Development Diaries/Map Dev Diary
The Map Dev Diary is a variant of the Development Diaries posted by Old World Blues mod developers.
Background
Beginning in August 2021, the Map Dev Diary was created in order to document Old World Blues' map reworks and the development thereof.
Map Development Diary #1 (4.0 Dev Diary #1 - Old World Blues (wait... again?))
Posted by HappyNTH on July 9, 2021.
Hello, Wastelanders!
It's been a little while since the last time I sat down to write a Dev Diary, but much has been happening behind the scenes in the weeks since we've last spoken. Most notable from my end is my decision to focus the majority of my creative energy on reworking, rejuvenating, and expanding the map. While I used to be a bit of a jack-of-all-trades on the team, since I began digging into 4.0 & 5.0 I discovered my love for the painful art of the map. Today, therefore, I'm presenting the first of three (four, maybe) developer diaries in which I embark on a deep-dive of the map work you'll see from me in 4.0. I'll do my best to focus on my thought processes, references & the like: map-modding is certainly one of the more arcane aspects of HOI4 modding, so I hope the insight will help cast more light on the area.
If you haven't gathered from my previous Reddit posts or my Discord presence, I'm a little something of a perfectionist. You may remember I recently embarked on a reasonably significant rework of the Mojave Desert with our 3.0 update. I changed some locations to reflect Fallout: New Vegas better and enable the creation of the Mojave Territories to represent the NCR's presence in the area. However, with my 4.0 map rework of California in full swing, I decided to return to Mojave once more. My reasoning for this was twofold. Firstly, I had learned a lot about making more sweeping changes due to my work in California (that I'll show in a future diary!). Secondly, I really, really wanted to ensure the in-game map was accurate against irl topographical, river & location maps.
To fulfill my aims, I set about creating a master map file. What started as just a 37MB province map has now ballooned into a 1GB GIMP file, with many and various reference maps overlayed on my quest for geographical perfection. I originally had just intended to touch up some province locations. Still, it quickly became obvious the Colorado River itself had been skewed significantly further west than its actual location on an early draft of the map. In turn, the Mojave was really squashed, severely restricting the amount of space I had to work with during my 3.0 rework of the area (which I did largely by eye).
https://preview.redd.it/12pc785ye7a71.png?width=605&format=png&auto=webp&s=def073e8f3d476398f2a8b5cd99e370d122047fe A reminder of the Mojave's 3.0 map, as I revealed back in Dev Diary #13
Of course, my brain could not let this stand. As a result, my planned province tweaks became a promise of map accuracy. Shifting the Colorado east to its true location created a Mojave with significantly more breathing room and several Legion provinces that could be painlessly mixed into the Mojave for greater tactical depth. I'll spare you the minute-by-minute rundown of my map work and instead jump on to the final outcome before running point by point through significant features:
https://preview.redd.it/f6m8lu5ne7a71.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=063e34a4680a1f0bb20ba7ca1b4a94e35a3cdd72 The post-4.0 rework map of the Mojave in all its glory
It looks pretty different, right? So let's drill into some of the biggest changes. Most strikingly is the widening of the Mojave proper as the Colorado River has been pushed eastwards to follow its true course. I've dedicated most of that additional space to widening the Mojave Brotherhood's provinces. The additional granularity allowed me to both open up a second entrance to Hidden Valley and better represent the narrow road from Goodsprings to Sloan on the western flank. In what may be contentious to some more frequent Mojave Territories players, I have decided to still keep most of the protective impassible boundaries around the Brotherhood's land. In test games I've run without the boundary, the Brotherhood is remarkably easily ground down, even with high preparation.
