How the North has Changed

[Jex 1104]

So we decided to take a trip up into the far north, the north west to be precise. In the mod there were countless times we'd walk the west and north edge of the map looking for camps or vehicles every time we did, we'd find something.

 

So as you can imagine, we had a familiarity with this area and knew it pretty well. Podeba Dam was always a great spot - a huge lake in the valleys. The rest of the area was pine trees and hills, plateaus and valleys.

 

Oh boy has it changed. Where did all the pine trees go? Where are the hills and dales? It feels entirely alien to be up there and it was a little sad as well :( to see the landscape so different and even finding that the NW corner of the map is, once again, going to be infected with yet another town.

 

Anyone that played the mod and went "up north" will know exactly what I mean - have any of you been up there? What are your thoughts about it?

 

Leaving on a positive note, we did notice a lot more low bushes in amongst the forests so it might be easier to hide a tent - if they weren't BLUE!! ;)

[Robert Neville 59]

Well, the devs did so because you get much more interaction in cities than in woods.  And the new buildings are great.

 

I agree, however, that it would be nice to have some wilderness.  Perhaps the devs could expand the map canvas to do so.

[kichilron 8550]

I do remember going up north just to see what's going on in the closed testing. However, back then everything was still empty roads. Only just yesterday I want back to the exact same spot and whilst overlooking one of the new cities I have never been to I realised it's the exact same layout as the roads used to be, but it's finally populated now.

 

I know what you mean that it's changed entirely, but not necessarily for the bad. Gives us people coming from the mod a bit of new places to discover.

[St. Jimmy 1631]

The reason why it's so full of houses and villages is that in real life it's pretty growded.

[Tatanko 5591]

Only just yesterday I want back to the exact same spot and whilst overlooking one of the new cities I have never been to I realised it's the exact same layout as the roads used to be, but it's finally populated now.

This is precisely why I hoped they would put out the original build for a week or so on Experimental, so I could go back and get a direct comparison of "empty" versus "full" in the last year.

 

I spent a lot of time exploring that empty, street-covered north when I first started playing the Standalone enjoying it's openness, so I feel your pain OP. It was a nice challenge too, because water sources were few and far between along with not having anywhere to pick up more food (and no hunting yet to get food either!). I love some of the new towns they've added, but I do kind of wish they had added maybe a few less.

[blunce 991]

I imagine towards release date, once all villages & major cities are finished, the devs would close off the West/North/NW with wilderness.

 

Nothing more than my presumption though.

[Etherious 907]

I like the new additions however, in the empty plains that are around those new towns, I hope that they add some more trees. :P

[igor-vk 909]

Towns and villages are on same locations as they are in area they made map after. Check with Google maps and street view. Roads, streets and even tree lines are almost identical. There is lots of woods west of Lopatino and in North west corner. I used to place tents in Black forest. Close to Berezino and Stary.

[Irish. 4886]

I like the idea of dayz one day not really offering too many places to hide..

 

In the mods it was just too easy to hide a camp from 90% of the player base, and on the other end with the experience and manpower it was too easy to find them. Id like to see a balance there, and I hope they find it. 

[FortheEnts 22]

Choosing long range shooting over short range the additional cities and changes have forced me to change up my play style a bit since the mod days. I like the additions and changes overall though. As already stated more player interactions and less walking through woods.

Edited December 18, 2014 by FortheEnts

[Noble Savage 116]

I never played the mod but I am familiar with the original chernarus map from playing Arma 2 and I agree with you OP, they have fucked up the North, and not just the North.

 

Too many samey identikit towns with samey identikit buildings, no variety, no imagination, no 2 towns feel different in any way, it's just lazy house spamming across the countryside. Someone at BIS is clearly obsessed with towns.

 

The beauty of the original Chernarus was in the wilderness areas, getting lost then the relief of spotting a farm or a small village, we have to walk for no more than 2 minutes now before we stumble upon yet another village or town, it's a bit crap to be honest. Someone needs to have a quiet word in the devs ear and advise them that vast swathes of wilderness are needed in order for players to experience all that the game has to offer, like making camps, realistic hunting and trapping and living off the land. DayZ should be about much more than just looting the same 11 building models over and over and over again.

 

In my opinion the game would benefit from a drastic settlement cull, 12 towns and villages should be binned.

Edited December 18, 2014 by Noble Savage

[CJFlint 357]

I remember before, NOVO came along there really wasn't all that much up there. Now of cource its prob one of the more building populated areas on the map. The new military base is pretty cool as well. Love those under ground bunkers....even though I know better then to venture too far down.

[rickyriot 1009]

What I call "the Northern Road"; which goes from Svetlo in the East and passes through Novo, Severo and Toplo is now pretty much built up. I don't mind as much as there is still quite a lot of open land in the map. It's probably just us "old hands" who remember the mod that also remembers how empty the Northern part of the map was.

 

It does allow us to take rookies along the road and give the, "in my day, all this was just fields", chat.

[xalienax 621]

i hate the obsession with spewing city after city after city out. theres enough arena.. err.. i mean cities already. at this rate the map is going to be entirely ubran. plz mod tools plz so i can throw this disgusting new chernarus away!

 

I liked the challenge and paranoia of navegating vast wilderness - especially in low light or bad weather. so easy to get lost in dense woods at night. pretty soon it'll be just walk in one direction untill you find city. shame. absolute shame. yet one more step in a direction i utterly puke on. if anything they. change for no reason other then to change something isn't good.

[rickyriot 1009]

i hate the obsession with spewing city after city after city out. theres enough arena.. err.. i mean cities already. at this rate the map is going to be entirely ubran. plz mod tools plz so i can throw this disgusting new chernarus away!

