Hot Air Balloon

[broken sable]

I'm suggesting the time might be ripe for a new but old school, noiseless and graceful alternative method of travel, (and a few improvements for camera enthusiasts).

Hot air balloon. The marquee feature allows the player to glide across the reserve with the will of the wind. A silent way to cross distances, with no directional control but potentially traversing difficult vertical obstacles with ease. Journey to open a new outpost, overcome a mountain or cut across a large lake, enjoy nature from above, and disturb no wildlife in the process..

From outpost/tent, a one-person cloudhopper is requested via Garage. Barring awful weather, the balloon arrives.
At a button press the player enters the harness/basket, another press untethers the balloon starting drift with direction and speed of the wind. Two controls: "burn" to gain altitude, and "release" to descend.
Journey ends when balloon is close to the ground (say 5m), over open space. Player is offered option to "anchor" which tethers balloon, and player may exit. If properly tethered, the balloon is standby for journey to be resumed.
Journey also ends if a player hits into an object ( "knocked out by a mountain/tree/velocity") or drifts beyond the borders of the reserve causing respawn as always when going out of bounds.
It's impossible to use weapons mid-flight, only binoculars and camera.

Powerful new camera lens, improving upon the existing camera with superior zoom capacity.

Portable lights, making properly exposed night time photography (and trophy shots) possible.

-Ideally this update would accompany the bonus "Hunter Classic trophy photo feature", and fix to the PS photomode.

I don't have an actual idea how technically far-fetched this is, but my wishful gut feeling is that the so many of the tools and assets are already in place to assemble this DLC/implementation without major challenges or considerable drain of devs' time and resources.
[ed: restructure]

[glad tree]

i just want a camera mode

[broken sable]

Yes the photo bit of COTW could use some love.

[elder flint]

Photomode? Only with adjustable exposure time/aperture/ISO value/whiteballance/focus/etc. etc.... if the community wants a photo dlc, than it should be done right with the needed difficulty and gameplay depth. Let's play paparazzi.😅

And therefore we'd need mating animations for animals 🤣

In fact i am somehow not convinced, that any photomode would really be fun. 🤷‍♂️ Gamingwise...

[broken sable]

I didn't mean to suggest a "photomode", or any of the excessive features listed above, only to improve upon the feature as it is today.
-The current zoom has lower magnification than the Argus scope.
-The headlight switches off as the camera takes a pic, resulting in dark and muddy trophy shots (except with the rare aid of moonlight).
-Enjoying the beautiful landscapes from ground level only is such a huge missed opportunity. The DevMode demos show how majestic the aerial perspective is, but there will never be a drone in this game, therefore this suggestion..
They already built the balloon.

[glad tree]

ive played rdr2 alot and they have photomode, i spent so much time customizing scenes to make the perfect picture and had alot of fun
ive heard some cotw devs also worked on rdr2

[elder flint]

Ah okay... For me taking photos in games is completely irrelevant. I never use such features and am annoyed if the game devs tie an achievement to usage of a photomode. I personally have no use for videogame-photos ... 🤷‍♂️

[broken sable]

Lol, it would seem you are not in the target player demographic.

I and I know some others are fond of the feature, and considering how stunning the visuals can be in the game -landscape and lighting- would love a little facelift. I know there are those hoping to see implemented the 3pov trophy shot option that exists in Hunter classic.

[elder flint]

What is the target player demographic? 😅 I personally love to take pictures irl with a DSLR, but never had use for any videogame screenshots. I connect memories to irl photos and events, but for me videogames are nothing to make a memory of, so that i don't keep photos of them. I rather enjoy playing than watching taken screenshots.
Honestly, i have exactly 0kB of screenshots of all the games i played and love. But memories..., this a real world thing to me. Like watching the aurora borealis or a nice sunset... 😅 or the trophys on my shelf for winning real world sports competitions. This are the intensive moment i make memories of, but not videogames. 🤷‍♂️

In fact i also deactivated the auto-screenshot feature of my ps5 when getting a trophy, so that i don't have to delete them for cluttering up disk space. 😅

To me there would be so much better usage of the dev's time than to develop photo mode related stuff. This brings no new gameplay loops to the table, that impact tge way the game plays.

[broken sable]

I think the appeal lies in that within the confines of the game, the scenery, animal appearances, advanced lighting cycles and well-made light and shade effects. Sometimes if you find yourself with morning sun hitting through leaves and reflecting on the river as deer drink peacefully, a composition speaks to you and you think it's a damn well-made game that creates these opportunities. Probably nothing more than maybe a desktop pic, but it can be plenty more rewarding to capture it than to shoot the deer.

Those who feel this way would be the demographic.

Again, not suggesting "photo mode stuff", just a better zoom capacity, lights working at night time and a way to survey the reserve from above. Compared to a lot of suggestions here I believe this little wishlist would be considerably less demanding of dev time than most.

