QOL Improvement: Atlas Progression & Exploration Systems

**meant to post this in the Feedback section not the Builds section.. my bad.

First off, thank you GGG for the bookmarks (despite only being limited to 16 by default), and thank you for beginning to sort out the lengthy process of the corrupted nexus.

Another feature you may consider is scouts.

So, think about Settlers of Kalgur and how nice it was to have things going on in the backround while doing other things. I only played that league for about 2 months, but enjoyed it for the most part.

What if that same approach were to be used in POE2's Atlas in the form of scouts? The concept is something like this:

Atlas NPC Scout Assistance for Atlas Exploration and Progression:

Generic Radial Fog Exposure:
-Player opens Atlas and begins scouting out potential destinations they'd like to explore
-Player finds grouping of towers they want to take advantage of or the marking of a corrupted zone or whatever else they'd like to check out
-Player "hires" scouts from Doryani for that area with a pre-set radius to be exposed from the fog (cost mechanism, if any, not thought out)
-Scout proceeds to work towards that area and the amount of time it takes to return with their scout report varies depending on the distance away from the player's nearest completed node
-Maybe the scout comes back with a small reward of some kind, maybe the scout could die on the way (like the ships did), maybe they get captured by something, maybe nothing
-Upon their return the fog would be cleared of that zone and whatever other knick knacks that could be implemented


Generic Directional Node Discovery:
-Same as above, but directional
-Player speaks to Doryani
-Player chooses starting completed map node location
-Player chooses Direction (N S E W NW SW NE SE)
-Player chooses ending distance
-Scout (or scout party) explores in that direction in a pre-determined width up to that endpoint
-Distance between start and end point determines amount of time required
-Scouts return if successful (see variables in previous section if incorporated)
-All maps within that search band are revealed


Targeted Node Discovery:
-Same as above, but map specific targeting
In this instance, say the player wanted to discover more Megaliths, corrupted nexuses, citadels, Steppes, Crypts, Sandspit, Viridian Wildwoods, Untainted Paradise, or whatever other node available in the game. This scout, or scouting party, would explore in variable circumference around that map node. Time taken depends on the amount of fog they have to traverse, and the surface area.


Potential Universal Variables:
-Distance & area determine time taken
-Risk calculated from amount of fog explored
-Rewards
-Special events? Could be some juicy potential here.. Like, what if, during their exploration, they came across a temple, and in that temple they touched something, became possessed, opened a crazy breach, opened a portal to the beyond, whatever you can dream up, and that created a new event (even within the already revealed fog). What if your hideout or the encampment could be attacked? I dunno, some things could either be a blessing or a curse (or a curse masquerading as a blessing) so would have to tread carefully.
-Perhaps a super special boss shows up in already completed maps or out in the distance these scouts stumbled upon, perhaps they don't even know what it is.. and if it is something like that... Bestiary anyone?
-Portal Nodes to be discovered by the scouts? Nodes which allow players to branch off to disconnected areas they haven't been to yet, and allow the scouts to scout out even further with less time.
-various other concepts could be inserted to further diversify the experience


This all begs the questions of how are scouts maintained, where do they come from, why, and so on.

The Scouts Themselves a big question
Here's some food for thought..

Should they:
-have levels?
-have equip-able items to boost their exploration capabilities?
-have varying levels of expertise based on experience, level, or specialized atlas progression?
-be able to die?
-be increased in number of active deployments based on atlas progression?
-be limited to the number of scouts in a 24 hour period?
-and so on and so forth...



The Reasoning Behind It
I think.. I feel.. if we were able to pierce the fog in an interactive and meaningful way then it would really cultivate that sense of exploration. Currently, I just don't feel there's any sense of direction even if you have a goal in mind. It's mostly just wander this way for 3 hours and hope there's something out there and there are serious drawbacks to this:

-We have to choose to explore or choose to run the areas we've set up with towers. Time is everything, and although it's fine that all this takes time, it is time spent exploring with no true destination in mind besides the type of thing any given player is actually searching for, and when they search for that thing for 3 hours and don't find it.. it feels a bit defeating. This all by itself can cause that endgame burnout that seems to be so prevalent.


We need that "oooooh shiney!" moment out in the distance to strive for that we otherwise wouldn't even know was out there for another 6 hours, a day, a week, a month, and many may in fact choose to not explore that far at all without that determined direction. The current "oooh shiney!" moment is the citadels being lit up or some indication of a corrupted zone or nexus someplace. A system like described would allow players to both run their set up tower zones AND explore simultaneously and solves both issues.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the game, but these are the kinds of things that I could see improving the experience for many people. This is a conceptual base to be modified, tested, and expanded upon, would transcend league specific content, and has the potential to draw people into the endgame moreso by having a player determined discovery system beyond that of simply complete this node to sequentially get to that node. We want to explore, give us the tools to do so efficiently!


Anyway, hope it helps stir up some more brainstorming for everyone and for the talent over at GGG. Though I suspect much of this has been thought of already.

Love the game, keep it up.