The sheer scale of Night City

[Madae]

Very promising. I'm hoping all the time spent wasn't wasted in concept and was mostly work towards making a very large world - perhaps larger than anything we've seen so far in open world gaming. That would be a very pleasant surprise to see that a lot of care and detail was put into making a very large and believable world. I want to feel like there is so much to do that even after finishing the main story after 50+ (more would be better) hours that there is still a ton of the world that I just haven't explored yet packed to the brim with side content to do, even if it's not necessarily meaningful in a sense. Very rarely do you get in to a game where the freedom to just live like a person that belongs there ever come in to play... you're always being pushed towards something. The experience is just as important as the path.

On a side note, the option to put off the main quest until you're ready to do it, rather than being thrust in to it by your companion, would be a nice change of pace. The option to do the job(s) should always be there, but the constant reminder to get on it should be subtle in favor of performing the odd job or two for variety. Perhaps it's tricky to describe what exactly I'm thinking here, but always having that quest marker, always having a person of interest consistently reminding you that you're not on the path, things like that I think are pushed too far in just about every open world game. Ignoring it is an option, but getting lost in the gameplay never really happens, as it's always just there in the back of your mind waiting for you. It would be even better if what's-his-face, I forget the name, but the big dude following V around, actually leaves his waiting spot and goes about his business like any other NPC, following you on side quests and such, but always has that option to start it buried underneath a load of other things for him to say or mention, never reminding you more than the once. It'd be a real immersion breaker if the first thing he says to you every time you talk to him is "Hey, remember that job?" or something of the sort, worse if he's just glued to his location waiting patiently for you to come calling and never getting involved in anything else.

 

[Rawls]

Perhaps it should really be closer to 5 m/pixel, which would look like this.

That looks a little more accurate to me ... but we'll both be guessing until we see something we know is to scale. Still the speculation is fun.

 

[pushbak]

Let me try scaling that.

 

[Syware]

The map is pretty small for 12 million population. There is no confirmation that NC has 12 mil population. I'm estimating from the 2020 population, which was 5 mil.

 

[pushbak]

This building

Is the same as this building

For a sense of scale, there are approximately 853 meters between the camera and V's apartment (of the first image).

We already know V's apartment is the mega-structure behind the antenna array. Taking that into account I mapped out the various locations based on sv3672's information (thanks for including degrees!), along with the location when V drives next to this antenna building. Each pixel represents one meter.

• the ripperdoc is 200 meters from V's apartment to the W-SW (~25 degrees to the S from W)
• from the elevator before exiting to the streets, the ripperdoc is 158 meters to the SW (42 degrees from S)
• the meeting point is 1020 meters to the NE (45 degrees) from the ripperdoc
• it is 503 meters to the N-NE (~25 degrees) from the place where the panning view of the large buildings is shown
• All Food is about 240 meters to the N-NE (20 degrees) from the meeting point

It's approximately 628 meters N-NE 37 degrees from V's apartment to the antennas. In the frame above the train's located another ~230 meters at the same angle. Using the red dot as a reference I wasn't able to scale this image in a way that made it fit, so I believe the red dot is not the trains correct location.

The red dot:

 

[sv3672]

It's approximately 628 meters N-NE 37 degrees from V's apartment to the antennas. In the frame above the train's located another 10~30 meters at the same angle. Using the red dot as a reference I wasn't able to scale this image in a way that made it fit, so I believe the red dot is not the trains correct location.

The information shown on the metro is not consistent, the red dot is on the M1 line, while at the same time both the map and another display on the window say we are on M2 (lime green), but that would be a completely different area and probably wrong. So, M1 is more likely, however, I think it is somewhere more to the NE than the red dot, and the train's direction seems to be to the SE (based on the angle the large Orbital Air building is seen at), so it did not take a turn to the S yet. Perhaps it is about to the N from the location of the panning view, and has a quite long view distance.

The Orbital Air building is to the S from both the trailer train and the demo panning view, it is not the same as the space station on the metro map, if the other guesses are right, then it has to be roughly in the direction of the city center and behind the water. But for me the train lines and water do not match the demo in a way that makes perfect sense.

Of course, on the real game map, it is unlikely that everything is a straight line and at multiples of 45 degrees, so the metro map is likely simplified and metro lines and water have been moved around somewhat.

Edit: this picture is an updated version of the previous one with 5 m/pixel scale, it is not quite accurate, but I tried to place the trailer train view location (large red dot on M1), the antenna building (small blue dot), and the general area of the Orbital Air building (large cyan circle). The antenna building and the apartment do not line up like they should with the train view, so the train location is probably somewhat off, and obviously the scale is still uncertain.

 

[Rawls]

I think the Metro's likely location is actually to the north of where you indicated @pushbak .

Spoiler: Picture

The train would be travelling south since the camera is looking outside the windows on the right. You can see the Arasaka building in the background, appearing to be in downtown Night City across the canal. This is also view-able to the South of the camera in the "view" area after the car chase. Also you can see the tower you indicated, as well as what we believe is V's apartment. IF all of those assumptions are correct, the train has to be travelling southbound, further north from where you thought.

The "Red Dot" could be indicating the "next station" the train will arrive at sine it appears all the "stations" are the little hollow circles on the train lines. It would be logical that the "next station" the train arrives at would be marked by filling in the circle.

