Do You find ArmA Infinite Land Spooky?

[walker 0]

Hi all

I did my first expedition to infinite land today two overflights and a landing and frankly found the experience spooky.

Has anyone else been there?

What is your experirnece of it?

Kind Regards walker

[HeLMuT28 10]

What the heck are you talking about? :)

I just installed last night and I am just now taking a break from the game, love it! But what is this infinite land you speak of? :confused:

[maddogx 13]

This was one of the first things I checked. Definitely eerie out there. There's something strangely disquieting about such a vast and empty area. :)

What the heck are you talking about? :)

I just installed last night and I am just now taking a break from the game, love it! But what is this infinite land you speak of? :confused:

Open up Chernarus in the editor, scroll right to the top left and place yourself as a soldier in the top left corner. Once in-game, you can walk north and/or west forever. That's the infinite land.

[walker 0]

Hi HeLMuT28

To the north and west of the map the land is infinite.

BIS use a random fractal landscape generator, it is currently just textured as grass, but BIS intend to spend some time on improving it. It has already improved since version 1.01

There is a post explaining it but I just wanted to get the opinion of people who have visited it on how it affected them psychologically; so I needed a poll for that.

Kind regards walker

Edited June 21, 2009 by walker

[-)rStrangelove 0]

If there's one thing i can't stand then it's visual boundaries where i can't go or where i just die after a few seconds.

So NO this is the best thing since sliced bread.

[maddogx 13]

To make the infinite land even more interesting, place yourself far out there, and put the following into your unit's init field:

this removeWeapon "itemCompass"; this setDir random 360

... lost. :eek:

[walker 0]

Hi ])rStrangelove

Oh I want it too!

It means realy radical things for the future of gaming. It is after all infinity but I was wanting to know the first feelings of people who have visited it.

It will tell us about human reactions to infinity after all.

I am interested in all the scientific factors involved in it including its affect on peoples minds.

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 21, 2009 by walker

[echo1 0]

I remember Delta Force 2 had something just like this. Not quite as radical as you claim

[walker 0]

Hi ch_123

I do not remember Delta Force 2 as being infinite random terrain it was more in the way of repeating tiles as I remember.

Kind Regards walker

[Fred DM 0]

I do not remember Delta Force 2 as being infinite random terrain it was more in the way of repeating tiles as I remember.

same difference. it's not like the infinite terrain in ArmA 2 actually had character. i figure it's a nice gimmick if you overshoot the map border (still visible) with a fast-mover, but nothing more. won't revolutionize gaming.

[Dr.Pulp 0]

spooky! drove around with a 4x4...and thought before each hill "there got to be something somewhere" but dind't find anything.

But if i would have found something...i would shit my pants *G*

[sk3pt 0]

Wow, just discovered the new 'procedural' islands north of Utes. :D

[Praelium 0]

I don't have the game yet, but if you put the animal logic down could you find any animals out there?

[Dr.Pulp 0]

I don't have the game yet, but if you put the animal logic down could you find any animals out there?

Yeah! SOM works, too

[Killerwatt 0]

The feeling it invoked in me was very similar to the feeling I got the first time I ended up in Witchspace in the game "Elite", many years ago. Total detachement and aloneness. I couldn't help feeling I didn't belong here and I wanted to get back to my own "dimension" as it were. The occasional sight of normality such as a bird or butterlfy only served to reinforce that feeling.

[Windexglow 10]

Heh, zombies + rabid animals should start appearing out there :p

[Scrub 0]

Windexglow, No S%!t. A bit unnerving out there. If it was persistent, and had resupply or civilization, not too bad, but the knowledge it doesn't really exist concretely makes me want to run for the known border.

Fred DM. This is only the start. Realistic seeded terrain and foliage could soon follow, like all the random landscape generators out there (Bryce and such) for 3D fx. And when the generated environment is analyzed and understood, acceptable placement of civilization features and roads could follow. Having such a naysaying, defeatist attitude does not point toward the envisioned goal as a hopeful, striving one does. BIS could very well do this, and make yet again another groundbreaking feature. They ARE a positive, forward looking, ambitious group.

cheers

Edited June 21, 2009 by Scrub

[BEEJ24 10]

i followed bigfoot to his bunker out there... tried to get a shot off but missed the git... but seriously, the infinite land is cool :D especially when your flying and you need to do a nice shallow turn say in the C-130 and if i tried to do it in BF2 it would kill my ass for being off the "playing field"

[madrussian 347]

Anyone try placing anything out there yet? Might get even spookier still...

btw- Still awaiting my 505 copy... Wondering how the procedural coastline turned out?

