Landlocked map, or island map?

[Rhoda]

In every single GTA instalment thus far, we've seen that the map is isolated subtly by being surrounded by a body of water that limits the player without much notice. Obviously this requires some suspension of disbelief if you're a bit of a cynical player - after all, IV's rendition of Liberty City is almost a carbon copy of present day New York but we're presented with islands as opposed to the more difficult task of limiting the player with a giant wall or mountain range.

 

While I don't expect R* to break tradition here (ain't broke, don't fix it trope) I was curious to know if there would even be such a way to limit players and impose boundaries without relying on massive oceans to house the game's map. Not only that, but would there be a way that would prove satisfactory with gamers and clearly represent an area that's out of bounds? If so, what would this idea be and how would you go about imposing it?

[slohbur]

An endless desert/arctic.

A minefield.

A huge canyon (flying over it would cause the plane to malfunction)

San Andreas' No Fly Zone

Edited May 22, 2016 by slohbur

[Pink Pineapple]

I think a remade Vice City should be an island. It would help to give it a tropical feel.

 

I would have preferred V's map to be a combination of infinite ocean and infinite land so that it would have felt like it's connected to the rest of the state of San Andreas. After you get past a certain point, you could get a warning to turn around or die.

[Osho]

 

See: Far Cry 2! The map has vast deserts on the edge with an effect that starts to blur player's vision as you move away from the border and walk across the deserts, indicating that you should stop, otherwise you will eventually pass out.

Such a simple and nice thought ( and actually makes sense when you venture in deserts for too long in real life as well ) to give you the sense of limitation of the map without being bumped into hidden walls or endless body of water and eventually dying from a shark attack.

 

For GTA, the problem seems to be flying because in RDR Rockstar did manage to give a similar sense of limitation through "mountains and deep ravines".

If you remove flying inGTA then the options could open up for the developers to be more creative in their approach, otherwise water body seems to make more sense and feel logical in this regard.

 

They can create a fake city or regions miles away from the border that provided a backdrop when you fly across the oceans endlessly and remain between the map while looking towards the distant backdrop without any consequences but the player will have to turn around eventually to the map for landing.

Edited May 22, 2016 by Osho

[Shadowfennekin]

I HATE landlocked maps. In a game with aircrafts and sea vehicles island maps are way better.

 

If we ever actually get North Yankton, I don't mind if that is landlocked as a mini map. But the main cities should have island maps.

[Megumi]

There should be more than one map, and the only way to gain access to them is via traveling. The protag should be on a parole as an excuse for the restrictions, until you reach certain points in the campaign.

[PhillBellic]

How about a Hybrid Approach? \

 

One half of the Map has the Series Convention of Endless Water, and the other half has Procedurally Generated Land, with the Dizziness/Blurriness Effect Osho spoke of earlier.

[UAL]

Essentially having a land locked map wouldn't work, they'd have to get rid of planes and helicopters and I can't see them doing that.

 

I can see why people say an island in the middle of the ocean isn't immersive, but tbh when playing GTA V or any other GTA for that matter, I tend to forget the game world is an island so I don't really think about it that much.

[killdrivetheftvehicle]

The only option I could live with is the protagonist saying:"What the f*ck am I doing?", then there would be a scripted turning around just before the edge of the map.

[Huang Leeroy]

I don't see a landlocked map happening. Hell, the one time they somewhat tired a landlocked map in GTA III (North of Shoreside Vale), people still managed to break the boundaries using the clipped winged dodo. As some people have said, with the ability to fly it would be difficult to implement. Not saying it can't be done, after all there are certain games where it works, but it's mainly because you either can't fly or clever design was used by playing off the game's environment and mechanics that works for that particular game. In GTA, I can't see it being added in a way that makes sense.

[Official General]

Essentially having a land locked map wouldn't work, they'd have to get rid of planes and helicopters and I can't see them doing that.

