Roadmap

21 Apr 2024 - Note that the current version of the game only includes a forest map and military style navigation.
A total overhaul is being completed which will introduce the mountain map, skiing gameplay, orienteering style gameplay, and many more features and improvements.

The major new features will be:

• Orienteering style gameplay
  
• Rebuilt forest map
  
• Dolomites mountain map and back country skiing gameplay
  
• Full controller support
  
• Progression mechanics for more rewarding gameplay
  
• Improved graphics and performance optimizations
  
• Character selection with unique play styles

This update will be free and is expected to be ready around July - August 2024.

About the Game

What is LANDNAV?

- Land navigation is the practice of using map and compass to traverse unfamiliar terrain.
- LANDNAV simulates military and orienteering style navigation events. You will be given a series of objectives to find. They will be scattered across a remote natural area. You have a certain amount of time to find them all.
- It sounds easy. It is not easy.
- As a beginner, it will be difficult to avoid getting hopelessly lost. You will get lost and you will want to quit. But with persistent practice, you figure out how to keep track of your own location, and that’s when LANDNAV becomes really fun and addictive - when you have the skills to start focusing on being fast. You’ll feel like Jason Bourne, reading the land as you go at full speed, making a hundred decisions every minute.
- A land navigation event is an intense mental workout that challenges your ability to make effective time and risk management decisions while under time pressure.

Who is LANDNAV for?

For those who like adventure

- Easy games getting boring? Land navigation is a timeless challenge that requires the best of human ability to overcome.
- Navigation events tend to take you on a journey through a gamut of emotions. Drama, self-doubt, frustration, despair…and revelations of joy.

For those who like a mental challenge

- Challenge in video games typically means a reflex challenge, or memorizing patterns and waiting for the perfect shot. LANDNAV requires no such skills, but rather challenges your ability to make sound decisions, carefully mitigate risk, improve through self-reflection, and pay close attention to small details. These skills have broad carry-over into every day life. Become a better decision maker, risk taker, and leader.
- But really, it’s just fun to go into the unknown, armed with nothing but a few basic navigation instruments and your wits, and find your way.

For orienteering enthusiast

- Keep your skills sharp when you can’t get to the field, or just enjoy the addictive thrill of navigation in the comfort of your own home

For military personnel

- Created by an airborne infantry veteran in order to help soldiers get a competitive edge going into courses like SFAS.
- Many users have reported that training using LANDNAV before going to their course gave them a major advantage compared to their peers.
- LANDNAV allows you to make common beginner mistakes in a consequence free environment so that you can learn from them and hone your skills.
- Stay sharp - Many units do not perform frequent enough recurrent field training to keep land navigation skills sharp. LANDNAV fills the gap. The only difference between real life field training and LANDNAV is that in this simulation, you don’t have to sweat.

Game Features

- Over a hundred square kilometers of diverse terrain

Europe - Dolomite Mountains (coming soon)

- While it it easier to avoid getting lost in the mountains, figuring out the fastest and safest route to overcome natural dangers is an immense challenge
- plan your route carefully and you might shave off chunks of time by putting your skis to good use, but be careful. Backcountry skiing is dangerous!

America - Pine Forest

- Gentle terrain features and heavy foliage provides a tough challenge for seasoned navigators
- Realistic ecology makes a true to real life navigation experience. Study the geography and ecology to understand how to avoid thick brush obstacles and water crossings.

Progression and Mastery (coming soon)

- A rewarding progression system which provides a focused journey that will take anyone from beginner to master navigator

True to life simulation

- What works in real life works in LANDNAV - train the same habits in game as you would use in the field
- Natural human walking is simulated with angle deviation, path of least resistance favoring, and fatigue
- Magnetic declination is simulated
- Manipulate your navigation tools the same way as in real life, there is no simplification or abstraction
- White-knuckle back country skiing simulation - control your speed and know your run-out.

Navigation tools

- Military Compass based on the common models used by the US Army
- 1:50,000 scale topographic map with Military Grid Reference System coordinates
- Protractor, Square
- Pace Count Beads

Navigation styles

Military
- Use the Military Grid Reference System to read and plot 8 digit grid coordinates

Orienteering (coming soon)
- Coordinates are automatically marked on your map so that you can jump straight into the action

But there are other navigation simulators. Why this one?

- LANDNAV is the only simulation designed to give an immersive and completely authentic experience, especially for soldiers who will conduct training in the south eastern United States forest.
- LANDNAV is designed to test your terrain association skills more heavily than dead reckoning skills, while other simulators primarily test dead reckoning skills.
- Terrain association skills are generally more reliable to use in the field, but also take more time to develop.
- Plus, for the person playing solely for entertainment, terrain association is a lot more fun and engaging to practice, compared to following an azimuth and counting pace.
- LANDNAV is the only simulation with realistically dense forest which presents a unique and memorable challenge.