The Altai Frontier Map Concept

[lofty wedge]

The Altai Frontier (Mongolia/Russia border)
Location Inspiration
-Altai Mountains (Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, China borders)
-Biome: Alpine meadows, birch-larch forests, rocky ridges, and cold steppe
-Season: Early autumn or late spring (light snow in mountains, blooming valleys)

Geography and Regions

1. High Altai Ridge – Steep cliffs, snow patches.
2. Larchwood Vale – Sparse forest valleys with deer and small mammals.
3. Golden Steppe – Rolling open grassland, good for long range hunting,
4. Sacred Lake – High-altitude lake with waterfowl and ambient birdlife.
5. Nomad Encampment Ruins – Cultural landmark with yurts,
   Animals
   Altai Wapiti
   Siberian Ibex
   Altai Argali
   Maral Deer
   Siberian Roe Deer
   Eurasian Brown Bear
   Corsac Fox
   Pallas’s Cat
   Siberian Marmot
   Wolverine
   Bearded Vulture
   Demoiselle Crane
   Chuckar
   Bar headed goose
   Altai snowcock Gameplay

Extreme terrain
Thermal pockets and updrafts
Cultural landmarks, Ancient carvings, totems, and yurt camps

Suggested Weapon Pack
Traditional Mongolian style recurve bow
Medium-caliber long-range rifle (e.g., 6.5 Creedmoor equivalent)
Heavy double rifle for large mountain game

This is my first map concept so please LMK what you think!

Story Concept Echoes of the Altai
Main Character: Erdene Batbayar
A former wildlife biologist turned traditional hunter, Erdene has returned to the Altai after years abroad to revive sustainable hunting practices and cultural respect for nature. He’s your guide, mentor, and occasional critic often reflecting on the deep connection between people and the land.
Story Themes
Cultural Revival: The area was once home to nomadic peoples and sustainable wildlife practices. Erdene wants to restore that balance while respecting modern regulations.

Ecological Stewardship: Poaching and overgrazing have left parts of the steppe in decline. The player helps monitor animal populations, restore habitat, and take ethical shots.

Myths and Memory: Local legends speak of a ghostly ibex that appears in the mist, or a bear who guards a hidden shrine.

Main Storyline Progression
Welcome to the Sacred Mountains Orientation hunt: track a Maral stag with Erdene while learning the basics of the land.

The Scars of Poaching Investigate an old poacher's camp and rescue a fox from a trap.

The Last Argali Follow rumors of a massive ram last seen near an abandoned high altitude mine.

Voices in the Stone Help restore and photograph ancient petroglyphs, while watching for predators.

Balance Restored Host a ceremonial hunt with traditional gear, requiring patience, stalking, and ethical harvest.

Side Missions & Tasks
Set up traditional bird scare lines to protect nesting grounds

Locate and photograph Pallas’s cat using motion sensor cameras

Rehabilitate injured marmots or clear invasive plant species

Participate in a seasonal crane migration survey

Map the locations of bear dens for local rangers

[turbid flame]

Any chance of adding Wapiti?

[sterile smelt]

Hey @lofty wedge ! I really appreciate the creativity here - it’s clear a lot of thought went into this. I'm taking your suggestion to the game development team to discuss internally. With more of these creative ideas, you can also contact us here: https://support.thehunter.com/hc/en-us/requests/new.

[lofty wedge]

Yeah ofc that is sick! But the Maral deer is something like an Wapiti!

[lofty wedge]

Wow thats very cool to hear! Thanks I def will, i love making these and I have been making these for a while now but I never posted them until this one!

[turbid flame]

Then you got my vote. I would love too see the Tian Shan wapiti since they are the larger ones. Pretty stoked Wolverine is on the list also.

[lofty wedge]

Thanks! It would be really cool to see the Tian Shan wapiti also because they are the largest sub-species in Asia correct? And the wolverine is also super cool maybe they can add a feature for its pelt or something like that and the wolverine would def be an interesting animal, maybe they can add him too other maps to Like Yukon or Medved!

[turbid flame]

I personally want a Wolverine Great One but I love the Great Ones unlike a lot of people in this specific discord.

[lofty wedge]

Oh yeah that would be Awesome you could make it like the Fox Great One. But personaly on this concept map i would love to see a Ibex or Wapiti great one!

[turbid flame]

Maybe this map could have two Great Ones like the last map did.

[compact thunder]

Why are there vultures on the species list??

[lofty wedge]

Because it could be cool to have lagre bird species on a map! And this species live in that region

[lofty wedge]

Yeah def that would be awesome !

