There is a Locksmith you can go to.
There are Appraisers for specialty items to go to.
There are Collectors to go to.
There are Gas Stations to go to.
There are four different areas for Auctions to go to.
There are three different Pawn Shops you can go to, and own.
There are three different Homes you can go to, and own.
NPC's to talk to or see in the world, traffic on the roads, wildlife outdoors.

This is not even close to being an empty world.

The Point of this post has gone over your head. As much as there is empty space between those locations. Do you know why in Openworld Games and MMOs with large worlds. There are gather points, mobs to kill, NPCs who are there to interact with.
TO FILL THE EMPTY SPACE BETWEEN POINT A AND POINT B...

Point A is Blueberry
Point B is Black Elk
There are things to do in between.
This is not MMO, and there is no killing.
You want to play those games, maybe this one is over your head, as a Storage, Auction game, where you get a chance just to play, and chill, and not have to worry about zombies, getting shot, or the Apocalypse.

Again Point and Reason is passing over you. This is a practical premise of Game Design I am talking about. Dealing with 'Negative Space'.

What is the point of the travel between Point A and B?
Why have the travel there if there is no penalty except time loss.
The Items are physic locked when your driving, so its not about maintaining safe motions as not to waste time re-stacking.
There is nothing truly to do if you get out of the car between points. Nothing to gather/collect/scavange.

What would this game lose if Point to Point travel was a Loading Screen and a rudimentary time penalty.
Sure, there is the Chill point of travel but even in other games such as Truck Simulator, Elite Dangerous, Star Trucker, etc. Which the travel between locations is a "hold W to move between points." has more than a case of interaction the player takes part in.

For Example.
Truck Simulator - Maintain Fuel, Time frame, Maneuvering, Road Rules, etc.
Star Trucker - More of the above, but also module maintenance, interacting with NPCs.
Elite Dangerous - More of the above, but also more so on Route Planning as Ship Modules can allow for better options and requirements, scouting locations across the stars for extra funds. Etc.

These three example are just as chill depending on how you play but the World itself doesn't feel Empty compared to Storage Hunter. You rarely stray from the same path to and fro between the points, never having to plan more a few moments of consideraction.

Each morning you wake up, its jump in car, hit tab, click join auction, hold W for a while , hold D to turn corner, hold W for a bit, hold D to turn corner, Ram Truck into Auction and hit E. Heck as mentioned in a few other discussions, its then instantly hitting Spacebar to start auction without even browsing whats inside, raise bid to X amount (Usually 250-400 for Teir 1) if out bid, hold X then repeat until you win an Auction.

I enjoy the base loop, but the wide open world is untouched. Until the NPC Collector was added, who turned left coming out of the starting house. No one. It was Dead Space there.

Wow, it took you almost a day to respond, and you wrote a book. You really must like having a good rant about nothing. This is its own thing, and trying to compare it to other games is moot.

It's not a AAA game by some giant developer, with massive resources.

And I am not saying it has to be done straight away.
I wanted to start a discussion on the subject, yet all I got was a hostile response.

Maybe you have written things in a way, that could be seen as too high expectations, for this level of game development. That's how I felt reading some of it.

I look deep into game design, and when I play the game, I noticed the negative space.
Negative Space which in this game, provides no gameplay to interact with.
I even put in the original post some suggestions or starting points to discuss.

Instead, I got a Hostile response of.
"Your opinion is stupid and I think you are dumb."

Then when I tried to discuss more.
Your reponse was dismissive and childish. Acting all high and mighty about the fact that I wrote more then 3 lines. The fact that there was a time difference between posts like it mattered and that I couldn't just have had a life outside of this discussion board.

Look for Jesters and you are just a Jester yourself.

The game is only a few months old and still in early access. There is that huge open area east of the Junkyard, the blocked off area on the north side of Black Elk, and the tunnel on the south side of Blueberry Village. I'm looking forward to seeing what's going to happen there. With the NPC collectors and clothing store, they are slowly start to fill in the town with interactable assets.

As the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Did you notice SIMULATOR in name of the game???? It's not RPG....

Empty World? There are other cars driving around. There are NPCs doing stuff like working in the garden or standing together and talking or smth like that. Just open your eyes - the world is not empty.

Originally posted by RealLocutus:

Empty World? There are other cars driving around. There are NPCs doing stuff like working in the garden or standing together and talking or smth like that. Just open your eyes - the world is not empty.

This was my point when trying to address the original post, but was yelled at with "All Caps" and called names just for having a different opinion.
It got so bad Moderators had to step in and have some offensive posts removed.
Also, the OP was banned for being immature, rude, and offensive.
It's nice to see others with level heads prevail.
Thank you for your thoughts on this subject.

Static objects that have no interaction other than being there. Is not a 'full' world.
The concept of Filling Negative Space for game design is not the factor of having things around you as you pass through an area, its the concept of giving the player a reason to interact with those parts of the world.

Pick a point on the game map which doesn't have an Icon. Consider the amount of items you would have been there or passed through that area.

There is a Canoe sitting on the beach on the East Elk side of the bridge, did you notice that? What about the guy in the water.

Sure, both these 'fill' the space but they are not something that encourages the Player to interact with the world. Do you have a reason to actually go to these spots? Or is it just a 'pretty thing to look at'

Again. I ask something that you never responded to.

If the game was Loading Screens between Gameplay Points. Would there be much difference to what happens now? Like, you press E to get into the truck and then a pop up comes up with the locations and you click them and after a short loading screen and a in game time penalty.

Finally. It should be mentioned that, all caps can also used as a Point Emphasis if the ! isn't used at the end of the sentence. This is used when Bolding opting isn't possible.
If the WHOLE post was Caps, yes it would be considered Yelling. but a single line or word. Its to "Bold" for emphasis...

Let's look at this in another way and not be so negative.
Instead of picking a point on the game map that doesn't have an icon, let's look at all those Icons scattered all over the map, each icon is something to do in the world.

When you go to a town or city are there no empty spaces?
Are there no tourists attractions or static monuments to look at?
Are there no Parks?
Are there no Farms or Countryside on the outskirts of town?

There is a Canoe sitting on the beach on the East Elk side of the bridge so are you going down to interact with it? No, why not? Because you don't own the boat, and the boat owner doesn't want some stranger messing with their stuff.
There are no boat rental places nearby, and no signs saying "free boat rides to the public, help yourself".

How are you going to interact with the boat anyway, there are no paddles, are you just going to push the boat out into the water, and hope it will float its way back to shore?
You could lean over the side, and paddle with your hands, now that interacting, and why would you get on a boat in the first place without a life jacket?
Do you need to fill the emptiness you are feeling by risking your life?

Just because you can't interact with something has nothing to do with the world feeling empty, and having something just to look at is called scenery.

Space is given to a town to provide diversity, like places to go to relax and get away from the hustle and bustle of a city or town.

This is Blueberry and Black Elk, a small town, and small city, this is not New York where everything is crammed together and has skyscrapers, heck even NY has a big "Empty" park for people to go to and do nothing.

I look at what this game and the world have to offer, and I feel like it's enough, the town is alive and active, and the "empty" areas make it quaint, relaxing, and chill, and I work too hard buying storage lockers, I should get some nice scenery to look at, so I try to focus on the positive.