Turning to New Vegas, the additional provinces moved from the Legion have allowed me to bulk up the city itself a reasonable bit. Camp McCarren, the NCR's major base in the region, is closer to its real-life location and close to the strip. In addition, the NCR now owns parts of land once beginning to the two Mojave minor nations: the Fiends and the Great Khans (though New Vegas has also absorbed some of this land to smooth out borders).
https://preview.redd.it/typucmdhe7a71.png?width=1500&format=png&auto=webp&s=8e444be178b94499d6c922dc1a45567a568ea887 The new 4.0 state map for the reworked Mojave region
While the decision to remove the Khans and Fiends from the region may disappoint some, ultimately, I believe it's the right call. There's plenty more space to explore the interactions between these prominent raider gangs and the NCR/Vegas forces in focus trees & events. In comparison, the map has relatively little space to explore these dynamics. As a result, the Fiends were entirely boxed in, while the Khans were a reasonably small raider gang in 2275 that posed more of a regional threat than a state-wide one. Never fear, however: we've already promised to reallocate Khan Warbands to 5.0's map areas.
The final point I'll touch on in this Dev Diary is the Mojave's external boundary 'walls'. Here I have to thread the fuzzy boundary between Fallout canon and real-life geography. My map philosophy in this regard has always been to fit Fallout canon onto accurate, real-life maps (Fallout 1 & 2's maps especially are prone to contradiction with each other & actual geography). With this in mind, I've done my best to fit Fallout: New Vegas' map-bordering mountains to real-life mountain ranges. Such an approach works fine enough for the western border, for which I can exaggerate the Clark Mountain range, but there's no reasonable range to extrapolate on New Vegas' southern map boundary. So instead, I've opted to include the eastern half of the (actual) Mojave National Preserve within the broad boundary. To close the area off, I've had to join together some semi-major mountainous areas into one continuous range. It's far from perfect (don't look at a map of the actual area), but I think this is the best way to draw together New Vegas' map with real geographical features.
States previously west/south of the boundary have been reallocated to tags in California proper, meaning the Mojave Territories now ends at the Long-15 (still a chokepoint, but far from as unreasonably long as prior). Of course, the Mojave Territories' tree will see some work in 4.0 to reflect changes both to the map and to the NCR, but you'll have to stay tuned for hints on those!
If you have any questions about the map side of things, feel free to drop a comment or a question over on Discord: I'm always happy to explain my thinking in more technical detail or reflect on suggestions/concerns. Otherwise, I do hope this diary serves to get you excited for 4.0's map changes, and my future map work map-wide!
Stay safe, and see y'all again soon,
- Happy
Map Development Diary #2 (Map Dev Diary #2 - Mom I Broke Northern California)
Posted by HappyNTH on August 13, 2021.
Hey Wastelanders! It's yours truly, back again for another map development diary. This time, I'm going to be guiding you through changes in and around Northern California & Southern Oregon. I'm afraid we're still not going to be having a look at California proper this week: I've got to leave the best to last!
Firstly, though, a small note: I'm going to be changing this series of developer diaries from 4.0 Dev Diaries to Map Dev Diaries. The precise reasoning for this will become obvious soon enough, but I want a bit of freedom to dot around the map as I'm making changes. Well, fine, maybe we could have a tiny spoiler as to why:
https://preview.redd.it/48im3e4116h71.png?width=498&format=png&auto=webp&s=7c66551145fc2a570044daa937b5fa9c372ccf00 The first one to guess the region correctly gets... an upvote?
In the meantime, however, let's get back to Northern California. In the past, the region was left as more-or-less de facto NCR food. However, with our rework of the NCR, it became the perfect time to shake that up, so that's what we've done! Here's the New North in all of its glory:
https://preview.redd.it/f4j5tzk516h71.png?width=1063&format=png&auto=webp&s=f2965dd8d1766d8e0eb0ff1f5e9513633d2318ce Whoops, I dropped Northern California and it broke into little pieces.
Where to start?! Let's talk about rivers and lakes a bit. Ever since I took up the mantle of OWB's map modder, I've really wanted to introduce more water features to the mod. While the inland sea-style rivers are distinctive, I don't think they're all that consistent, especially for representing non-navigable waterways that would still register on our map scale. As a result, I decided to begin introducing vanilla-style rivers to the map, and Northern California was the very first testing ground.
Over time, I have developed two rules for the use of vanilla rivers:
1. The river should be a useful divider rather than arbitrarily introduced. In general, this means rivers mark state or country borders. It should never break up a state for no reason.