 

I can see why people say an island in the middle of the ocean isn't immersive, but tbh when playing GTA V or any other GTA for that matter, I tend to forget the game world is an island so I don't really think about it that much.

Same here. LC in IV was even more perfect for the island map design, because NYC in real life is surrounded everywhere by water and is made up of a number of big islands and a bit of mainland.

 

Although I reckon that V's map should have been half landlocked and half water - landlocked the top half off with mountains that can't be completely flown over and the rest of the map a huge expanse leading to the coastline. LA in real life is laid out like that.

[The Dedito Gae]

I hate landlocked maps and i despise invisible walls or "U-Turn" boundaries, i like how R* handles it.

Created beaches, abandoned docks or what have you, it was pretty well done in V, although the infinite sea makes for an isolated experience, is the lesser of two evils.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Midnight Hitman

[Totallycasual]

I enjoyed V's map, especially with such a rich ocean. I think the ocean is a massively underutilized area, i would have loved to see more randomly discoverable treasure/sunken ships or underwater caves, i also would have loved to see shark attacks on people swimming along the beach instead of way out to sea where it doesn't matter.

 

In terms of alternate solutions im really not sure, i think water is and always will be the most elegant solution, anything else risks having some type of invisible wall to bump into when flying an aircraft.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Lethal-lock

[Fuzzknuckles]

Island map. Having an endless expanse of land or invisible walls is bollocks. Having things you can't fly over in a plane is pretty retarded.

 

Having stuff you can see but not reach is sh*t. I see absolutely no reason for this to change - the map should be fully accessible without bogus restrictions - such as a plane failing because it flew over a canyon. That doesn't happen, it sounds dumb. It should remain islands, because it works and keeps the world self contained.

Edited May 23, 2016 by Fuzzknuckles

[Mister Pink]

It's a good proposition that should be looked at again as technology advances. Right now, I'm kinda with Fuzz on this but if it can be done better than the island way, I'm all ears.

 

Previously, I never even paid much attention to it being an island. I never looked at it as island until IV because a good thing is that if it was an actual island, there would be more island references. Although the news might report of certain sections of the map as islands the people in each respective GTA never refer to themselves as islanders as such. There's no isolation. As a game, they're on an island and that's how it's presented to us but in the psyche of the people on that island, I think they're very much attached to the mainland if that makes sense.

[Raj The Rager]

Land locked could prevent flying planes, so I would say keep the island tradition.

[Pedinhuh]

A procedurally generated map would be fine by me.

 

And I honestly think V map should have been like that.

-Infinte desert at south and south east after crossing the country's borders with Mexico(instead of having lots of mention of it and a civil border patrol on a f*cking island, with Mexico nowhere to be found), with nothing but a straight road, but the catch is, after sometime driving, your vehicle breaks-down/overheats and you're f*cked;

-To West, south west and northwest, the pacific, infinite too like it was in SA(instead of that "plane stalling and losing wings out of nowhere" bullsh*t);

-To North and Northeast, The Chilliad, but being soo high in altitude that you can't fly your plane over it as it exceed the flight limit(which of course, would be way lower);

 

-I still haven't stop to think about what should be on the East, maybe another desert but I don't know..

[Kafonix]

A huge mountain or a huge desert would just look idiotic. Just keep it as an island.

[dewtech]

Motorcross Madness style boundries?

 

 

 

I like the Island system myself, easiest way of keeping it feeling semi realistic

[GTAVGG]

Just keep it an island. Having land that I can't travel to is pretty frustrating and annoying.

[Pedinhuh]

A huge mountain or a huge desert would just look idiotic. Just keep it as an island.

Care to elaborate why it would be idiotic?

[CheesepuffScott]

I hate landlocked maps! I'd prefer islands.

[Nah nah nah Gta 6]

I believe the reason why all GTA games are placed in islands is because someone will eventually get past the barrier, either through a glitch or mods, people will find a way to bypass a landlocked map's boundaries.

