Altis and Stratis on one physical map. What do you think?

[mr.g-c 6]

Remember ArmA1? Yes it had "Sahrani" and the smaller default island "Rahmadi" on one single map. Screen: http://onlyhdwallpapers.com/wallpaper/sahrani_here_is_the_biggest_best_one_just_covered_in_high_resolution_desktop_6923x5867_wallpaper-234045.jpg

I personally would like to see it for the final release too (Altis + Stratis). Would be awesome for gameplay/stories/campaigns/multiplayer/everything.

I don't know about performance impacts though, but i believe since we have that streaming engine it should be neglectable. Questionable are Satmaps though, however i have no real idea about it.

Underwater-environemt needs to be designed then though, depending on distance from Altis to Stratis (maybe it can be auto-done, like the generated landmass in ArmA2 around Chernarus, i dont know).

Anyway, here is the ticket to vote if you like: http://feedback.arma3.com/view.php?id=7730

Edited April 24, 2013 by mr.g-c
Title missing letters

[RuecanOnRails 10]

This has been discussed before.

And geographically it wouldn't work. The distance between those islands is simply too far and would require an excessive amount of empty open water. The game is about realism, they're not going to put the two islands side by side to make the map larger. It also wouldn't work too well with the story IMO.

[teaboy 11]

I think it would be a great idea.

I agree Arma is about realism (in terms of military combat simulation) but at the same time not being accurate to real life geography would not deflect from the realism of military combat. So having the two islands on one map would not deflect from realism but allow for more game play options. Hell the story line about Iran and the future setting is hardly realistic.

[Steakslim 1]

I like the idea, though the two islands would have to be much closer than their real life counterparts of course.

[viper[cww] 14]

It's a great idea, but aslong as it can cut off rendering either island from a certain distance. As I don't want Altis to be rendered when I'm playing on Stratis only. AFAIK the models etc are still using up cpu utilization even if out of view distance, could be wrong though.

[Scoggs 1]

Would be cool, but at the same time I would worry about performance. But I would love to see it!

[kilroy the nerd 14]

I suppose if it were also done like Takistan and Takistan (small) that came with ACR DLC, solving Viper's problem of rendering only one at a time. 3 maps: Stratis, Altis, Altis and Stratis. Maybe a little too much though.

[DaRkL3AD3R 1]

It would be impressive if they could stream the actual distance in aquatic miles from Stratis to Altis, and let you fly or boat between them, but there's no way they could do it on current tech. Maybe in 15 years when Arma 8 comes out we can do that lol

[Sarlac 1]

In reality these two islands are really not "that" far apart. Considering the fact that they have scaled down the islands a bit, I see no reason why they wouldn't be able to scale down the distance between the two somewhat as well. I would not mind a 5 minute flight from one to the other. I would love a reason to set sail in a speedboat and lose visual of land for a while. At the very least I hope there are more off shore islands further out than a man should consider swimming.

[dmarkwick 261]

Just a problem of terrain size vs benefit. The benefit would be some interesting scenarios, but the terrain size increase might drag performance down. Bear in mind that "open water" now represents terrain thanks to new underwater & scuba features :)

[SnowSky 12]

Does anyone remember the map where Kolgujev, Malden and Everon were on one single map?

It would be really really cool to find the whole Armaverusm on one single map,

I mean with nogova, everon, kolgujev, malden, Sahrani, Chernogorsk, Takistan (even perhaps desert island) etc.

And now imagine with all the units from every game^^ (ofp units in low poly).

I'm whining while thinking of it^^

[EDcase 87]

I'd prefer to have a new map about the size of Altis which is broken up into several islands and fjords

[Sneakers O'Toole 2]

Bummer, i assumed they would both be in the same map.

Once Altis comes out I can say that I will never play on stratis again. Kind of a waste of effort to code an island which for lot of people will only ever be used for alpha play.

[kamaradski 10]

Once Altis comes out I can say that I will never play on stratis again. Kind of a waste of effort to code an island which for lot of people will only ever be used for alpha play.

Stratis is and will remain a perfect location for training, and i will be happy to continue using it for this purpose.

[bigpickle 0]

I think it would be GREAT!

The game is about realism, they're not going to put the two islands side by side to make the map larger

With the fact that they are making the game set in the future, and that the islands are only based on real geographical locations there is no reason why they couldn't do it if they wanted to, in fact they can do anything they want to.

[helldesign 10]

I personally would like to see it for the final release too (Altis + Stratis). Would be awesome for gameplay/stories/campaigns/multiplayer/everything.

