I swam underwater up to the mansion (as close as you can get in the pond) but never heard the "only you" overture, so I didn't wait around to drown. Jacob's dog food is delicious, but it's not to die in vain for.

Ah. Maybe I did it wrong. Another video sez you have to pass out once then try it. Next time.

The double-barreled shotgun is a revelation. With the incendiary shells, you can shoot down helicopters.

My supercharged ND HMG firing armour-piercing rounds downs helicopters in a few bursts.

I can reliably bring down choppers with the AKM + armor-piercing rounds, and (less reliably) the mp5k with same. I did down one once with a single sniper round from a considerable distance (the 'Nam svd is awesome). I was a bit disappointed to learn last night the FC5 "double-barreled shotgun" is a re-badged .700 nitro from FC4. But that doesn't shoot incendiary shells (I think).

So I tried out another Arcade map, Joseph's Campground (are we sensing a theme here?). It was pretty good, house to house fighting against relatively determined and skillful enemies with limited ammo and a few caches scattered here and there, not the best load out, but not too tough to beat. I scouted out some more possibles here: https://www.pcgamer.com/best-far-cry-5-arcade-maps/

Which I have loaded a list of onto my phone email client for in-game access.

The Cabin in the Woods
Author: NikoWZRD

Welcome Home
Author: Silverish

Arena Master
Author: chacko123

Welcome to Elk Jaw Lodge
Author: Sundic_Ouff

Outskirts Outpost
Author: rat_trash.

Safe Haven
Author: Ubisoft

Ah yes, thing to watch out for is arcade maps are playable on only one platform, whether console or pc.

I've played a few and enjoyed most of them. Even the bad ones teach you about what makes good level design.

I wonder whether Ubidoobi will open the ND Expeditions to fan build? Conceptually, they're made for it - being both standalone maps and (vaguely) integrated into the overarching narrative. I don't know enough about map building to know whether the event-triggered arrival of the rescue copter would be difficult to implement or not.

Are ND Expeditions DLC or onboard the game? Does it not have a arcade-editor-thingy?

Onboard, and word is there will be no DLC, which I'm disappointed about. There's no embedded editor.

I've never done any mapmaking, might be tempted to crack open the FC5 editor for a peek this long weekend.

FC:ND is half price on Steam for the next three days Smiffy, if you have £18.99 or its equivalent in foreign going spare.

Hmm. Just watched the trailer on steam (the release trailer actually put me off) and saw FC5's Joseph emerge from the bomb shelter. Tempting.

You know you want to...

I opened the map editor and had a playable map with decent terrain ("savannah"), a half-dozen enemies, an alarm and a building up and running in about 15-minutes. It actually looks way better than the 3 or 4 arcade maps I've played so far, which are inexplicably crude-looking considering how easy it is to get a plausibly 'official' -looking quality FC5 map outta da box (obviously it's way more complicated than that, but still).

Brill! Is it available online?

Ah no, it's too barebones. I'll mess around some more before deciding whether I get anything worth publishing.

I plunged into the mountains west of Clegget Bay and south of the radar station, and was amply rewarded with loads of great new unexplored vistas, critters to kill (my go-fund-ammo is pushing $160K), and bitchin' combat scenarios. Frequently in the middle of massive pile-ups of MG-mounted pickups, choppers, "judges" (mangy wolves on drugs), apex predators, RPG dudes, snipers,  long-hairs in leather trench-coats, and baldies with baseball bats. Good job I brought along two GFH: the bow bitch Jess Black and a sniper gal. Dunno how many choppers I've downed with incendiary shotgun shells, sometimes I forget to switch 'em out and set myself and compadres on fire.

Saw some pretty cool z-axis + physics glitches: on a mountain side I came across a cultist and his hostage on a rock face about 30 feet off the ground. When I shot the cultist he flew straight up in the air outta sight and didn't fall to ground for several seconds. The hostage slid down the rock face a few feet, not far enough for me to undo her ties. On another session, I was crossing a bridge with NPC Jess Black a few yards behind, when she suddenly shot straight up about 100 feet into the air, maybe to dodge a speeding vehicle, I was too startled to notice. She popped a parachute and floated back down.

Not as spectacular, but I've been noticing recently that motorbike dismounting is by astral projection and that npcs shot in boats almost always fall through the hull.

I'll look for those. Haven't seen any motorbikes around. Do you mean those 4-wheeler ATVs? I like shotgun-blasting cultists off 'em. Oh yeah, tonight saw a ground-sky cylindrical grove of tree trunks (?) from a certain direction.

Not the ATVs - or at least I haven't noticed it with them - but the motorcycles and sidecars/turrets in ND.