FC2 Location

[fragger]

I remember a while ago there was some discussion about where in Africa FC2 may have been set. I've been doing a little research, and I came up with some clues.

First, there's a map that you see quite often throughout the game. I noticed though that someone has made a circle on the map here:

[smg id=1925 align=center width=400]

That circle is well inside the Sahel region (as in Petro Sahel). This is what Encarta had to say about the Sahel:

"The Sahel is a transitional zone between the arid Sahara and the tropical rainforests and savannahs to the south. It stretches from Senegal in the west to Sudan in the east, jutting into much of West Africa".

In the game you see desert, savanna and jungle, although you don't see desert exclusively in the north. It also exists between Leboa and Bowa, but I think we can put that down to artistic licence.

The circle on the map appears to be at about 17º lattitude N. In the night sky from this lattitude, you would be able to see both the Southern Cross very low on the southern horizon and Ursa Major (The Big Dipper) a bit higher above the northern horizon, as you do in the game. In reality, this varies according to the time of year. In early summer, the Southern Cross would be at it's lowest point above the southern horizon at around, say, midnight, and would appear upside-down. This is how you see it in the game, and it does indeed appear to be summer in the game (early sunrise, late sunset).

As Encarta states, The Sahel actually extends a considerable distance from west to east, but since that circle on the map ostensibly means something important to whoever drew it, it follows that the setting of the game would probably be nearby. This places it in either southern Niger or northern Nigeria, or near the border between the two.

When Voorhees is the one you meet in Sefapane after killing the faction leader in Leboa (Gakumba or Kouassi, and depending on how you've played, it may be Greaves that you meet down south), he says something about how he "used to lead some of those boys in Angola", which is not far south of Nigeria, relatively speaking, so that may be another clue.

I just thought some of you might be interested in this.

I also want to see what Google Earth has to reveal, if anything, but as my internet connection is running like a dog tonight I don't have the patience to wait >:( Maybe tomorrow. My wireless broadband speed goes up and down, depending on which network I can get onto - tonight I'm stuck on constipated snail mode (it's dropped out twice while I've been writing this).

[JRD]

Great one fragger...  :-X

Your finding seems to put some pieces of the puzzle together... it seems a very likely region and it fits the sky we see, the biomas (savannah, forrest, etc...) and some of the clues they give throughout the game.

At some point I thought they have made a collection of African references and sewed them up together to make the game look as good as they wanted it to be. Now it seems they went even further, searching for a location just like a movie crew would do in order to find the best place to shoot an African-themed movie.

The more we dig into FC2 background, the more impressed I get!  8)


EDIT
Actually... it all makes me want even more that they stick to the African set in FC3 (yes, I assume FC3 will come  ;D ).
You see, with that ammount of detail (everything we, ordinary players, gathered so far), plus what they intended to put but never actually made it to the final version (again that deadline discussion) and counting with whatever new they come up with in FC3 - new guns, new features like trees etc, new character models, new vehicles, new mission types - a new Far Cry in Africa would be a not-so-hard-to-do game and, at the same time, an OUTSTANDING title... a blockbuster...

... and I didn't even mention the great mission editor and MP capabillities!!

[fragger]

Cheers, JRD, and amen to what you said in your edit :) :-X

I looked into it a little bit more.

It turns out that there are no less than 11 "Palas" in Africa, and almost all of them are relatively close to the Sahel region and all are within a few degrees of latitude from one another, mostly between 10º and 12º. They mostly vary in longitude:

Country                                No. of Palas

Chad                                            3
Ghana                                          1
Nigeria                                          3
Central African Republic                   1
Burkina Faso                                  2
Cotê d'Ivoire                                  1

There are no "Mosate Selaos", "Selaos" or "Mosates", although there is a Mosite in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and some other similar names, but none anywhere near the Sahel.

There are no "Leboa-Sakos" or "Leboas", but there is a Lebowa-Kgomo in Northern Province, South Africa.

There are no "Bowa-Sekas", but there is a Bakwa-Seka in the D. R. of the Congo. There are 6 Bowas, but none anywhere near the Sahel:

Kasai (D. R. Congo)                         1
Bandundu (D. R. Congo)                  1
Ethiopia                                         1
Malawi                                           2
Uganda                                          1


So the names of places aren't entirely fanciful, and if the names, regions and terrain features are fictitious, at least some thought and study has gone into their creation. Hats off to the devs for that :-X

[mandru]

Wow, that's great info you've been able to pull together fragger.  :-X

[spaceboy]

great w@&k fragger  :-X  this background and investigation continues to add depth to the game as well as increasing my respect for the devs (it was already high, of course).

