Yes, exactly! It was a new map that expanded on an old map while adding completely new and interesting mechanics and places to fight. Somehow there’s two contradictory facts being held in Fatshark’s mind (or at least one expressed by Robin and the other expressed by the actions of Fatshark) about maps:
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“We simply couldn’t keep up with how fast our players wanted new content with that model … upping graphical fidelity in VT2 means making new maps takes even more time” with regards to the effort it takes to develop maps.
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They made a fun-as-hell throwaway map that you play for one or two weeks before it’s gone from the game for a year, so surely that wasn’t a super-duper large time investment or otherwise they would’ve been hesitant to sink so much time into something so limited in scope.
Obviously there isn’t a one-to-one comparison between them. A Quiet Drink is built heavily on existing assets arranged in a new map, while the V1 DLCs all revolved around entirely new settings with new assets.
There was significantly more investment to make Drachenfels, for example, because it required a lot of new assets to make the spooky new castle theme. However, that’s an investment because we know the new assets can be reused in different contexts. For example, the spooky castle arena in the Winds of Magic showcases assets that could be reused in Drachenfels (or any other spooky castle). Another example: development of boss AI could be reused for different bosses (like Krench’s AI from Stromdorf probably was the framework for Skarrik and Bodvarr).
I just get confused by Fatshark logic, even though the post is certainly the views/opinions of Robin himself, not of Fatshark. It still gives weird insight into that type of thinking, at least to me.
There’s a saying “preaching to the choir” where someone tries to argue a point at people who already agree with them. I’d say it works in this case, but I don’t think that quite captures the level of intensity, so I’ll say you’re “preaching to the Pope” who wrote a 4000 word essay with video links and detailed pictures about how Fatshark should go Back to Bögenhafen (Fixes + Content Update Suggestions).
It’s a good read if you have the time. There’s good ideas not just from me, but from others in the comments. It’s the original essay post similar to that Back to Drachenfels one linked earlier that I think you didn’t really like because of the whole vampire mumbo jumbo lol.