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why do almost all map estimations ignore the actual geography of the area concerned?

am I the only one who thinks that R* will continue the trend of considering the real life geography of the cities involved?

I know I said this already, but when I look at how the geographical accuracy evolved since III, I have a hard time thinking of a V with a totally random landscape design.

III era LC was a very very vague take at NYC, then VC was still vague but with improved accuracy, then SA came with already a lot of accuracy concerning the city shapes aswell as the main geography in between them.

with IV there was a huge step, representing a lot of NYC's actual geography.

judging from what we've seen of Los Santos itself, it seems R* stays at least on the same level of accuracy they used in IV, so why does it seem like barely any of the fan-made maps consider this trend when it comes to the surrounding landscape?

don't get me wrong, I appreciate the efforts and ideas put into those maps and there's a lot of nice maps out there - no matter how likely they are - but most of them seem to more or less ignore the actual socal geography

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Thanks for your feedback to my map.

If you have any ideas for changing please tell me. I will try create a map with your advices.

@gmt

When you turn the map you can see similarities to geographic of souther california

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Thanks for your feedback to my map.

If you have any ideas for changing please tell me. I will try create a map with your advices.

I think the east side of the city might be too large. On your map, where is the oil well from trailer 1 located?

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i think WingBert did an amazing job on that map, and if i could make my own changes to it, i would. not realy for credit, but just to throw in my two sense.

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leaving my map shape hickup aside for a sec, I was comparing Vinewood-sign screenshots (tried to put some figures to scale estimations based on the size of the Hollywood sign) and now wonder how much R* fiddles with the map even at a late state of development.

the "new" screenshot shows some Hollywood Bowl like structure somewhat south of the Vinewood sign, partially covered by the gta logo.

in an older screen of Trevor climbing the D, the same structure is more or lessat the same spot, some prominent features like the trident-idh clamshell roof can be seen.

now, back as we identified this thing as the Hollywood Bowl, this screen cleary showed the structure in between the Vinewood sign and the Observatory.

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You're right, but the change of perspective doesn't explain the change of location. Especially compare the 2nd and 3rd screenshot I linked, in both screens Trevor climbs the "D" and the camera just rotates at couple feet distance around the scene, imho quite obvious that the change of perspective does not account for the change of location relative to the Vinewood sign.

The Bowl is located about straight south of the "D" in the 2nd screenshot and in the 3rd, it's pretty much straight to the west of the sign.

Of course I'm assuming it's the same structure that just changed location during development.

It might aswell be a totally different venue from the Bowl; theres also the Greek Theatre just a quarter mile east of the Observatory irl, but tbh I don't think R* includes both of them as the Greek Theatre is just not as famous as the Bowl

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This kind of came up a little bit ago (I think Dup brought it up) where it looked like there were two different amphitheaters. Rockstar could have moved it during development but taking a look at these two:

official-screenshot-lspd-helicopter-after-trevor.jpgofficial-screenshot-trevor-scales-the-vinewood-sign.jpg

It's definitely looks like two different places with different buildings. Problem I see is that the Greek has a much smaller seating area compared to the one in the left screenshot.

edit: I labelled the "bowls" in this screenshot:

post-3-0-35839000-1357593438_thumb.png

Note that the Buzzard in this next screenshot is past the Vinewood sign so the Hollywood bowl must be in the left valley of the previous pic:

official-screenshot-buzzard-swoops-into-vinewood.jpg

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The amphitheaters won't be empty. They'll probably end up being a way to spend money, or they'll factor into a mission somehow.

Mount Chiliad isn't pointless. It'll definitely fit into a mission somehow. That I can guarantee...If not, it'll feature pastimes of some sort. Hiking, hunting, etc. Or, shoving your comrades off of it online. Or, racing them down the slopes in Banditos. Or, filling up the 747 with the other 31 players and crashing into it.

Nothing in this game will be wasted, y'all of little faith. In Rockstar we trust.

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It was pointless in San Andreas, aside from one not-particularly-fun mission. I don't expect anything more than that.

San Andreas was 9 years ago (wow). This is 2013, and Rockstar has developed a lot more experience in between. I'm sure they'll have thought up more significant uses for the mountain by now...I'm surprised by your lack of faith, Massacre.

*puffs pipe*

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