Well, Happy New Year. I ended up staying up last night (Jan. 1st) until about 4:30am taking better in-game reference pictures. And 1,492 screenshots later, I think I might have all areas I need to finish my map planning and I’m on my way to my map progress goals for 2023.
Map Progress Goals 2023
- Complete 50% of the map
- Completely finish the Midgar area / first continent (as in print ready)
- Finish map planning – line drawing to completion 100% (in-progress)
- At least dedicate one or two Saturdays or Sundays per month to work on the map…
I’m on my way with the map planning but what I realized during my flight around the FFVII overworld is that there’s a lot of little areas that is usually missed during the game. As in, you don’t usually go into these places unless you’re bored enough. A lot of little islands and pieces of land you just pass by.
Much to my surprise, there is one such area you actually just kind of pass by and you don’t really notice unless you’re just floating above it in the Airship. After the many playthroughs and years of playing this game, I’ve not ever noticed it until last night. It’s one of those things that you just have to laugh at and realize, this got through the final edit and into final production. lol.
How? 🤣
I’m hoping to spend part of my last day of my Holiday Break to get more progress map planning done, before I have to log back into work tomorrow. I at least can separate out all of my screenshots into folders for the separate areas for easier access while I’m watching the NHL Winter Classic. It may not be map progress right now but it still counts, as it is working toward one of my goals for this year. Also, doing folder organization during this game is actually perfect right now. I could care less for the Penguins or the Bruins but I still like Hockey. If I had to pick, I’d go Bruins for this game. But also, I’m mainly watching to find out which teams are playing next year and where it’s going to be.
SCREENSHOTS
The areas that I finally got screenshots for are as follows:
- Shiba Island
- Northern Continent/Northern Crater (most screenshots at 319)
- North Corel / Goldsaucer / Lucrecia’s Waterfall Cave
- All of the Southern Continent, includes Gongaga, The Ancient Forest and Cosmo Canyon
- Fort Condor / Midgar Areas (that I missed) / surrounding waters
- Misc. Islands
- Wutai / Materia Cave 4
- Nibelheim
- Cactuar Island
- Rocket Town
- Materia Cave 3 (more detailed screenshots)
So far, for my map progress planning, I have at least 50% of the map complete. I didn’t have very detailed screenshots for the other 50%. After going through the map almost inch by inch, I found even more pain points I’ll have to go through to get through to completion on this map.
Cosmo Canyon
The different mountains that I’m going to have to layer behind each other but also highlight the path from the Ancient Forest up to Cosmo Canyon is going to be challenging. And not only the surrounding areas, but Cosmo Canyon itself and how I’m going to put my own spin on the village.
Wutai
While screenshots, the Airship is always north facing. BUT going through the mountains and paths of Wutai…I’m going to HATE figuring out how to draw this place. Without the Airship, you’re supposed to walk through this maze of mountains and bridges. I was trying to visualize in my head, how the heck am I going to illustrate that these bridges are high up while the path dips down to a lower elevation under the bridge. Even though I say I’m going to hate it, which I will, I am looking forward to that challenge. The good thing is, I’m going to plan it out before hand. And then we’ll see how that goes and how I’ll feel after that 😕
The Ancient Forest
It’s not really an area I’m too familiar with as I’ve always just skipped this part of the side quests. I’ve probably beaten The Ancient Forest puzzle once ever but after that, I figured out it wasn’t really worth my time. That’s just me though.
Shallow Waters and Waterways
This is not so much difficult but it’s going to be very time consuming and hard to be consistent throughout the whole map. After trying the technique again last time, I’m not feeling confident about it. I’m trying to think if I should save it for last or work on it as I clear a certain area. By saving it for last, I would be going through the entire map all at once but at least it’ll be consistent.
CLOSING
The Winter Classic just got to the 1st intermission and I’ve just gotten to the end of this post. All of my screenshots are now in organized folders and I’m feeling anxious to get back to map planning. I hope to finish all of the Northern Continent today. It’s about 25% complete and there’s a bit of elevation changes and the way some of the water ways run through the middle of the continent. That is the plan for today. Hopefully get some Stardew Valley runs in today as well.
Update: The Boston Bruins win the Winter Classic 2-1 over the Pittsburgh Penguins. Pretty exciting final 2 minutes to the game with the Pens pulling their goalie. They get that tying goal with a buzzer beater EXCEPT the horn sounds. The goal doesn’t count. womp womp