Can anyone confirm or does anyone know that the size of the map in the beta is the actual size that will be in game on release.. ? I figured that during the beta the map would be limited in regards to what was visible, because I noticed when looking around the map that I didn't see any zones that were labelled any higher than level 40-ish. But perhaps the fact of the matter being that they don't label levels for areas outside of that? I would just really be in awe to find out that the map is actually two times the size of what was already shown, considering how huge and highly detailed things were..

Not all the zones were labelled on the map in the beta, because they weren't in the beta. So if you are asking if there will be more zones then, yes, there will be lots more zones than what you saw on map in beta. The level 30+ zones are also much bigger, some are more than twice the size of the starter zones.

As for the map 'image' I think its the full one. But it also has an upper and lower tier if you noticed. So there may well be a lot more to it.

This is what is supposed to be there are launch:

http://www.guildwars2junkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Gw2-World-Map-Labeled.jpg

I'm unsure about this map though because according to that there is only 1 zone that covers levels 25-30. Only one level 80 zone worries me as well. how packed is that zone going to be 2 months down the line? There needs to be more options for 80.

and I'd expect more to come in updates. There is no doubt in my mind that the crystal desert and ring of fire areas will make an appearance since they were key areas in GW1.

then there's the other 2 continents from the other GW1 campaigns as a possibility for the future.

This is a good video of the full 'planet' map that they have to work with. According to this, what is shown as the main map in GW2 is only a fraction of world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdyAXWj3YAM

Originally posted by Vannor

Not all the zones were labelled on the map in the beta, because they weren't in the beta. So if you are asking if there will be more zones then, yes, there will be lots more zones than what you saw on map in beta. The level 30+ zones are also much bigger, some are more than twice the size of the starter zones.

As for the map 'image' I think its the full one. But it also has an upper and lower tier if you noticed. So there may well be a lot more to it.

This is what is supposed to be there are launch:

http://www.guildwars2junkies.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Gw2-World-Map-Labeled.jpg

I'm unsure about this map though because according to that there is only 1 zone that covers levels 25-30. Only one level 80 zone worries me as well. how packed is that zone going to be 2 months down the line? There needs to be more options for 80.

and I'd expect more to come in updates. There is no doubt in my mind that the crystal desert and ring of fire areas will make an appearance since they were key areas in GW1.

then there's the other 2 continents from the other GW1 campaigns as a possibility for the future.

Not sure how complete that map is, it's missing the Sylvari starting area for one.

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Originally posted by gestalt11
There are zones which did not appear in the beta map but will be there on release. For example Divinity's reach has a portal to the last human ascalonian fort up in the mountains east of charr lands.  That is a level 60 zone according to the wiki and the portal was disabled.  That is where the branded and that purple crystal dragon are.

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It's a level 30-40 zone. Not a level 60 zone.

Linky!

I'd say the to total available landmass at release is at least as big as WoW at release, if not bigger.

Definitely much bigger than Rift or TSW, and also bigger than SWTOR (and also way less linear).

Keep in mind that the underground is also much more varied than in games like WoW were almost every cave is a carbon copy of the others.

Originally posted by DeCeaseD1
I was actually referring to the map image itself.. as in is the map image the ACTUAL map image that's planned for release. I know that majority of the map was obviously locked off and there will be more zones than what was shown. I just was unsure about the map image itself, because the "level range" labelling (eg: 1-15, etc) only went to a certain extent. Perhaps it shows level ranges on maps depending on your avatars level.. ? That would be pretty cool if that were the case? Either way, thanks for the info. Cheers!

It ddn't show the level ranges for the rest of zones because they were not in the beta. Those titles and ranges will be an overlay and not part of the actual image file so they can add and remove them as they please.

But, yes, that map is the release map. At release you will be able to see the level ranges for every zone on the map immediately, unless they change it without us knowing.

