Community Blog #024 – A6 Polaris
December 16th 2022 by Tyler "MoltonMontro"
Winter holiday festivities return!
Revisit official maps, now covered in snow. Partake in the return of last year's festive quests to earn unique cosmetics. Take a moment to peruse some community-created artwork, screenshots, or mods!
And above all – Welcome to A6 Polaris, the latest curated map.
Welcome to A6 Polaris
Are you looking for something new?
A6 Polaris is a medium+ survival map set in northern Eurasia. Experience a high location density, a wide progression system with less reliance on RNG, plenty of quests, over 600 items, and an awesome looking bridge (two, in fact).
With its fast-paced design—inspired by the popular Elver and Washington maps—and informative item descriptions, it's easy for anyone to pick up, learn, and enjoy!
Welcome to A6 Polaris – the latest curated map, now available with today's update!
A6 Polaris Trailer
Looking for a little bit more before you enter A6 Polaris? Watch the A6 Polaris trailer video below, to see what awaits you with today's update.
Playtime Drops
For the next two weeks, a variety of exclusive (and free!) items will be available to players as random playtime drops!
Just by playing Unturned, you can randomly receive any of the cosmetics above. From formal shirts to overalls, and a couple other cosmetics, it's the perfect time to expand your wardrobe.
Support the Creators!
A6 Polaris was created by danaby2, in collaboration with Renaxon and LVOmega. If you like their work and want to support them, consider checking out the A6 Polaris bundles on the Stockpile!
Note that the Mythical Fire Crown Aura and Mythical Ice Crown Aura are time-limited, just like with previous mythical auras.
They've also created a cosmetic showcase video that shows off all of the cosmetics available from the Stockpile, including the new mythical effects.
Festive 2022!
The cool air is breezin', and holiday cheer is back again, as we come to yet another Festive season!
Snow has covered the official maps once more, NPCs have donned some cheerful garb, and presents have been left under Christmas trees.
If you missed the Festive achievements from last year, fret not! With this return of Festive tidings, players can revisit PEI, Washington, Russia, and Yukon to spread some holiday cheer and earn unique cosmetics along the way.
The Music of A6 Polaris
A6 Polaris continues a trend of maps having their own, unique soundtrack to go along with them. The music of A6 Polaris features many stand-out tracks composed by staswalle and EnderButDragon.
"Cryophobia" and "Hazardous Gaze" were composed by staswalle, who provided some of their thoughts on how they go about creating a soundtrack for a map.
With map soundtracks, I often have the mentality of making at least one chill or more atmospheric track, and then a second one which is more something you'd dance to (for example "Rainwright's Prophecy" and "Runerave"). A6 Polaris is no stranger to this approach, however this time I wasn't the only one involved in the OST's creation, as my friend – Ender, also composed two tracks for the map
[The] first track on my list is "Cryophobia"—the more atmospheric track—where I tried to portray the cold and unwelcome, snowy landscapes of Polaris. I like to experiment with my music and so instead of using regular percussion instruments I decided to sample some snowy footsteps, which I think helps with immersion even more.
The technically-second track is a hardstyle remix of "Cryophobia", made by danaby2. Hardstyle is one of his favourite music genres as far as I can tell, so I'm really glad that he wanted to remix one of my tracks and use it for the map trailer! We both learned a few things from each other, when it comes to FL Studio so I'm looking forward to working with you once more Dan 😉—staswalle
The last track in my Polaris portfolio is "Hazardous Gaze" – a more EDM-y piece, although I'm not so sure how I'd classify it really. One of the side melodies is a callback to one of my first tracks, "Broken Vials" - essentially a remix of "Final Flash of Existence" from SCP:SL, as I really wanted to get that "spooky science corporation" feel, as I wanted the track to be about HAZE – the map's equivalent of Scorpion-7. In typical "spooky lab" fashion, there is a small Easter egg hidden in it, see if you can find it 😀
EnderButDragon composed the "A6" and "Aquatic High" tracks for A6 Polaris, and gave their brief thoughts on the two pieces.
The "A6" track was made of inspiration of "X-ray" from Elver. I wanted to be more of a darker but slower feeling to it, as if it were under the effects of the cold.
—EnderButDragon
"Aquatic High" is a little special. I love anything that has to do with underwater and wanted this part to be extra unique since its a neat little secret area, I wanted to give it more atmosphere.
Mod Showcase: Snow Pack
Looking to winterize your own maps for the holidays, but need a bit more than just the vanilla assets to do so? The Snow Pack mod by Second Cog has you covered! Make use of their additional wintry objects, snow-covered resources, new items, and snowy variants of vanilla military vehicles.
Artwork Showcase
...Is there anything else?
Later this month, look forward to a couple mythical cosmetic giveaways on our official Forum and official Discord server!
Whether you're a new player or a long-time veteran, thank you for your love and support towards the continued development of Unturned.
Send us your questions!
Have questions? Is there something you think should be featured? You can reach me through my Twitter handle @MoltonMontro or via email. We also check our official community forums.