Feedback on the New Mapping System and how maps now work

I’m not a fan of the map changes and hope they’re not permanent. By the looks of it, I might be in the minority with this opinion, but I really dislike that the PoE 1’s iconic map system is being replaced with "the innovative generic map system", similar to whats in PoE 2.
I’m not a hater of PoE 2, I played it and i do like it and i will continue playing both games, but PoE 1 will always be the first in my heart. I think it’s important for both games to have their own cores. It’s nice for some new features, like asynchronous trading to be in both, which was a great addition for both games, but changing game core systems like maps and mapping isn’t the same thing.

This change feels like PoE 1 is losing its fundamentals in favor of PoE 2. Sure, it might save the time of farming certain maps or remove having the clutter of maps one will never touch, but that was part of the thing. I enjoyed it in a certain way, lets say, using scarabs, opening cartographer strongboxes, and dropping maps like Toxic Sewer, Canyon, or Channel, feeling glad that I got ones I like running. The new system removes that pleasure, the motivation to grind maps, trade for them, negotiating prices with players for hundreds of that one map that i want. It will remove the "mapping" essence.

PoE 2’s system works for PoE 2, there it came that way straight from the oven, but in PoE 1, losing the look of the map device, the slots in there, the map crafting options, and moving everything to the Atlas just isn’t right for how PoE 1 has always been, it feels like PoE 1 its losing its identity for something that I have not seen one single person complain about.

At the end of the day if people will like it i guess its all that matters, i have no reason to stand in everyone's happiness, but for me this really is a big deal and i would never forgive myself if i wasn't trying to "fight" for what i consider its right.

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Extensive changes have been made to the Atlas and how you engage with Maps, without interfering with the beloved core experience. Some of the more frustrating aspects have also been streamlined or removed.

Map items are no longer associated with a specific Map Area. As an example, instead of having a Tier 10 Mesa Map, you will now find a Tier 10 Map. To open a Mesa Map, you now locate and select Mesa on your Atlas, put in your Map item, and activate the Map Device.

That Mesa Map may drop a Tier 11 Map. You can then place this into your Map Device, which defaults to the last Map run, and either run Mesa again or choose a new Map Area to use it on.

The structure of the Atlas has also changed, you now begin your exploration at the centre of the Atlas, with each corner housing one of four Voidstone slots.

All content accessed using the Map Device is now physically present on the Atlas, allowing you to see everything available in the Endgame as you reveal the fog of war.

I dunno, I think a lot of people are thankful that they don't need to buy up 60x maps of Mesa in bulk or something anymore. I get that it feels like PoE 2's endgame is being implemented into PoE 1, but all they're doing is taking a good part of that endgame(Waystone Tiers) and applying it to PoE 1 to improve the game.

Every league my map stash tab always gets filled up with WAY too many Mesa and 1 adjacent connected map to it because I favorite the map I like running x11 and 1x fave slot goes to a connected map. And I had no gold to have atlas runners in kingsmarch so all my extra maps just piled up in separate stash tabs and it was a total mess. The new system where you just choose the map to use your waystone on feels so much cleaner and streamlined.


And its kinda cool that all the bosses and unique maps now have a location on the atlas, I've always thought they should do that at some point. Also the QOL where you click on the Atziri boss node for example and it puts in all 4 frags if they are in your inventory is sooo nice. It probably does the same for Shaper,Elder,Sirus etc. so its gonna feel really good I think.


And I love the voidstone changes too, now you get the decaying one just from killing Shaper then Elder, instead of having to farm fragments for Uber Elder.(he still drops it anyway) Voidstones being faster to obtain is a big plus for me in 3.28.

I 100% agree

finding maps for me was a core of the game, a very early reason I played the game over and over again

the idea of finding map items you can run afterwards was completly new and brillant for me

my only hope is any other game will catch it up again it has so much potential and could have so much more

poe here lost its soul (and me) another step towards craft what you want instead of search what you want what I like so much more

but yeah from streams I think we are a small minority unfortunately