While on my way to the Devil's Roar, the islands and everything else felt a lot closer to each other. The distances felt shorter. There also seemed to be new rocks, and I'm not refering to the seaposts. It all felt kinda cramped.
The world map's (the map found on every ship) coordinates have changed. Originally the first three regions occupied all the squares, from 1-26 on the y-axis to the A-Z on the x-axis. Those numbers and letters have not changed but the locations with those axis have. Some locations on the northeast and on the whole south seem unavailable.
Did Rare cram everything together in order to make space for the Devil's Roar and other potential new areas or did they expand the size of the world and, since they didn't want to add on their axis coordinates like AA, AB, 27, 28 etc., they expanded the world's map size as well.
Is it just me, or have the original regions gotten smaller?
@megagamer96
It's just as I assumed it would be. They've re-scaled the map rather than extend it due to the limitations of the Unreal4 engine.It's not the first time they have done this. Island co-ordinates have been tightened before since the beta and possibly another time after.
@admiral-rrrsole does this mean that the islands themselves have gotten smaller, or just the ocean space in between? I imagine it wouldn't extend to the islands as that would bring some weird scaling issues (I'm thinking tiny caves and tiny little NPCs).
@owl-hisson
Just the water distance in between is less. To actually re-scale the islands would be a huge task. Much easier just to drag them across by mouse in the map editor or type new co-ordinates in the map file using a text editor.@sgt-palooggoo said in Is it just me, or have the original regions gotten smaller?:
@timboagogo
I've been rowing from island to island!Do you still need the sloop/Brig/Galleon or can you just use the row boat now if your not bothered about cannons?
They said from the start that the map was as large as it was possible for it to get. Think it was Mike who said it but could be all wrong about that.
So a bit less empty sea in the OG map is pretty much what I expected. The map is still just as big as it was, there's just more in it now. It doesn't really matter anyway coz everyone who's playing seems to be crammed into the one region right now.
Thank you for the reply.
Looking forward to finsishing work and trying it myself tonight. I can't wait to see rocks raining down :D
It's not just you, but you do not seem to be the only one that thinks the regions have got smaller.
However, I think you are wrong. I think the map – the parchment on which it is drawn – and the A-Z : 1-26 grid has been stretched to accommodate the new region. Thus, I believe the entire map is bigger. Whereas it used to be about 4 nautical miles from side to side; it must now be 5 or more.
It was stretched once a couple of months back, to make more empty sea-room for the Cursed Sails battles. It has now been stretched even more.
How do I know this? Consider Exhibit One: An extract from an OLD map
You can see here that Shark Bait Cove is about 80% the height and width of a map grid square. I have drawn a smaller red square which is closer to Shark Bait Cove's size. Let's call this an SBC unit square. Now, the distance from Shark Bait Cove to Thieves Haven is just under 8 SBC units. And the vertical distance from the top of Shark Bait Cove to the bottom of Plunder Outpost is around 1.6 SBC units.
Now, we come to Exhibit Two: An extract from a NEW map (after Forsaken Shores)
Clearly the Map Grid is bigger. Shark Bait Cove is now about only 50% the width and height of a map grid square. However, if we consider the map using our SBC unit square, Thieves Haven is still 8 SBC units away; and Plunder Outpost is still 1.6 SBC units further North.
We can safely assume that Rare has not resized the islands themselves. This would be very obvious, because we would be bumping our heads on the doorways of the buildings on outposts. But, in both maps above, the sea distances between the Shark Bait Cove and its neighbours does not seem to have been reduced when considered using the size of SBC as a reference. Thus: the map (and its grid) must have been stretched, rather the world squeezed.
It's a pity, really. It was clearly short-sighted to have started with a A-Z grid in the first place. I would have preferred the new regions to be in columns AA-AZ, extending south to rows 30-something. I think its a shame that the rocket shaped arched rock no longer straddles the very centre of our world, at precisely M-N/13-14.
@SurveyorPete living up to your gamertag there! GG matey, excellent research and presentation to the class!
@boxcar-squidy said
They said from the start that the map was as large as it was possible for it to get.
I thought so too.
Especially with other games such as "Squad" using the Unreal4 engine saying that the maps are a total of 4 kilometers square.
But I guess that depends on what scale you decide to make everything.@surveyorpete
To think, I was part of the investigation crew that proved me wrong.
Not only that but when you asked what I wanted to do, I suggested that we measure the seas / map chart. D'oh! lol
But now we know for sure.Good job. :o)
@surveyorpete Fantastic job, Pete! Having (finally) had a chance to get out there and sail around, I've been paying attention to my perception of distances. I think you're right, the distances have not changed. It may be somewhat of an illusion, since the explorable world is now considerably larger, the distances between familiar places now seem shorter. It's just a matter of perception.
@surveyorpete Loving the 'SBC' unit of measurement. It's a shame there isn't something more akin to numerical long/lat, with an origin in the centre of the original map
Excellent piece of work there and a nice illustration of the differences between old and new maps.
No distances were changed or islands harmed in the making of this dlc.
@surveyorpete So what exactly is giving off the impression that everything seems a lot closer then? Also are there new rocks on the sea (not including the seaposts)? Those rocks seem to be throwing me off I think...
Interesting question @Megagamer96! The original map size has not gotten smaller. The grid changes noted by @SurveyorPete can be attributed to early cartographers mapping the Sea of Thieves as they knew it. Once The Devil's Roar was revealed, they revised their maps to include the new region! So the scale of the overall map has changed, but not the distances between locations.
@khaleesibot Thank you and thanks to @surveyorpete as well, but I repeat the same questions I asked him (coicindentally enough at the exact same time you replied): What might be giving off the impression that everything seems a lot closer then? Also are there new rocks on the sea (not including the seaposts)?
@megagamer96 Ahoy matey!
Yup, there are a few new rocks dotted around - what was once plain sailing between islands now makes me jump half way and quickly swerve!
I love it when they add new rocks as it means I have to stay more alert.
The Sea o' Thieves be a strange an' wondrous place, where the rocks themselves be shiftin' an' changin' on a whim (or at least every now and then just to keep us on our toes, I reckon)
I have just created my own Forsaken Shores map from the ingame one: https://imgur.com/a/pkzXd3k
Before, I have found one like that on google:
And I've laid them on top of each other with the original one being transparent and it doesnt seam that at least their positions were modified:imgur.com
Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.
imgur.com
Discover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users.
@surveyorpete So what exactly is giving off the impression that everything seems a lot closer then?
Perhaps, they buffed the spyglass. ;-)
imgur.com
