The survival MMO H1Z1 will be set in the Northwest of the USA and will start in a wooded and hilly area. Later, there could also be swamps and deserts.
The zombie MMO H1Z1 takes place in “Middle America”, though this does not refer to Central America, such as Mexico, as some German sites report, and not even to the “middle of the USA”, but with “Middle America” they actually mean rural America, the parts of the USA that are far from the hustle and bustle. To be precise, H1Z1 takes place in Northwestern America, a rural area.
First hills and forests, then swamps and deserts
Therefore, as stated in the latest dev video, there will mainly be hills and rivers here. Swamps or deserts, geographical diversity, could perhaps be introduced later as the world expands, as planned, so that it represents the entire USA.
Just because “Middle America”, the province, cannot boast neon lights or city airports does not mean that there are no signs of human civilization here. They want to make the world as realistic as possible, so there will be street names, place signs, and other markers to help players meet.
Fans criticize dull landscape
Currently, they are working on a better graphics engine. Some players criticize that the “World Building Tools” are a bit lacking. As a result, the forests feel too sparse and the variety of landscape objects like stones is somewhat weak. They are, as developer Lenny Gullo mentions in the video, working on better tools that would bring more diversity. However, one always has to keep an eye on performance.
This week, the insight that the developers of SOE provide behind the scenes of the production of H1Z1 is somewhat thin. They have to mourn a death in the development team and have therefore postponed the actual dev blog post. The somewhat light-hearted mood in the video (John Smedley introduces his puppy to the world, and at the end, they joke about early access) is due to the fact that the video was recorded before the tragedy. Two days ago, John Roy, a long-time SOE employee and artist for H1Z1, passed away.
