Small Maps?

[Brimsurfer]

Does anyone feel like the maps in Pillars of Eternity are much smaller than the maps in BG or IWD games or PS:T for that matter?

 

If I remember correctly it took me almost twice as much time to explore a map in BG games as it does in PoE, and I don't speed up time normally, unless I am tracing back my footsteps to a place where I have already been. 

 

It could just be me, but I do have s strong feeling that these maps are kind of small in comparison to other IE games, how about you guys?

[Minezeye]

I agree, they are Tiny...

[HetMasteen]

They do seem smaller than BGII. That said, I haven't noticed them as "tiny". They seem to be dense enough to be interesting, and there are enough to mak the game feel very large. Not gigantic, but big.

 

My main issue is lack of variety in map types. Being in such a limited part of the world has limited map variety more than I was expecting.

[trashmyego]

They can vary. There are a few extremely large ones. A couple dungeon maps are quite enormous. The city and outdoors maps are all pretty even and though they're not as large as the IE games overall they're far more densely populated and utilized. 

[TCJ]

This is probably why line of sight  is so short; it makes the areas seem larger.   On the flip side, I'd say that the fact characters run all the time rather than walk (as in IE games) makes the maps seem smaller, so it probably offsets the line of sight thing.

[Tigranes]

They are on the whole a bit smaller than BG1/2, yes, though it can feel even smaller if you run around on double speed or whatnot. 

 

This game was comparatively made on much smaller resources than BG2 (which was still an extraordinary effort unmatched to this day), and this is one place where it shows. 

[Freshock]

Some maps seem gigantic to me, while others can feel too small - Like Anslog's Compass, really love that place and wish it was more to see. But one map I felt like took forever to explore was Raedric's Hold - loved that place as well

[GreyFox]

Yea they feel too small...hopefully this gets addressed in future games...it takes no time to explore.

[Archaven]

Yeap i agree the maps are too small!. I completed 3-4 maps in like few hours.

[Veynn]

Yes the maps are too few and too small. 

 

I expected 2 Big Big cities but Defiance bay and Twin Elms felt like just 1 Baldur's Gate size.

[SeekDWay]

Some maps can be pretty huge, one problem is that you move much much faster here so some of them seem even smaller. BG had fewer but larger maps full of... well... void of content most of the time. Sure budget shows on some maps, but calling them small is a bit eeh.

 

I'm ok with the size of the maps and don't think they are too few, but I can't stop wondering why some 2 store buildings aren't on the same map, just to avoid loading so much when you have to move from floor A to floor B. It's so annoying.

[Veynn]

What I like about the size of Baldur's Gate and Athkatla is it feels like the place is very big. Yes, there are houses and buildings that are empty, non-enterable, and not related to any quest. But the "adventure" feel and the awe is there, at least for me. There are times in the BG series that I just walk around and explore stuff. You know, role-playing stuff. 

 

Here in PoE, that "adventure" and "exploration" feel is not that great compared to the BG series. In BG, you feel like Baldur's Gate and Athkalta are REAL cities because of its scope. Hell, Defiance Bay and Twin Elms felt like they're just small towns.

[eLeF]

Most of the areas are perfect actually. The exploration doesn't feel tedious and the content density is spot on. I prefer this over those huge BG maps where there is nothing to do except walking.

[Starwars]

I think the wilderness areas vary in how they feel though generally speaking I would certainly welcome bigger maps. Some areas aren't really given enough space to "breathe'" as there's a lot of monsters to be found. The "ecology" of many of the more normal wilderness maps feels kinda off in how many monsters are around and it makes the maps feel smaller.

 

I think Twin Elms felt just right for me for the type of town it was. 

 

I would've liked Defiance Bay a bit bigger also. Though I do think the actual areas themselves in the city were good it could've done with some additional district. Also, First Fires felt pretty empty to me. While Ondra's Gift is one of the best areas in the game I think.

 

When I was playing the game, it was mostly apparent to me in the wilderness areas though, I would've liked some of those to be bigger (and with less monsters in some cases). Both the cities felt pretty good to me while playing, though it is like you say, Defiance Bay didn't quite match up to Baldur's Gate, Athkatla or Sigil in terms of its size and business.

Would be awesome if they can really make a huge city in a possible sequel. Exploring the cities is always my favorite thing in these games.

[Brimsurfer]

Hmm.....so after all I wasn't alone who thought so, and like i said i don't really use double speed unless I am back-tracking my steps to get to somewhere I have already been before.

 

This game is similar to older IE games like BG and PS:T but its not quite IN their league and IMO smaller maps are just one more thing that stops PoE from becoming a great title that it could have been. I remember in original BG maps specially (most) wilderness maps were huge and you could find two or three or even more different stories going on or events happening in a single map. There you could find bandits trying to loot you on one side of the middle of the map, a thief trying to scam you some ways off towards the north, a mad wizard with a messed up and blown experiment on the other side, a quest marker location in the south and couple of cave entrances in the west.

 

But here, in PoE, most maps are just big enough to accommodate only a single event at the most. 

 

PoE is a good game, there is no denying that.....but it seems like it was created in a hurry and it feels like devs held back on this probably due to limited resources, as its mentioned in one of the posts above. But nonetheless it is a good game and one of the better RPGs out there.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Brimsurfer

[sparklecat]

They do feel rather small, yes.  I'd like the wilderness maps a bit larger with the same population density to make it easier to sneak around enemies you want to avoid.  I'd like Defiance Bay districts to feel more like proper districts in some cases, rather than simply a street or two; Ondra's Gift was good, Copperlane wasn't terrible, First Fires and Brackenbury were disappointingly small and empty of things going on, and Heritage Hill, while a special case, was also a bit small with so much of it devoted to cemetaries.

 

Gilded Vale was a good size.  Raedric's Keep, too.  Some of the dungeons can actually get a bit on the large side, to the point of tedium, like the underground Skaen temple.

[Caerdon]

I'd like the wilderness areas in general to have slightly more complex topology. Too often it's just one open area with a few obstacles in it.

[Jasta11]

The cities were OK to me. They don't need to be as ginormous as Athkatla was, albeit Twin Elms could have been a bit bigger.

 

Dungeons are more than big enough.

 

The wilderness could have stood to be bigger however, that one is true, and a bit less packed with monsters. 

[Katarack21]

Some of the maps feel huge. Raedrics Hold *feels* absolutely enormous, in part because it's composed of so many maps but also because each map has so many places to go and things to do. That's part of what the subjective feeling of size is about.

Objectively, I've noticed a few of the dungeon maps do appear to be slightly smaller than the maps in BG1 and BG2. I'm okay with this, however; in BG1 especially, the maps were so large that often times they also felt empty. That's appropiate for an isolate wilderness area, but doesn't make for great gameplay.