Elden Ring Dissected #3 - Hidden Map Changes

This episode of Elden Ring Dissected compares all of the map variations found across the major patches.

Elden Ring Map Comparisons / Map Alterations

0:00 Introduction
1:47 Limgrave
4:14 Liurnia
9:07 Caelid
12:45 Altus Plateau
14:30 Mountaintops of Giants / Haligtree
16:27 Jarburg and Closing Words

[illusorywall]

*Latest Info as of Patch 1.05*

1.05 made three more changes to the map, including changing Jarburg. RIP to the idea of that being intentional, I suppose. Here's a twitter thread I made showing the before and afters:

original stickied comment below:

Just like being able to see the old land bridge in Caelid, It's been brought to my attention that the low-poly LOD model for Stormveil Castle is also outdated and matches some of what I showed from the Network Test's version of the map. Thank you "J" for pointing this out.
Godrick's arena was mostly enclosed asides from that one spot on the left:

And Margit's arena is missing the fog gate walls:

But the Limgrave Tower bridge is just fine in the low-poly model, it does have the wider entrance and damaged section that the Network Test's map lacked.

And there appears to be a little bit more to the Network Test's map! And it's a bit of a mystery, because the couple sources I found aren't perfectly matching some other examples I'm finding, like from the IGN 19 minute gameplay demo. So I'm not entirely certain what's been sourced from when, precisely, but there are at least a few more differences to be found between various pre-release builds. Credit to Owen MacDonald for bringing this to my attention in another comment here.
Here's an alternate version of the Chapel of Anticipation:

We can see that it used to appear much closer to Stormveil Castle, and it also looks pretty different in general. Based on the blue roofing, it looks like the starting building hopped islands. There's also no obvious arena space, but it appears a bit larger overall and they still could've fit a boss somewhere regardless.

There's also some more ruins missing from the Limgrave map in this "other" network test:

I've gotten a couple questions about the part at 4:03 where I talked about the updated icon having an error where some of it is duplicated and misaligned. If you didn't see what I was talking about, this should help; You shouldn't see that same chunk of the map twice:

I'm also getting some comments saying the prototype Church of Vows is the default look for a Church of Marika. This seems like the most-likely candidate for what it was, but I think there's still some room for uncertainty here. I've aligned all 4 churches for comparison, with the prototype Church of Vows on the far right:

There isn't exactly a default look as they all vary a bit. But this could be in line with that as being a 5th version of the same kinda structure, perhaps.

[OscarGreenworth]

I think the Jarburg road is made to confuse “poachers”. To stop them from getting there. I see it like the Jarburg people destroyed that path so nobody could get to them.

[michalnowacki]

I think it would be fitting if the bridge that bypasses Stromveil Castle wasn't shown collapsed on the map, as when you get to the other side there's a caravan with its guards killed, implying that the collapse was very recent.

[pennnel]

I had to look up where the boiled shack was to get the necklace. Then later on when I went back for the Dung Eater quest it was on the map. I thought I couldn't have missed it. Good to know that it was added in an update.

[barronTV]

I actually found it quite immersive when I was following a road on the map and then it stops at a crumbled cliffside or broken, it felt like the maps where made long ago and weren't accurate or upto date.

[fruitsalad]

I think I have an answer for those water messages. something I noticed placing a message on the beach right around that area is that messages placed in water you can stand in rise to the surface of the water so they're visible. with the knowledge that people can clip down beneath that water, I bet the messages placed down there are getting zooped up to the top by the same mechanic!

[mkvoq]

There is some charm having the "hand-drawn-like" map in the game. As in the real world they can (and certainly will) be imprecise.

[juvesidc]

It’s slowly changing for sure confirmed. Pretty sure Liurnia will get swapped for Loot Lake next update.