 

I liked the challenge and paranoia of navegating vast wilderness - especially in low light or bad weather. so easy to get lost in dense woods at night. pretty soon it'll be just walk in one direction untill you find city. shame. absolute shame. yet one more step in a direction i utterly puke on. if anything they. change for no reason other then to change something isn't good.

 

I think that if they were being placed randomly across the map I'd agree, but it's pretty much along the main roads which is what you'd expect. There are still some pretty empty spaces on the map.

[rickyriot 1009]

I find the problem is not the towns, but the fact that they are poorly optimised so the frame rate drops quicker than the Rouble. 

[igor-vk 909]

I think there is enough of wilderness on map and you are just too lazy to explore. Old dayz mod map was smaller, it ended where the north highway is now. How many of you were on north edge of map in SA? Or in North west corner?

[CornProducts 315]

I only miss the little pond northwest of the northwest.

[Whyherro123 2283]

I think that if they were being placed randomly across the map I'd agree, but it's pretty much along the main roads which is what you'd expect. There are still some pretty empty spaces on the map.

Exactly.

 

If you look at both a topographic map of Chernarus, as well as the physical terrain and geography, the overwhelming majority of "urban centers" (Svetlo, Novo, Severo, maybe Elektro, Solni, Kamenka, Zeleno) are located on what should really be waterways, as in, rivers and streams.

 

 

 

The major rivers would be the Svetlo-Novo-Severograd line (look at the topo map above, and you would see the river valley quite clearly. In fact, that river valley should really be the most heavily settled and farmed part of the region) and the Kamenka-Pavlovo-Zelenogorsk like (smaller, and more constrained by mountains than the above Svetlo river, but still pretty big). The smaller streams would be at the Solni-Dolina-Pavlovo line and the Elektro-Topolka Dam- Mogilevka line. 

 

These deductions are based upon in-game evidence, and the existence of underwater "canyons" (washed out sediments due to water movement) on the ocean floor near the supposed river mouths. Streams would not have enough volume to displace sediments as much as rivers, so the "canyons" are smaller, and less visible.

 

Now, what does this mean for urban settlement?

 

In almost all of human history, settlement has OVERWHELMINGLY happened firstly on the ocean coast (easy access to both land and sea food sources, as well as simplified navigation and movement), then secondly up navigable streams and rivers. Rivers (and oceans) were mankinds first "highway", and as soon as we were capable of building canoes and rafts, we were travelling up rivers and settling along their course.

 

Same thing with Chernarus. Don't forget, in the background ARMA 2 lore, Chernarus has a history stretching back to at least medieval times, and probably MUCH earlier, considering how the real-life Black Sea (which the in-game Green Sea is a stand-in for) was one of the first areas extensively settled in Europe by Homo sapiens. So, there were probably medieval towns and villages along those rivers, and over time, they developed into modern towns and cities.

 

EDIT: in fact, there probably would be a lot of little streams all across Chernarus, after taking a closer look at the above topo map. A second, smaller stream in Kamenka, a stream leading into Rify, a small one coming west out of Berezino, A small one following the north road into Cherno proper, etc etc etc

Edited December 18, 2014 by Whyherro123

[xalienax 621]

I'd much rather see the streams implemented then "CITY! CITY! CITY!"

[MurQ 33]

One of the problems with adding all these new places, is that it reduces the chance of player encounters.

[Tatanko 5591]

One of the problems with adding all these new places, is that it reduces the chance of player encounters.

The goal is to eventually have quite a few more people per server than the current limit of 50. Don't forget we've already worked our way up from 40.

[Whyherro123 2283]

I'd much rather see the streams implemented then "CITY! CITY! CITY!"

The cities and towns are a package deal with the rivers and streams, mate, for the EXACT reason I mentioned above; human settlement and waterways go hand in hand. The Svetlo-Novo-Severo river valley should realistically be, and I think it is actually, the most heavily developed, settled, and farmed part of the South Zagoria region. 

 

You want wilderness? Go to the center of the map, in the mountainous/hilly region that stretches west-to-east from Koslovka to Tulga, and north-to-south from the Black Forest to Pusta. That is the least-developed part of the region. Want to hazard a guess as to why? No rivers of navigable size, as well as difficult terrain. The rest of the map is either flat coastal floodplain, or river valley, all prime areas for settlement.

 

What is with this obsession with Northern and Western wilderness, anyways? Is it because it was there in the mod? Well, too bad, because guess what kids? This isn't the mod any more. Take a look at this map.

 

 

Well, to the north lies Russia, along with two substantial river valleys (read: heavy settlement and industry). Along the coast to the north would probably be settled as well, at least lightly. To the west lies the rest of Chernarus, and considering the fact that South Zagoria is widely assumed to be the least developed part of Cherarus, and that there is a major city (Miroslavl) and a major river valley to the west of South Zagoria, the land to the west of "Chernarus" (the in-game map) would be at least as built up as the in-game part, and, in all probability, MORE developed.

[Whyherro123 2283]

One of the problems with adding all these new places, is that it reduces the chance of player encounters.

Not really. I've been spending a decent amount of time in the "wilderness" I mentioned in my above post, and I have yet to see another player for the week or so I have been playing. 

 

Avoid the cities and "high loot locations" (Veresnik, Green Mountain, Pavlovo MB, Myshkino tents, etc) and you probably won't find another player, because they are all clusterfucking over "good" (snort) loot in cities and military bases.

[Tatanko 5591]

Avoid the cities and "high loot locations" (Veresnik, Green Mountain, Pavlovo MB, Myshkino tents, etc) and you probably won't find another player, because they are all clusterfucking over "good" (snort) loot in cities and military bases.

Those same people are too busy concerning themselves with loot they'll eventually lose (and cry about losing) to explore other aspects of the game and find out what about the experience is really compelling to them.