2. Rivers are only represented if they flow from a good source, such as a mountain or sea-style river. Having rivers start in the middle of nowhere is a little odd on-map.
These rules are, of course, somewhat malleable. Since Northern California/Southern Oregon was my testing ground, the rules aren't applied rigidly here as I've learnt to do later. Still, you can see most rivers originate from lakes and form state/country borders. Here's a little better of a view, from the state mapmode:
https://preview.redd.it/04svy2s716h71.png?width=1465&format=png&auto=webp&s=26bcab3d8d4eb53d1bafc04a5a65e53220b9a5b9 I promise I haven't added an advertisement for my summer camp scheme.
You may notice the lakes look a little odd, especially when slightly further zoomed in than this screenshot. That's because, to make them appear like water and not dried land, I have to drop their height level to the sea. As a result, we get a lot of sheer cliffs around inland rivers and lakes (as you've probably noticed from playing the mod). We're working on a solution to this, where we use ambient objects (like the Hoover Dam) to appear as water at a higher level, but it's fiddly to implement and as such I'm limiting the number of lakes we scatter willy-nilly!
The abundance of new tags gives rise to a new power in Northern California: Arroyo! I'm not going to go into much detail on each nation and their vibe - we'll save that for a later content diary of the region - but just know that Arroyo and its surroundings will be getting lots of juiciness in 4.0. Stay tuned for more on that front, since Arroyo's content will accompany a pretty significant fleshing out of the tags in the regions (hence I'm not delving into things now).
I'll see you soon to look at California Proper, so keep your eyes out for a future diary looking at the varied geography & map iterations of the NCR. I promise it's a pretty significant, but well through-through, set of changes. I'll also talk a bit in that diary about the NCR's various rework iterations, as well as touch on the Brotherhood & Shi to set the stage for future diaries.
All the best,
- Happy
Map Development Diary #3 (4.0 Dev Diary #3 - From the Sea)
Posted by kdports on October 8, 2021.
In October 2077 Eureka was a small and decaying fishing town on the California coast. Secluded and uninvolved, most Eurekans made their living fishing off the town’s profitable coastline. So while no Chinese warheads were ever targeted at the city itself, an off-course nuke happened to land miles from Eureka’s downtown coast, poisoning the townspeople’s primary means of survival.
The effects were immediate. It was nearly impossible to even set sail to fish, both due to the massive amounts of radiation and depleted fishing stock. Panic set in at first, but the town was slowly able to regain a sense of stability. The fish that had survived had grown large, large enough for a single catch to last a day. And, with all communication to the outside world cut off, few believed that leaving the town would be a viable option.
That sense of normalcy was again shattered when large, shelled, monsters emerged from the sea. There were only a few at first, but soon more began to emerge near the docks and beaches. The arrival of the queen signaled the end of Eureka. The monsters, which would later be called mirelurks, launched a furious assault on the town, intent on making it their queen’s new lair. The under defended and unprepared villagers could do nothing but flee for their lives. Those that survived regrouped in Arcata, to the north. They began to organize themselves, intent on retaking their home. The military-minded among them began to make small raids on the mirelurk nest. Soon, they told themselves. Soon.
But as the years dragged on, that time never came. Arcata was close to the sea as well, and the villagers were careful to prevent a repeat of Eureka. They began to trade for weapons and ammo, selling their excess catch for growing hope. But each raid on Eureka was the same - the attackers, now known as the Portmasters, would skirmish with mirelurks on the outer edge of the city’s downtown, but be unable to seriously advance without taking unsustainable losses. As the first generation grew too old to fight their children took up arms as well. With each successive year the dream of retaking Eureka became a cultish, driving, necessity. Arcata’s growing population meant that more coastal land was needed, and the Portmasters quickly grew from a few men to a well-trained army. But no matter the Portmasters’ size or strength, the mirelurk nest remained an impenetrable fortress. Once a generation, a large group of Portmasters would set out, confident that this time Eureka would be reclaimed. Once a generation, they would fail.
