Canonical and non-canonical map borders

[Carbonox]

Open world maps have to end somewhere, and with GTA the general consensus has been to line the maps with endless oceans, with the 3D universe only having one major exception. But if we take all the implications within the game worlds regarding their true size and start planting these cities and states onto the map of the entire fictional version of the US, which of these borders are actually real, and which are just there to border the playable area, not to be taken as literal bodies of water? After all, it makes no sense that these prominent American cities would be so thoroughly isolated from the rest of the world. I know I'm thinking way too deep into this, but I heard having passions in life is healthy, so I'll keep on rolling with it.

 

General: It goes without saying, but to accommodate their real life populations and to actually resemble real metropolises, the maps would have to be stretched from within as well, not just into other directions. Shout-out to this map of 3D Liberty City by Xegethra, a major inspiration in helping me see just how it should be done.

 

Liberty City (GTA 3). This one's very loosely based off NYC, but it's the best reference point we've got. Portland and Staunton would still be islands, just with more space, more access ways and maybe more boroughs in their immediate vicinity. If we assume Portland is part of Long Island, there would indeed be room for expansion to the northeast, where the map ends more abruptly and has a lot more empty ground than anywhere else. Just don't compromise the view to the sea from Salvatore's place too much.

 

To the north of Shoreside Vale are the mountains, made possible by the fact aerial travel wasn't really developed yet, save for a barely functional plane. They're not just there to shield our eyes from all the glitchy messes behind them, but also to give off the impression that there's more to the game world, further supported by the tunnels leading all the way to the world's edge on the minimap and the hidden radar text showing small towns. Just easter eggs deep down, though, I know. I'd imagine that in a realistic setting, there wouldn't be that many mountains, let alone that steep, immediately outside of town - maybe just another average coastline in the distance.

 

Also, notice how to the west of SSV, the map kinda just ends on a cliff over the water. Definitely room to expand that way - same with the south too, since it's probably a given that SSV is part of the mainland. It does seem to actually be part of Liberty City rather than a different state altogether, unlike Alderney.

 

Vice City. A map of this size definitely won't house the 1.8 million residents it's stated to have in the manual. Good thing we can probably just take the map of Miami, call it Vice City, plant some of VC's most obvious landmarks around there, and call it a day. Miami Beach really is an island IRL, so all Vice Beach needs is a good bit of stretching out, while the mainland expands north, west and south, making the stadium no longer stand out like a giant pimple (as Badger Goodger eloquently put it) and making room for the Everglades to the west. The original VC actually did a fairly decent job in not considering the "western sea" canon, but VCS kinda dropped the ball by having you get on a boat with that drug dealer over there in the first mission, and by treating the "backyard" of Little Haiti as a harbor big enough to transport the Mendezes' drug shipment to.

 

So with fairly little to say about what water is canonical and what's not, here's something else I haven't seen anyone bring up yet. Could North Key Largo, the northeastern-most Florida key reachable by car and a real-life gated community, be what Shady Acres was based on? A short drive out of town, on some pristine wetlands - definitely adds up. Too bad the development time for the game was so short that the Gator Keys (or Everglades) probably never had a true chance to materialize, even if with that era's hardware they likely would've been limited to 3 or 4 islands, nowhere near the epic scale of the real keys.

 

San Andreas (GTA SA). The perfect square shape of the map isn't very appealing, so it's time to deconstruct that. Obviously a lot more space needs to exist between the cities, as it can be rather immersion breaking to see them from across the map if you're high enough and have disabled the map fog. Los Santos and San Fierro both lie on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, so the south and west oceans definitely count as canon, though Flint County and Whetstone, being somewhere inbetween, should be to the northwest more than anything else. I can accept East Beach in LS also being canonically on the coast, though the water should be to the south, while Red County has plenty of room to expand eastward.

 

Another obvious case is within Las Venturas and all areas unlocked with it. From the Cordillera in Tierra Robada to the area beyond Linden Station in LV, the entire north and east coasts are covered by tall mountains. Definitely covering up the presence of additional water in those directions, while really it would just be more desert (or other types of wilderness given that it's a condensed map after all). The immersion breaks if you just fly high enough to see the map border yourself, but I guess they were only concerned with making it look believable from the ground, where you spend the majority of the time. One exception exists where you can reach the water without crossing any hills - that little canyon north of Verdant Meadows that takes you to that abandoned cabin, housing a beaten down car (Sadler, I think), a pier, and a Seasparrow in the water. Then again, that could just be considered a lake, while all the boats spawning on the coast are just there as convenience vehicles in case you get yourself trapped back there with no way to climb back to freedom. I think San Andreas Sound (the river between LV and Red County) wouldn't count as canonical either as LV lies smack dab in the middle of the desert, with zero sea access.

