Revamping the terrain of older regions

[Vaino420]

When you look at the terrain of old regions like Mystery Lake or Coastal Highway and compare it to the new regions like Bleak Inlet and Ash Canyon you notice one thing. The old regions have very little variation in their terrain and few interesting geographical features, while the new regions are full of cool and unique places and have way more variation in their tree and grass types. They also have more interesting terrain features and just generally look a lot cooler.

That's why I'm proposing the idea of revamping the old regions by making some slight adjustments to their terrain and replacing their assets with newer ones. Now, what regions would need revamping? Well, in my opinion Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway and Timberwolf Mountain need revamping the most, but I wouldn't mind if Desolation Point got some minor adjustments as well.

Now, what exactly would these revamps include? Well, in my opinion this is what should be done:

1. Geographical features. Coastal Highway, Mystery Lake and Timberwolf Mountain have some very large forests, but I see one problem with them, especially with the forests in ML and CH. There are very few interesting geographical features in them. They are mostly flat with a bit of hills. I think these large forests should have a couple of small ponds, rivers, marshes or even waterfalls added to them. The steep hills could be rocky instead of being just covered with trees. And maybe a couple of large boulders could be added there as well.

2. Trees. Some of the old regions have very little variation in their tree models. I think the forest in these regions could be spiced up by adding in some of the newer tree models in them. Also, the turqoise trees that you can find in Pleasant Valley and Ash Canyon (I think it's cedar) are really cool as well, and I would like to see them in more regions. Also, there are barely any tree trunks in them, so some of those should be added in as well. Maybe there should even be a place where a small fire has happened, with some burned-down trees.

3. Shrubs and bushes. Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway, Timberwolf Mountain and Desolation point all use the same grass assets, while the newer regions have a lot of variation in them. They have the shrubs that look like wheat, the shrubs with some red in them, the burned shrubs and maybe even more that I can't just remember. They also have scrub bushes which could be added to the old regions as well.

4. World borders. I think this is a problem with Timberwolf Mountain and especially Mystery Lake. The world borders in other regions look nice and natural but the world borders in these regions are just giant rock walls. Instead of giant rock walls, these could be replaced with higher and more natural-looking mountains with some trees and waterfalls on them.

Conclusion: The mapmaking team has been doing such a great work with the new maps that the old maps are starting to fall behind and feel outdated. This could be fixed relatively easily and would make exploring these maps more interesting.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Vaino420
Typo

[Syraith]

I think this would be more suited for the mod community over the devs. I’d rather they spend time creating new regions to advance the story mode than go back to beautify/update older ones.

[Leeanda]

Correct me if I'm wrong but most players fave places are mystery and coastal and now ash canyon since it was added! There are enough hazards in each place already! Mystery might seem tame but there are various places where you can get in trouble!!I do see your point though!

[Vaino420]

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

Correct me if I'm wrong but most players fave places are mystery and coastal and now ash canyon since it was added! There are enough hazards in each place already! Mystery might seem tame but there are various places where you can get in trouble!!I do see your point though!

Did you read my post? It wasn't about adding more dangers or changing the gameplay, it was about making the maps look nicer and up to date. 

[Leeanda]

Sorry yes I did but if you update it then the landscape would surely change!and lose some of its personality!I do admit that the mystery train tunnel seems a bit out of sorts  but it does connect with the logging concept.

[UpUpAway95]

I think it's fine the way it is.  Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway are noted as being beginner regions and follow the philosophy of there being less restrictive terrain with more open visibility to see wildlife from a greater distance and having simpler options to just skirt around and avoid them.  Changing the terrain in the ways you suggest would change the level of difficulty of the area.  In addition, Mystery Lake has a set story purpose, so redoing it would effect things in Wintermute and require changes to it as well.  It would also require Hinterland being committed to "redoing" things instead of progressing things... by adding more news areas that fit into the new episodes of the evolving story.  I would rather they spend their time finishing Wintermute and adding whatever they envision fits that story.

Edited June 1, 2021 by UpUpAway95

[Vaino420]

32 minutes ago, UpUpAway95 said:

I think it's fine the way it is.  Mystery Lake and Coastal Highway are noted as being beginner regions and follow the philosophy of there being less restrictive terrain with more open visibility to see wildlife from a greater distance and having simpler options to just skirt around and avoid them.  Changing the terrain in the ways you suggest would change the level of difficulty of the area.  In addition, Mystery Lake has a set story purpose, so redoing it would effect things in Wintermute and require changes to it as well.  It would also require Hinterland being committed to "redoing" things instead of progressing things... by adding more news areas that fit into the new episodes of the evolving story.  I would rather they spend their time finishing Wintermute and adding whatever they envision fits that story.

While I do understand your arguments, I don't see how adding a little stream flowing through the forest, having more variation in tree and grass types or making the world edges look a bit better would "Restrict the terrain", "Effect it's difficulty" or "Require changes to wintermute".

One thing you are right about is that obviously it would take some time and resources to do this, but the amount of work required to create an entire new region is a lot more than the amount of work required to make minor adjustments to the old ones so it wouldn't take that much time away from working with wintermute or new regions.

And besides, they already did this exact thing with Pleasant Valley when Ep 3 came out. More grass and tree types, more terrain variation etc. Coastal Highway is probably going to be in Ep 4 or 5 so redoing that region would make sense as well. Mystery Lake is in Ep 2 so improving the terrain there would make Ep 2 nicer to play. All this would also make for a nice update to survival mode, and they have done some terrain improvement updates in the past as well.