In 2239, it came time for the newly appointed Portmaster Smith to lead his men into Eureka. As the attack progressed, and his commanding officers met their fates, Smith acted quickly, devising an ingenious strategy to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. While the details of that strategy will be determined by the player in the opening focuses, the day ended with what many thought impossible—the queen had been slain.
Clearing out the remaining mirelurks and resettling in Eureka took time. When all was said and done, Portmaster Smith was left with a reclaimed home, loyal followers, and an elite army that lacked purpose.
https://preview.redd.it/e4wzd5ged8s71.png?width=399&format=png&auto=webp&s=3e306e03567a2a996af578073685ab55a95909e9 Hey, I'd hire them.
Eureka’s peaceful bliss contrasted that of the wasteland around it. Every trader that passed through the town spoke of wars in California, barbarians to the north and religious fanatics to the east. Each had conflicts that needed to be fought, and each could certainly use an elite mercenary army.
Caps and army experience are Eureka’s primary modes of military upkeep and expansion. At the start of the game, Eureka only has access to five uneditable division templates and a single military factory.
Growing your mercenary army’s presence across the west coast will be imperative to maintaining Eureka’s independence from the NCR and Arroyo. While the NCR is occupied elsewhere, it’s never comfortable to neighbor a state ten times your size. And from Arroyo, well, the threat is very real…
https://preview.redd.it/jb9meoxyd8s71.png?width=512&format=png&auto=webp&s=aedecb108c4ac1f1c05b462d8214f8e41dd48993 Wait, what? The Chosen One would never do that...
In order to maximize incoming caps and experience, Eureka will need to expand its reach beyond the west coast alone. However, each of these expansions cost a varying amount of caps, competing with Eureka’s need to scavenge more equipment.
https://preview.redd.it/rso1b4wre8s71.png?width=498&format=png&auto=webp&s=67234a2466f77668a18b1b6f77f04bbdcff0e93b It's really more a question of where they can't go
Beyond simple expansion, Eureka’s tree will see them learn from the practices of the nations they assist, sell their ships for an additional caps income, deploy air volunteers alongside their military forces, and refine their scavenging practices for either quicker rewards or bigger payoffs. But no matter what, Eureka must be protected at all costs.
Oh, and there’s something else too! I didn’t originally intend to show this off, but MrBlazzar’s recent dev teaser meant that I can give a sneak peak of how ICodeMaster’s Custom Mapmodes will work with Eureka.
https://preview.redd.it/fqffo0ugf8s71.png?width=275&format=png&auto=webp&s=b4f062888910768a710c18d006d311276b198d4c You might notice that this screenshot is pretty squished. Yeah.
You’ll be able to access this mapmode (as well as the rest of our custom maps) from the drop down tab in the top bar (see Blazz’s teaser for more details). While the tab works as normal for every other nation, it’s specifically set up to conform to Eureka’s custom volunteer targeting rules. At start, you’ll only be able to send volunteers to mid-West Coast regions. As focuses expand your capabilities the map will reflect that, giving you a clear picture of conflicts you can intervene in.
This was my first solo dev diary for my first solo nation. I haven't shown off everything Eureka can do, so I really hope you'll explore it for yourself when 4.0 releases.
Map Development Diary #4 (The Reservation Dev Diary)
Posted by CGS-space on December 31, 2021.
Greetings, Wastelanders! This is CGS coming to you with a surprise update and Developer Diary to celebrate the New Year. Doctor Wiliam Clark of the Reservation finally decided to unveil his master plan as part of an unannounced update. Some people might already be familiar with the Reservations story as it plays an important part in the cancelled Fallout Game Van Buren and which found its way into OWB with the 3.0 update along with several other planned factions from Van Buren, mainly located in the Colorado area.