I'm not sure how this will affect the game performance and devs probably have more important issues to solve (short time), but I would love to see it in the final game.

[teaboy 11]

According to the feedback tracker the devs are going to look into it - "This suggest was processed by our team and will be looked into. We thank you for your feedback."

So at least we have a little glimmer of hope there. I don't think the additional Sea bed terrain will have much impact especially as it largely barren terrain in deeper areas just like in the real world.

[call_911 10]

Can barely play on Stratis let alone Altis.

[sproyd 2]

Lots of great ideas in here! Loading times on an HDD will be horrific though. Also, for those complaining about realism - the islands are actually not to scale and if I recall correctly are scaled down versions about 2/3 the size of the actual ones.

[RuecanOnRails 10]

The distance between the islands is only a short 40km away... if the scale is 2:3 it's 26.6km away in game. In the speed boat at 100kmh it will take about 17 minutes.

Unless a massive naval section is added to the game, we don't need that much open water. It would become just a waste of space on our ssd's. empty terrain that people simply fly over.

I'm not against the idea of having both islands put into a single map at their respective location, but I don't feel Arma currently has the features to make use of that open water. Please by all means show me I'm wrong

If scuba is expanded, and a fully operational naval arsenal is added with in-depth combat, and a more detailed ocean floor/depth I'd be all for the additional open water.

I'm all about meta gaming in the arma series but with that much excessive open water short of detailed diving and deep sea fishing what else could it be used for that the current map set up couldn't do? Reenacting the perfect storm?

[pitn 10]

How about creating an instance? I would like to have the two islands (maps) connected to one mission. Where a player can easily move from one server (Stratis) to another (Altis). And as a mission maker if I wanted an open water map in between these two maps... I think some of you can see the possibilities.

This can probably be done now thru a persistent database and simply changing servers. But what if this can be done quickly (not MMORPG/PS2/SWTOR quickly) but have the infrastructure already included in the engine. I know BIS has thought about it. They have discussed it for their other project that uses a similar engine.

Imagine what a mission maker can do if he can take his mission and spread it over several instanced servers. All of these servers with there own unique island (map). Islands, continents, buildings, static ships, open water, and dungeons. Do you see the possibilities?

[teaboy 11]

The distance between the islands is only a short 40km away... if the scale is 2:3 it's 26.6km away in game. In the speed boat at 100kmh it will take about 17 minutes.

Unless a massive naval section is added to the game, we don't need that much open water. It would become just a waste of space on our ssd's. empty terrain that people simply fly over.

I'm not against the idea of having both islands put into a single map at their respective location, but I don't feel Arma currently has the features to make use of that open water. Please by all means show me I'm wrong

If scuba is expanded, and a fully operational naval arsenal is added with in-depth combat, and a more detailed ocean floor/depth I'd be all for the additional open water.

I'm all about meta gaming in the arma series but with that much excessive open water short of detailed diving and deep sea fishing what else could it be used for that the current map set up couldn't do? Reenacting the perfect storm?

Thing is, they can reduce some of the Sea Area on the maps so that the distance is say just 10km or less between the two islands (basically making the distance between the two just right for game play purposes).

Don't forget we also will likely have Chinook's and C130 planes and the Opfor will hopefully have similar air transport, so you can travel by air in large groups with various vehicles in cargo. If they enable the ability to load cargo into air transport and cargo lift heavy Armour by choppers etc, then the need for Naval Assets is reduced. If D-Day were to have occurred today instead on in 1944 the invasion would not have been seaborne but airborne direct from UK airfields, and Naval Assets would have been purely support assets.

I think a Map where both islands are together would be great for MP especially CTI, but it would also encourage Modders to mod naval assets and other assets that can be used in naval or airborne invasions. We already have some in Arma 2 such as an nuclear powered aircraft carrier mod and it looks as though we already have a modded submarine in Arma 3 already - http://s11.postimg.org/cvikcdzmr/arma3_2013_04_13_23_58_19_84.jpg.

Off course BIS may not have the two island map in the official arma 3 release but they could release it along with additional relevant content as a DLC.

[toiletguy 1]

Remember, both islands are fictional. Anything is possible.

[kamaradski 10]

I would love this and it should also be possible without problem with the current technology. Actually I'm 90% sure it will be released as 1 map...

[Ezcoo 47]

I like the idea of combining the maps. Then we would have a large island on the map rendering naval assets more important if wanted and the second airport which is pretty important in my opinion. It's like win-win, can't figure out any cons except slightly lower FPS (not sure though). Especially the second airport would be really neat addition, because without it numerous scenarios, maps and game modes can't be properly done.