The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Codex/journal entries are a great little addon feature.
It helps to flesh out the lore in games.
Even if i only look at it when a new entry pops up, it all adds to immersion.
As far as a codex increasing the sandbox vs. themepark ratio, i'm not sure, but i think the intention is more to give more content to the expoleres.
I personally love exploring, and seeing if i can jump a mountain that you guys sisn't want us climbing etc, and adding in a codex entry for hitting the "fountain of youth" hidden area is cool.
Could i suggest something further though? Sparklies! Everyone loves sparklies. Collection quests are as addictive as hell for completionists.
The collection quests that reward things on hand ins is even better, as then everyone wants them.
The best ssytem i've seen for collections, is from another recently released game ;-) where handing in sparkle completion quests rewards tokens and a little money, which can then be used on vanity items.
For me this is the ultimate in awesome explorer rewards. If Bioware adds sparkles to its Codex, it would be an absolute winner for explorers.
More thoughts:
Titles for explorers completing all hidden areas in a zone.
Titles for exploreres completing all codex entries for a specific faction/ planet/ class etc.
I could go on, but don't want to ramble on when i'm sure others ahev already stated the same.
Not going to say no to any system that rewards exploration. As Maverick says, exploration is it's own reward, but it's nice to see them try and find something they can throw in there for all the Bartle types.
If lore in a game is good, I'll get completist about it. In Bioware games I'm perma-holding tab a lot of the time to ensure I miss no codex entries (or using tab mods). I can see this being similar but on a grander scale. I like it.
If nothing else, codex entries (like WAR's big book of everything) will give me something to read while waiting for flashpoint groups.
if you think every game is sand box your wrong >.> life is sand box you stuck on earth doing the same stuff day to day. lol dont play this game if you dont like it :P
> The Codex is a collection of unlockable lore entries...
Are most explorer types really interested in "unlockable lore entries?" I consider myself an explorer type player, but lore, I'd rather read lore on a website. In the game, I want the lore to be part of the gameplay, or I just don't care. I know it's a big Bioware thing, but is anyone else really buying it as an explorer element, let alone qualifying as sandbox content?
It's almost like they think they can dodge the linearity stigma with semantics, considering that sort of thing is already in some of the games that are at the source of the stigma. Trying to pawn it off as contributing to non-linear gameplay is just absurd.
As for exploration being its own reward.. wouldn't that make all games fun to explore? No, I think it depends a lot on what you find. If it's the same content no matter where you go, that can completely ruin exploration. What you find can be purely aesthetic, like a pretty waterfall or vista, or it can be more practical, like encounters with rare mobs, friendly NPCs, or even just loot. Just has to be random, given the MMO environment. Mostly, I think you do have to be able to find something though, something that matters to you. Be it practical, aesthetic, or whatever.
Scattering scraps of lore all over the place though, that does nothing for me, personally.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
The datacrons to me are a good way to entice people to explore. Codex is nice for people who pride themselves on being experts in game lore. As a self professed explorer & completionist I have found codexes/card collections etc in other games entirely worthless and unrewarding.
Having random encounters, random quest givers and ideally some randomly generated instances (slaver ship that has landed for example) for explorers to find and conquer makes exploring a lot more interesting and non linear. With the datacrons once people find them they will post them on the net and then anyone can just go find them without actually exploring but beelining directly to them. Adding the random things I described to areas not in players standard paths will make exploring actually fun.
Gotta have something for achievement monkeys I love the idea, and I am one of those monkeys. Exploration gives you something to do when you are waiting in queue for something... or waiting on friends to login... anything!
Sence i am an explorer type of person i think this is a great idea.. I would like to see abit more then just additional story elements to exploring.. BUT i am and always will be the guy checking out every inch of explorable terrian simply because thats what i like to do...
Adding things in that give you something to do other then level/PvP/PvE are great things. Anything that prolongs the game in different directions is great.
> The Codex is a collection of unlockable lore entries...
Are most explorer types really interested in "unlockable lore entries?" I consider myself an explorer type player, but lore, I'd rather read lore on a website. In the game, I want the lore to be part of the gameplay, or I just don't care. I know it's a big Bioware thing, but is anyone else really buying it as an explorer element, let alone qualifying as sandbox content?
It's almost like they think they can dodge the linearity stigma with semantics, considering that sort of thing is already in some of the games that are at the source of the stigma. Trying to pawn it off as contributing to non-linear gameplay is just absurd.
