Why does Nobody talk about Elden Rings Map???

The game is a combination of look at that place, go to that place, find dead end, go explore, find the way forward. Liurnia had that too. You feel lost initially, so you explore, then you find the way forward. One of the best game values I've ever purchased.

The teleporter chest near the start of the game that teleports you to the capital and shows the fogged over map was such a breath-taking moment for me when i realised how big the game was going to be.

My gamer instincts go like oh that’s where I need to go let’s go everywhere else first

"Now Stormveil is pretty simple"

Not my thoughts when I first got there on my first playthrough...

The game does tell you where to go right from the start: follow the light. The sites of grace lead you to your destination and the game is very explicit about that. That is the "road" players are supposed to follow.
The reason why this doesn't work for most players is two-fold: 1) The challenge is too tough. They can't advance through the main quest, so they go elsewhere instead. 2) They get distracted by other interesting areas, enemies or quests.
Elden Ring is designed to pull players away from the main quest. It's even designed to pull them away from side quests to other side quests. And then it pulls them back to the main quest. Back and forth all the time.

If I could reset my memory of this game to replay it for the first time again.

This game establishes very early on with the tree sentinel that blindly following the main path forward sometimes isn't the best choice, if you run into a tough spot it can be best to find another way around or come back later, and Margit is a great example of that. The first NPC you meet tells you to follow the grace to Stormveil Castle, that's where the main road lead you to, and that's where the game itself tells you to go through grace. So you're a new player, you run straight to Stormveil, but then you meet Margit and he beats the living crap out of you, and eventually you decide this isn't working and you leave to go explore some place else. You decide to adventure south, you find a bunch of new landmarks you never saw on your way to Stormveil, maybe you get some new ashes of war and some new weapons, then you go even further south and end up in a brand new area, this place starts out with a woman explaining that the servants from her csatle have all rebelled, and everywhere you go you find misbegotten and the corpses of the people they killed, this area has it's own story arc. Eventually you get bored of that and go east to Caelid, everything there is scary, the sky is red and everything is way too strong for you to fight, but you find even more upgrades, suddenly you open your map and realize that Limgrave, what was originally the entire map, looks really small now. By setting up some strategic roadblocks early in the game you are incentivized to go out and realize just how open the world really is, if you could just blitz the first main boss I think some players would end up missing out on some things that they otherwise wouldn't have taken the time to comb through

I mean, it's similar to other FromSoft games. In DS3, when you get to the High Wall, the first area after the tutorial, you can immediately see the Grand Archives and the path to the second to last boss. Lothric can also be seen from most places in the world, and after you beat Vordt in High Wall you also get a peek at most of the aboveground areas. In DS2, Majula lets you peek at Castle Drangleic and Heide's Tower of Flame. In DS1 you can see the walls of Anor Londo and the depths of Blighttown from the main hub. You can see lots of far off areas in the early stages of Bloodborne as well. Many landmarks in Sekiro are also clear...

It’s one of the few games where you can actually walk to everything that you can see from a distance.

I remember thinking for most of the game, "no way you can go to that place". The answer is yes you can get to at some point anywhere you see in the game which is just amazing. The massive tree is what surprised me the most I thought it was something that's there but you don't go to little did I know you even go there at some point, best map design ever made, you see it you can go there no questions asked.

I've seen so many people be reductive about ER's world design. I think because they dont know what to look for and they just enjoy it in ignorant bliss. They dont realize the the developer's invisible hands pushing and pulling you. The geography isnt just for asthetics. That forest isnt there to look appealing. The literal terrain facilitates exploration. The fact that the trees obscure the gatehouse when you first step out into the world makes exploration possible. The thrill of discovering the gatehouse ruins is made possible by you being unaware of it. But the developers havent left you to wander aimlessly. They uses "satellites" or breadcrumbing to pull you THROUGH the forest. They're called satellites because they orbit the major content. And lure you towards it. As important as what you can see is what you cant. Look at their use of sheer cliffs and rises and mountains and ravines and you'll start to see it. Not to mention the scale of things and the distinctness of assets allows for great use of landmarking. It makes possible for the world to work without icons. Try finding your way without icons in a different open world like Ass Creed. To make this point. The painting you find in ER and you have to find the location it depicts for the reward. I was able to figure them all out without having to google them. Now... if I took 5 screenshots of AC Origins. Do you think you could pinpoint them? Or even get close? I couldnt.

I got minor issue with the map (not the world). Is really hard to display vertical scale on paper map, so multiple times I tought there could be path from one area to another and when I got there, I met 100 high cliff.

Probably the best open world environments and weather in any single player RPG made. SO many times I would stop and just pan around to look. From Sofrias well, Redmayne castle and the music/sound ambiance always fit perfectly the theme.

I adore how at spawn you can see the way forward all the way atop to the Great Brazier, But up there, You cant see Limgrave, As there is no way to return back in time to what once was before you explored and conquered.

I believe the intended path of progression at the capital gate is to assume you cant enter yet & follow the road out, straght to Mt.Gelmir. where the player will likely take up the quest to hunt down other Tarnished, this quest naturally leads the player back towards the capital.

I still remember playing Elden RIng for the first time, thinking that Limgrave was the whole map and that Stormveil castle was the end game and still thinking "Huh, this game is actually fairly big".

Oh boy, when I realized, it had to be the best realization of my gaming years.

I was too busy exploring every nook and cranny to notice that the map was directing me anywhere. Very nice.

Finding the alternate path to Altus was also really cool! I did know where the dectus medallions from watching runs before I played but I did find the ruin strewn precipice and makar organically just exploring Liurnia.

That alternate route to the plateau and the real door to the capital are both in interesting spots on their respective maps. There's a valley splitting off of Liurnia? Wonder if there's something cool over there. Is that another door to the capital? I wonder if I can get in that way.

This game in so many ways does the open world so perfectly. And I feel like I enjoy the game more than some other people, as a newbie to souls like gameplay in general I think the boss design in this game is like nothing else I've ever played. In no other game have I died so many times and not been filled woth seething rage lol. Every time I died I thought "yeah I shouldn't have attacked... why didn't I use my ash there... maybe I shoukd try this physick... i wonder if this weapon would work better etc."

I'm not even done with my first playthrough and I really feel like this is one of, if not my favorite game of all time.

The map (I mean the UI map) itsfelf is extraordinary well design, it's a map with a language and when you learn how to read it you can know what could be a point of interest or not. For example the gold aura around a cave entrance => mine. It's the first open world where I actually use the map as a real map to explore, and not just mark point to another.

I went to caelid first (worst mistake of my life)