A Thought On Different Environments

[ElusiveShadow]

We have all stated our desire to have new environemnts, with snow, desert, Elephant, Wolf, Scottish, Scandanavian, Namibian etc

However, as ESSENTIAL as these additions are, do you know what I would like to see the developers do?

Make a couple extra 'big islands'. Really. Leave the current one alone and dedicate it to North American stuff. Perhaps some Scandanavian too.

Then just make a totally new big island, with different features and landscapes and give it an African theme. I really do not want to be hunting Elephant on the other side of the same Island in which im hunting black bear through forests.

I'd love to see the developers bounce between [in my mind] about 3 big islands, introducing new hunting areas [animals & equipment] that suit their different themes. I really would not give a damn that one island 'isnt finished' and that another was recieving a new area. I think it would vastly open the possibilities to us, the players, without the one big Island becoming a silly, convoluted mess.

Also, if the time limit is removed and we were able to walk [drive, fly, sail] between areas it would keep a sense of continuity within the island.

I'd honestly be delighted if in the next update [just for talking sake] the developers introudced 2 big islands and said 'sometime we will get round to filling them up too'.

What do you all think?

[Ripper]

Namibie and Botswanna
Alllllll the wayyyyyyyyyyyyy

[minamo9]

Im up for some snowmap, thats for sure.

[Sloffie]

I like the OP. It is very true. Would really just be weird if you would have a part of Africa "glued" onto north America with a piece of scottland to the right.

[ElusiveShadow]

Im glad you all like the idea. I hope the developers follow this course of action.

[clownfish369]

africa all the way lol

[Peter Johansson]

We have had alot of discussions about how to approach the future development of environments here at the office and i´d like to explain how we look at this topic.

Nothing is decided yet but we´re leaning toward breaking the world up in smaller pieces rather than sticking them together in bigger ones. Of course each environment should still appear to be a part of a larger context and relate to real life regions in the way it´s always been. The problem with the big island we have today is just that we will most probably never actually fill it up with huntable areas as there is a limit where environments exeed being of a reasonably size, and the big island is VERY BIG! We think that we are close to that reasonable limit today with Redfeather Falls. The whole concept around one continent where everything is connected and where you could potentially walk across the whole thing is very nice, in theory. But in the light of what theHunter is really about, our available resources and the time it takes to produce certain things the big island concept is perhaps not the best or the most realistic one.

Another thing which I´m personally very concerned about is related to overall product "packaging and presentation". Introducing more of these really big islands may create unrealistic expectations not only among players but also among ourselves. We also run the risk of ending up with alot of big areas being undeveloped thus contributing to an overall impression of this product being incomplete. This does not mean that theHunter is currently anywhere near a state of completion, which it´s not. A third problem occurs when we have a new area and want to add an interesting backdrop to it. One example is that as we now have the mountains around Redfeather Falls looking the way we want we might be forced to change that as we add another environment on the other side of that mountain. One solution is of course to not always put the environments side by side the way Loggers point and Settler Creeks is. But if we don´t intend to go that way there´s really no reason why we couldn´t break the envronments up like suggested above as there will pretty much always be a peice of "no mans land" in between anyway.

Another thing i´ve been thinking about is how to approach certain environments where you may only hunt a very limited set of animals (the arctics. What do i know). In a situation where we don´t have a world like we do today to always consider it will feel much more natural to have only one level featuring a certain part of the real world. And you as a player should never have to bother with thinking about where this environment should fit into the puzzle, it´s just there among all the other ones. And if we in the end have 5 environments featuring North American settings, 3 African environments, 1 European etc it wouldn´t be a problem at all.

This whole approach would have two major advantages for everyone I think. The first one is that we as developers can more easily approach new environments that does not have to be connected to our current ones the same way they have to be today. I also think that the size of each area could vary alot more if the environments are to a larger extent treated as separate entities. You rightfully point out above that adding elephants to the opposite side of the island where you hunt Caribou (one day, perhaps ) wouldn´t work, and this illustrates a problem we often run into. That is what and how to integrate whatever we do to what we already have (mostly in terms of the flora and climate). In the end this problem tend to force us to do things that´s not as different as they could be. The second advantage is that theHunter as a whole will look more like a complete game every time you look at it. And in whatever direction we choose to go the stuff we already have never have to look like it´s a work in progress. No one knows where we will end up one day and as I see it it´s very very important to maintain a high degree of flexibility.

This is as i´ve mentioned what we internally think might be the best approach for the future, and we haven´t really decided on anything yet. I hope I make some sense with all this

[Willehard]

Thanks Peter! You made it very clear for us.

[Pratze]

makes sence to me as in not having the big island all huntable area.
Just the braking up in seperate parts ... do you mean like seperate smaller islands on the same map or completely different maps?
also when you talk about seperate small islands...it´s cool with me but aren´t we then limmited to environments that do need a coast area?
What about inland-maps? We may not allways want to be surrounded by water?
But other than that I very much agree with what you wrote.

[ElusiveShadow]

Great, detailed post!

Though I too am a bit confused, do you mean you guys are considering doing away with the whole 'island in the sea' system and just creating loads of individual areas that are not in anyway connected? Or do you mean dozens of individual islands that are built however you guys wish?