[slow bough]

Seems like it would be better suited for an update vs a dlc imo

[broken sable]

Yes maybe, along with the much desired implementation of the "trophy shot feature".

I was mostly fantasizing it would be cool and oldschool as a "free DLC" like the old days, like when the shooting range, backpacks, truracs etc. were introduced..

[spring plank]

Man, I have to admit I do a lot of morning hunting, especially around sunrise, and there are times I just have to stop and screenshot because the view is so gorgeous. This would be a fun addition.

[broken sable]

Yes indeed. You understand exactly what this would be.

Lovely shots.

[spring plank]

Good morning from the SRP GO Black Bear Grind!

[broken sable]

Majestic. The way the game can render various lighting conditions is amazing. Like this morning haze, it's luscious.

[patent roost]

I love what expansive worlds is doing. So many gaming studios have dropped the ball or just straight up sabotage the games they developed. A lot of studios have to inject DEI or women's empowerment into their games. But they neglect the games performance or graphics. Expansive worlds just focuses on delivery a well developed, emersive game.

[broken sable]

I love what they're doing too. I just really wish there was a way to enjoy their fantastic work from above, other than the vignettes you only see the one first time you open a map.

[broken sable]

-I fixed the pitch to avoid giving the idea that this was about some advanced photomode feature update, and added a description of how I imagine balloon travel would work.

[broken sable]

I'd choose this over the ATV any time

[broken sable]

Hot Air Balloon

[broken sable]

Contemplating what drifting in a HAB above a reserve would be like, I can't see a downside to it. Sure it would be slower than an ATV, but travelling in a direct path, completely silent, wouldn't disturb any wildlife, until the moment of hooking the anchor which would maybe make as much noise as setting up a tent or tripod..

[broken sable]

I think of all those impossible mountains I struggled to scale, and Islands I kept trying to see if there was some secret path that worked. It would be amazing to have the option of an aerial method of transportation..

[broken sable]

I imagine birds wouldn't necessarily be scared away by a large predictably object gliding though the skies.
Ground mammals might not initially pay any mind, but if descending low enough, a HAB with backwind would always be alerting sensitive animals by the scent..

[naive void]

I’m not opposed, I just don’t think this has any place in a hunting game.

[broken sable]

As in just like the ATV doesn't have a place to be there?

[naive void]

ATV’s are used in hunting. Hot Air Balloons aren’t.

[broken sable]

But we don't use the ATVs in hunting in COTW. They scare everything away. We use them for transport between two points.
But sometimes they're very impractical in the reserves. I'm suggesting this as a counterpart.

[naive void]

There’s always Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 for you.

[broken sable]

You confuse me with someone who hopes for something hi-tech.
That won't get me to the peaks and islands of the reserves, across SRP without those annoying paths, across massive lakes without the big go-around...

[naive void]

What islands do you need a hot air balloon to reach? They’re rarely ever populated.

[broken sable]

There are plenty of islands I've tried to reach, mostly for setting up stations on opposite shores. On Layton, Hirsch, Te Awaroa come to mind. A couple I managed with tenacity, others were impossible.

[fierce kindle]

Quite literally useless

[grave mason]

I can see hot air balloons being fun for a photo safari, or for scouting your map. But it's far from the biggest thing I want from the game.

[broken sable]

please be more specific

[broken sable]

No, that will certainly vary subjectively (what the biggest thing one would want from the game would be), -but as you mention, scouting, and the initial opening of outposts could use a fresh alternative to the ATV we have now.

[broken sable]

I can't imagine a nicer way to experience a new map and opening up outposts than doing it the aerial way..

[broken sable]

Observing the reserves from above would show them from a new perspective, literally. 😉

[inner zenith]

Sorry I have to say no to Hot Air balloons ... Not that I wouldn't enjoy it as a once or twice novelty but the ADHD kids would go absolutely nuts at this extremely slow mode of travel....

I would hate to see EW spend a large amount of dev time on something that very few would buy or play ..... So for that reason ........

[broken sable]

Appreciate your reasoning, and I wouldn’t either want to see it as a drain on dev time. However I want to argument that there is a chance such an implementation could be a lesser deal. They already have the ATV bracket to wedge it into, the developer’s floating god mode, and the actual air balloon model at hand. A clever intern might already have made it. And they needn’t use resources on a big disastrous deflating balloon death scene when a fade to black will suffice. Getting knocked out isn’t a big production deal in this game anyway.

As for the short attention span kids, they’ll grow older. And some slow air travels in a straight line as the crow flies can be faster than many ATV ground travel journeys. And I would wager this way of exploring a reserve for the first time and many times after really could be a thing.
Look into your heart and reconsider your vote, good sir.

[broken sable]

If only there were some way for the game to let us enjoy the reserve worlds from a higher perspective.

[broken sable]

Seeing the COTWworld from above is always beautiful.