For those unfamiliar a quick rundown. The Reservation was formed by the survivors of an underground pre-war nuclear research facility. Shielded from the initial blast many of the inhabitants none the less didn’t make it, with many succumbing to the slow killing effects of radiation, however those that did survive, chief among them the brilliant head of nuclear research Dr. William Clark found themselves turned into ghouls and subsequently founded a safe haven for themselves and their new kin. Now 200 years after the great war the Reservations numbers have grown considerably, with many of the ghouls attracted to the promised future offered by Dr Clark and his research team, as they are closer than ever towards unlocking the key towards ghoul creation. Famed as the best gunsmiths of the region, they maintain lucrative trade relations with the Legion as well as its northern neighbour the Navajo, with their territory growing to encompass the formerly human town of Gallup. spanning onto surface, which led to creating of Reservation Town. Lodged in between the still highly radioactive wasteland to the north and the protective Rio Grande river to the east the ghouls of the Reservation enjoy an ideal perfect position, although their limited number and the overwhelming strength of the Legion has so far hindered any thoughts of expansion and its leadership has instead opted to try and maintain the status quo.
https://preview.redd.it/j6wcbal0gw881.png?width=939&format=png&auto=webp&s=d1703a048049523a47a5ed950783b2d5dc7b1962 Slightly modified map of Reservation, to account for several pieces of Van Buren lore.
But things aren’t as peaceful as they might appear, underneath the visible surface the Reservation harbors a terrible truth, that if ever found out would threaten its very existence. For the leader of Reservation, Willem Clark has not been sitting idly for the past near 200 years, harboring dreams of a better tomorrow and a world inherited by ghoul kind he and his team have been working tirelessly towards the ultimate ghoul of fulfilling his grand ambitions. Deep inside the old military complex hundreds of human slaves toil away in inhuman conditions under the watchful oversight of their ghoul guards, who tend to treat them with the same cruelty they still remember from their time in human settlements. The hellish machinery that forms the beating heart of the Reservation is known to few and even fewer dare to contemplate what purpose it might ultimately serve should its master will it.
https://preview.redd.it/8n9ww1m1iw881.png?width=515&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c737cb56ff7a92d0a0a1d07248fc9657d96eff8 In those grim polluted corridors the slaves Reservation acquires from its allies produce all sorts of tools and weapons
Perhaps Clark’s greatest achievement are the new born ghouls, the product of horrifying experiments they are both feared and venerated amongst the people of the Reservation, with some even going as far as viewing them as living gods, apostles of their Ghoul Messiah. Naturally as the player you will be able to assign them freely to whatever field you may deem most important.
https://preview.redd.it/r1uird1ogw881.png?width=1316&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d572baeafcd5c9ca6ea2545cdb9eac786e3b964 Each Newborn can be sent to one of three occupations
In order to better reflect the Reservations newfound importance, the potential Legion successor candidate Caius Drusus will now be able to merge his nation with the Reservation proper in case of the civil war breaking out.
As some of the more observant players might have already been aware, there are currently no actual radiation tiles on the map that make use of the general specific terrain trait. I am happy to say that this update will at last remedy the situation, by changing a variety of tiles across the map in order to better reflect the variety of terrain one might encounter on the wasteland battlefield.
Lastly I have taken the opportunity of adding two Reservation specific achievements for those wishing to test themselves as the wastelands most sadistic scientist or those seeking to put an end to his mad reign.
https://preview.redd.it/e9c4s50ahw881.png?width=865&format=png&auto=webp&s=4e568bca19bed339fac29b711cc4883ada01d730 These will be quite hard! One will require world conquest, while another will be given to those, who will be able to uncover the secret "ending".
See You again on the release of Reservation! And for now, I, Old World Blues developer team, public team and Willem wish You happy New Year!
https://preview.redd.it/xyhzacfkhw881.png?width=1560&format=png&auto=webp&s=bf7ea64eeced732655efaca5b2a87a863d6fe589 Happy New Year from The Reservation!
Map Development Diary #5 (Map Dev Diary #3 - The New West Coast)
Posted by HappyNTH on February 14, 2022.
Hello Wastelanders. It's been a few months, hasn't it? It feels a bit odd writing another Dev Diary for y'all since I've been taking a touch of time off following our 3.2 release and my exam season, but we're back again! Today I'm going to be kicking off our 4.0 Dev Diaries as we work on the later update stages. We'll cover the overarching changes made in this major overhaul of the West Coast.