[tough raptor]

They are endangered tho. But nonetheless it would be cool as heck to hunt them.

[compact thunder]

When the Altai Mountains have perfectly suitable game birds like capercaillie, Altai snowcock and bar-headed goose

[lofty wedge]

True but i was just looking at some new ideas maybe 🙂 Although i dont think vultures could work but still it is a concept wich could be interesting i guess.

[lofty wedge]

Than vultures as ambience! Like the eagles on Layton.

[dawn merlin]

Palla's cat and corsac fox are awesome ,earned an upvote

Also love the in depth mission descriptions

[turbid flame]

I would put them back on the list. It's a video game. Also EW didn't seem to mind when they commented on this post. Don't let them bully you into removing them. Make it how you would enjoy it.

[dawn merlin]

Bama is right make the thread how you see fit sure criticism is fine but you should feel that you NEED to remove something because someone said so

[lofty wedge]

Thanks!! Yeah right!! Such an underrated species both of them + they are really cool!

[lofty wedge]

OH thank you, both of you for the support and that you like it. I really appreciate it really!
❤️ @dawn merlin

[strong fern]

If you want some bird look at
-altai snowcock
-rock ptarmigan
-daurian partridge
-chuckar
-bar headed goose

[lofty wedge]

Thanks! Ill have a look!

[strong fern]

In favor of demoiselle crane tho, the area fitts em

[shut sapphire]

… this isn’t anywhere near bullying. As far as I’m concerned this is an open thread and as such is open to criticism and debate… it’s the whole point.

[lofty wedge]

The altai snowcock is cool some kind of grouse wich could work in the mountainus area of the map def yeah! Same for the ptarmigan but i would preffer the altai snowcock because it would be a new species (correct me if im wrong) For daurian partridge is the same as the snowcock :). The chuckar is cool because it can also live in the meadows and steppe def. And the bar headed goose is cool because geese species are one of my favorites to hunt in game! And you cant go wrong with a Goos species! So thanks very good suggestions I can def add them but my preferance would go tp the Snowcock, Chuckar and Goose! But i wont "remove" the crane because i think that that animal could work in game.

[strong fern]

@lofty wedge bar headed geese are great here's a picture I took of one

[lofty wedge]

No i also dont think it is bullying, I am all open for criticism and i think that is important I would love to hear the opinions on this concept but it is mostly the way it was worded: "Why are there vultures on the species list??" As it is an violation or something, look again i am all for criticism but do it in a good way not this and than proceed to bring up a thread of almost a year ago because I made this concept. No hate just my opinion on this. Again all for criticism but not like this.

[lofty wedge]

Really awesome bird, I just learned they existed because of your recommendations but they are really cool!

[shut sapphire]

I personally (and I believe you expressed a similar opinion, I haven’t been able to comb through the thread very well) can’t see a way vultures could work. They fly wayyyy out of birdshot range and they don’t work off of decoys and calls.

[strong fern]

Yeah I agree, they are suprisingly tiny, way smaller the a greylag

[lofty wedge]

Well this is the thing i came up with the vulture:
How would they work?

Behavior

Soar in thermals above valleys and cliffs and Occasionally descend to feed on:
Natural carcasses if they are in their region
Game animals you've have not harvested. Spooked easily
Decoys or bait (new item)

How would we hunt them?

Shotguns with birdshot when perched or grounded. Small-caliber rifles when airborne. Decoy placement or the bait.

Scoring System (WIP)

Wingspan

And you could make an alternate story about why it could be possible to hunt them.

[shut sapphire]

Now personally, I’d lean into the upland birds a bit more as there’s near limitless variety. Between sandgrouse, dove/pigeon, partridge, quail, and grouse. I also think Altai Wapiti are a must as they are among the most commonly hunted species in Mongolia (they’d probably take the place of the bear)

And we do have a 6.5CM, it comes with cuatro! In its stead .280AI would be fantastic (3-8 or 4-9) a well known competitor to the 7mm in the mountain hunting world.

[lofty wedge]

The Wapiti Def but I also had a conversation at the beginning of the thread about that awesome animal! And on weaponry you would prob be right, i don't have much experience/knowledge on weapons so this is a good example for a weapon thanks! Ill do some more research on that!

[compact thunder]

That would be a cool way to include vultures as an ambient creatures

Besides the Vultures, the rest of the species list is pretty good, though when it comes to Maral, I have read that it is a word from the Altai, Turkish, Mongolian, Armenian and Persian languages used to describe 3 separate species of deer (depending on location) with the only true Maral being the Caspian Red Deer (Cervus elaphus maral) of Western Asia (Turkey, Caucasus Mountains and Iran), and both Tian Shan and Altai Wapiti alongside the closely related Central Asian Red Deer (Cervus hanglu) have been referred to as Maral.

