Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography)

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    My friend @DevoidNose89 and I got curious about the area of the map in the beta. We don't mean grid squares, we mean square miles/kilometers. Our final calculation was that the map size (for the beta) is approximately 11.67 square miles (18.8 square km).

    The way we found this was by choosing a relatively straight piece of land and comparing its length to the length of one grid square on the map. We chose the eastern bridge at Golden Sands Outpost. I took a screenshot of the map and at the distance I zoomed in the total length of one grid square was 330px. The length of the bridge at the same zoom distance was 44px. Next we took 330/44 to get the total bridges in one grid square. We came to a total of 7.5 bridges in one square.

    Next we sailed to the island and counted the paces of the bridge. After double checking we concluded that the bridge was 37 paces. The average human pace distance is 2.5 feet (0.76 meters) so we used that as our measurement for how long the characters pace is. So taking 37x2.5 we get a bridge distance of 92.5 feet long, multiply that by the 7.5 bridges in one grid length and you get 693.75 feet (211.45 meters).

    We then took the 693.75 feet and converted it to miles, which came out to one grid being 0.1314 miles long (0.21 km). The next step was to turn the length of a tile into the area, so we squared 0.1314 and came out to 0.0173 square miles (0.028 square km)

    Since the map grids run A-Z and 1-26, the map is 26x26 grids in area. This turns into 676 squares total. Taking our square miles and multiplying it by the total number of grid squares gave us our final answer of 11.67 square miles.

    If you guys would like to test this for yourselves it would be fantastic, so we could compare our math to yours, or perhaps there was something we overlooked. This is of course an estimate, as we rounded some numbers and the bridge we used wasn't perfectly flat. Or if any Rare employees would like to confirm or deny, it would be fantastic!

    Screenshot used to calculate px & the math used:

    link text
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  • ch3wiie
    Master

    @frodj @DevoidNose89

    Fantastic calculations matey.
    I still haven't counted the number of Isle's; but from what I've gathered the Release Map will be much larger than this Alpha/Beta Map.

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @ch3wiie When the servers come back up I will count the islands and post them here. You've got me curious now.

  • ch3wiie
    Master

    I've got the answers ye scallywags!

    There are 65 Total Islands on the BETA Map across 18.8 square kilometers (11.67 square miles) courtesy of @frodj and @DevoidNose89

    6 of which are Outposts, which are as follows:

    • Gold Sand Outpost
    • Sanctuary Outpost
    • Plunder Outpost
    • Dagger Tooth Outpost
    • Ancient Spire Outpost
    • Galleon's Grave Outpost

    Which leaves 59 Islands for Exploration.
    This Does Not Include Obstacles like Rocky Formations, Islets, Underwater Locations or Shipwrecks.

    *Side Note: The Islands are divided into 3 sections (North West, North East and South) by larger portions of open water channels.

    They are known as the Shores of Plenty, the Ancient Isles and the Wilds.
    Each with its own biome: Sandy, Deep Jungle, or Desolate

  • GulpBeard

    Wow really insightful. Rare should give you some keys, shirts (XXL), and other loot. Yarghhh.

  • erikinthebakery
    Captain
    Founder

    @ch3wiie said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    *Side Note: The Islands appear to be divided into 3 sections (North West, North East and South) by larger portions of open water channels.
    Perhaps to encourage open-water encounters, or maybe to divide Guild Territory, or Trading Routes.

    The 3 areas are considered separate "biomes" with different characteristics.

  • esbenesa
    Founder

    Thats really cool! Very fun math to do whilst sailing!

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @esbenesa Thanks! Glad somebody else actually thinks it's cool!

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @erikinthebakery So there's the Caribbean, the murky area, and what else?

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    I'm going to hop on, time sailing across the map, and report back.

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    First voyage across the map took me 19m45s. Some observations:

    It's nearly impossible to sail straight over any real distance.
    The wind direction changes constantly, but never dramatically.
    I was against the wind a good portion of the time, so you could probably cross quite a bit faster, and I had to adjust course to avoid a couple of islands.

  • RGBKnights
    Master
    Insider
    Founder

    Iam trying to verify your math using using the swimming time to aposimate an grid length. We are running tests tomorrow.

    I also thought of using characters height, but figured swimming time would be faster way to get the based unit needed.

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @rgbknights That could work, that was actually our initial way to test. We ran into a couple of problems though. The most obvious being the sharks. Second was that we don't know the characters swimming speed, which could also be altered by the waves.

  • StuffyLamb58105

    This truly is something fantastic only fans of this game would do. Keep up the good work pirates!

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    Had the wind at my back most of the way across the 2nd time and clocked 17m30s. Just to show you how tenacious people are, I had someone follow me 2/3 of the way across the map just to engage in a ship battle. :D I should have paid closer attention, but seems like it's also about 1 game day across. Someone should time the day/night cycle while they're at it with these type of things. I would tonight, but I'm done for the day.

