I am not sure what to tell you. This kind of black and white thinking is what gets developers to create undiverse bland layouts such as many of the ones we have in Diablo 3.
Backtracking is fine, and can even be good if used properly. The issues appear if you abuse it like in Arcane Sanctum (which requires you to go back to the starting point at each failed bet), which could easily be salvaged by adding pathways that connect the middles of each section in order to have a more reasonable amount of backtracking.
PoE does have some backtracking, yet there isn’t ever a single complaint on their forums about the amount of backtracking, nor about areas being railroads, because they properly designed their game to give a decent amount of diversity and exploration, making it very decent. Sure, players pinning for maximum efficiency will go to the no backtracking maps, because they are trying to optimize, but by having a wide array of layouts available, including ones with backtracking, everyone can have fun without getting bored.
Am I remembering things wrong, or can’t you just teleport back?
You can either go all the way back on foot (or through movement skills) or TP to town, go to Lut Gholein’s waypoint, and use it to teleport to the Arcane Sanctum waypoint. Both are bothersome.
Having a midway passage to the next wing would still be technically slower than TP-ing to town, but it would be less tedious (maybe three-quarters of the way through, if it’s still too far).
- No dead ends
- No A to B route
D4 will have seamless area transition so every path the player takes could lead to the objective/exit (depending on how much progress/exploration the player made).
What this gives is the freedom the player to take any route he likes and nevertheless meet the objective in the end. This also would guarantee 100% exploration possibility if the player desires it.
How amazingly boring that would be. There are no closets in hell just endless hallways.
That’s typically the kind of idea that looks great on paper, that feels good as long as you don’t know it’s there, but completely destroys your experience the moment you start noticing it.
PS : like monster level scaling.
I meant, show us a map example, of what you want.
What I want as explained in previous post isn’t in any aRPG yet. I can’t draw in Photoshop so if someone has good drawing skills he can make some sketches based on what was explained.
If you extrapolate the below endlessly you’ll basically get an idea of what I mean:
https://www.epicwar.com/assets/p/1144/285959.jpg
The player starts in the center and can go in any direction meeting enemies and rewards no matter what path he chooses. It doesn’t have to be symmetric like here, this is just an example.
So, for example, if the player has the quest “Kill 100 undead enemies and collect the map fragments showing the Skeleton King palace location”, no matter what direction he goes, he’d be able to find 100 undeads and when he assembles the found map fragments the palace location will show on the minimap, but it will depend on the current player location in a way that it won’t force the player to return from where he came.
What this achieves is that it negates the map hacks (and the need to look at the minimap) since every way is the right way and the player is only guided by his exploration choice until the SK palace location is revealed.
I am also not advocating every map or event to be like this. It’s good to have a mix (fixed vs dynamic objectives), but dead ends are never good no matter what procedural algorithm is used.
You are still new to PoE, in time you will find out that PoE doesn’t have infinite map layouts. You are just too new to the game to realize it right now.
I ought to know I have played that game enough to know where certain things will be based on where other things are.
My advice in all games like this one, just play to have fun. Don’t worry about not getting lost in a game exploring.
You think having all that extra trouble and development is worth it ?, I mean, can’t think of a worse time to destroy a capacity for development of a game… You’re basically saying “do everything 4 times” in each direction (oh and b.t.w. that 4 times becomes 8 times as distance grows, then becomes 16, 32, 64, 128, you name it…)
Again, don’t fix what’s not broken, what we need is just make sure that each of those “deadends” has it’s own worth, just like in D2 all the Tal’Rasha’s “wrong” tombs were worth a visit 
This is easy development. They already have the tech (seamless transition) and they can do it infinite without a problem. What’s left is just regular programming like with anything else.
WOW! Did not expect to come back to this topic and see 90+ posts. Some great comments here.
The topic was not started about the deadends, and the term “railroad” maps was not a descriptor of “endless maps/zones”
My original argument is that I feel 90% of the maps are super linear in Diablo 3 and it seems like a kiddy ride always just moving Forward on the “railroad”.
Even the dead ends seem almost fake, like red herrings. It doesn’t feel right most of the time heading down those off shoots of the “path”
I feel we got distracted on the dead ends, which I think should be part of maps when done right, if you want a map where u never get lost than you and I are on completely different sides of what makes an ARPG fun.
There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s good everyone shares his opinion regarding maps in D4 so we have the full diversity of these. After that it’s easy - everyone plays what he prefers.
However I do share your fear that we may end up with too much linearity and non-procedural maps in D4. At least nothing from what was shown until this moment speaks for the opposite - maybe they can touch on this in their next quarterly update?
I wanted to mention that aswell, the fact that POE maps are so new to me so they feel so fresh. However I kept having a feeling of familiarity in the maps, and I realized what it was, it felt like Diablo 2. The satisfaction of finding your way through Diablo 2 maps, catacombs, durance of hate, the tombs, is all over POE. Something Diablo 3 was majorly lacking.
You say don’t worry about not getting lost in a game exploring, but is it really exploring if there is no deviation from the trail?
I know too that once you played the maps out for quite some time you would start to recognize the “formula”. Still that formula would not a be a straight line to the end.
Why people want exploration shouldnt Diablo be progression driven foremost. Tons of exploration games on the market. If I was Blizzard I would consider adding somekind of timer between combats, faster you find enemies the better. I bet when Starfield comes, its gonna be full to exploration, thats the usual Bethesda style. Wish Blizz could go out of the box with this one.
Make exploration an efficient way to gain progression.
How about Starcraft Survival Online game. Blizzard doesnt have exploration game right. Survival Online games are all about picking rocks and sticks and building stuff.
Beach Map and there are others like it that are very linear. Where you go from the start and at the end is the area for the boss. Even the story is the same way. After playing it long enough you will know what general direction to go to get to where you want to go. That is because no game has endless layouts of the same area. That is true without any arrows pointing the way. No doubt D2 had the same problem.
What I am saying is the truth, no game will have endless numbers of layouts of the same area. That would be impossible for any game to do and D2 is no different.
There are enough racing games on the market
Try grand tourismo or so and leave diablo alone
Exploration and progression go hand in hand. That’s why many dislike areas with dead ends like Arcane Sanctuary where you have no chance for progression on the way back.
If D4 doesn’t have a competitive aspect attached to it, it would simply lose value. Timers are a fundamental part of aRPG competition, but they shouldn’t be forced on those not wanting competition. So, it’s a matter of design - if you know what you do you’ll be able to please everyone (timer lovers and timer haters).
I personally think survival-like D4 server with reduced drops, PvP everywhere, FFA loot, corpse looting, etc would be of huge success. Diablo franchise simply “cries” for a survival mode.