Matariki Park disappointing

[violet root]

As a New Zealand ex-pat that was born and raised there, I have to say the new DLC/Map is very disappointing.
Im up to the 'glow worm' part so far. There are some factual inaccuracies(omissions), cringy mispronunciations, unauthentic audio(background), and just a general lack
of respect, that makes it feel awful to experience. The storyline so far has features no NZ born Kiwis. Māori or otherwise, the animal background noises(birds etc) don't
have that unique NZ feel to it, and the mispronunciation of 'hangi' is embarrassingly awful. We also never built them like depicted in game. We were taught, in Māori class,
the way to do it was to dig a pit then stack the wood in the pit with the rocks over the wood. Eventually it all collapses into the pit itself, then when the fire is burnt out
you go through the process of loading in the food, adding water etc. There are also actual earthworms that emit bioluminescent fluids that glow in NZ. Traditionally, Māori
used these for bait. I remember hanging out in the bush catching eels with some Māori friends and learning this trick with just glowing earthworms and string at night. Did
the devs even consult anyone from New Zealand when making this? Do better next time.

[heady field]

The glowworms they depict in the game are exactly what they say they are, bioluminescent larvae of a fungus gnat.

[midnight quarry]

youre 100% correct. although.. maybe im too old, but NZ has never really been done well by a different country, games, movies, etc.. that, and the fact i ignore the storyline in any game like this (lol probably because theyre all like this) is why im a bit meh whatever..

i dont think they did have a consultant (or google). theres as much wrong about Matariki park as there is right. imagine if a kiwi was on the staff.. haha theyd be spewing. Roto Hoari Forest.

in saying that, NRG did really well with the terrain, plants and animals (except red deer) they all look great. its a very nice map, needs nz bird sounds for sure. chuck a tui in there.

when they said Hangi.. haha i thought the same thing.. but later i thought hang on.. if an american was gonna say that word, thats how theyd say it.. so that was funny to me (but kinda laughing at them, not with them)

[vapid glacier]

I haven’t actually bought Matariki Park (for many of the reasons you listed) but this is pretty disappointing to hear. I think CotW may have handled dialogue and missions etc. better as they had a kiwi community manager at the time and hired kiwi voice actors.

[midnight quarry]

still get it.. the map itself is awesome, and the other animals are cool, its just everything else that's questionable lol.. ignore that and its fine

[devout grove]

Matariki Is Definitely Worse Than NPV (Which I Am A Lifelong Native Of Idaho, Where NPV Is Set). NPV Is Incredibly Inaccurate To Idahos Landscape. You Won’t Find “Mountain Pines” Way In The Rockiest Parts Of The Mountains, Nor Will You Find Any Substantial Population Of Western Moose. Matariki Did Good On The Animals (If It’s Supposed To Encompass All Of New Zealand), But The Mission Is Lacking, While NPV Is The Opposite Of That.

[vapid glacier]

My main issue with the landscape of Te Awaroa in CotW was the lack of tussock land. My main issue with the landscape in Matariki Park in WotH is too much tussock land lol 😂

Like if you climb the main mountain in Te Awaroa and look north there is a massive stretch of tussock tops that look just like the prime red deer country I hunt IRL in the Ruahines and Tararuas but it isn’t accessible. Matariki Park has plenty of open tussock country but the forests are very lacking, they don’t feel dense enough to feel like the NZ bush. It feels more akin to Europe or North America honestly.

And then both maps lack any decent alpine hunting and your more likely to hunt tahr and chamois in the bush or on an open paddock than way up a bluff. I suppose it’s kind of like spring hunting when they come down off the mountains IRL but I’d really like to have a game with some decent alpine hunting.

My ideal NZ map would have an even mix of all 3 of these biomes. Very dense, temperate rainforest in the lowland areas, open tops dominated by tussock lands and actual steep, snow covered mountain peaks. How great would that be.

I’ll probably still pick up the map at some point. I doubt the landscape will ever actually change but there is always the very, very small possibility some of the animals on the map will be swapped out for more appropriate species.

This would be my dream NZ map, maybe one day.

[midnight quarry]

Haha pukeko lol nice, yea im guessing possums never gonna get made, thatl be a new animation ai etc altogether. I imagine theres a bunch of business/performance etc reasons why theres no nz bush lol

The map definitely holds up by itself, but its very obvious to kiwis what didnt get done right. Im still bitter about the reds too, insane.

Real bush hunting would be a challenge on ranger

[vapid glacier]

Yeah I agree, a lot of it comes down to budget, time constraints and trying to balance performance. CotW did a decent enough job of creating some fairly dense bush but even Te Awaroa is very open compared to a lot of the country I’ve hunted here. Doubt we’d ever see a 1:1 recreation of NZ in any game but I’m still happy with what we’ve got for now. I’d definitely be down for some challenging bush hunting though.

[open arch]

I agree, for some fixes for new zealans they should put some ambietent birds that are native to new zealand, and glow worms in caves

[midnight quarry]

Bird sounds would have been a huuge win. Dunno if low hanging fruit.. but huge impact.