I'm going to take a stab in the dark here and guess they are making POE1 endgame a little bit more like POE2 endgame, where you socket generic maps into the atlas like waystones, except instead of a random infinite atlas it will just be the static atlas map for POE1.
so maps will not drop as a specific map anymore, they will just drop as a "map tier 3" and you can still roll it as normal, but then you socket it anywhere in the atlas that you currently have unlocked. This is actually the specific change i wanted to see when they overhaul POE2's endgame and I think this is the testbed for it.
For unique maps, I think they will just drop as unique tier whatever instead of a plain map, and you socket it in any of the unique map slots. The voidstones could unlock different sections of the map, like you might have to kill black star/infinite hunger to unlock tier 16s, and then you have to kill exarch/eater to unlock the ability to start dropping T17 maps.
so maps will not drop as a specific map anymore, they will just drop as a "map tier 3" and you can still roll it as normal, but then you socket it anywhere in the atlas that you currently have unlocked. This is actually the specific change i wanted to see when they overhaul POE2's endgame and I think this is the testbed for it.
For unique maps, I think they will just drop as unique tier whatever instead of a plain map, and you socket it in any of the unique map slots. The voidstones could unlock different sections of the map, like you might have to kill black star/infinite hunger to unlock tier 16s, and then you have to kill exarch/eater to unlock the ability to start dropping T17 maps.