Also what kind of double rifle did you have in mind? I am aware of a few different double rifles that could work like the Blaser BB97 or the Merkel B3, which have the Over/Under configuration with both barrels being chambered in calibres like the 30R, 9.3x74R and the 8x57IRS. While looking at the Merkel guns I also found side-by-side rifles that can be chambered in calibres like the aforementioned 9.3x74R and 30R alongside the 7x65R calibre

here are those Merkel Rifles with the first being the Merkel B3 Over/Under Double Rifle and the other one being the the Merkel SxS Rifle 161 for what a potential double rifle for this map could be like

I also just remembered that Baikal also makes double rifles, and seeing as how your reserve is set in Central Asia I figure I could suggest the Baikal Izh-94 Over/Under Rifle and they also make a side-by-side double rifle (Baikal MP-221) chambered in 45-70

[turbid flame]

I've seen some good animal lineups in the area you are suggesting but I would have to say this is the best lineup of animals that I want in the game in this area.

I would rather have the Tian Shan over the Altai just because they are bigger with bigger antlers but it's still a good lineup.

[tiny scarab]

Sure I’ll take this map

[compact thunder]

Tian Shan Wapiti would be nice but a bit out of place in the Altai Mountains and Altai Wapiti can still have some pretty impressive antlers

If we get a map within the Kyrgyzstan/Tajikistan area we could get Tian Shan Wapiti alongside argali like the Marco Polo and Tian Shan subspecies

[turbid flame]

Well jaxy said they aren't going for completey realistic in the streams so maybe they can squeeze them in. I would love Marco Polo, Tian Shan and Wolverine on a map together regardless of where its at. That would be a hell of a map.

[compact thunder]

I'm personally fine with creative liberities as long as its like Salzwiesen (Black Grouse don't quite live where that map is set) or Sundarpatan (Terai to the Himalayan Mountains within a few in-game hours of each other). Vurhonga is a good example of when creative liberties fail (There is roughly over 2000 kilometers between the northernmost springbok herds in Botswana and the lesser kudu population in Ruaha National Park in Central Tanzania, the southern limit for Lesser Kudu)

[strong fern]

Well tbf the black grouse live in a very close by area to where salz is and terai and himal are pretty dang close to each other

[compact thunder]

My point is I do not wish to see another Vurhonga aka noticably unrealistic inclusions, huntable snow leopards on a reserve set in Nepal might be unrealistic in 2025 but its still somewhat believable, but having vultures and eagles as huntable species in most locations is pretty unrealistic in my opinion.

Speaking of eagles, falconry would be a fun thing to introduce with a map like this seeing as how Kazakhstan and Mongolia are known for having people that hunt with eagles

[strong fern]

Yeah I agree, idk tho. If it looks gamy I'm in if it doesn't I don't really need it, for example im not super interested in monkeys but I think something like saiga or damas gazelle has potential

[shut sapphire]

Kazakhstan opened up saiga hunting last year or so, there’s like a million of them.

Not really comparable to dama gazelle

[strong fern]

Oh wow didn't know that, cool

First stuff I see is a bunch of anti hunting "propaganda" but I mean I think populations are high enough to sell some tags, if that money goes back into habitat that benefits the saiga

[shut sapphire]

I’m not sure of the specifics as a lot of pages don’t seem very up to date, hell it might not even be open to foreigners (likely just local farmers based on talks from Kazakhstan’s Ecology Minister, October 2023)

[compact thunder]

Still, Kazakhstan is open to sport-hunting, so a map set there could easily include animals like the Saiga and Karaganda Argali

[strong fern]

Sure, tibetan argali would be fun in nepal

[shut sapphire]

The “mountains” barely made sense with tahr and leopards already!

[strong fern]

I think sadly you are right, I don't want it to be true but I guess, a relocation of that and blue sheep into all the mountains and yak further into the valleys would benefit I guess...

[shut sapphire]

I think the whole Himal region is worthy of a rework tbh.

EW just doesn’t understand how to properly represent mountains it seems😔

[strong fern]

They've done it somewhat okay on TA and srp heck even layton, we just need more and denser, can't imagine them doing much about it tho, himal kind of just feels like an extension of pahad in most areas

[shut sapphire]

Srp is alright. It’s got maybe 3 good spots.

[strong fern]

Yeah but I want a true mountain map, the Hindu Kush, Caucasus, Altai, tian Shan and Pamir are all great options

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