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lucid-stew If we could time how long it takes to sail a certain distance we could take more accurate measurements. Again, they wouldn't be consistent due to the types of waves and wind direction. If you need some help I would be willing to help, feel free to add me!

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lucid-stew I'll take note real quick, but I'm fairly certain it's 24 minutes for a full day. 12 for day, 12 for night.

  • Kobetastrophy

    @frodj said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    @erikinthebakery So there's the Caribbean, the murky area, and what else?

    The biomes are named as follows
    Blue Sea of Plenty
    Wide Sea of Plunder
    The Wilds

    But where those are located on the map I have no idea

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    @frodj said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    @lucid-stew If we could time how long it takes to sail a certain distance we could take more accurate measurements. Again, they wouldn't be consistent due to the types of waves and wind direction. If you need some help I would be willing to help, feel free to add me!

    I have an average of about 18 1/2 mins to cover roughly 4.3 km. That is about 2.32 nautical miles. This indicates a speed of ~7.5 knots. This is apparently fairly accurate for the average sailing speed of old sailing vessels.
    Anyway, is there a certain distance you'd like me to measure? I'd be happy to do requests. :)

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lucid-stew perhaps you could try calculating knots in various winds and weather conditions? Then we could adjust calculations dependent on the conditions.

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    @frodj said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    @lucid-stew perhaps you could try calculating knots in various winds and weather conditions? Then we could adjust calculations dependent on the conditions.

    I'd need an accurate measure of a short distance, maybe like the length/width of one square on the map? I can do the math from there with course headings and such. It's not the easiest proposition. Just getting into place for a run is a pain, and then sailing straight is also very difficult. I would GUESS that 211.45 meters in not correct, just based on human nature of picking rounded numbers. This also conforms to my experience with making maps in UE4. Might be 200 even, though. I could use 211, and then give a margin of error. I'll look into it tomorrow.

  • TouchDown1504
    Insider
    Founder

    @frodj this thread absolutely rocks! I should be going to bed, early morning tomorrow...Instead I am going to time myself in a solo ship, southwest corner to northeast corner...thx for ruining my sleep!

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lucid-stew That makes good sense! Since our measurements really are roughly done it very well could be 200. I look forward to seeing your results! I may test something similar tomorrow as well.

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @touchdown1504 You're very welcome!! I'm curious, what are you measuring this for? Diagonally would be the same distance as the length, since the map is a square.

    (correction!!! I don't know how math works and realized that diagonal is NOT the same as the length!!! whoops!)

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @dielikekane Who made this map? Did Rare design it or was it player made?

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @dielikekane Rolls on deck laughing Thanks

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    @touchdown1504 said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    @frodj this thread absolutely rocks! I should be going to bed, early morning tomorrow...Instead I am going to time myself in a solo ship, southwest corner to northeast corner...thx for ruining my sleep!

    corner to corner estimated distance is ~6km. It should take you 25-26 minutes. It'll be interesting if you diverge significantly. Will also be interesting to see if you're able to do it without significantly changing course.

    btw, one thing I didn't mention is that my first time across, I sank after sailing off the map, and was later also briefly blown off my ship by a skeleton's cannonball, so good luck and have fun. :D

  • Captain Gibbet
    Master
    Founder

    @frodj said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    @lucid-stew I'm fairly certain it's 24 minutes for a full day. 12 for day, 12 for night.

    You're right on this one. I just checked. All that you have to do is use the pocket watch and time how long it takes for the minute hand (which is basically the second hand) to make a full revolution.

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lesurrender Sweet! I forgot to check because I got caught up in our voyage and forgot to count!

  • Zakyson2

    So its a little off topic but still in the vein of cartography I decided to splice together a complete map of the beta. Its pretty rough but I wanted to get back to sailing the seas instead of mapping them.

    alt text

  • KattTruewalker
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder
    Deckhand

    @zakyson2 You know, that was exactly what I was looking for this morning, thank you for taking the time and effort to do this!

    @Frodj Really love knowing these little details, some great surveying gone on there!

  • Zakyson2

    @katttruewalker No problem, My next step might be trying to map out the rock formations as well. Ill be sure to keep posting here.

  • Zakyson2

    Currently working on an updated version of the map that will hopefully be a bit more visually pleasing

  • Lucid Stew
    Founder

    You know, I was think that if we're going to do this for the seas, why not start an XBL club and map everything including the islands, island features, islets, shipwrecks, and any other feature we can find?

  • Frodj
    Captain
    Insider

    @lucid-stew said in Finding the Beta Map Size (Amateur Cartography):

    You know, I was think that if we're going to do this for the seas, why not start an XBL club and map everything including the islands, island features, islets, shipwrecks, and any other feature we can find?

    That sounds good to me! I was talking with the boys about a sort of cartography guild. And of course we will have to extend it to the full game eventually. A mighty task indeed, but not too big for a group of legendary pirates, that's for sure!

    UPDATE: I have made the club, working on customizing it. Will invite people shortly

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