Map concept: Research Station

[cekivi]

So, I don't know how practical it is but I would enjoy seeing a high tech location in the long dark. Examples could be a ferry terminal, coast guard station, research facility, or regional airport. I think it would fit well with the themes of the game as you have formally vibrant, super advanced areas being rendered obsolete and barren simply because the power turned off. Radar and satellite communications aren't much good without any way to turn them on. The amount of abandoned equipment would also be large although most wouldn't be useful. It would be interesting poking through offices full of cutting edge computers, instruments, machines, airplanes, etc. all rendered as scrap. I would envision the general feel of the high tech areas to be like the legend of the Mary Celeste: everything frozen in place as if their owners would be coming back any moment. A recently abandoned high tech area would also help round out the other sandbox maps where we have an agricultural, long abandoned industrial, small communities, remote and rural vacation areas.

From a gameplay perspective high tech areas would offer little in the way of traditional loot. No rifles, food, axes or knives. Depending on how the crafting system and mechanics evolve though the reward for exploring these sites may be rare components, advanced tools, or unique items. Coast guard stations may have flare guns and inflatable boats for example while airports would have hangers full of specialized tools. A ferry terminal may have forgotten belongings and cargo and a research station may contain tents and advanced clothing for remote oceanic research. All interesting things to collect if you can survive in the otherwise barren location. Not much grows on concrete and pavement after all

Note that there was already a post for a general location wish list. This is just my personal one

 

[SteelFire]

I like this idea, not just for what you've proposed, but also because a high tech spot could be really interesting with the potential aurora interaction. All sorts of lights and terminals becoming active and doing who knows what, maybe hinting at other pockets of survivors out there. How wonderfully eerie it could be to have something like a small airport getting all lit up or a ferry boat full of cars with there headlights suddenly lighting up.

[cekivi]

9 hours ago, SteelFire said:

I like this idea, not just for what you've proposed, but also because a high tech spot could be really interesting with the potential aurora interaction. All sorts of lights and terminals becoming active and doing who knows what, maybe hinting at other pockets of survivors out there. How wonderfully eerie it could be to have something like a small airport getting all lit up or a ferry boat full of cars with there headlights suddenly lighting up.

Hadn't even considered that. That'd be really neat to see as well

 

[Tbone555]

i really love this idea. i imagine it'd be a lot like poking around the old military bunkers on fallout

and i haven't seen toebar in a good long while. wonder where he went off to

[cekivi]

I've wondered that too. I assumed work came up.

[Tbone555]

well lets hope he's back here on the forums soon

[EternityTide]

Disclaimer: I am aware that Hinterland have their own vision for what regions and areas they intend to add, this is just a suggestion for what COULD be added.

The regions so far have included: 

• A holiday resort and logging camp (Mystery lake)
• A farming region (Pleasant valley)
• A residential district (Coastal Highway)
• A dock, with industrial environs (Desolation Point)
• A remote mountain region (Timberwolf mountain)

It's been bugging me for a while, but I think I've worked out what is missing - a research station.
New Region: Northeastern Shore

This region will be colder than any of the previous ones - less shelter, less resources immediately available, and colder weather conditions on a more regular basis. The area would be windswept and very flat. Very few predators are compensated for by crueller weather conditions. 
Major landmarks in this region would be:

• Research base - a remote building built far from civilisation. Large antenna arrays dot the roof, a garage for snowmobiles (all now long defunct) sits open and filled with snow.
  Inside many books can be found - some to be burnt, some for learning new skills. This would also be an ideal place for the story to progress to, where notes and documents found there explain the geomagnetic event.
• Icebound Vessel - stricken by the geomagnetic event, the RV Aurora could not leave dock in time before winter arrived and froze it in place. Abandoned by its crew, the gigantic hulk of the Aurora lists in the pack ice that has built up around. Players will find a number of supplies that the crew could not carry with them, and scrap metal abounds from the now useless cargo of scientific instruments in the hold.
• Communications Outpost - A military communications outpost sits quietly on the northernmost tip of the coast. Some basic supplies can be found here, but perhaps the hardened electronics inside have survived...
• Air drop - a large Helipad, mostly snowed over, but with the remains of the last air supply drop that landed prior to the geomagnetic event. Difficult to find, and is accompanied by a bear who has a taste for sweet food - and so will not stray far from the site. Supplies here are an abundance of granola bars and MREs, as well as ammunition and books (blank stationery which can be used as tinder).
• Frozen Campsite - The half buried tents of a training exercise before going on an Arctic voyage, the would-be explorers who built this camp have long since gone into the long dark, frozen in their sleeping bags. Easy to find as the tents are bright orange and visible for miles, a few supplies can be scavenged here - but beware, a half starved wolf hides in one of the tents to escape the biting wind.

the area is designed to be hostile, but with great reward for those who make it. The area in general will be mostly exposed snowdrift , leading to a rocky shoreline which is icebound, which trails off into thin sea-ice. Inland areas will have sparse populations of stumpy trees, with a few boulders dotted here and there.
Overall it's meant to be a punishing experience, but with reasons to visit it. 
                                                    

[isidro_basta]

I like your idea! both fascinating and terrifying. But, aren't you scared that the icebound ship would echo the Riken in DP too much?