 

I kinda like the idea of half water, half landlocked map, they could do the same thing with San Andreas and V where the ocean goes on forever, except with land and infinitely generated trees, and the character passing out of their vehicle breaking down, or maybe a bunch of people come to attack you and prevent you from going further.

[RedDagger]

I can't see them doing a half water half land map because they'd have to spend a fair amount of time on the intersection of the two - instead of just creating infinite water/land, there's also this coast. It can't be perfectly straight because that'd look weird, I can't imagine it being generated since it'd stand out from the coast of the main map that it's connected to (which likely wouldn't be generated), but either way they'd be spending extra time creating this coast to some level of quality. In this instance, it's a lot more feasible to just do one of them.

 

But anyway, I like open world games for the "if you can see it, you can go to it" factor - it doesn't really apply to water since water is featureless, but land will always have stuff on it, even if it's just a straight road, small hills in the distance, and dry plants, and the road will imply places to go to. I'd rather have the one which is more complete in what it offers you, instead of saying there's stuff but you can't go to it.

Edited May 29, 2016 by RedDagger

[grope_4_that_date]

Landlocked maps would be rather difficult to avoid a copy-and-paste feel. Why fix what isn't broken? Water textures are easy and effective.

[gtamann123]

Keep it with islands. The whole thing relies on suspension of disbelief anyways and I don't think people realize that. The infinite water boundaries are not meant to be taken literally and you are supposed to imagine that the water isn't there.

Edited May 29, 2016 by gtamann123

[TheHumanIsland]

island, all the way. Flight is important to gta and I think they know it now. I suspect a return to Liberty City will come with rural surroundings next time. Maybe not, but either way, it'll probably be big enough next time we see LC to warrant flight aside from choppers.

Edited May 29, 2016 by TheHumanIsland

[Exploding Pants]

Motorcross Madness style boundries?

 

 

 

I like the Island system myself, easiest way of keeping it feeling semi realistic

That's exactly what I was thinking going into this thread. MX vs ATV style. That was so fun.

 

I'm honestly torn. I definitely understand keeping it as an island, but the idea of a generated desert/whatever the f*ck is really appealing. I know that for me, it was pretty annoying the first time I flew my plane off the map in V and the wing literally popped off. That could have been executed so much better.

 

But I also agree with RedDagger in regards to the implication of places to go. Every time I've played a landlocked map type game I'm always sorely disappointed by the fact that I can't go to that thing in the distance.

 

I didn't even think about these things until I saw this thread, and now it bothers me. Thanks. I could have lived in ignorance.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Rockstar MWG 05

[TheHumanIsland]

See: Far Cry 2! The map has vast deserts on the edge with an effect that starts to blur player's vision as you move away from the border and walk across the deserts, indicating that you should stop, otherwise you will eventually pass out.

Such a simple and nice thought ( and actually makes sense when you venture in deserts for too long in real life as well ) to give you the sense of limitation of the map without being bumped into hidden walls or endless body of water and eventually dying from a shark attack.

 

For GTA, the problem seems to be flying because in RDR Rockstar did manage to give a similar sense of limitation through "mountains and deep ravines".

If you remove flying inGTA then the options could open up for the developers to be more creative in their approach, otherwise water body seems to make more sense and feel logical in this regard.

 

They can create a fake city or regions miles away from the border that provided a backdrop when you fly across the oceans endlessly and remain between the map while looking towards the distant backdrop without any consequences but the player will have to turn around eventually to the map for landing.

 

Yea, because that's just what I want in the series of "If you can see it, you can go there" was basically made from, is a city I can see, or anywhere for that matter, that I can't travel to. no thank you!!

[Mikeol1987]

I HATE landlocked maps. In a game with aircrafts and sea vehicles island maps are way better.

 

If we ever actually get North Yankton, I don't mind if that is landlocked as a mini map. But the main cities should have island maps.

 

Hell screw that, if we get Yankton it should be an island too, but 70% of the time the water is completely frozen so it makes it an infinite land whilst also maintaining the island/side of a lake feel