As for exploration being its own reward.. wouldn't that make all games fun to explore? No, I think it depends a lot on what you find. If it's the same content no matter where you go, that can completely ruin exploration. What you find can be purely aesthetic, like a pretty waterfall or vista, or it can be more practical, like encounters with rare mobs, friendly NPCs, or even just loot. Just has to be random, given the MMO environment. Mostly, I think you do have to be able to find something though, something that matters to you. Be it practical, aesthetic, or whatever.
Scattering scraps of lore all over the place though, that does nothing for me, personally.
It will for the most part, turn into a bragging right title', If the Codexs were to benefit the players character more than just storyline stuff like unlocking new quests, appearence items, gear ect.. then it would be a very populare.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5 *Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board * Radeon HD 7970 *8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX *240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
The only dang thing i wanna hear from bioware at this point is a release date thats it! weve waited enough its time for them to get the blasted game out before we all die of oldage.
Meh. For me this isn't what I'd classify as a sandbox feature. It just seems like more of the atypicle easter egg hunt to pad your accomplishments list with unimportant title giving, guild chat "gratz", fodder, that many games have already done.
Its nice that they do lead to quest chains but as I've said before, unless these datacrons have random locations, many players will just find their locations and how to get to these so called "difficult" areas by using Google and Youtube. The exact same thing happended with the puzzle and hidden quests in Rifts. When that kind of thing happens it feels less like exploring and more like just following a shopping list.
RANDOM LOCATIONS:
"Whoa! You have an orange lightsaber! Where did you find an orange light saber!?"
"I found this datacron thingamajig halfway down a big cliff. Supposedly they can appear in lots of different places, you might start exploring the world more if you want to find one."
STATIC LOCATIONS:
"Whoa! You 2,000,000 guys all have identicle orange lightsabers, where did all of you get indenticle orange lightsabers?"
"Google."
Yeah, very much agree on this. Your example was Rift, you can add WAR to that list as well. It's compendium-thingamebob was very similar to the codex. It was FUN to get cool entries with (often small) rewards but it was a finite, static kind of exploring and very googleable.
Randomization could help a lot in making it more interesting. Same with 'named mobs' out in the world.
I loved to hunt for named mobs in WOW which could spawn anywhere where its normal brothers could spawn as well and had a small chance on dropping rare loot. I used to do certain patrols which took my past harvesting nodes as well as a lot of named mob locations. Doing these rounds was a hugely satisfying, relaxing part of the game for me.
You could google the named mob specifics, their drop lists, and spawn areas but you'd still have to go out and FIND them yourself. And be lucky enough that someone else didn't beat you to it.
Randomness adds a lot of depth and flavor.
*hoping SWTOR will have somekind of random aspect to exploration / named mobs*
Loving the codex/datacron idea, one of the things I am MOST looking forward to about Tor is immersing my self in a starwars world that has a purpose, a point and most of all doesnt require me to moisture farm for months.
That along with an actually narrative, story and purpose to the quest system has me very excited for this......
Despite the fact Im bored of drip fed info and just want a release date.
I am not an explorer in the sense that they seem to think of them. I'm the guy who likes to try to break planets by getting up to unintended platforms, etc. This is one of the things I liked in Rift, because they were basically cool with that and rewarded us for it. The Datacrons seem similar to Rift's buried treasures, and that's all kinds of spiffy, but I only started seeking out the treasures in Rift once I found my first because of the fact that there was treasure in them. In LotRO, even with the small number of Turbine Points available for completing exploration deeds, every one of my characters still has explore deeds left unfinished, and that's just because it's a pain to do it over and over across all those characters.
The ability to take and hold areas for me is the most important aspect of any MMO. Guilds fighting over rich resource areas and facilities makes an MMO. if you dont have this in an MMO, then its just a single player game with others playing alongside you.
Just looks like another Tome of Knowledge. That isn't a bad thing, in fact it's a really good thing but it isn't new and it has almost nothing to do with a sandbox game.
TOR will be highly theme park. This isn't hateful speculation, it's a fair assessment of everything we know about TOR, which is quite a lot at this point. People wanting a dynamic, meaningful open PVP system - I utterly sympathise but it isn't in TOR, at least not at launch. If it isn't in at launch, what are the chances it will be implemented successfully later on? Slim. Especially with 2 factions.
