Expand Desolation Point

[oplli]

I wonder if i am the only one to find that desolation point is very small if we compare it to other maps. I think hinterland should rework it a bit. We can easily loot the church, lighthouse riken and hibernia processing in one day if we do it quickly and the road leads you to the tree of em easily it is very easy to travel in a blizzard in that map. It is no longer useful to take the trip there anymore beacause of the forges in FM and BR. 

Lets say that a medium forest was added near the broken bridge spot. it would be more interesting to go explore there but for now theres nothing. Maybe a small oasis of life with plenty of rabbits, wolves bears mooses and deers and maybe a fishing hut in the middle of a lake. All of that in the middle of the mountains that is only accessible via a cave system that starts at the waterfall or someting like that!

Feel free to comement !  

By the way here's the comaprison between DP and PV:

 

 

[UpUpAway95]

DP is about the same size as Broken Railroad, so it holds that both forges at the map edges are in small zones.  I don't know why you'd propose expanding one and not the other.  The DP situation can be easily resolved by combining it with Crumbling Highway... basically eliminating that so-called "transition zone" in the minds of the player and replacing your suggested "All of that in the middle of the mountains that is only accessible via a cave system that starts at the waterfall or something like that!" since the current connection between Crumbling Highway and Desolation Point is through a mine.  They could satisfy your description completing just by adding a waterfall inside that mine (which I hate, BTW... particularly the one in Ash Canyon).   For an alternate access, they could add a surface route along the coast between Crumbling Highway and Desolation Point.  I wouldn't mind seeing a fishing hut somewhere either in Desolation Point or Crumbling Highway.  I suggested one myself many moons ago... and IIRC, the community shot down the idea.

[oplli]

13 hours ago, UpUpAway95 said:

DP is about the same size as Broken Railroad,

Yes but Broken railroad have a bunch of wolves and a bears to prevent you from exploring hunters cabin too fast.

[UpUpAway95]

1 hour ago, oplli said:

Yes but Broken railroad have a bunch of wolves and a bears to prevent you from exploring hunters cabin too fast.

That doesn't change the size of the zone and the amount of locations in it worth exploring.  Sure there are not as many wolves, but I have been ganked in Desolation Point numerous times when coming out of the Processing Plant and over by Katie's Secluded Corner and the path to the lighthouse.  Getting around the bear patrolling around the Rykin and the Processing Plant can also get interesting if you don't have a weapon of any kind yet.  In addition, there is only one bear in Broken Railroad... same number as in DP.  You also have to consider the wolves in Crumbling Highway, which are every bit as tenacious as those in Broken Railroad.

I still think the solution is to combine it with Crumbling Highway and add another route that continues along the coast rather than having to go through the mine.

[oplli]

3 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I still think the solution is to combine it with Crumbling Highway and add another route that continues along the coast rather than having to go through the mine.

I am not shure it is the solution, Combining them would not do anything beacause they already exist but separately and not to mentions that the way to cross these two region are by the mines so combining them would literally make nothing beacause you would still have to go inside the mine.

[UpUpAway95]

24 minutes ago, oplli said:

I am not shure it is the solution, Combining them would not do anything beacause they already exist but separately and not to mentions that the way to cross these two region are by the mines so combining them would literally make nothing beacause you would still have to go inside the mine.

That's the point... they already exist.  Adding in facilities adds more loot, plants and animals into the game... which makes it easier on all levels.

[Dancewithknives]

I personally havent gotten to DP yet. But I don’t really think that the size of the map is very important if there’s nothing really going on in it. I mean, Pleasant Valley is huge but theres nothing to do in much of it. Costal Highway is also large, but the ice shelf makes it quite unique. 
 

Like I said, I havent played in DP before, but if its like Broken Railroad, the. i agree that it may feel i complete and in need of another asset or another connecting region to it.  

[UpUpAway95]

11 hours ago, Dancewithknives said:

I personally havent gotten to DP yet. But I don’t really think that the size of the map is very important if there’s nothing really going on in it. I mean, Pleasant Valley is huge but theres nothing to do in much of it. Costal Highway is also large, but the ice shelf makes it quite unique. 
 

Like I said, I havent played in DP before, but if its like Broken Railroad, the. i agree that it may feel i complete and in need of another asset or another connecting region to it.  