This one is pretty cool:

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unfoggedmap.jpg

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Originally posted by colddog04
This one is pretty cool:

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unfoggedmap.jpg

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This one is cooler. :P

Originally posted by Alot

 

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Originally posted by colddog04
This one is pretty cool:

 

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unfoggedmap.jpg

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This one is cooler. :P

Thank you for that. :) That's one's freaking awesome.

Very rough guess on scaling, 24km x 18km with about 35% terrain coverage*.  Average zone looks to be 2km x 3km (or 3x2).

* based on "cooler" map above and judging scale by width of road.  Margin of error is very high, could be +/- 50% depending on how badly I guessed.

As The Korrigan points out, it's definitely a bigger game that TSW, though I'm not sure that TOR is really as small as it seems.  I'm most familiar with WoW's size as a point of reference.

By the base running speed method I believe players have found that Queensdale is roughly equivalent to Elwynn Forest in WoW; so in terms of "time-space" where base running speed is like the speed of light -- constant in all frames of reference -- GW2 and WoW zones are comparable in size.

However, I don't know that people have had enogh time to test yet, but I believe GW2's effective running speed is somewhat faster than WoW's, so there is more actual content in the same "time-space."  From my own personal experience in BWE2 it seemed like I spent about twice as much time clearing a GW2 zone than I would an average WoW zone, but some of that had to be attributed to the slower kill rate because of the relative difficulty and not the size of the zone.

Of course, it's possible to PvP in WoW's zones but not in GW2s, so WoW zones do offfer additional potential gameplay in that respect. GW2, however, has the big WvWvW map that WoW doesn't.

GW2 zones also utilize quite a bit more of their space (though people conveniently forget that WoW also has caves and explorable underwater areas).

In some cases GW2 is truly traversable at multiple levels, like Rata Sum, so they get more out of the same space in those cases as well.

WoW launched with 34 zones. GW2 will launch with 25.

Overall they seem fairly comparable to me; I'd need to see substantial hard evidence supporting a claim that "GW2 is much bigger" before I'd believe it.  Words are wind.

Originally posted by Alot

 

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Originally posted by colddog04
This one is pretty cool:

 

http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unfoggedmap.jpg

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This one is cooler. :P

thats an interseting map. I can see that the tengu city surrounded by its wall is blacked out, so its not in-game yet. I had been wondering about that.

But I saw someone link another map that showed literally the whole world (greyed out) with the parts that are in-game colored in. The whole world (planet) is ginromous.

Neat, two questions though.

How big are these zones? Compared to say...... Damn it.. Alright compared to your standard WoW zone lol.

Is the transition from one zone to another seamless I.E no annoying loading screens or anything?

Originally posted by Rockhide

By the base running speed method I believe players have found that Queensdale is roughly equivalent to Elwynn Forest in WoW; so in terms of "time-space" where base running speed is like the speed of light -- constant in all frames of reference -- GW2 and WoW zones are comparable in size.

 Queensdale is also one of the smallest FW2 zones. If you look at the zone map, all higher level zones are bigger than queensdale (or the other starter areas).

 

GW2 zones also utilize quite a bit more of their space (though people conveniently forget that WoW also has caves and explorable underwater areas).

Being a WoW fan for 7+ years (since US beta), I also highlighted this in my post. Most WoW caves are copy/paste of the others. See that yeti cave in Feralas? And the one in Winterspring? And in Dun Morog? All the same. WoW must have like 5 cave models it's repeating all over the world. For now, every single GW2 cave I found was unique and handcrafted, and not a copy of the same cave in another zone. The GW2 map has different levels - for a reason - the underground world is entirely part of the world, and some caves are more like open world dungeons. 

Just fixing a few inacurate details. I agree with you overall - GW2 over the ground is approx. the size of Azeroth at release, if you include both continents of course and if you exclude the 4 huge WvWvW areas in GW2. But if you include underground areas which are all unique and not copy/paste of yeti caves, GW2 is larger than Azeroth in 2004.