TOR is built from the ground up to be a please-all gear grinder with the luxury of a well written storyline. Bioware are too diplomatic to say it outright but every word coming from them is designed to gently break that news to you. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing...subscription numbers tell us that the majority of people love this sort of game design and stats rarely lie.
Could TOR be a great game? Of course it could. But if you absolutely cannot live without a sandboxy system with player-driven dramapoliticscontent over a dynamic capturable game world...you are 100% wasting your time. And you can quote this comment when launch comes.
Could TOR be a great game? Of course it could. But if you absolutely cannot live without a sandboxy system with player-driven dramapoliticscontent over a dynamic capturable game world...you are 100% wasting your time. And you can quote this comment when launch comes.
Well then TOR has nothing to worry about.
Also TOR will have open world PvP and they have hinted at RvR.
I find having too find lore somewhat silly. I just dont get it. It is like taking a mechanic nobody really really wants and offering it as a feature to me.
If you put all the lore in a library somewhere I am guessing it would be a great place to get some sleep as nobody would be there.
Like AT&T saying you can pause in one room and watch in another, like that has even been an issue for anyone. It is not a feature anybody is asking for.
Same as cutscenes being offered as a roleplaying element. How the *^$% is watching a cutscene RP'ing? MMO's are only roleplaying when they continue to give the ability to do more of whatever the hell you want.
When the first star wars game hit we were blown away at what gaming was doing, yet ever since we have gone backwards. We have less and less say so on how to play in MMO's.
Linear sucks period. The old game having every piece of armor and weapon being player made was awesome and solved alot of problems we have since created, and it also added to roleplaying.
Dragon age itself was a step backwards in roleplaying in my opinion. As older games like Bladurs gate gave us more options in a party and felt less linear by far in regards to when it was released.
I love star wars and am hoping there is enough here to keep me having fun because MMO's continue to get more boring every year.
Of course at first I blamed the people making them, and I was correct but now it is clear, that because most people in the world do not like to think if given a choice, they want linear games with arrows.
I am just hurt to my core that we are not making games more fun to play. I want this game to be awesome but I just feel the repetition in linear form calling.
No more "tanks" "healers" etc, I cannot take it! LoL. It is a stupid thing we are doing people.
Exploring only works if you are new to gaming in MMO's or if is fun in the end. If I am rewarded with things I enjoy by exploring awesome.
Though I must say that nobody needs to look up where to find crap, so that really is dumb to say about rewards being static, dont look up where it is!
I do feel that people who read all the lore in games are odd people. Facts that are not facts that do not add to gameplay seems like an odd thing to pursue and since this game appeals to the masses I doubt more then 2 or 3 percent will care about data like this.
When you have to (optional, I know) go to specific places to get a known amount of specific things, that pretty much exemplifies the Theme Park definition.
This doesn't match up at all with the spirit of Exploration. But it does mirror WoW's 'Explorer' achievements. Nothing to do with fun, adventure, or finding something no one else has found. Everything to do with mindlessly following a path for specific, universal goals that are known in advance.
Can't resist adding my own comments here. So far the codex explanation and the multiple attitudes toward it have been pretty well covered in the previous posts. That said....
How about something new? Explorers have generally gone exploring because they want to find something, new land, scientific data, resources, treasure etc...in other words, a purpose that drives the explorer. And yes, a few just for the 'new' land and being first to explore. Consider one thing though - the MAP. Real exploration normally involves days, weeks, months even years and that is too realistic for a game. Adding people,places,things and events make up for not using 'months' of real time to accomplish your goal(s).
The game has a mini-map and a world map for players. Why not add a third dimension, and map. The 'zone' Explorer map. All players would have this map which is filled out as they move around the zone, quests and 'exploration' both adding to the creation of their exploration map. Finally, a player completes all the zone sections and locations and their exploration map is unlocked. This map is of the zone but contains all the detail that an explorer would have for their map. It would take a basic 'database' that would fill in the zone exploration map with npc's, locations of possible secret entrances, things not 'explored in your initial effort but now you can go back an find, including 'stuff' and quests and easter eggs etc...
A completed explorer map would be super useful for a group as only a player with that map will be able to get a group in and gaining entrance to another players exploration map would allow you to continue filling out your own map. Features on this zone exploration map could be made up of both things available only to map owner but mostly stuff accessible to groups, allowing both solo and group play.
