Expanding the world map in Cogmind... where?

Although there aren't any plans to add new maps in the near term, it's guaranteed we'll see more eventually, at the very least as part of the Merchants Guild update. On the Discord patrons channel yesterday there was a question about how and where new maps might be added, so I thought I'd cover that concept in a more general sense here, just to give an idea of what direction I'm heading.

Deeper Branches

First of all if you've done a fair bit of exploring so far you'll notice that on the world map there's horizontal room enough for branches that go as deep as 4 maps before you hit an edge, though right now we only have two branches that actually reach that far--most branches only extend out to 1~3 maps.

As such, lengthening branches is one approach we'll see at least some of, and out at the far ends is where you'd expect to have the kinds of special crazier maps (and potentially crazier benefits) that we're more likely to have as development gets further away from the main game anyway. Technically there is also room to even add a map on the return visit, in the way Proximity Caves and -8/Mines work, giving a total branch trip length of up to 5 (6?!) maps in some cases.

The Merchants update in particular (which I'll cover in more detail later on) would itself include more than one new map area. The primary one will likely be accessed from a deep branch point. Recycling is another branch I'd like to expand, allowing it to bring you deeper (and giving people a bigger reason to go there :P)

More Options

Although the early game generally has less room for deeper branches since Cogmind is weaker at that point, I do also want to add more branch options in the first three depths (but not necessarily deeper, just different as options). This is where the "Sub Caves" come in, basically caves even lower than the Lower Caves, which do already have a mention in the lore.

Small Maps

Another area that I've planned to expand on are small Waste/Garrison-like maps that behave as those two do, essentially bringing you back to the same map area that you left after visiting one. There's tons of room there for more stories and tech, most specifically in the caves where I think it would be nice to have access to additional derelict/Warlord areas. Not all of these would definitely be friendly ;)

The caves were certainly always meant to have an even wider variety of content than they currently do, though I've felt that they were at least "sufficient" as they are to connect other more important areas of the world, so this hasn't been a priority.

Some of these small maps would also likely be related to the Merchants, who will have their grabbers just about all over the place, so it's not just about their own full map deep in a branch (the Merchants HQ), but also smaller shops and rendezvous points scattered all over the place.

No Promises ;)

So there you have it: Probably some new branch options, though it's mostly about filling holes that exist. Obviously this means a lot of work keeping it balanced with what we have already, but the lack of backtracking does at least keep this job from being the otherwise impossible task it would be :P

Many of these ideas have been planned for a long time, but they can only come in their own time, and I can't claim that all of them are guaranteed.

Oh yeah, there's also one other specific map I'd like to do which would be accessed through very non-traditional means, no mechanic that currently exists, but that's also the one I'm least sure about... By the time we get there, people might start saying "okay, Kyzrati may have been working on this game for too long" ;)