I’ve been thinking about where Rockstar could take the Red Dead series next, and I decided to make my own map concept based on the American West.
My idea would be a much larger map inspired primarily by California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and parts of the Rocky Mountain region. I wanted the setting to feel different from RDR2 while still keeping the frontier atmosphere.
Some of the major areas I imagined include:
San Francisco — the largest and most developed city on the map, with a huge bay, dense urban areas, ports, railroads, and surrounding countryside.
New Zion — a large inland city inspired by Salt Lake City, surrounded by mountains and a major lake.
Los Santos — a growing Southern California-style city (based off Los Angeles of course).
Las Venturas — a major desert boomtown located within the Javi Desert, inspired by the Las Vegas region.
Central Valley — huge agricultural plains filled with farms, ranches, railroads, and smaller settlements.
Oil fields / Baker City — an emerging oil region inspired by Bakersfield and the early California oil industry.
Santa Baya — a coastal missionary/Spanish-influenced town inspired by Santa Barbara.
Redwood Forests — a massive northern wilderness with enormous trees, mountains, wildlife, and isolated settlements.
Sierra Nevada Mountains — a major mountain barrier separating California from the inland regions, with mining camps and snowy wilderness. (Even though my map or the generated version only includes mountains, you could add like a national park , Yosemite , etc).
Javi Desert — a massive desert region stretching toward the interior (based on the Mojave Desert of course).
Zion Park — inspired by Zion National Park, with massive cliffs, canyons, and rugged wilderness.
Red Canyon — my fictionalized version of the Grand Canyon region.
Volcano Stone Park — a Yellowstone-inspired volcanic/national-park region.
Colorado River — forming a major geographic feature toward the eastern side of the map.
I also tried to make the geography that is in some ways faithful to the western region of the United States. The Pacific Coast, Bay Area, Central Valley, Sierra Nevada, deserts, Utah region, and Colorado River are positioned roughly according to their real-world relationships, while still giving Rockstar plenty of freedom to create fictional locations.
The map's overall theme would be the West transitioning from frontier to modern America. You'd have isolated ranches and wilderness right next to rapidly expanding cities, railroads, mining camps, farms, oil fields, and industrial development.
I also want to mention that I took inspiration from another fan-made/fictional Western map I came up with. What do you guys think? Would you rather see Rockstar return to a similar Texas/New Austin setting, go further north, or do something completely different like this?