EDIT: On another note - V's view from her apartment appears to look south towards downtown Night City as well. I think that gives a pretty clear impression that V's apartment is not on the waterfront (you can see several blocks to the right in downtown), but is rather somewhere near the middle of that little peninsula between the shore and the canal east-west. However, it appears to only be about 2 blocks off the canal between Watson/Little China and City Center. So I think V's apartment building is a smidgen to the southeast of where we've been marking on the Metro Map. The more we discuss it, the more confident I am that the Metro Map isn't to scale.

Regardless of the exact measurements ... man this city looks cool. And I think we have a good general idea of where the demo occurred. That gives of a pretty good impression of the overall size of the map. It'll be big, though likely not as big horizontally as all TW3 maps combined, and very dense. Still curious about how far the outskirts of the city go.

 

[sv3672]

The window in V's apartment actually looks to the E, this can be seen on the first picture below. And the large buildings are the same as those to the E in the panning view (second picture). These are most likely the city center if we assume E is actually towards the bottom right corner of the metro map. The bridge in the distance on the second picture is probably the M9 line, as it crosses the water and enters the city center.

The tall building under the "J" on the compass (where V's apartment is according to the OP) on the third picture does seem to be in the correct direction (the camera here is facing about 35 degrees to the S from W).

Spoiler

The train view in the trailer is similar to the second picture, but is looking more S-SW-ish, while the train seems to be heading to the SE. And it is from a greater distance and from higher position.

Spoiler

 

[Rawls]

The window in V's apartment actually looks to the E

I see it now, you're correct. So it's only a couple blocks off the N/S canal.

But yes I'm very confident that the Metro is travelling S/SE on the Red Line to the North of that "view" area in the demo. When V exit's her apartment building, it appears there is a Metro line going over the street. I was think this is the "0" line that goes through Little China. So that would put her apartment on that side of the peninsula.

 

[pushbak]

What if it just needs to be rotated..

 

[Rawls]

One final note -

I think that says it's 1348 meters to the Mealstrom hideout (All Foods) from here (it's a bit hard to tell because there are two markers over one another). So that would mean from the corner where the two canals meet to the factory is a little under .84 miles. Looking at the Metro Map with a ruler again, and measuring the distance from the Northside Industrial District to that corner of the canals, I again measure out approximately 5 miles by 5 miles (8km x 8km) for the total size of the Metro Map. I got 4.7 x 4.7 miles to be precise.

 

[sv3672]

What if it just needs to be rotated..

Interesting idea. It does look like the major roads tend to go N-S or W-E, so that would fit better with this rotated map. Also the canals in the gameplay demo feel "off" compared to the map, but it is not easy to judge because we only get a limited view of them.

Edit: this picture is the POI layer from the previous maps saved separately, at 1 pixel = 5 meters scale. I added the location where the car turns around near the Orbital Air building at 1350 meters from All Food as a light blue marker, and moved the train view location somewhat.

Edit 2: a quick and not too accurate modification with the 45 degrees rotation, it does seem to make more sense this way:

Spoiler

Another possibility is that it is the compass that is offset by 45 degrees, and the POIs need to be rotated.

 

[Lucian06]

How many Floors are In the tallest Building in Night City?

 

[Sardukhar]

How many Floors are In the tallest Building in Night City?

All of them, I think.

Top right down to the bottom.

 

[sv3672]

How many Floors are In the tallest Building in Night City?

There are plenty of tall buildings, and we did not see them all yet. Floors could be counted on the buildings seen on the trailer or demo, and approximate heights might be calculated, although I think much of the huge vertical spaces cannot be entered by the player. But even V's apartment seems to be about 100 meters above the ripperdoc.

 

[4RM3D]

The amount of thought and extrapolation done in this thread is mind boggling.

 

[1veryFrustratedguy]

The community is becoming rather in depth to an extreme about the size and scale of NC

 

[sv3672]

It can be fun to speculate on this kind of topic, I have seen similar discussions at length on other games' forums. Until more information is released, we can do only so much with what is already known. On the topic, I added a grid to the map with rotated POIs where each cell is 1x1 km, this can be seen here. It is possible that the scale on this picture is still wrong, and All Food is in fact right next to M1, that would make the map area in km2 somewhat bigger.

 

[RavixCuatrocuernos]

The window in V's apartment actually looks to the E, this can be seen on the first picture below. And the large buildings are the same as those to the E in the panning view (second picture). These are most likely the city center if we assume E is actually towards the bottom right corner of the metro map. The bridge in the distance on the second picture is probably the M9 line, as it crosses the water and enters the city center.

The tall building under the "J" on the compass (where V's apartment is according to the OP) on the third picture does seem to be in the correct direction (the camera here is facing about 35 degrees to the S from W).

Spoiler

The train view in the trailer is similar to the second picture, but is looking more S-SW-ish, while the train seems to be heading to the SE. And it is from a greater distance and from higher position.

Spoiler

You are right, you can see it is the same building, the same colour and window designd (rounded)

 

[pushbak]

You are right, you can see it is the same building, the same colour and window designd (rounded)

Same for this building:

V's apartment is on a relatively low floor of the mega-structure.

Regarding the mega-structure, these are the elevator destinations.

Despite the building having several dozen levels you're only able to visit a few of them. There's stairs between the various floors of 'apartments,' so it can be assumed each elevator destination will consist of several floors.