New region inbetween Mountain town and Blackrock - A Mystery Lake 2 of sorts.

[Skelegutplays]

As much as I adore the region design of TLD, there are two somewhat unfortunate trends that I have observed, which have slowly become more and more noticeable as new maps have been added. In hindsight, both of these trends began as early as 2015 with the addition of Desolation Point, but have gotten more and more noticeable in the newer regions such as Ash Canyon and Blackrock.*

*Not sure about how these two trends apply to the Far Territories regions as I'm yet to go to the Far Territory.

 

Trend one: The newer regions are less open. Travelling from A to B feels more like following a path, such as a river, canyon or winding path, instead of navigating through the terrain and relying on landmarks in order to not lose your bearings. Broken Railroad is by far the worst case of this. To move around in BR you are basically forced through a select few choke points, which results in the region not staying interesting for long. The same issue also plagues most other post DP regions to some degree, with some regions being worse off than others.

Trend two: This is in my opinion by far the more problematic trend. Most of the newer regions seem to be designed, not with long-term survival in mind, but instead around being regions that have one key location with unique loot/mechanics (TWM Summit, BI Cannery, BR Prison, HRV Signal Fire, AC Gold Mine), while having very few locations that make good long term bases. This results in there being several regions that players spend relatively little time in, which they only visit to loot so they can take the everything useful to their main base (most likely located in ML/CH/PV/MT), which is a huge shame given how unique and well designed each region is.

 

 

Thus, I propose the addition of a new region, that adheres closer to the design philosophy of the original three maps, Mystery Lake, Coastal Highway and Pleasant valley. A Mystery Lake 2 of sorts, where it is both feasible and enjoyable to spend a long time surviving the Quiet Apocalypse.

 

This is where the region would be located. Not only would it be fairly central, it would also fill in a rather large gap in the current map of Great Bear Island.

Credit to Kaiusername for the map. I am looking forward with excitement to the Long Development project being complete.

The new region would connect to three Regions, Mountain Town, Blackrock, and Hushed River Valley.

The connection to Mountain Town would be the simplest. The blocked off road near Spruce Falls Bridge would be opened up, leading to the new region.

The connection to Hushed River Valley would be a one way cave, which allows the player to travel from the new region to HRV, but to leave HRV the player must use the old MT-HRV cave. The HRV side entrance to the cave would be near the Landslide.

The connection to Blackrock would look like this:

Fairly Simple, the entrance would fork off of the existing road in Blackrock, while the log floating flume splits off for lore reasons, as a log floating flume would be a major aspect of the new region.

The log floating flume in the region could look something like this:

 

I made a crude sketch of the region's layout in MS Paint which can be found below. One of the main locations in the region would be an old abandoned sawmill. Several Breyerhouse logging trucks (not the pick-up trucks we already have, large trucks that move logs around) could be found spread across the region. There would also be a medium sized lake, several deforested areas where the trees have been cut down, a truck stop/depot, and several cabins, With a lone cabin in the north, similar to Trappers Homestead, and with a set of 2 luxury rental cabins by the lake. There would also be a few logging camps, trailer homes, hunting stands and cabins scattered around. The map I made is very basic and doesn't feature every single detail. If you have any ideas for additions feel free to comment them.

[purplebluegreen]

I really want new regions to fill the gaps on the map. Currently in order to get from the left side of the map to the right side and vice versa, you have to travel through ML, there is no variety). I wish for more simple open maps for long term surviving too. I would like to have maps between BI and BRR, BRR and HRV,  DP and AC. More maps with several transition zones - less repetitiveness, more ways to travel from one region to another.

[The Feng Hunter]

While I agree 100% that a new map would naturally fill the indicated gap and flow specifically from Spruce Falls Bridge as indicated, I do think your characterization of the recent maps as not being “main base friendly” and a one-off loot drop is unfair.

Blackrock and Ash Canyon both have long term Survival potential — Ash Canyon more so than Blackrock, as now with free form ice fishing, you can set up camp at Angler’s Den and literally ice fish right outside your workbench’s door. There is a large stand of Birch trees a quarter day’s walk away. Frequent Blizzards will strip down new Birch Bark for you, ensuring a steady supply of Scurvy-resisting tea raw materials. I’m not sure how much more you would want from a base, tbh, especially with safe house customization allowing you to construct items.

To say nothing of Far Territory locations!

Spoiler

Both Cabins in Forsaken Airfield, Idle Camp in Zone of Contamination, the entire Langston Mine complex, all of Transfer Pass, and Last Lonely House & the Cabin in Sundered Pass all meet the criteria of being decent bases, with Idle Camp having a six burner stove, and Last Lonely House having a two burner AND a fireplace AND a workbench. Diverse topography and wildlife, too.

I guess I get the nostalgia for Mystery Lake? It’s my second least favourite zone, topped only by Coastal Highway. They’re fine, you know? I don’t dislike them, but — to me — they don’t highlight what the team is most capable of: truly engaging and challenging content.

So while I agree in theory and in implementation, I have to disagree in practice; besides, we know the road that would cut through it would actually have to lead somewhere: 

Spoiler

Port Mary

That doesn’t mean that spot would have to be included on that map — indeed, I would hope it is not! — but it is to say that there still needs to be some kind of flow to it. I’m all about a deep wilderness map, to be sure, and Hinterland has delivered *so* well on this open-ended concept — especially with both Sundered Pass and Hushed River Valley (the latter of which you ballyhooed as a one-and-done loot map).

But do we really want another extremely easy region with plenty of manmade structures, just ripe for settlement? I’m not sold on that idea. 

Edit: from a lore perspective, your concept doesn’t work, because then the Blackrock prison bus would have been driving from Blackrock … to Blackrock. The lower road where the bus crash is ultimate links up to Keepers Pass; the upper road at Spruce Falls would be, therefore, linked to another region — a region that would ultimately take one to the space mentioned in the spoiler above. 

Edited November 19 by The Feng Hunter
Lore clarification.

[Pyroxene]

How about a rural library?

[WanderingVoyager]

23 hours ago, Pyroxene said:

How about a rural library?

A rural library would be cool. I just think we should get one if we are already getting a new region, not adding a new region for a library. another thing is to make sure you can't just go there and get all the survival handbooks because that would be too op

[Just some guy being a dude]

I do think about all the towns and areas we can't get to cause of the blocked off roads. Maybe everywhere else on great bear is fine aside where we can get to 🤣