 

Obviously you wouldn't fly over a massive sea to get from LV to LC, either.

 

Liberty City (GTA IV). A more faithful recreation of NYC, all that the areas east of West River need is the aforementioned stretching, more boroughs to the north, and an expansion northeast from Dukes in the form of the rest of Long Island. Alderney would extend north, west and south, the countryside known as the Carraways located either somewhere out there or north of Algonquin in Upstate Liberty. All that we're really missing by adding these landmasses are the cliffs over water where Aiden gets shot, and the pretty views from the abandoned casino and mansion. There's also the matter of the former housing a boat chase in the final mission, but I'll forgive Rockstar for that.

 

San Andreas (GTA V). IRL, Pacific Ocean is still to the west of Los Santos, so the south and west coasts get to stay, while the land continues north from Paleto Bay, presumably towards San Fierro. For the most part the north and east "coasts" are easy to pick apart for the fact they're largely covered up by the San Chianski Mountain Range. There do exist some problems like Humane Labs having a very distinct underwater access route, and the prominent El Gordo Lighthouse, though. Maybe Humane would actually lie next to a lake or river, and the lighthouse would be on the west coast, but was placed east on the map to give that area some more landmarks?

 

I don't have as much to say about other open world games I've played, but might as well sh*t out those thoughts too...

 

Bully is mostly surrounded by woodland, making it look like a genuine New England town. All it needs is some exit roads.

 

Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2 - ironically my only qualms are with there being too little water. Specifically, if St. Denis is meant to parody New Orleans, why is it not on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, but instead some river? That unused landmass to the south is thoroughly pointless and needs to go - I remember being unable to suspend my disbelief when we actually got on a ship that left for the seas in St. Denis, as there didn't appear to be all that much space for it to ever maneuver that far.

 

Stilwater (SR1 & 2) was an interesting case study, the way the "islands" in 1 ended with mountains on the west side lent room for ambiguity, though after 2 filled up those areas and added air and boat travel, they officially did become islands, at least from a gameplay standpoint. Given the dilapitated state of the newly added prison and the long abandoned drive-in in Pleasant View, my guess is that these areas, except Suburbs Expansion that's still being constructed in parts, were intended to be present from the beginning, just not shown until 2. There's not actually a ton of room to add extra landmass anywhere in particular as the game puts the water areas on all sides to some kind of use, so perhaps they really are islands "IRL" too, merely connected to the mainland by bridges. (Also, is it just me or does it look like there is land way out in the distance in SR2? I don't mean the secret islands to the west, but even beyond the invisible borders far out at sea.)

 

Steelport (SR3 & 4) is a pretty terrible map all around, and it's also terrible to try and establish any connection to more land when every borough seems to have a harbor facing in different directions. The north part of Stanfield, in the Burns Hill reactor area, is really all I've got without compromising the accessibility to any of those docks, but even that seems awkward.

 

Medici (Just Cause 3) is something I've got no "complaints" with, being intended as an island nation in the Mediterranean to begin with. Actually looks real and all that, just the towns should probably be bigger.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Carbonox

[~Tiger~]

Very nice post, well done and thanks for taking the time to put this up.

 

  On 8/23/2020 at 11:48 PM, Carbonox said:

Open world maps have to end somewhere

This is something I pay close attention to.

 

  On 8/23/2020 at 11:48 PM, Carbonox said:

other open world games

For sake of technique I'd like to compare some of the Far Cry series.

 

Far Cry 2 was landlocked (Africa) and used two dynamics. Mountains and the fact that the protagonist was sick with malaria and would pass out if the player strayed out of bounds.

 

Far Cry 3 was island based and used 'Flash and Turn" if the player went to far out to sea. (In GTA V, if you fly too far your aircraft disintegrates)

 

Far Cry 4 was landlocked in the Himalayas and do sheer mountain faces served to keep the player inside the sandbox.

 

Of course, these are fictional locations and the developers could do what they want. So the problem for R* is to keep the GTA landscape within realistic locations based on actual cities and landscapes, yet at the same time, render the map playable and containable. I recall  in 2013 many of us hoped that the GTA V map would be expanded with future DLC to reveal "the rest" of San Andreas just north of Paleto Bay (San Fierro and Las Venturas possibly...?) but alas, this was just a dream.

 

Thanks again for an enjoyable post.