Joppa's stated intention - as last I heard it - was that there will be something like you describe, a 'fog of war' map that opens up as we explore. No mini-map w) GPS. He's been clear that it's not high on the agenda and it won't happen soon. Currently, several maps have been created by players/guilds and are linked on the Discord forums if you wish to make use of them.
Call me oldschool but I enjoy having to get to know an area. The enjoyment of running through a zone you know and not having to open a map every couple minutes is amazing although I do understand that it can be a bit frustrating at the beginning. On the other hand this gives you an opportunity to interact with people and ask questions, the community is awesome so you'll usually get an answer real quick. For future larger zones I can see them implementing maybe a quest chain you have to complete to get a map but I'm very much against making them easily accessible as if everyone is born with a map in their back pocket.
I agree with Aelric.
Auto-mapping and map markers may detract from the exploration aspect of the game, but part of what feels lazy about modern RPG design with those features is that developers severely cut back on descriptive elements in dialogue and the environment as they fully expect players to just use the map anyway.
From what little I've seen of the game thus far, it could do with more elements to point you in the right direction in several cases. It happens quite often that you're tasked to find some NPC without any hint where to start looking.
Also, signposts at crossings along the roads would be a great addition.
Thank you all for your thoughtful input. I am old school as well having started with the old Wizardry games and had to mark up a dungeon on paper as I went along. As I mentioned before, I dont want a mini map or even map location markers, just a plain old map that is blank when you start and as you explore and discover areas it fills in.
During the last play test I had quests to do, but had no idea where to start or which way to go, which was pretty frustrating.... Cheers