[sablesoft]

to be honest, even though i noticed some map inconsistencies while i played i always chalked it up to being that 'oh, this is probably an in universe actual map that is probably a bit wrong now that some time has passed'

[alliebonesVODs]

Did anyone else throw themselves into the abyss while trying to get to Jarburg because they thought there might be an invisible pathway? I thought I was a pretty smart cookie until I was accelerating downwards.

[minerman]

16:00 The Haligtree was the main one I noticed; that map confused the hell out of me when I went to the area for the first time, especially because placing map markers was bugged and never placed them where they should go

[tinminator]

There is another map inaccuracy that still remains in Liurnia.
In a place where there are steep cliffs in game behind the Eastern Minor Erdtree and the uld palace ruins leading to the frenzied flame village, it shows some very small paths leading up there when in reality you can only get there through precise unintended platforming or by coming from the dectus lift.
The paths don't look complete but it is far cry from the steep cliffs that we actually find there.

[kinotherapy]

When I realised that the road from the lake to Caria was false, I assumed it was another "intentional mistake" on the map to get the player thinking about how else they could the area, same as Jarburg. Now that's it's been patched, it's hard to believe the the Jarburg road is intentional either.

[lovecervere]

The errors are actually so-called "Paper Towns" which are a copy protection cartographers used to include on their maps. Basically, they'd throw in fake towns that any actual map-maker would know aren't there, and if another map surfaced with the same fake town they'd know that it was a copy of theirs. Clearly whoever made the maps in Elden Ring didn't want some tarnished, boldened by the flames of ambition, to try and steal their hard work.

[mayac]

I knew I wasn't crazy! Well I still might be, but not about this!

[Hergotzer]

I've heard the messages floating on water where the land bridge to Radahn's arena used to be is a result of invasions; apparently if you invade a player in the area/near the area, you may spawn where the land bridge used to be, but as the invasion spawn automatically moves you down to stand on ground, it causes the invader to spawn underwater, below the killplane. If an invader writes down a message down there, the game will then move the message up to the surface, as all messages will automatically do (try putting down a message on a beach, it will float on the surface regardless of the depth of the water.)

My guess is that when/if they removed the land bridge somewhere during production, they forgot to remove the invader spawn point that they'd placed with it.

Ok I wrote this before the section about the floating messages was done and what I wrote here was indeed talked about, but I'm going to keep this comment as I did still add as to how this glitch was/is apparently done.

[DreamEatinDonuts]

I definitely felt like the Jarburg road is supposed to be evidence of the jars trying to hide their village from poachers. There may not be any signs of a bridge or anything but I think that's just what the jars want. Also, there's a lot of evidence in the game of severely changed geography, like roads that go through sheer cliffs. I think they intended it to all be evidence of massive geographical changes from some massive event, especially with some burying of the hidden cities like Nokron, and i felt like they wanted to have it evident in the map design, but have kind of rolled that back because it isn't conducive to a good gameplay experience. A lot of pillars still peek out of the ground in limgrave and on the east side of Liurnia so i don't think it's too much of a stretch.

[Razhork]

I think it makes a lot of sense for From to remove the path leading to Caria Manor from the lake. Removing this basically forces you to approach the Manor from the ruins where Iji resides.
This leads you to being introduced to a NPC who is integral to Ranni's questline in the Manor, and he can warn you about the Manor itself.

Had you gone through the alternate path, you'd risk missing this interaction.

[jamesgoodear]

There is real-world lake in Palau which is full of jellyfish that were segregated by the changing land mass being cut off from the sea. As a result of there being no predators in the lake, the jellyfish evolved to lose their stinging.
I like to think that Jarburg is based on this lake. It's a place that was segregated by the changing land. The inhabitants evolved, losing their intuition to fight, after the necessity to fend off interlopers was lost. This may also explain why there are many rare flora, as they have been able to grow rampant without being plucked.

[melkor]

Something i never see people talk about is how the minor erdtrees leafs used to be green, you can see it with the way they're drawn on the map and you can also see it during the sgf trailer, as you can see some in the background with green leafs