Originally posted by BORG:
Originally posted by Shurenai: I'd say half the map being a waste is a big improvement from 90% of the map being a waste. It's a work in progress. 
Ah, /s. I guess we shall see how this work in progress changes the wasted map space into something less wasteful giving it more purpose in the game. Been waiting over 5 or 6 iterations of the alpha builds to see this wasted wasteland map space be put to better use than being empty map space. Many have been waiting very, very patiently over the years and we always get the same general response(s) it seems.
The only time people even bother uncovering portions of the map is to chase down airdrops or go hunting for food. That's about it. It's been that way for many years. The only place the empty map space is really useful to date is in a PvP environment where everybody is building everywhere on the map, away from one another to keep their distance. People play PvE more frequently than PvP though.
Any idea when we can expect to see the wide and open empty map spaces filled with more things to do? Would it be coming in the near or distant future? A time frame estimate is fine if that's all you can offer. TYIA for your time and response.
Tbh, I was being serious. It used to be that there was basically no reason to ever leave the forest. A long ways back ores were distributed biome by biome- But even then, you really only entered any other biome with the express intent of locating an ore vein, mine it out, and then never go back again- And while you were there, since you were far from anything valuable, you never really saw any enemies.
Now, there's actually some reason or another to go to all other biomes. Yes, IF you're trying to minmax your play, then desert is kinda pointless when compared to snow. But, really, It's still a step up from forest. It's a change of pace, and, at least imo, I'd rather deal with birds I can oneshot or ignore as compared to Bears and Mountain Lions.
I'm afraid I cannot give any answer to your ending questions, though. I'm a community moderator, not a TFP employee. And while I may or may not have access to information you don't, I am under an NDA, so I can't really share..
I can speculate that they will likely attempt to rebalance the biomes, however, as the intent with the recent changes was to make every biome a more viable and rewarding choice- If one isn't quite in line with the rest and seems useless, that's not the greatest.
And I would wager they probably aren't planning on much of anything to fill the voids- Performance is an issue to contend with, after all.. The more packed the map is, the more there is to load, the worse things run. Cities already can be a bit rough. That said, the RWG sliders will probably be expanded upon going forward if not by devs then definitely by modders, and there's already a wilderness POI slider as Sefftak mentioned that may help make the wilderness feel more fleshed out for you.
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