A quick comparison would be to pull the updated Whiteberry maps for both zones and count the loot sites available in each.  There are sites in DP not shown on the OP's map... e.g. there is a mine that runs from just above the Processing plant back towards the ares of the Stone Church and there is a cave tucked in beside the waterfall near the broken bridge.  There are also small loot sites that can show up on the Little Island, which is also a source for birch and maple.  There are also trailers in the yard of the processing plant.  The lighthouse is also a working lighthouse during an aurora, which is really quite cool... great for photos.  In the Crumbling Highway, there is a burned out farmstead and a cave/loot site on another island, as well as the mine that serves as the connection to DP.  If the two were combined, the number of sites would rival PV.  BTW, the map the OP is showing of PV is an old one as it does not show Thomson's Crossing (showing the old Rural Crossroads instead), nor does it show the Plane Crash near Skeeter's Ridge or the new barn added near the PV Farmstead  (loot sites added when the addition of Episode 3 of Wintermute caused a revamp of the zone).

Coastal Highway and Mystery Lake are notably "beginner zones."  Notably tougher zones like HRV have far less "loot sites" than even DP or Broken Railroad.  The more loot sites added to the game overall have generally made the game easier on all difficulties, IMO.

Edited April 23, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[RegentRelic]

Hinterland is likely to make some changes to desolation point by episode five. Since we know Astrid ends up there after episode three.

[oplli]

1 hour ago, RegentRelic said:

Hinterland is likely to make some changes to desolation point by episode five. Since we know Astrid ends up there after episode three.

nice to hear

[UpUpAway95]

14 hours ago, RegentRelic said:

Hinterland is likely to make some changes to desolation point by episode five. Since we know Astrid ends up there after episode three.

Yes, this is what people are speculating.  There has also always been some speculation about something connecting into DP beyond the Broken Bridge even before Epidsode 3.  Having Crumbling Highway set out as a separate transition zone (instead of the long, narrow transition being part of the zone itself as it is in Broken Railroad) has also fueled speculation about some other sort of exit/entrance to DP, perhaps connecting it to Bleak Inlet or the creation of another entrance/exit through Crumbling Highway.

[Mig_zvm]

I always thought the cave in DP could be expanded so it goes off into an even more remote recess in the mountains.  Kind of strange that that cave doesn't lead anywhere.

[Syraith]

They are nice, organized zones for sure. Straight path mostly and serve their use. I would never complain about expanding any area though. Continue across the bridge in BR or in DP. Maybe have more like a town in DP to the bottom left. Seems like there would be a closer living area to something like the processing plant. The logging business has its area in CH, why not them?

Broken railroad always seemed weird to me as well. Why is there a hunting cabin on a ledge looking over a maintenance shed? Seems like they could have had a large wooded area and the cabin on the edge or middle. A working shed seems like it would have been too noisy for anything to stick around to hunt. Unless it was a spite maintenance shed because of some long time rivalry on the island. Seems like the camp office in ML is better located with the wilderness around.

[Stinky socks]

Well, maybe they hunted maintenance workers? That's why there's no one left at the maintenance shed.

[stratvox]

I think that part of what you're seeing with Crumbling Highway and DP is that they're old and were built with a much older version of the both game engine and the internal tools Hinterland developed for making regions than they're using for later regions like HRV and AC. I remember a few years back they spent some time talking about putting together a new pipeline for creating regions, citing the bad complexity involved in creating large regions (regions doubles in size, complexity goes up four times, that kind of bad).

They're small because they wanted them out the door and by being small they could get them that way.

[Stinky socks]

Well I don't mind regions being small I guess. They're all next door to each other. I can always plop my way to the next one through a loading screen. I mean it's not that big of a deal given you get the loading screen any time you enter a house already.

[Pyroxene]

If they decide to change/expand Desolation Point, caves or houses probably need to be added for the sake of gameplay.

Question is: how hard should it be to survive while crossing the coastal highway/Desolation Point areas to reach Perseverance Mills? So far, the difficulty of reaching your destination has increased while you progress through story mode:

Milton - basic survival. Forlorn Muskeg, Broken Railroad, Mystery Lake - harder, more exposed to the wind and less shelter. Pleasant Valley - very exposed to wind.

[Stinky socks]

Hehehe, this is why I started wintermute on pilgrim😊