First off, I'm going to set your expectations from the get-go. Today's diary won't be delving into the details of individual nations, nor will I be revealing quite all of my map rework today: I'll be doing deeper dives into particular especially fleshed-out regions from a map perspective in later diaries (the Mojave & Nevada especially). Instead, I'll focus today's diary on my overarching map changes and clarify some design choices that will otherwise be much ablaze in the comments.
Where do we begin? Well, I guess we should start where you're all so familiar: the current map
https://preview.redd.it/htm511yqwth81.png?width=829&format=png&auto=webp&s=19d62c6d6a688c3706be471e92aa8b328777b4e0 I've been staring at the new map so long this looks really unrecognisable, yikes
And let's jump right into it! Here's the new map:
https://preview.redd.it/t1gjbmvbwth81.png?width=825&format=png&auto=webp&s=52bac227e6f3e9dac7f4fee68db101501d16a613 God, what a difference
Phew, there's a lot to unpack there. I think I should start off with the most exciting changes first, so the San Fransisco basin it is! As you can see, I've pretty heavily overhauled the various waterways and rivers within California, from the San Fransisco bay area inland. The former - still in Shi control at game-start - is now of even more strategic importance to Californian powers thanks to the introduction of two naval passage rules. If the Republic were to find itself at war with the Shi, it would find its inland and Pacific fleets cut off from one another unless they swiftly move to secure the straits.
The inland waterways of California have been changed significantly, with San Joaquin & Sacramento Rivers now becoming significant waterways in their own right. This originally came from a cosmetic decision (I'm not a fan of pencil rivers, but more on that later & with 5.0). Still, an OWB-canon explanation is the two rivers (and wider basin that sits under sea level) were heavily expanded by pre-War US Engineers to accommodate for inland shipping routes to Sacramento and inland California. In return for the expansion of these rivers, I've done away with the snakey southern California waterways that approximately represented a handful of aqueducts in the region.
To accompany the changes I've done to waterways in California, I've also made extensive use of vanilla HOI4's rivers. Before 4.0, these had yet to appear on the map, as we'd previously opted to represent most semi-major rivers as naval terrain. However, my design philosophy on this is different, and I'll use them going forward to add strategic depth to the map where it geographically makes sense. As a general rule of thumb, I only include rivers that lead to or from impassable locations (i.e. mountains, lakes, the sea). You'll see this more evidently in my 5.0 map in the future, and I intend to rework the map with this intention in mind as the team reworks certain areas. I can't do it all at once because map modding is a lot of work, and I only have so much time!
I'm very conscious of the tactical impact these map changes will have on an invasion of California. Previously, these rivers provided good chokepoints for the Republic to hold off a Legion hoard. However, this is being combated through the dramatic restructuring of impassable regions in central-eastern California. Most strikingly is, of course, the significant repositioning of the Sierra Madre & La Panza mountain ranges. Previously, these lay much further northeast than they should actually sit. Based on my extensive work with reference maps, I've placed them where they geographically should sit.
https://preview.redd.it/44benr5cxth81.png?width=1616&format=png&auto=webp&s=87063f1fc2d8d7360361b075db697c2849dbaf19 Some strategery awaits
This mountain range, and the smaller cluster that protect Shady Sands from the Nevada badlands, now serve as the Eastern border of the Republic's land. Nestled in the southern reach of the Sierra Madre mountains lies Junktown, a reflection of its canonical location, which serves as an interesting strategical dilemma for a Republic on the back foot. Do they attempt to protect it, risking exposing their flank, or do they abandon it? Meanwhile, the famous Yosemite Valley features as the only still-functional pass through the mountain range: should the Republic be forced back, it will become a vital supply line for reinforcing western California.
Shady Sands, meanwhile, has remained in place as California was remapped around it. For those interested, my interpretation of its exact location on the map is the Saline Valley Warm Springs, and hence the mountains around it. However, there is some room for debate since Fallout 1 & 2 have slightly contradictory maps of California (a fact that's caused me much pain this update, and when in doubt, I've opted to stick to IRL locations for reference). Regardless, Shady now sits at the heart of really defensible terrain (with a freshly-impassable Death Valley to the southwest, too). If the Legion wants to put the Republic out to pasture once and for all, they'll need to fight for it!
