Total Percentage Explored... Is it accurate? Is it bugged?

[ManicManiac]

Continuation of a metadata sidebar from the chronicle of my current run ...Memory Lane...
It was pointed out that the Total Explored Percentage doesn't really intuitively line up with what we might expect.

I guess the question here is how is this percentage determined?

My current run Loading Menu:

My current list of regions I've visited and explored:

Region	Discovery
Mystery Lake	22 Sep 2014
Coastal Highway	30 Oct 2014
Pleasant Valley	7 Feb 2015
Desolation Point	18 Sep 2015
Timberwolf Mountain	16 Dec 2015
Forlorn Muskeg	19 Dec 2016
Broken Railroad	1 Aug 2017
Mountain Town	1 Aug 2017
Hushed River Valley	14 June 2018
Bleak Inlet	10 Dec 2019
Ash Canyon	7 Dec 2020
Blackrock	6 Oct 2021

The question that was raised was, "How does do only four regions constitute 52% of Great Bear Island?"

Another odd percentage was referenced by @Leeanda

1 hour ago, Leeanda said:

Oddly I've just looked at mine and it says 62%. .while not searching half of them thoroughly I have been to every location except hrv.
I'm kind of confused by it.

We've discussed several possible ideas, but of course these are just ideas.  If anyone, including @Admin could shine a bit of light on the subject, it would be welcomed.

Other parts of the discussion:  

17 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

I can't say I know for sure how that metric is calculated/updated.  I guess I could venture a few guesses... but I can't claim to know for certain.  Could be a bug out calculation perhaps?  Maybe Pleasant Valley, Mystery Lake, and Coastal Highway have more square kilometers of explorable area then I've given it credit for?  🤭🤔

I'll check one snapshot I'd taken when I was still working on Pleasant Valley... (which was before the last update which included stats for the TFTFT regions)

17 hours ago, ManicManiac said:

...long story short 🤭...  I don't seem to have an older load menu shot from this run to compare that percentage.

Part of me thinks that perhaps it's bugged or maybe really does keep track of the amount of area rendered in visual range (which would include all caves and transition zones - which of course also increase the total traversable area).

17 hours ago, Leeanda said:

Well if it includes the transition zones that'd make more sense.. not sure it'd account for quite so much % wise  though but I suppose some are quite large areas.   

Maybe admin have an answer....

1 hour ago, ManicManiac said:

If actual land area is taken into account... then each region would have a different value rather than just a percentage evenly distributed based on the total number of regions.  Since Pleasant Valley is so much larger than any other region (though I can't account for The Far Territory, since I've not been there yet and honestly I'm not sure of the size of Blackrock), it's conceivable then that just exploring Pleasant Valley alone would be likely to dramatically increase the total percentage of the "world explored."

I guess all I'm saying here is that it's also possible that the metric is correct, and we just don't really know how it's being determined. 🤔

56 minutes ago, Leeanda said:

Well I doubt it's mapped as I've hardly done any...  What about looted?

47 minutes ago, ManicManiac said:

Possibly, I suppose.

I tend to suspect that i's more to do with what has been rendered.  In that way, it could account for each square kilometer as we go along... and the distances accounted for would essentially be everything that has swept across our visual/render distance.  (again I can't know for sure... just an idea)

[Leeanda]

Mine has since gone up one%.  . It was 62% at pensive pond and from there I went via picnic area,the cave east of there,and looted the houses at Thompson's crossing(none of which I'd done before) and when I checked again it had gone up 1%.  So whether it is to do with looting or the travelling of the actual areas itself I'm not sure. Or it might be highlighted places but each not reaching a full % by itself...

Edited March 26, 2023 by Leeanda

[Serenity]

I've gotten 100% without having been anywhere. It certainly doesn't track the actual surface area though. That would be way too complicated. I always thought it's visited locations, even if that doesn't add up either.