Abandoned military base in the wilderness of the Great Bear. (with a map sketch!)


amadeuszbx

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So I had this idea for a region I would like to see for quite some time. It stems from the fact that I'd really like to see more wilderness area that has some decent, key shleters but nothing as densely packed with houses as Milton. I'd like to see this nice balance that would give us some interesting man-made locations with backstory to explore, at the same time putting us into the middle of Canadian nowhere. Map that allows us to choose a base in one of man-made shelters but forces us to explore wilderness while moving from one such shelter to another.

Thanks to anyone who will read through this wall of text and will be kind enough to share their opinion. I know it's quite extensive and it may not be very well planned but hey! It's just for fun!

Name could be Rosethorn Ridge, or Roesthorn Valley, something like that. The whole terrain would be very uneven, mountain-ey, with a lot of hills, high hillocks and medium-sized mountains. Not a one-huge mountain like TimberWolf, not such extremely vertical cliffs like in Hushed River Valley. A very uneven terrain, where multiple hills, high rock formations, etc. are intersected by rivers or ditches. Walking around would prove to be quite the pain in the a*s since it would be tiring for the character and rather slow. What's more, mountainous terrain would prove to be very tricky to navigate and find your way around, especially when you don't know it very well yet. Such layout would be one of the biggest difficulties of this map.

My initial plan was that Rosethorn Ridge would be connected to Broken Railroad. It's not a "must" or anything, I just really like Broken Railroad and thought it would add more value to the map if it was connected to a new one. It would also situate Rosethorn right next to a forge so that's another plus. I presented the rough map layout in the attached picture. As you all can see it's very, very rough with only key landmarks (that I have came up with) marked. It's done for fun, not as a professional plan. There is still a huge amount of space empty on the map so if any of you have any ideas what could go there share them! 

So here comes the description of the main landmarks of the map that I draw:

  • Railroad would continue in a straightforward manner up to the bridge going over the creek and somewhere beyond. Maybe to yet another map
  • In the bottom left corner of the map there would be a hill with a location called Scientist's post. It would consist of remnants of a fence surrounding small hut made of bricks, a small wooden ruin where some sort of shack used to be (it would be completely destroyed, almost no cover from wind or anything) and a broken, small radio tower. There would also be a simple hunter's blind. Deers could roam somewhere in the forest below but it would be very difficult to hunt them from this blind due to trees and difference in height. Naturally main point of interest here is a hut that could make a potential base.
    • Inside of this small, brick hut would be similar to radio hut from Plesent Valley. To the right from the entrance would be "work room" with some shelves, file cabinets and locker (providing potential storage space), table and workbench. Straight ahead, at the end of the hut, would be extremely tiny bathroom: only toilet, sink, maybe medical cabinet. The rest of the space would be taken up by an open "living room" space: a bed, fireplace, wardrobe, possible some other furniture and some additional storage space. The drawback would be that the storage space is not really great and the whole place is rather tiny but it still could make for a solid main-base.
  • At one point, when you're walking alongside tracks, there is hard to immediately see trail leading up the hill into the forest, and later up the main, central mountain up to the military base. Mountain on which the base is situated would be very steep (best entrance is by this trail and there is also a steeper trail at the back that I will describe later) but it would have a spacious, flat top on which the Rosethorn Military Base is nestled.
    • Military Base: the main attraction here. it would be surrounded by a high fence that is destroyed in many places so it would by no means be enclosed and safe from wildlife. As you approach the main gate there is a small cabin right at the entrance. This cabin, designed for entrance guards, could make a good "living space" in the base: it is cosy and small. There is belly-pot stove and a bed. Some drawers would also be present, but the storage is generally very poor. This should not be the problem, however, as you have the rest of the Base for that. In the middle of the Base there are 3 "living blocks". One of them would be randomly destroyed leaving behind only huge, concrete shell that provides decent shelter from the wind in the corners and that's about it. The remaining two living blocks would be almost identical buildings on the inside. On the ground floor they have smaller room with around 4 or 5 beds and two wardrobes. There is also reception desk right by the entrance and behind this reception desk is a small office. On the far-left end and on the far-right end are bathrooms, with 6 showers each, clearly for the use of soldiers. There is a stairway upstairs and upstairs are two open rooms you can access, each with 8 bunk beds and some lockers. There is also an emergency exit upstairs that lets you leave through the outside staircase (like in Hibernia Processing). 
    • Now as we described living blocks and guard's hut there are 4 constructions left in the base: the utility block, two hangars and two guarding towers. Guarding towers would be located in two opposing corners of the base. They would be just like any high lookout towers and would provide good overview of the map, being in center and on the highest mountain. Inside, however, there would be nothing of interest: no bed, no fireplace, only some run-down furniture to destroy for wood. Two hangars would be quite big, industrial buildings. Inside they would be identical: huge hall with a lot of things to gain metal-scarps/reclaimed wood from, probably a truck or two to enter, some lockers storing loot. Loot would also be scattered across whole hangar. One hangar would have a workbench. Apart from that, nothing interesting so not a good place to sleep in. Finally "utility block" would be building on the side of the base where there are 4 rooms: laundry room, chief office, kitchen and dining hall. Dining hall would be big but would be quite empty: only long tables, lots of chairs and benches. Soldiers ate here so what else would you expect? Kitchen would have some decent storage space and 6-slot stove. Chief office would be kind of generic office but with a safe so potentially valuable loot. Laundry room would be very basic: a few washing machines and dryers so good place too look for clothes. Some furniture here and there to break down as well. 
    • So this is it for my plan of the base. Nothing else (maybe except radio tower somewhere in the base or nearby to indicate that it was used by the military).
  • Leaving Rosethorn base through the back, there is a steep trail leading down the mountain straight to the "Hidden Pond" located at the foot of this mountain. On the pond there would be something that every Long Dark player loves: two fishing huts. As I marked on the map, there would also be two cabins at each side of the pond. Inside would be bed and some furniture plus storage space but no fireplaces so they would not make ideal bases. The whole pond could have some fragments of wooden fence surrounding it and signs reading "military property- keep out", indicating that people stationing in the Base were using it. Cabins would be implied to house soldiers guarding the lake. 

Sooo as you all can see I came up with quite detailed ideas, and yet I am aware that some of them probably do not make sense to you. There is still plenty of space on this map of mine to add some more interesting locations. Maybe some other building, hidden among the numerous hills, that could make yet another good base? I also haven't thought about distribution of wildlife in the area. As you see this is just a rough draft with some things more detailed than the others.

For those of you who read through it I am already thankful and I will be even more thankful if you share your opinions or add something.

 

mapRosethorn.png

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