User:Shai Halud/Make Maguuma Jungle Look Like a Jungle

This idea is pretty much what it sounds like and I'm sure all of you who have visited the Maguuma Jungle know what I'm talking about. When I first entered the Maguuma Jungle area, I spent the first few hours wondering why in the world they called it a jungle. From above, on the overworld map, it looks more like the surface of Mars than any jungle on Earth. On the ground, about 3/8 of the 'jungle" looks like the Grand Canyon, and right next to those parts are the more jungle-like corridors where the ground is blue rather than red. The Grand Canyon is several thousand miles away from any jungle environments. It's ridiculous! The official excuse is that the jungle only grows loser to the water table, but seriously, there is not more than twenty feet's difference between bare rock an the Amazon Rain Forest in that area. Not to mention that this is a game: we only need to go with what looks good and save our pitiful excuses for that. And blue dirt?

This was all excusable for the Prophesies campaign, but, in GW2, I think we could do better. On the other hand I loved the Tarnished Coast region in EotN. The Maguuma should probably look a lot more like that in the future, though it should have far denser foliage and keep the massive twisting vines from the first game. The lighting should be reduced in this area and the ground should be black soil and dead leaves rather than grass-covered as little sunlight would reach the forest floor. It might also be interesting if the ground in some areas were barely visible beneath the heavy foliage and twisting tree roots. If there is weather in GW2, the Maguuma should experience heavy rainstorms frequently.

If fans need explanation for the change we can say that shifting caused by the earthquakes cause changes in the weather patterns and opened up gorges through which water from that northern lake flowed into the Maguuma. This influx of water from both the gorges and the changing weather patterns turned the ravines into rivers and gave the Maguuma the everything it needed to transform the dry landscape into a massive overgrown rainforest. Something about that was mentioned vaguely in TMotW and, once players see the beautiful new environment, they I doubt they'll be asking any questions. Still, we can keep the dry, red dirt region by opening up the lands north and northeast of the Maguuma to exploration. This could function as a large rocky desert separating us from Northern Tyria, but I'll save that for a different suggestion.


 * Why this is a good idea
 * Would make the area more suitable for either the Asura or Sylvari to use as their homeland
 * Makes room for the opening up of new areas
 * Provides a twist on the old region so that we won't be traversing the exact same terrain again
 * Would make the Maguuma look more like an overgrown jungle and less like a series of blue and red hallways


 * Why it may not work out
 * May make it somewhat difficult to distinguish from the Tarnished Coast
 * May complicate the inclusion of a desert canyon area.