Once you explore a zone and complete your map you can bring it up and see all the stuff you found in the 'notes' shown on the map and in sidebar info. Any designer worth a dime can fill out the rest and work out an implementation based on computer coding. The use of a zone exploration map by an individual or group would be instanced for that map. You could also join in with another players map and additional modifications, add-ons, changes could occur as you progress in the game allowing the real possibility of reply back into this zone. A ZEM (zone exploration map) for a Sith Inquisitor would also certainly be different than a Bounty Hunter ZEM so it would be interesting to group and visit anothers class map.
A ZEM would be an instance and require a database for each class to allow maximum 'immersion' and replay, primarily for groups of different classes but always something extra for the map owner only. I was a corporate game designer and now retired but I can't help myself, please forgive the text wall.
Comments
Easter eggs can be fun.
For explorers, however, exploration is its own reward.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Codex/journal entries are a great little addon feature.
It helps to flesh out the lore in games.
Even if i only look at it when a new entry pops up, it all adds to immersion.
As far as a codex increasing the sandbox vs. themepark ratio, i'm not sure, but i think the intention is more to give more content to the expoleres.
I personally love exploring, and seeing if i can jump a mountain that you guys sisn't want us climbing etc, and adding in a codex entry for hitting the "fountain of youth" hidden area is cool.
Could i suggest something further though? Sparklies! Everyone loves sparklies. Collection quests are as addictive as hell for completionists.
The collection quests that reward things on hand ins is even better, as then everyone wants them.
The best ssytem i've seen for collections, is from another recently released game ;-) where handing in sparkle completion quests rewards tokens and a little money, which can then be used on vanity items.
For me this is the ultimate in awesome explorer rewards. If Bioware adds sparkles to its Codex, it would be an absolute winner for explorers.
More thoughts:
Titles for explorers completing all hidden areas in a zone.
Titles for exploreres completing all codex entries for a specific faction/ planet/ class etc.
I could go on, but don't want to ramble on when i'm sure others ahev already stated the same.
Not going to say no to any system that rewards exploration. As Maverick says, exploration is it's own reward, but it's nice to see them try and find something they can throw in there for all the Bartle types.
If lore in a game is good, I'll get completist about it. In Bioware games I'm perma-holding tab a lot of the time to ensure I miss no codex entries (or using tab mods). I can see this being similar but on a grander scale. I like it.
If nothing else, codex entries (like WAR's big book of everything) will give me something to read while waiting for flashpoint groups.
if you think every game is sand box your wrong >.> life is sand box you stuck on earth doing the same stuff day to day. lol dont play this game if you dont like it :P
.....
> The Codex is a collection of unlockable lore entries...
Are most explorer types really interested in "unlockable lore entries?" I consider myself an explorer type player, but lore, I'd rather read lore on a website. In the game, I want the lore to be part of the gameplay, or I just don't care. I know it's a big Bioware thing, but is anyone else really buying it as an explorer element, let alone qualifying as sandbox content?
It's almost like they think they can dodge the linearity stigma with semantics, considering that sort of thing is already in some of the games that are at the source of the stigma. Trying to pawn it off as contributing to non-linear gameplay is just absurd.
As for exploration being its own reward.. wouldn't that make all games fun to explore? No, I think it depends a lot on what you find. If it's the same content no matter where you go, that can completely ruin exploration. What you find can be purely aesthetic, like a pretty waterfall or vista, or it can be more practical, like encounters with rare mobs, friendly NPCs, or even just loot. Just has to be random, given the MMO environment. Mostly, I think you do have to be able to find something though, something that matters to you. Be it practical, aesthetic, or whatever.
Scattering scraps of lore all over the place though, that does nothing for me, personally.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I think (is this once again? who knows) that people think this is the only thing you get from exploration.
This is what you get this in addition to everything else, which include
Gear (armor/weapons)
XP
Datacrons (permanent stat boots)
Special bosses (this may be where some of the gear comes from)
companion expression oppertunities (able to enchance wether they like you more or not)
as well as the scenery.
Wether this makes it a sandbox? No. But at least it encourages people to get off the rails and go wandering. I know i will.
Help me Bioware, you're my only hope.
Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
The datacrons to me are a good way to entice people to explore. Codex is nice for people who pride themselves on being experts in game lore. As a self professed explorer & completionist I have found codexes/card collections etc in other games entirely worthless and unrewarding.
