If I was to remaster France, what ideas do you all have? What are the main problems with the original map that need to be fixed? I think the largest mistake I made was placing the Verdun airbase right next to Paris.
I have a plan drawn up already. Some goals of mine:
Make the map more geographically accurate
Military loot only in deadzones, the main “loot spot” would then become a centrally located GIGN base. This forces three layers of weapons progression: civilian/low end police → elite police → military
Ranger loot in stashes hidden around the map instead of a dedicated ranger location. Probably 20 stashes
This would be a separate workshop map since I am starting from the ground up on a blank map.
the objects show their age too much atm in my opinion, a freshing up of them would be nice
(also finish the catacombs please please please i really wanted to see them please)
Also, last summer I was in Normandy and there was a TON of really cool architecture there. Bayeux would be really cool to see. Honfleur was beautiful as well but probably not large enough to warrant a location.
I had always hoped to see France get a makeover since it was to me one of the map with best potential, so here are a few feedbacks and ideas I’d have:
Merge town and “special” secluded locations (hospital, military base, etc…) so that we have some special towns that have both civilian buildings and special ones. (A town like Cherbourg could have both houses and a naval base at the same location).
Water transport made more relevant, as France has quite a lot of rivers (Seine, Rhône, Loire, etc…) and islands (Mont Saint-Michel, Île de Ré, etc…) which could allow to have more boats or even ships (useful for bases) as well as a few varied safezones.
Different safezone quest lines that are mutually exclusive, kinda like what was made with Greece where you couldn’t join Omega and the military at once. Of course, those different safezones could be quite small and not necessarily in conflict with each other.
A few more railroad and various trains that can be salvaged to be turned into mobile bases.
More “region-dependent” landscape, it shouldn’t be the same materials/vegetation in the north as around Bordeaux or Marseille for example. France has a large variety of climates and biomes and while it may require some work, some location-specific assets could make its remake a very good one. Ideally one could imagine some differences in building styles/colors but that may require a lot of work (if the models are different) or some different palettes (if the models are the sames). I’d love for example to have “Pink-ish” buildings in Toulouse and the average beige/grey in Paris.
France remains one of (if not my) favorite maps on Unturned so I must say I can’t wait to see where it goes.
Actually using the catacombs is one of the main goals this time. And yeah there are a lot of decisions I have to make on what locations to include vs what not to include. I would love to include cities like Caen, Honfleur, Bayeux, Lisieux but the scaling of the map only allows the Normandy region to fit 1 large-sized location which I think has to stay as Flamanville Powerplant. I was thinking a beachhead NPC safezone around where Omaha beach would be kinda cool though - called “Z-Day”
I like that idea for a “Z-Day” NPC Safezone, perhaps one could set it up on the Mont Saint-Michel, it is in the same region (Normandy, at the horror of the Bretons) and actually feels like a place that could make for a very good safezone.
But yeah, I agree that France is vast, and tbh, I’d love if there were various maps depicting specific regions of France
I’ve helped vilespring with updating the original map a couple of months ago and speaking as the guy who spent 2-3 years on a Rio Update, I think France as is is honestly pretty fine, but a remastered version would also be welcome (I’d love to help, just hit me up!).
Not sure if the argument of it being geographically accurate matters much since Russia turned one of the real life country’s biggest cities into a random campground (Novosibirsk)
As Romelete said I definitely want catacombs as well. The original map not having it was such missed potential.
Branching quests and multiple factions don’t entice me. Such an idea was scrapped very early on in France’s planning anyways.
The big thing also is making France’s NPCs really burned me out. A burnout I’m honestly yet to recover from years later. After the release of France I just stopped doing anything with U3 till the present day.
I don’t want to imagine trying to make them more complex than they already are. It also wasn’t the focus of the map. The whole point of France was to not be novel or revolutionary, which is both its strength and its downfall.
France never struck me as the kind of map that was trying to break the mould in a serious way. I think that’s its value today, a fairly competent map that shares a lot in common with vanilla. With most maps being their own self-contained conversion mods, having a unique experience that still contains most of vanilla within it is kind of novel.
this
UK’s biggest failures for me as a map maker were trying to conform rigidly to real world terrain. taking that limitation away is very very freeing and much more entertaining from both a gameplay and from a mapping perspective. It lets you really capture what you actually want to capture rather than trying to squeeze everything in.
I second this. While geologically accurate terrain can be pretty cool and useful as a guide, it can ultimately be more restricting and it’s really important to take creative liberties!
Don’t worry it won’t be so rigidly accurate. Really I want to follow France’s topography/biomes more. Ex: Mountains where there should be mountains, forests where there should be forests, a whole lot of cropland/vineyards (actual wine growing regions for further immersion). Also should note this will be a separate workshop map since its a complete rebuild but using the same assets.
Btw I accepted your friend request on steam. Since I live in France, I could always provide some ideas, and there may be a few things I could help with (roads, some clothes, etc…) if I can spare the time.
Update: Large map is too big for one person to do ngl. It would take me many months and I’d like to not spend so much time glued to a screen. Although this is a good creative outlet for me.
Looking at making a medium version of France inspired by Washington instead. No NPCs but will have decent lore built around Jack Fletcher (American tourist NPC in OG France). I also will be tracking how long it takes for me to make this map - shooting for <30 hours! Will send updates/teasers as I go along as I plan on doing full documentation post(s) here talking about the map-making process as a whole
It will stick to the vanilla feel and be a separate workshop map requiring the Official France map subscription. Don’t want to complete overhaul OG France as that would mess with people’s map saves
Have you thought about maybe doing a copy of the original France map and working from that? That way we might still have the large map while retaining features of the original France and allowing you to work from that. It’d also not mess up the saves I guess.
