I prefer auto mapping, but I'm fine with towers

I don't like when the whole map is already revealed at the start (exxluding racing games).

Auto Map is the best option by far, for most games.

I don't care for the Ubi towers and map style. It's made getting through the second half of Horizon a chore. Give me a style like Fallouts over it any day.

To me unlocking that piece of the map is actually more like a big spoiler and reduces the excitement of scouting out the area. Maybe because every single tree is already visible on the map and every little area is already named. I feel more excitement every time I venture out of the already mapped area into the unknown. Yet since it doesn't fill in it's even harder to tell where I've been.

Perhaps it's a different style of exploring. The joy of exploring gets taken away a bit when I'm following a map. I always loved playing on random maps in Civilization and map out the shorelines in little boats at the start, drop scouts off to map the land. Automap is much more rewarding to me.

I would rather that players could have obtained the map after fullfill certain missions.

Designing Missions for dummies.
1. protect some NPC from Danger
2. NPC will talk about a hidden cave on east lanayru
3. Find the cave
4. Once cave in finded, it will be locked with a giant rock.
5. Wait for red moon.
6. A message appears on the stone "only a big rock like charachter could move me"
7. go find a goron
8. You find a goron, give to him some rupees.
9. Gorok has joined your party
10. Gorok moves the stone
11. Link enters the cave and finds a treasure chest
12. Inside is a toad "im sorry link your map is in another castle"""

EPIC

Yeah that would be great. Actual line of sight mapping with more detail added as you set foot in the area. So when you're on a tower you get a good view at the general layout, but not at what's in forests or on the backside of a hill.

It could be a darker color at first and less detailed the further away and brighten when you've actually visited there. Vague names at first, like tall mountain, muggy swamp, old ruins, then the actual name of the place is revealed when you visit. NPCs in towns can help you fill in the names if they want you to go somewhere for a quest or add a vague sketch if you've never layed eyes on that area.

I would really like the map to become a more prominent feature in games that are heavily exploration driven. Botw is on the rigth track with the placement of merkers mechanic through eye sight. Now take it one step further and make it all by eye sight. No more arbitrary borders.

I actually like the tower system in BotW. It's a marker in uncharted territory and just invites me to go to it, making for an exciting journey towards your destination. Also, the music that plays when you activate it, as well as the camera rotating around showing the overworld is pretty great.

You do make a point that the map revealing itself as you explore is a great way to handle exploring too. I hated wondering around in a dark area of the map and having no idea what's around my character.

I liked Morrowind map the best. It tracks your progress on the map, but you can also fill in some blanks and recieve guidance with quest information. Fast travel was enabled by paying something to make you go fast or learning spells etc. ... unlike newer Elder Scrolls games.

This might be about BOTW but I think that kind of map would be ideal for most games.

Agreed.

I think BotW has come closest to my ideal tower system, though I honestly rather enjoyed the towers of AC and Far Cry... the problem with those latter ones was, first, that there's generally too many of them, and second, they're absolutely necessary.

Zelda's tower system is fun in that they primarily exist to get you way up there to spy out shrines and places to go that were intentionally placed within eye-shot, and also a wonderfully fun "fast travel" option from which you can usually paraglide wherever you'd like to go, during which you often find new places to visit. Otherwise, it mostly just shows the geography, leaving you to fill in the names of each little area.

Definitely the best system I've come across so far.