Having random encounters, random quest givers and ideally some randomly generated instances (slaver ship that has landed for example) for explorers to find and conquer makes exploring a lot more interesting and non linear. With the datacrons once people find them they will post them on the net and then anyone can just go find them without actually exploring but beelining directly to them. Adding the random things I described to areas not in players standard paths will make exploring actually fun.
Gotta have something for achievement monkeys
I love the idea, and I am one of those monkeys. Exploration gives you something to do when you are waiting in queue for something... or waiting on friends to login... anything!
Sence i am an explorer type of person i think this is a great idea.. I would like to see abit more then just additional story elements to exploring.. BUT i am and always will be the guy checking out every inch of explorable terrian simply because thats what i like to do...
Adding things in that give you something to do other then level/PvP/PvE are great things. Anything that prolongs the game in different directions is great.
I'm with this guy.
I think parts of the game should be themepark, and the more remote areas like EVE; I never understood why Game makes dont mix classifications
Another unique bullet to the game.
It will for the most part, turn into a bragging right title', If the Codexs were to benefit the players character more than just storyline stuff like unlocking new quests, appearence items, gear ect.. then it would be a very populare.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
The only dang thing i wanna hear from bioware at this point is a release date thats it! weve waited enough its time for them to get the blasted game out before we all die of oldage.
hiiiiiiiiiiiii
please be my friends~Wish you a happy day.
Yeah, very much agree on this. Your example was Rift, you can add WAR to that list as well. It's compendium-thingamebob was very similar to the codex. It was FUN to get cool entries with (often small) rewards but it was a finite, static kind of exploring and very googleable.
Randomization could help a lot in making it more interesting. Same with 'named mobs' out in the world.
I loved to hunt for named mobs in WOW which could spawn anywhere where its normal brothers could spawn as well and had a small chance on dropping rare loot. I used to do certain patrols which took my past harvesting nodes as well as a lot of named mob locations. Doing these rounds was a hugely satisfying, relaxing part of the game for me.
You could google the named mob specifics, their drop lists, and spawn areas but you'd still have to go out and FIND them yourself. And be lucky enough that someone else didn't beat you to it.
Randomness adds a lot of depth and flavor.
*hoping SWTOR will have somekind of random aspect to exploration / named mobs*
My brand new bloggity blog.
Loving the codex/datacron idea, one of the things I am MOST looking forward to about Tor is immersing my self in a starwars world that has a purpose, a point and most of all doesnt require me to moisture farm for months.
That along with an actually narrative, story and purpose to the quest system has me very excited for this......
Despite the fact Im bored of drip fed info and just want a release date.
I am not an explorer in the sense that they seem to think of them. I'm the guy who likes to try to break planets by getting up to unintended platforms, etc. This is one of the things I liked in Rift, because they were basically cool with that and rewarded us for it. The Datacrons seem similar to Rift's buried treasures, and that's all kinds of spiffy, but I only started seeking out the treasures in Rift once I found my first because of the fact that there was treasure in them. In LotRO, even with the small number of Turbine Points available for completing exploration deeds, every one of my characters still has explore deeds left unfinished, and that's just because it's a pain to do it over and over across all those characters.
The ability to take and hold areas for me is the most important aspect of any MMO. Guilds fighting over rich resource areas and facilities makes an MMO. if you dont have this in an MMO, then its just a single player game with others playing alongside you.
Just looks like another Tome of Knowledge. That isn't a bad thing, in fact it's a really good thing but it isn't new and it has almost nothing to do with a sandbox game.
TOR will be highly theme park. This isn't hateful speculation, it's a fair assessment of everything we know about TOR, which is quite a lot at this point. People wanting a dynamic, meaningful open PVP system - I utterly sympathise but it isn't in TOR, at least not at launch. If it isn't in at launch, what are the chances it will be implemented successfully later on? Slim. Especially with 2 factions.
TOR is built from the ground up to be a please-all gear grinder with the luxury of a well written storyline. Bioware are too diplomatic to say it outright but every word coming from them is designed to gently break that news to you. I'm not even saying it's a bad thing...subscription numbers tell us that the majority of people love this sort of game design and stats rarely lie.
Could TOR be a great game? Of course it could. But if you absolutely cannot live without a sandboxy system with player-driven dramapoliticscontent over a dynamic capturable game world...you are 100% wasting your time. And you can quote this comment when launch comes.
-Desagidit
Well then TOR has nothing to worry about.
Also TOR will have open world PvP and they have hinted at RvR.
I don't care about innovation I care about fun.