[Typheus 10]

Windexglow, glad you could join us from the gamefaqs forums.

And what you all are describing seems to be the same thing as Silent Hill's "impossible space."

They used a lot of impossibly placed hallways or rooms, or stairwells that really shouldn't exist. This was one of the major factors in the creepiness.

I mean, imagine if, in your own house, you had a kitchen on the first floor, and upstairs, right above it, beneath the tub in your bathroom, you found a secret entrance to a spiral stairway that led into your basement and is surrounded by a concrete wall so you can't see outside of it. This spiral stairway would have to pass right through the center of your kitchen. You run back down to the kitchen and, low and behold, there's no stone cylinder going through your kitchen.

You promptly move out of the house and have it demolished after hearing scratching noises coming from the bathroom. xD

But seriously, it's empty "shouldn't exist" places that can drive people up the wall. I wonder if this effect helps people have hallucinations in the desert?

[An Fiach 10]

Windexglow, No S%!t. A bit unnerving out there. If it was persistent, and had resupply or civilization, not too bad, but the knowledge it doesn't really exist concretely makes me want to run for the known border.

Fred DM. This is only the start. Realistic seeded terrain and foliage could soon follow, like all the random landscape generators out there (Bryce and such) for 3D fx. And when the generated environment is analyzed and understood, acceptable placement of civilization features and roads could follow. Having such a naysaying, defeatist attitude does not point toward the envisioned goal as a hopeful, striving one does. BIS could very well do this, and make yet again another groundbreaking feature. They ARE a positive, forward looking, ambitious group.

cheers

Well, in a game based upon realism, how do you relate to random generated terrain? If you are just referring to size in general, this is behind the curve.

---------- Post added at 12:58 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:49 AM ----------

Come to think of it, there is a possible use for this, unfortunately it is light years ahead of network data transfer speeds.

[Windexglow 10]

Windexglow, glad you could join us from the gamefaqs forums.

Err, what? Let us never speak of that again.

As for what I meant by zombies, was that very rarely a zombie will spawn far off in the distance. Or maybe just random sounds (someone screaming for example) would be quite eery out there.

I haven't played the game though, just seen small videos of this mythical place.

[sneakey pete 10]

Realistic seeded terrain and foliage could soon follow, like all the random landscape generators out there (Bryce and such) for 3D fx. And when the generated environment is analyzed and understood, acceptable placement of civilization features and roads could follow. Having such a naysaying, defeatist attitude does not point toward the envisioned goal as a hopeful, striving one does. BIS could very well do this, and make yet again another groundbreaking feature. They ARE a positive, forward looking, ambitious group.

There's plenty of developers seriously looking into this kind of thing already (hell, there's a game generating entire galaxy's complete with solar systems with planets that go to the level of detail of trees).

I don't think BIS will be the pioneers of it. But i do think they will make good use of it.

[walker 0]

Hi all

It is interesting that so far just over half find it spooky.

There is probably a BSc. thesis for a psychologist, "On Human Pschological reactions to Infinity." in this.

What is it that people Fear? What are their reactions when together?

Are some people lying when they give their answer in the poll? If so why?

As objects are placed in Infinite Land do peoples fears decrease? Is it the lack of referense?

Do people get used to it? Do people prefer it? What are the pychologies of the different groups?

Is this a primal fear? Is it just a fear of being alone. Is it that people feel they have trangressed? If such a feeling of transgression exists, is it because they feel they have, entered anothers domain, or because they have left their own domain.

Just Some thoughts.

Can we try and keep this thread for the Psychology of Infinite Land.

There is this thread on the physics and geography of infinite land here.

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=72979

I am organising an expedition to infinite land in there. A Qualified psychologist or one of their students would be welcome. You will need to have a study plan though.

Kind Regards walker

Edited June 21, 2009 by walker

[EricM 0]

It's not just random : We have around 3 times more "static" landmass than before on Chernarus where you can place stuff before you reach the outer border when it goes random.

That means that all this space can be populated by BIS or the Community at a later stage, even though it's not up to the standards of "inland" Chernarus.