimap (I'd frequently pop into the map in Borderlands, make note of where I wanted to go, and then overshoot or make a wrong turn.), but seeing as how that would muss up what so far looks like a very pretty HUD, a menu map isn't bad. Just so long as I can drop waypoints and have them appear on the radar/motion tracker widget.

The easiest way to stop exploration, is to look at a map and see it all filled in. You've gone everywhere. Part of the appeal to this game for me is exploring the area and becoming familiar on my own, and also possibly NOT KNOWING if I've seen everything. The Alpha continually surprised me with new areas, which would be ruined had I pulled up a map and seen that I haven't fully explored over here yet.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I forgot how to get to a certain area, and in all honesty it was refreshing not being able to pull a map up immediately - this then lead to new discoveries, which really encompasses what's most special about patrol mode. It's pretty damn fun rediscovering our ruined world.

I agree on the map, but I wouldn't mind having a compass. I haven't seen one in any of the streams I've watched. This would help me envision locations relative to each other (north, south, east, west) and help me remember how to get back to locations (travel x minutes on y heading from location z). Plus that's one thing anyone exploring the wild should be carrying.

I'd be happy with an in-game map as long as it's not overly detailed. Go the traditional RPG route by including a physical map with the game. Take inspiration from games like Baldur's Gate or Morrowind. I remember spending days exploring all the nooks and crannies in Morrowind and the map in that game was extremely vague. I'd take notes and draw on my paper map when I'd run across anything interesting.

You know what would be cool but would probably never happen? If the only world-maps you could find in-game were especially rare, each were individual artists' renderings, and not every map was the same. "Here Be Dragons!" Think, renaissance cartography. You'd be excited to find a map, especially a particularly cool looking one.

I'm STILL finding new rooms/areas that I hand't been in.

Just this morning, I found a room on a cliffside that had a lone Level 16 Hallowed Knight, and the first words that came from my mouth were "OH CRAP... I can BEAT him!"

Of course, I couldn't. Not even close, but the sense of discovery stuck with me, because normally it's either low-level areas, or the three level 20 areas. Even after days and days exploring the map, things can feel new and undiscovered.

It reminds me of Skyrim. Once you have reached an area that you can fast travel to, what incentive do you have to go on foot? If you know the map, layout, and locations of everything because they're all neatly on one easily accessible screen, what incentive do you have to make anything other than a beeline to what you want?

Definitely enjoy not having a map, and being able to walk into an area that I've been in from another angle and piecing things together.

There is a map anyway. It's under the steppes.

I enjoyed how some of the complexes (and the Old Russia zone as a whole) had actually physical maps in the level design. There's a mall-directory-style map in one of the Fallen-inhabited structures that pretty accurately details the layout of the building, while I remember running into another holographic display that appeared to show the layout of all the russia subzones and their connecting routes.