Leonida

Leonida, the setting of GTA VI, is a fictional US state modelled on Florida, with six regions that Rockstar presents one by one on its "Only in Leonida" pages. It bills the state as home to "the neon-soaked streets of Vice City and beyond". Merchandise and the Ultimate Edition copy also call it "the Goodtime State", the home turf of Macca the Gator, a character from a hit TV show.

Rockstar has never given a square-kilometre figure, so size only comes as comparisons, and they don't measure the same thing. Edge puts the map at roughly twice the size of GTA V's. Rockstar's own statement is about total landmass, Vice City and surroundings included, which it says is nearly the size of the playable maps of GTA IV, GTA V and RDR2 combined. One compares maps, the other compares total land with playable areas, so the two can't simply be stacked.

Each region gets its own satire. Once a place's politics, demographics, gangs and anxieties are set, the writers and the billboard, radio-ad and TV teams all build their jokes on that base. In Nelson's words, "You try to make it feel 360."

The six places are Vice City, Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Ambrosia and Mount Kalaga National Park.

Vice City: sun and fun, but a long way from the '80s

Rockstar's tagline admits "We're a long way from the '80s", but still calls Vice City the sun and fun capital of America.

The official description sells it as the glamour, hustle and greed of America in a single city, and walks through the neighbourhoods:

• Ocean Beach: pastel art deco hotels and white sands.
• Little Cuba: the panaderías.
• Tisha-Wocka: a flea market full of bootleg brands.
• VC Port: "the cruise ship capital of the world".

The model is Miami. Rockstar based a dedicated research team in the city and researched Miami and its surroundings extensively.

Other officially named districts and locations:

• Stockyard: home of the Electric Fang tattoo parlour and the Stock 305 streetwear store. It is modelled on Miami's Wynwood arts district, and Rockstar commissioned more than 50 street artists for the murals.
• Washington Beach
• Gambit Bay
• Southside Vice City: turf of the PTT Youngin$ gang.

The city also has a music scene. Boobie Ike is, in Rockstar's words, "a local Vice City legend, and acts like it". He is one of the few who turned his time in the streets into a legitimate empire of real estate, a strip club (the Jack of Hearts) and a recording studio. Dre'Quan Priest runs Only Raw Records with him and has signed the Real Dimez, a duo made up of Bae-Luxe and Roxy. The two have been friends since high school and turned shakedowns of local dealers into rap tracks, and after an early hit with the local rapper DWNPLY they ended up on Only Raw. With them on the roster, Dre'Quan's days of booking acts into Boobie's club may be numbered, as he is now looking at the wider Vice City scene.

Leonida Keys: casual dress code, loaded bars

The tagline is "The dress code is casual, the bars are loaded." Life in this tropical archipelago, says Rockstar, isn't flashy but it's easy. Its advice is to pull up a deck chair, but to remember that the islands sit on the doorstep of some of the most beautiful and dangerous waters in America. The model is the Florida Keys.

The Keys matter for the story too. Brian Heder is "a classic drug runner from the golden age of smuggling in the Keys", still moving product through his boat yard with his third wife, Lori. He lets Jason live rent-free at one of his properties in return for help with local shakedowns. Jason's own backstory leads here: after the Army, "he found himself in the Keys doing what he knows best, working for local drug runners."

Grassrivers: nobody knows what lies beneath

Rockstar describes a primordial expanse where nobody knows what lies beneath the surface. The gators may be the most famous attraction, it says, but there are deadlier predators and weirder discoveries among the mangroves.

Port Gellhorn: a vacation spot gone to seed

Port Gellhorn is a once-popular vacation spot gone to seed. Cheap motels, shut-down attractions and empty strip malls won't bring the tourists back, Rockstar writes, but a new economy has moved in, fuelled by malt liquor, painkillers and truck stop energy drinks. Its advice: jump on a dirt bike and hold onto your wallet.

Ambrosia: sugar, bikers and the fight for Leonida

The tagline is "The battle for the health and wealth of Leonida begins here." Ambrosia sits in the heart of the state, where American industry and old school values reign supreme, whatever the cost. The Allied Crystal sugar refinery provides the jobs, and the local biker gang provides almost everything else.

Mount Kalaga National Park: room to breathe up north

The tagline is "Room to breathe on the state's northern fringes." The park is a national landmark against the northern border, with prime hunting, fishing and off-road trails. In the backwoods around it, "hillbilly mystics and paranoid radicals" live far from the government's prying eyes.

Rockstar's official screenshots show:

• dirt bikes and ATVs on mud trails
• hunters with rifles in the woods
• a winding road between steep hills
• kayaking toward a bridge
• a cougar stalking deer at a stream

The Ultimate Edition's '67 Vapid Dominator Buggy is pitched as "A Mud Club monster" with impressive off-road handling for the backwoods of Mount Kalaga and beyond.

A lake, a garage and a prison

• Lake Leonida: the Ultimate Edition's Rideout Customs is a mod shop here, specialising in off-road modifications.
• Watson Bay: the location of the Paradise Garage, with a weapon locker and a drop for stolen goods to be fenced.
• Leonida Penitentiary: the state prison where Lucia served time before "sheer luck got her out".

Real-world models: what's said and what's guessed

Miami and the Florida Keys are the models for Vice City and Leonida Keys. For the rest, Rockstar has confirmed no model, and the identifications below are readings, not confirmed facts:

• Grassrivers: "clearly heavily inspired by Florida's Everglades".
• Port Gellhorn: the faded resort towns of the Gulf Coast and the Panhandle, where "all signs are pointing towards Panama City".
• Ambrosia: the sugar towns around Lake Okeechobee, with the refinery resembling U.S. Sugar's plant in Clewiston.

No model has been named for Mount Kalaga National Park at all.