I find having too find lore somewhat silly. I just dont get it. It is like taking a mechanic nobody really really wants and offering it as a feature to me.
If you put all the lore in a library somewhere I am guessing it would be a great place to get some sleep as nobody would be there.
Like AT&T saying you can pause in one room and watch in another, like that has even been an issue for anyone. It is not a feature anybody is asking for.
Same as cutscenes being offered as a roleplaying element. How the *^$% is watching a cutscene RP'ing? MMO's are only roleplaying when they continue to give the ability to do more of whatever the hell you want.
When the first star wars game hit we were blown away at what gaming was doing, yet ever since we have gone backwards. We have less and less say so on how to play in MMO's.
Linear sucks period. The old game having every piece of armor and weapon being player made was awesome and solved alot of problems we have since created, and it also added to roleplaying.
Dragon age itself was a step backwards in roleplaying in my opinion. As older games like Bladurs gate gave us more options in a party and felt less linear by far in regards to when it was released.
I love star wars and am hoping there is enough here to keep me having fun because MMO's continue to get more boring every year.
Of course at first I blamed the people making them, and I was correct but now it is clear, that because most people in the world do not like to think if given a choice, they want linear games with arrows.
I am just hurt to my core that we are not making games more fun to play. I want this game to be awesome but I just feel the repetition in linear form calling.
No more "tanks" "healers" etc, I cannot take it! LoL. It is a stupid thing we are doing people.
Exploring only works if you are new to gaming in MMO's or if is fun in the end. If I am rewarded with things I enjoy by exploring awesome.
Though I must say that nobody needs to look up where to find crap, so that really is dumb to say about rewards being static, dont look up where it is!
I do feel that people who read all the lore in games are odd people. Facts that are not facts that do not add to gameplay seems like an odd thing to pursue and since this game appeals to the masses I doubt more then 2 or 3 percent will care about data like this.
When you have to (optional, I know) go to specific places to get a known amount of specific things, that pretty much exemplifies the Theme Park definition.
This doesn't match up at all with the spirit of Exploration. But it does mirror WoW's 'Explorer' achievements. Nothing to do with fun, adventure, or finding something no one else has found. Everything to do with mindlessly following a path for specific, universal goals that are known in advance.
Can't resist adding my own comments here. So far the codex explanation and the multiple attitudes toward it have been pretty well covered in the previous posts. That said....
How about something new? Explorers have generally gone exploring because they want to find something, new land, scientific data, resources, treasure etc...in other words, a purpose that drives the explorer. And yes, a few just for the 'new' land and being first to explore. Consider one thing though - the MAP. Real exploration normally involves days, weeks, months even years and that is too realistic for a game. Adding people,places,things and events make up for not using 'months' of real time to accomplish your goal(s).
The game has a mini-map and a world map for players. Why not add a third dimension, and map. The 'zone' Explorer map. All players would have this map which is filled out as they move around the zone, quests and 'exploration' both adding to the creation of their exploration map. Finally, a player completes all the zone sections and locations and their exploration map is unlocked. This map is of the zone but contains all the detail that an explorer would have for their map. It would take a basic 'database' that would fill in the zone exploration map with npc's, locations of possible secret entrances, things not 'explored in your initial effort but now you can go back an find, including 'stuff' and quests and easter eggs etc...
A completed explorer map would be super useful for a group as only a player with that map will be able to get a group in and gaining entrance to another players exploration map would allow you to continue filling out your own map. Features on this zone exploration map could be made up of both things available only to map owner but mostly stuff accessible to groups, allowing both solo and group play.
Once you explore a zone and complete your map you can bring it up and see all the stuff you found in the 'notes' shown on the map and in sidebar info. Any designer worth a dime can fill out the rest and work out an implementation based on computer coding. The use of a zone exploration map by an individual or group would be instanced for that map. You could also join in with another players map and additional modifications, add-ons, changes could occur as you progress in the game allowing the real possibility of reply back into this zone. A ZEM (zone exploration map) for a Sith Inquisitor would also certainly be different than a Bounty Hunter ZEM so it would be interesting to group and visit anothers class map.
A ZEM would be an instance and require a database for each class to allow maximum 'immersion' and replay, primarily for groups of different classes but always something extra for the map owner only. I was a corporate game designer and now retired but I can't help myself, please forgive the text wall.
Tome of Knowledge.
I'm glad Mythic is helping BioWare with more than RvR.