Archipelago

The **Archipelago** is a map in Ravenfield.

This article covers the current version of Archipelago. For the old version of Archipelago featuring a single small brown island, called **Old Archipelago** or **Archipelago Preview**, see here.

## Map & Characteristics

A series of islands strewn across the ocean, Archipelago offers a broad combination of naval, areal and infantry battles. Steep mountains on the mainland protect the Raven-occupied Airbase from immediate assault, whilst the bridges connecting the smaller islands serve as stringent chokepoints.

Unlike on most other maps, the bulk of troop displacement will occur via small watercraft, making it exceedingly difficult to manage and maintain a solid frontline. Assaulting water troops will constantly flank capture points, emphasizing the need for proper air or naval support on all fronts. Speaking generally, they who controls the water will then control the battle.

## Points of Interest

### Carrier

The massive Eagle starting base is poised to have immediate amphibious access to the Landing, Harbor and Reef flags. Despite it's imposing stature, this base is deceptively simple to attack, and can easily fall to a single RHIB team should they slip by unnoticed. The best defensive vantage points are both very far away from the flag itself, and far from enemy attack routes, meaning that defenders will seldom actually be capable of stopping intruders. The bulk os the carrier's lower deck is also of no strategic value to the battle.

### Landing

A ridged landscape protects from naval bombardment whilst offering a hilly and open land route to the Airfield and Harbo path. Due to the steep outer cliff edge, all besieging enemies, even boat teams, will be funnelled along roughly the same direction while invading.

### Harbor

A cramped curved lane leading to a scattering of houses, the Harbor serves not only as a valuable center flag, but as a provider of naval assets. It has access to Reef via water only, and also serves as a staging point for boat assaults all over the map.

### Outpost

A relatively sparse point nestled in the hills between Airfield, Harbor and Reef, the outpost presides over the intersection spanning the three areas. Its defensive towers position it to thwart any ground troops attacking from Reef, though it is still extremely vulnerable to being flanked by boats.

An Eagle MG Jeep spawns by the beach on the right side of the outpost, though it is not affiliated with any capture point, and bots will ignore it.

### Reef

A remote and impractical point, the Reef's main purpose it to provide the Carrier team a foothold on the southeast side of the archipelago. Surrounded by mountains, the Reef is simultaneously a rather safe are and one that offers frustratingly few vantage points for defence, aside from the exposed bridges.

### Airfield

The Raven starting flag is shielded from the other team by a large mountain, and has immediate access to Landing, Harbor and Outpost. Due to the isolated nature of it's main path leading south, the majority of the defending forces will take up positions on the neighbouring hill, and fire down on Landing from there.

## Other points of interest

### Automatico Akimbo

The secret weapon of Archipelago was the Automatico Akimbo. It was found nestled somewhere in the hills behind the harbor. However, this weapon is no longer a secret weapon.

### UFO

When played on night mode, a UFO will appear in the hill directly overlooking Harbor. While the reasons for its appearance are unclear, it most likely is a WIP Easter Egg. It is purely cosmetic.

## Gallery

The map thumbnail for Archipelago, showing the harbor and carrier
## Trivia

* As the first map to be developed during early access, Archipelago saw a number of changes over a very short period of time early in its lifespan.
	+ The first playable version was nothing more than a very rough mass of hills, with no notable terrain features or landmarks.
	+ Subsequent versions were updated on a near-daily basis, gradually adding the props, terrain and vehicles that make up the map as it is currently know.
	+ One version had large floating messages describing planned features around the map, such as coral reefs around the Reef flag, and additional tiny islands between the carrier and mainland.
* With the introduction of the Mudskipper in EA14, several changes were made to vehicle spawning: 2 RHIBs at Carrier were "traded" for an APC, reducing the number of RHIBs from 5 to 3; while an MG Jeep at Airfield and the Tank at Outpost were replaced with one each.