[JRD]

One other thing you might be interested in, fragger...

Try to search for "Dogon Village".
There is a real Dogon somewhere in Africa. I remember someone posted a link to a blog or something like that with pictures of the real place... I guess the original post was in the deceased farcry2world, but if my memory serves me right, PZ managed to find the place and transcribed the post to OWG.
I did a quick search in our files but couldn't find it...

They had great pictures of that place I`d lke to see again!!


Maybe using Art, the search engine...   ::)

[Art Blade]

First off, applaud to fragger for that research and topic  :-X

Going to find that post you mentioned, JRD, I too remember it :)

[Art Blade]

Maybe using Art, the search engine...   ::)

Done :)

How about the actual Dogon village...

[fragger]

Cheers, all :)

@JRD: Great idea on doing a search on Dogon, it turns out that they are found mostly in central and southern Mali, and in the northernmost part of Burkino Faso. On the map, west of the circle, you can see the Niger river where it makes an inverted "U" shape, the Dogons largely inhabit the region south of that, which is indeed well inside the Sahel. That's about 500 km west of the westernmost part of Niger. Thanks fo the suggestion mate, I'd say we pretty well have it nailed now - southern Mali or northern Burkino Faso, more likely Mali.

@Art, thanks for finding that post. That photo does indeed show how accurately the devs recreated a Dogon villiage. :-X

[wexer9]

This is a fascinating thread, fragger! :)

[PZ]

Nice research fragger, and JRD is correct - it makes you appreciate the game even more.  As to FC3 - I hope it is as much of an extension of FC2 as AC2 is of AC1 as far as graphics and game physics.  My wish list remains the same though - most importantly the ability for users to create SP missions and new map areas.  I think of all the new lands, weapons, character, and NPC mods that are available for Fallout3 and I drool at the potential of the same in FC3.

Imagine if users could create new maps, missions, building interiors, NPCs, companions, etc - we'd probably never stop playing the game.

[JRD]

...we'd probably never stop playing the game.

So far, we didn't  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[Art Blade]

classic  ;D ;D ;D :-X

[wexer9]

Ha ha! ;D

[JRD]

Cheers, all :)

@JRD: Great idea on doing a search on Dogon, it turns out that they are found mostly in central and southern Mali, and in the northernmost part of Burkino Faso. On the map, west of the circle, you can see the Niger river where it makes an inverted "U" shape, the Dogons largely inhabit the region south of that, which is indeed well inside the Sahel. That's about 500 km west of the westernmost part of Niger. Thanks fo the suggestion mate, I'd say we pretty well have it nailed now - southern Mali or northern Burkino Faso, more likely Mali.

@Art, thanks for finding that post. That photo does indeed show how accurately the devs recreated a Dogon villiage. :-X

Cheers mate...

Nice research fragger... I could remember the post but not the location and when I saw the post (thanks Art for finding the post  :-X) I thought it was only in South Africa...
Great w@&k mate!!  :-X :-X

[fragger]

 :) Thanks everyone, I'm glad you found it as interesting as I did!

[JRD]

Are you kidding? Interesting... I find it amazing!!  8)

As I said before, they are actually finding a location where the game takes place (just like a movie production would), instead of just putting some random scenario together and making a virtual world.
Games like FUEL and OFP2 use real topographic data derived from satellite to create their huge worlds, but I never thought FC2 could actually be a place in the world, even if still not a real place!

[Dweller_Benthos]

I guess they went to Kenya to get pictures and ideas for all the stuff in the game. Though the game may not reflect a real-world area, I bet if you took parts of it by themselves they would be near-exact copies of real places. Put them together and there you go.

[KingRat]

I guess they went to Kenya to get pictures and ideas for all the stuff in the game. Though the game may not reflect a real-world area, I bet if you took parts of it by themselves they would be near-exact copies of real places. Put them together and there you go.

yea, Kenya and Tanzania (Serengeti).....

nice w@&k fragger :-X I was just looking at that map last night  :)