I was messing around with how Chapter 5 regions might map into the existing game, and came up with this.
- Connects Milton to the coast
- unites the two road networks, so you can drive all the way from Bleak Inlet to Suzuki (pre-quakes).
- connects the railway from Mystery Lake to a coastal port for log export, and obviously all the way to TFTFT
- Plausibly allows Jace to get stuck in Blackrock, with the mine shortcut to Suzuki, while maintaining her ability to normally drive there (by going through Milton. Hypothetically there could be a road going directly there from Keeper’s Pass as well)
- Desperation Bay is too linear, but it has those two iconic landmarks, so I think the SAR station could go halfway between the ship & the lighthouse.
- Uses the railway to the SAR to connect to Port Mary.
- Plausibly justifies Milton being “halfway between the mountains and Port Mary” - the drive to Suzuki could be “in the mountains”
- Preserves coastal access to Perseverance Wilds
Have I missed anything big?
I saw it pointed out that what is probably Jace’s car is in Blackrock. So either she got lost on the way or the intended road route to Suzuki is through Blackrock, but the current map has no support for that at all.
@rbos excellent work
One thing I missed - the map on the ship tells us what the coastline looks like, so that’s cool. But mostly just a matter of twiddling the locations to integrate that.
Some additional comments:
- I think the rail line should connect to the mill - the logging operation in ML needs to have someplace to send its logs. Since we have a mill, that’s the logical place for a spur line off the main railway. One of the switching yards could send trains there.
- There could be an Ash Canyon link to Suzuki. The geothermal plant is boring, but it’d probably be a decent transition zone to somewhere else.
- This map loses the ability for Astrid to reasonably take the rail to the SAR, but maybe it could be moved farther up the coast.
One thing I can’t reconcile: Log Sort, in Coastal Highway.
In theory, the Log Sort might be a good terminus for logs coming from other regions via the railway: a log comes from ML to the top of the map, and then … somehow … gets down to Log Sort. I’d expect that to happen via a river. But there’s no infrastructure in Coastal Highway to send logs down to the coast. I guess they could be loaded up on trucks, but floating them would make more sense. That anemic little stream in CH isn’t NEARLY big enough and there’s no connection to the Train Unloading area.
As such, I think it’s more likely that the logs are going to Perserverance Mills: but then that leaves Log Sort with no purpose at all!
So I think a branch line going to Perseverance Mills, and then on to Port Mary for export to the Mainland, is likely. All that coal, ore, and wood needs a port cable of loading cargo ships.
