Expand the death realm, make it so large that no one will ever consider a shortcut. Then, you can remove the death penalty.
or make the DR just that one room and the penalty 5 days long. [I'll not insert a dumb smiley here]
or how about just fixing what we have now. don't bother the expansion people or have them move to fixing what's broken now. I'd prefer that the current map get fixed before moving onwards and having more broken maps or desolate areas that have no function except to exist. Expansion packs, like the BD expansion pack before, is overkill.
My opinion is quality over quantity and would much rather see our current maps with clickable *everything*. So that floors, tiles, every wall, every barrel is clickable that may or maynot have signficance. But some descriptions might hide some clue or hint that may begin a quest with an npc. Enrich the current maps as opposed to creating new barren ones. Have some items not just show a description but perhaps play a sound (where relevant i guess)? This should be in the wishlist but follows my line of thought here.
I just don't want to see another BD expansion pack and while it was pretty to look at, it was barren for a long time till quests filled it up. But even to this day when i venture out there, I'm often the only soul. Some run past me but only to train and once done I see them making that jump off the eagle. The quests added some content to that map in the sense of some storylines were added but it wasn't inherent to the map itself. There are inherent qualities that can be added to the map, as mentioned previously as clickable objects, items etc outside of its art. While quests give me a reason to be there, while trainers demand that I be there on occasion, make the map an important reason to be there as well. And before Xillix gets defensive the bronze doors are great from an aesthetic perspective and offers quite a bit in terms of exploration (I still get lost trying to find the campfire on occasion and this admittedly is a good thing as it gives it a sense of newness).
I voted villages as there wasn't a choice to NOT expand and it seemed like the next closest thing. A few barren villages with nobody there, with a fleeting soul from time to time running to train and escape as soon as possible can't be that bad. or as bad as some massive addition of empty potential.
Xillix if the poll added a no expansion/improve qulaity of current map as an option, I'd be curious to see how many people share that opinion. just a hypothetical i'm throwing out there cuz i know the poll won't close and reopen for that. But it seems ingame from the vast majority of people that i talk to, expansion of areas without fixing current problems with the map seems to be a running joke and while the forums might offer a different perspective cuz i know many ingamers don't bother with the forums, I'd have like to seen an objective measure of this shared opinion.
CLICKABLE EVERYTHING!
Poll