[cekivi]

Merged with earlier post since it shares a lot of the same ideas.

[Resethel]

The map you describe really seems great and balanced to me.

But since the story seems to happens on an inhabited island, I'm not sure a research station like you describe really fits in here. Generally don't you found those on really isolated place? It bugs me a bit ahah!

 

What I would change is either the location or the type of research center

1. Changing the location:

     It may be located in the middle of the island, almost as high as TWM summit ( so the map would be close to it ), so a flat area and few forms of life makes. The Helipad, the military antenna as well as the research base would also fit perfectly, one for top-secret communications (one could imagine an underground base or, who knows ahah), the other one for geology related activities or if a telescope is integrated, for space related observations. They would also be a bit bigger and better crafted.

The tents outdoor may also find their place, but far, far away from the base, near a crater for example

The downside of it is that a wrecked ship doesn't find its place here.

something like that

 

2. Changing the type of research center

    If you're style attached to your base being ashore, then it can't that kind of research center, designed for taking measurements. It would rather be a headquarters for scientist, a place where they make experiments, prepare for expeditions, usually work for a day then go back to their home on the other side of the island.

The good point is that making a tiny harbor there is possible and thus your abandoned research ship idea still makes sense. The idea of a storage for arctic vehicles still stands, and the communication outpost can also makes it's way there

But it would changes many things in a way: like the environment, it would be either near a forest or on a really flat area of the island, here I'd prefer a forest around it ( a really dense one ) so it let rooms for predators, wildlife, and the reason why there is close from no human buildings around, the backslash of it is that there would be way more predators. Also a well-build road is necessary, as well as abandoned vehicles and so on.  Some things might be suppressed, like the training campsite? (or maybe not?), the interior of the research center, there should be a looot of supplies, labs, etc.

Something of this kind,with some tweaks there and there

1 hour ago, isidro_basta said:

I like your idea! both fascinating and terrifying. But, aren't you scared that the icebound ship would echo the Riken in DP too much?

The Rikken looked more like a fishing boat, and seems to be abandoned (imo) for a longer time ( that bugged me btw, it looks like a really old wreck yet it's like it was  used recently... ). So maybe a more, recent, less wreck-like research boat isn't too much ^^

[cekivi]

Note you can have research and coast guard stations near inhabited areas. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has facilities all across the country. Some are in populated areas. Others less so

See: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/locations-bureaux-eng.html

[Resethel]

10 minutes ago, cekivi said:

Note you can have research and coast guard stations near inhabited areas. Fisheries and Oceans Canada has facilities all across the country. Some are in populated areas. Others less so

See: http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/locations-bureaux-eng.html

Thank you very much for the link and the explanations. What bugged me was the kind of research station @EternityTide described, I saw it as some arctic/antarctic research station, and I bet there isn't any near populated area ^^.

[cekivi]

Judging by the amount of dirt and the terrain @EternityTide's research base is likely in the arctic. Antarctica doesn't have much dirt that isn't covered in snow year round.

[EternityTide]

7 minutes ago, cekivi said:

Judging by the amount of dirt and the terrain @EternityTide's research base is likely in the arctic. Antarctica doesn't have much dirt that isn't covered in snow year round.

The example photo is of Alert, in Nunavut of Northern Canada. The research base in my concept is geared towards analysis of solar wind interactions with the earth's magnetic field, and general study of the aurora borealis and its effects on telecommunications - hence all the antennae, and the distance from other housing, to reduce electronic noise from appliances and power grids.

Did you know that one radio telescope, looking for gamma ray bursts, was consistently detecting a strange signal in the microwave range of the spectrum. It had odd characteristics, and analysis of the signal determined that it was being produced by something very powerful and within the solar system - it was at this stage that they discovered that the signals were being generated by people in the observatory cafeteria opening a microwave oven before it had finished - there were some red faces when they explained to their bosses that they had inadvertently been analysing the emissions of a microwave oven for the past week. This is one of the reasons why radio astronomy is done in remote locations, in order to reduce false signals.