So I downloaded the pip boy app and went to demo mode and looked at the map. It appears to be the game map?

Yep, its the game map

That's a lot of sea.

Well it is boston. In boston the sea is kind of a big deal.

Well, Boston is in fact on the coast. I'm not sure why this is such a sticking point for some people. Do you want the map to just cut off where the land ends?

Yep, that's the shape of Boston.

It's inconvenient if you wanted to build a settlement in the middle of the ocean but there it is.

Hey, it's still about the same size as Skyrim, we'll be fine.

Maybe they thought the ocean would be gone and dried up.

This does open up for some underwater exploration especially with powered armour or a space suit modded to handle under water pressures and oxygen supply.

Well my first thought was "wow it seems very dense" at least based on all the major roadways

It's a problem because 50% of the map is ocean or river. Not at all what I was expecting personally. Hopefully they make use of that water as still playable.

It's more like one third of the map is water, at most. And the Endurance 5 perk confers water breathing, plus, compare the in game coastline to that of RL Boston, there's obvious evidence of sea level rise that would have submerged parts of the city that were closer to the water, so I'm expecting plenty of underwater content.

30%...its nowhere near 50%

Take the rivers and stack them side by side with the ocean... it's more than 30%.

A lot of people didn't like it, but I thought "Water World" was an enjoyable movie.
Lots of possibilities along those lines.

In a sense, it's a meaningless question.

The land mass is of a https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/87106516/fo4_app_map.png. that of the Boston coastline.

If the play area was bigger still, it would still have a bay.

Do people look at Cyrodiil and complain because 40% of the map are in other provinces such as Valenwood and Elsweyr...?

Just...what did you think it would be? Seriously, it's the pip-boy, did you think it would be showing you a map of anything else?

love that dirty water

... I still don't see the problem. Do you not like water? Map size and water ratio have absolutely nothing to do with the volume of content.

Water generally means less playable content (unless there's boats), less buildable space... less.

This is my only real concern of the game right now and one I'd like the leakers to talk about.

No. But neither is it necessary to make that much space unplayable, if that is truly the case, just because it is a coastal area. The east border of the map could just rest a short space where the coast starts.

Bethesda made a perk that grants you the ability to breathe underwater. That alone, shows there's something more to do with the water.

It all depends now if they've done something interesting with the water areas. I've seen marinas, so I'm guessing lots of under water tasks to perform, ship wrecks, disused subs, maybe even a Bioshock style like habitat of sorts. Hoping for a sunken town (due to a burst dam) scenario infested by mirelurks. We do have that aquaboy perk to play with after all.

I don't understand why people are complaining about the water. You all DO realize that Boston is a port city, right? It's only bordered next to the freaking Atlantic Ocean, right? Honestly, the arrogance of some people... It's like they think they're entitled to Boston being in a landscape it literally CANNOT be in.

Boston is a port city. Sorry, but it isn't Vegas where it's in the middle of a desert. Boston borders the Atlantic Ocean. Get over it.

Because of the aquaboy perk I'm convinced there's going to be a lot of underwater stuff.

Just because it's a port city doesn't mean they need to make half the map water. This is a game, not a simulator.

Not following this logic. The playable world space has to be surrounded by something, whether that's mountains, a "turn back now" message, or water. It doesn't determine what content is within that playable area. You're saying that if the water were land instead, we'd have more content. I'm saying that we would have the same content regardless, only within a different area. They didn't cut any content in order to put in the water. They decided what content to put in the game and put that in the appropriate place on the map. Unless you're equating raw square mileage with content, in which case we'll have to agree to disagree.