The Game map.

[cygnusx1]

I've been searching online, but there is just soooo much content.

I'm looking for the actual default game map (the world containing all of the islands). I've seen so many images of maps, some screenshots and others drawn from players. Some are square and others are a diamond.

I know it would be sort of cheating, but there is so much "world" in the game, I want to know the ends of the map. I would like to restart the game with a plan to go to all islands and check them off as I move on.

Like I said, so much content and I'm really confused about cartogropher! Is that the map of all the islands or is it a spring board to creating custom islands?

Any help or a link to an actual game map would be helpful.

[Cosmo]

The cartographer is both, after creating a new game it shows you your world map. The island that is red (I think its red I haven't looked for a bit) is the one you saved on last, the rest can be changed out for new islands if you so wish.

Cosmo and Fred

[☆TheDough]

Additionally.... the world, as a whole, is only a 5x5 grid. You can switch out the islands within that grid (except the island grid you are on). The cartographer shows you that world grid, and gives you the tools to create islands to place within that grid.

[thomlovessue]

All the above are true, but you mentioned seeing maps that were not 5x5 grids. At one time, before the 5x5 grid, the islands were more randomly scattered. The players at that time spent considerable time and effort learning to map their world and draw it. They're methods and maps are still out there in youtube, etc. land. I'm guessing that that is what you've seen. There has been hints that a future release will include a larger world, but that may just been ideas or rumors.

[Skarmo]

Originally posted by thomlovessue:

There has been hints that a future release will include a larger world, but that may just been ideas or rumors.

Rumors started by the developers themselves. :) The store page used to say this:

Please note, currently the generated world size is limited to 6.25km2 but the final world size will be much larger.

Now this sentence is gone. I really hope this is not a bad sign, for if they should stay with the current small grid, it would be a huge letdown for me and I think for many other users, too.

[deez]

Ditto on what you said Skarmo. I used to love the maps that did not contain an island in each grid. It caused to to try to navigate. There were times i got lost because i could not see an island and then were forced to find an island and then figure out where you were. I hope for a larger world map with islands sporadic on the map and not in every grid. I will probably start playing the actual game again instead of making islands. Or probably both:)

[Skarmo]

Thank you for your support, Deez! Did you grow old with Stranded Deep, too? :)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=423250506
This is how a game world could look like in the first versions up to 0.04 (it's only a part of the whole world, I had more maps connecting to this one). The world was being generated procedurally and its size was theoretically unlimited.

Instead of empty depths, there even was a continuos sea floor connecting the islands, which was really nice. I don't know why they gave up this concept, but it was gone when the procedural world generation was taken out (which very likely happened because they started to try implementing multiplayer).

There is an active mod available that changes the island distribution and also allows implementing user-created maps into the random generator. Made by Hantacore:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/313120/discussions/2/2638497042777608058/

It will generate less predictable game worlds looking like the one below. Would be great on a 10x10 or even bigger grid to have more islands:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1858124962

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by Skarmo:

I don't know why they gave up this concept, but it was gone when the procedural world generation was taken out (which very likely happened because they started to try implementing multiplayer).

I 'think' the reason is that the more islands explored the larger the world and then the more PC resources it needed.
Higher end computers would have had much larger worlds before noticing the impact lower end would have started to suffer earlier with the load of so many islands.

Of course I can only speculate on my own experience as I am not a developer so cant say for sure.

Edit:Each bright yellow square is an island that had been explored gaps in between were biomes that possibly had loot etc but no island.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=600253849

Cosmo and Fred

[thomlovessue]

IF the reason was multiplayer (split screen or internet), I would prefer to go back to the random generated map. Of course, that is just me, it could be as Cosmo stated. But I would even take a world just the size of Skarmo's map over multiplayer! I'd even take it if it removed the bosses....

[deez]

I guess i did grow up some with game. I started playing around mid to late 2015. I remember that map you made and the one Cos posted up there too. I remember the continuous ocean floor too with ships sporadically between islands. It made you look while you were sailing. The bouy markers floating out in the middle of nowhere with the great whites around them. I think those were great ideas by the dev team and would like to see them returned. I do understand though that they know more about making a game work than i do but those things had a good part in making you feel alone. Im suprised you got maps made by Hanta. Those things should be considered vintage and collectors items:) I wish i still had them.

[Skarmo]

Originally posted by deezbuffalonutz:

Im suprised you got maps made by Hanta.

This is not a map created by Hanta. He wrote a procedure which changes the way the game world gets generated, leaving some biomes empty and adding the possibility to randomly include user-made maps. He offered the C# code to the developers in the aforementioned thread.

I'm thinking of how much better the game would be if they could just make the grid bigger and implement this procedure! :)

Originally posted by Cosmo:

I 'think' the reason is that the more islands explored the larger the world and then the more PC resources it needed.

Yes, this might have been a consideration. But if you think of how big game worlds could be in those days and how "small" the game itself is (2 GB) there should be some room for improvement. Also I remember one of the devs mentioning that the procedural generation will ("likely") not return because it would cause too much trouble synchronising worlds in possible MP.

However, these are two different topics. I understand that the size of the world has to be limitated in some way, but with the procedural generation gone, it should still be possible to make it larger. And empty cells don't need much resources! :)

[Cosmo]

Originally posted by Skarmo:

However, these are two different topics. I understand that the size of the world has to be limitated in some way, but with the procedural generation gone, it should still be possible to make it larger. And empty cells don't need much resources! :)

People are already experiencing 'lag type issues' due to collecting a lot of resources and having them laying around on the ground or building large structures with many parts. The more islands the more objects, some of my old saves when it was 'unlimited' were 100mb+ (just the .json file alone) which might not sound like much but when you consider it's just a txt file and how many items must be listed to make it that size ....

With a bigger world and more biomes people have the ability to add more islands in those areas not necessarily leaving them "empty".
I can see how people with more powerful PC's might like the idea of more and more but there are set system requirements which some people have found to their dismay were far more forgiving in the early days than they are now.

As for multiplayer and the restrictions it would place on a procedurally generated world I can't remember what the developers said about it (memory isn't always good lol). I do know they were thinking about the cartographer at one point as it became popular (if I remember correctly this was unexpected) but the developers spoke about having a set grid in the map centre so people could add map creations then a procedural world outwards from that. The best of both worlds so to speak but I am guessing this may have been beyond the scope of what was possible.

As I said before though, I am no game developer I can only talk about personal experience I have had with the game since its launch.

Cosmo and Fred

[deez]

Yeah Skarmo I was referring to the screenshot of the cartogrpaher but now i see it was made by Hanta. I wish i could get hold of those maps again. I guess i should have kept the ones i made back then too but i didnt. It would be fun to look at some of the stupid things i did:)

As far as the other points you guys make Im not really educated enough to make a response. It is just my opinion that things that have been brought up would make the game better. For me If i had a choice of the things of the past or coop i would choose the things of the past while i do like the idea of coop for a choice. To me both would be for a nice change when you tire of one.

[Skarmo]

Well, I am no developer either. But if I compare Stranded Deep to other, quite similar titles written on the same engine (like Subnautica or Green Hell) I 'think' that making the game world larger should be technically possible. Maybe there are restrictions for the console versions. Bringing back the continous sea floor might be difficult because we have custom-made islands now.

[deez]

Were we using custom islands back then? I see your point. If you look at the size of some these games now you would think it would be possible.

[Animuz]

I hope they at least expand to a 7x7 grid, but with no additional islands. I'd like to see random grid locations have NO island/boss. With all 5x5 spots filled, navigation is ridiculously easy. With empty locations, it would make it more difficult to navigate -- and thus easier to get lost.