An exploration of Map Changes in Elden Ring (Patreon)

While I was finishing the script for the episode about unlisted patch changes, I found that the discussion about changes to the game map grew to be about half of the entire episode. There was more to talk about than I realized! So I've decided to turn it into its own subject, also considering that the map alterations are a topic worthy of their own discussion. I didn't want this to just be part of a bigger video, and it can help for discoverability if it's not buried inside an "unlisted patch changes" episode.

So while that unlisted patch changes episode is very much still happening, the plan is to now make that soon after an episode about the game map. Yesterday I recorded the script and today I finished editing the vocal audio, so tomorrow I'll begin recording and editing the actual video. It's going to be ~15 minutes long and I'd love to have it done by this weekend, but I'm going to be on mini-vacation that'll span this weekend and the first half of next week, so it might have to wait until next weekend.

Above is an example of the Artist's Shack's location being fixed on the map in Patch 1.03. There's a LOT of examples of weird little changes like this, and in some cases I think it reflects earlier designs for the actual world geometry. Sometimes it's just fleshing out some extra details, but at other times it feels like FromSoftware quietly covering up their tracks.