Turning to southern California now, you'll notice some slight tweaks in the positioning of the Rapids. They've become longer and thinner, reflecting their focus on the waves of the Colorado, and now hold some reasonably beefy states. The NCR will have their hands full if they want complete control of the Colorado's flanks, and that's even putting aside their internal political strife.
For a more detailed look at some of the changes I passed over in this Dev Diary, make sure to reference back to Map Dev Diary #1, on the new Mojave, Map Dev Diary #2, on Northern California, the "Big Circle" teaser, and Dev Diary #31 and #32.
That's all I have for you today, Wastelanders. I hope you're thoroughly hooked by these map/nation changes and are looking forwards to future diaries (I'm so excited to show off some fun new work). As ever, I'll do my best to respond to comments and questions, but be warned my answer may be 'wait and see', especially if you're asking about a specific nation.
Oh, but before I go! We'll be recruiting 4.0 testers soon, so keep an eye out for news on that front!
All the best,
- HappyNTH
Map Development Diary #6 (Map Dev Diary #4 - You Can't Stop The Map)
Posted by HappyNTH on April 4, 2022.
Hey Wastelanders! It's everybody's favourite map-modding maniac, finally allowed back on Reddit again for Map Dev Diary #4. Today, I've been tasked with making a rather momentous announcement: 4.0 is going to be much, much more massive than you thought possible.
Wait, what? Say what? Yep, you heard me right: alongside 4.0's enormous slate of reworks and expansions at a quality we've never before published, we're also bringing you the entire 5.0 map. All of it. Polished and ready to play, nations & all.
With that bombshell out of the way, it's time to show the 5.0 map expansion:
https://preview.redd.it/ilt9j203wkr81.png?width=3032&format=png&auto=webp&s=2caf16d542b093e6627d30d38898144c5aec10cc Oh, she's beautiful
She's stunning, isn't she? I originally began work on the region just after finishing the 4.0 map, around 6 months ago, as I attempted to push ahead of the development cycle and deliver a ready-made map to the team once they were finished with 4.0. I would hate to be holding up development! I also really loved obsessing over replicating the Rocky Mountain range accurately and sensibly, and a lot of my early hours were spent obsessing over the Western third of the map you now see before you.
After my Rocky Mountain obsession, I set about defining the scope of the update. The map, I concluded, would cut from Idaho, Montana and Wyoming across to the two Dakotas, marking its Eastern border at the Red River and Lake Winnipeg. On the Southern front, the colour theme is maintained with the White River marking the rough southern frontier, leaving Nebraska for another day. Mount Rushmore is included, sitting within the impassable bounds of the Marshall Republic. Winnipeg is similarly included, sitting as the capital of the Republic of the Three Rivers and easternmost major city of the expansion.
Over the course of the map work, I was joined by two incredibly talented and capable map developers: StealthArcher and Tar. Both deserve a colossal shout-out, as it was thanks to the ideas and hard work of the both we were able to map out the area at record speeds.
Why, then, is this content being delivered alongside 4.0? Well, that's because as 4.0 development stretched on we realised it would be the perfect design space for our developers to be able to play around with new, original ideas! Remaking the NCR or Brotherhood is great and all, but design space is constrained by the multitude of ideas and focus trees already existing in the region. In the Great Shield, things go much easier, allowing more fluidity and experimentation.
Now, what this diary is not promising is extensive content in the 5.0 map region alongside the 4.0 update: let's save that for 5.0! However, the region probably won't be entirely barren either, and depending on schedules and progress things might accompany 4.0... or follow not too far behind!
That's all for today, Watelanders! Now make sure you hop onto the Discord and discuss the news. We hope you're excited for 5.0's map content as I am to deliver it to you! God, am I glad to be able to tease it: I'm really proud of all the work!
Enjoy!- HappyNTH