The map feels kind of small (many letters warning)

[cobreen]

This is a complicated feeling.

Imagine, you just began playing abiotic factor. You enter plaza and get overwhelmed by shear size and complexity of GATE facility.

You know every turn and corner leads to 3 other locations.

Eventually you figure out office levels from 1 to 3 and you notice something weird.
The world is kinda tiny relative to what you made to think.

I will not beleive that one huge office and 10-20 rooms is enough bureacracy power to control whole facility which is HUGE if you look out of windows in plaza. I've got no hint that office 1-3 is just one of many office complexes. It all feels final.

Transitions:
It's super weird that labs are almost directly connected to offices (look left labs, look right clear window offices).
Security checkpoint is more like security "somewhere back there without actually preventing anyone from passing through" point

Manufacture is deeper while labs are higher (against resource sink approach)

About "resource sink"
I'm pretty sure the deeper you go the costlier it is to dig.

I'm avare the facility is probably in some kind of cave of gargantuous sizes so it really doesn't matter.

I'm pretty sure the labs take less space than storage (there is no reason to experiment on 10 boxes of stuff at once if you can only store 5)

If You need 10000 crates of A4 paper for offices per month. You get them from surface and get them delivered to -10 level to then deliver them back up to -5? I don't think so.

I am avare of Aperture labs where Cave Johnson decided to build labs from bottom up, so reasoning with design and practicality is stupid.
Even if not taking building cost into account figure this.

Possible explanation is that GATE got self sufficient with their "crack teleportation" tech (I forgot how it's really called forgive me). This would also explain why there is no hard seam between level and no proper logistic routes. Why care if your pencils will "respawn" somewhere near tomorrow.

But still why PLAZA looks and feels like it's the only plaza in whole facility if there is more than devs made?
It's not the "plaza west" or "plaza 42".

I know from game design it's better to make "rich small" map than poor "large one", but!

Consider aperture labs:
while it's a "coridor game" you are always left with feeling that facility is nearly-infinite

Or half-life:
by using
-teleporting loading screens
- elevators
- collapsed continuations
player feels that facility is larger than player ever sees.

I hope you understand my feeling

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

thats the office sector that handels generic office work every and really every sector has its own offices and some small some bigger. and you dont know what is actually excavated and what where natural caves

[Monokuma]

I'd like to mention that there are many gate facilities across the planet, it's not a single-facility situation. There is(/was) a portal network they use as well (the dark lens was stolen), which likely alleviates(/ed) some of the logistics.

[cobreen]

Originally posted by Monokuma:

I'd like to mention that there are many gate facilities across the planet, it's not a single-facility situation. There is(/was) a portal network they use as well (the dark lens was stolen), which likely alleviates(/ed) some of the logistics.

This comment signifies you did not read the post I made. While I agree there is >1 facility you ignore the fact that GATE facility itself is huge (have you even seen a dam?)
yet the play area is designed like it's all there is to see

[cobreen]

Originally posted by Das Trojanische Pferd:

thats the office sector that handels generic office work every and really every sector has its own offices and some small some bigger. and you dont know what is actually excavated and what where natural caves

This is a fair comment that does not explain while we are in "plaza" not "plaza west" or something signifying that we are cut of from the rest of the facility

[cobreen]

I attach a youtube video replicating my feelings about GATE size
https://youtu.be/uL6Z47I6U6k?si=OqNqpRa_KGehFl9B

Now imagine being told how big the black mesa is (attach a long scenic train intro) and seeing that as a gameplay

[Das Trojanische Pferd]

Originally posted by cobreen:

Originally posted by Das Trojanische Pferd:

thats the office sector that handels generic office work every and really every sector has its own offices and some small some bigger. and you dont know what is actually excavated and what where natural caves

This is a fair comment that does not explain while we are in "plaza" not "plaza west" or something signifying that we are cut of from the rest of the facility

i think that there is just 1 plaza what use would they have for more then 1 plaza when this plaza is connects to the leisure and residential complex and the cafeteria. So this is most likely the most heavily trafficed area in the whole facility.

[cobreen]

Originally posted by Das Trojanische Pferd:

Originally posted by cobreen:

This is a fair comment that does not explain while we are in "plaza" not "plaza west" or something signifying that we are cut of from the rest of the facility

i think that there is just 1 plaza what use would they have for more then 1 plaza when this plaza is connects to the leisure and residential complex and the cafeteria. So this is most likely the most heavily trafficed area in the whole facility.

I have no way of denying it, but it's kind of weird that plaza is designed to be looked at from a very specific angle hinting the place called "cafeteria" should have been a main elevator (like in "man in black") or something of that kind.

I mean. You don't enter a fancy hotel through internet cafe :)

[Monokuma]

Originally posted by cobreen:

Originally posted by Monokuma:

I'd like to mention that there are many gate facilities across the planet, it's not a single-facility situation. There is(/was) a portal network they use as well (the dark lens was stolen), which likely alleviates(/ed) some of the logistics.

This comment signifies you did not read the post I made. While I agree there is >1 facility you ignore the fact that GATE facility itself is huge (have you even seen a dam?)
yet the play area is designed like it's all there is to see

Don't make assumptions about what I do and don't read. I wouldn't have brought up the portal network if you hadn't mentioned the strange logistics.
A lot of the facility is inaccessible to the player. Simple as. Many administrative duties can be held off-site, so a facility doesn't strictly need large swathes of offices for every single accounting duty. There's several layers of facility seen from the tutorial elevator that we simply do not have access to.

As for the "why is plaza just labeled plaza" issue, I've seen some really stupid naming decisions in real life. Sometimes things are just poorly named. I once entered a hospital with cardiology labeled as being on one floor, but cardiology appointments were on an entirely different floor, unlabeled.

[cobreen]

Originally posted by Monokuma:

Originally posted by cobreen:

This comment signifies you did not read the post I made. While I agree there is >1 facility you ignore the fact that GATE facility itself is huge (have you even seen a dam?)
yet the play area is designed like it's all there is to see

Don't make assumptions about what I do and don't read. I wouldn't have brought up the portal network if you hadn't mentioned the strange logistics.
A lot of the facility is inaccessible to the player. Simple as. Many administrative duties can be held off-site, so a facility doesn't strictly need large swathes of offices for every single accounting duty. There's several layers of facility seen from the tutorial elevator that we simply do not have access to.

As for the "why is plaza just labeled plaza" issue, I've seen some really stupid naming decisions in real life. Sometimes things are just poorly named. I once entered a hospital with cardiology labeled as being on one floor, but cardiology appointments were on an entirely different floor, unlabeled.

My assumpions were wrongfull and I were not supposed to invoke them.
I agree with your suggestion as it is plausible without requiring tweaks in current game

[Xeridanus]

Originally posted by cobreen:

I will not beleive that one huge office and 10-20 rooms is enough bureacracy power to control whole facility which is HUGE if you look out of windows in plaza. I've got no hint that office 1-3 is just one of many office complexes. It all feels final.

Use your imagination. You clearly are when it comes to what's wrong with it. Why not use it to do some world building yourself. Maybe the lack of bureaucracy is the reason for the containment failure? Maybe it's handled elsewhere we can't see/don't have access to. You shouldn't expect every game, especially one with such a small team/budget, to hand feed you answers to every question that pops into your head.

As for your later arguments about cost, Yes it's expensive beyond reason. But that's more fun now isn't it?